macahuitls as better mistborn weapons

[king of nowhere]

the glass dagger is a very impractical weapon. sure, it cuts really well, but it is extremely fragile. using it for anything other than slashing flesh is likely to result in a broken dagger. it has a short reach, putting you at a disadvantage against any other weapon.

conversely, the macahuitl would have been a great weapon for mistborn era 1. the aztec sword equivalent, it is made of a wooden board studded with obsidian shards. it cuts extremely well, being as good as a sword on most instances except for lacking a good stabbing point. in the real world, the macahuitl was defeated because when glass hits steel, glass shatters, and so the macahuitls were useless against the steel armor of the europeans. gunpowder and disease also were part of it.

but in mistborn there is no such problem, nobody wants to wear a metal armor anyway.

so a mistborn would have really gained in effectiveness by wielding a macahuitl and a wooden shield. he'd have greater reach, more cutting power, and better defence than a mistborn with standard equipment.

even hazekillers with staves would have gained a lot in lethality if those staves were studded with glass shards. kelsier was hit a few times in his fight against hazekillers, as was vin when storming cett keep. in both cases, if those hazekillers would have been equipped with macahuitls, the fight would have left the mistborn in a much worse shape.nand in both cases, if the mistborn had himself a shield and macahuitl to parry blows and compensate for reach, he'd have done much better.

I think simply sanderson didn't think of that weapon when writing. though i am a bit surprised that a man who likes swords would not think of a macahuitl during the writing of a full trilogy.

 

[alder24]

For Hazekillers that weapon would be great. But for Mistborn? It's much heavier, bigger, and slower than daggers It would be much harder to carry them around covertly and silently (especially when you add shield), they would restrain movements, and in air fights they would face much stronger air resistance than dagger. Mistborn are not warriors, they don't need shield or heavy weapon, they're assassins relying on speed and mobility. A dagger is fast and mobile. A club with a sharp edges - not much. 

And Mistborn only needs to use daggers in fight with other Mistborn, and with anyone else, coins and metal is their main weapon.

[Friendshipspren]

22 hours ago, alder24 said:

For Hazekillers that weapon would be great. But for Mistborn? It's much heavier, bigger, and slower than daggers It would be much harder to carry them around covertly and silently (especially when you add shield), they would restrain movements, and in air fights they would face much stronger air resistance than dagger. Mistborn are not warriors, they don't need shield or heavy weapon, they're assassins relying on speed and mobility. A dagger is fast and mobile. A club with a sharp edges - not much. 

And Mistborn only needs to use daggers in fight with other Mistborn, and with anyone else, coins and metal is their main weapon.

I mean they do have Pewter giving them superhuman strength to compensate for the bulkiness of the macahuitl.

And idt that would be so conspicuous. A shield would be tho ye 

[king of nowhere]

a macahuitl is not bulky. no more than a regular sword. it can be wielded easily; there's a reason in the ancient times, people who could afford it would carry a sword and not a knife.

and sure, it's harder to conceal. if you're going to a ball in your gown, you can conceal a glass dagger underneath, not a bigger weapon. but if you're jumping in the mist, carring a macahuitl it not a problem. it's not like you're trying to hide it.

a shield could pose aerodinamic problems, but strapping it on your back should minimize them. and if you have to fight another mistborn, a shield would certainly give you an advantage.

[MangoBoi101]

If I was a mistborn I would not want to be carrying something like that around, going to parties, visiting friends, etc. A knife however can be concealed easily, as shown in the books multiple times not to mention that having a weapon that you cant quickly draw could be what kills you where would you store this macahuitl that could be easily accessed, hidden, and not uncomfortable if your doing other things like sitting down? however if you are about to go into a fight against an army or something I agree thats a much better weapon then a knife but its just not feasable for day to day use.

[TheSurvivorofDeath]

I think weapons like the obsidian axes and daggers used by the Inquisitors are kind of the best of both worlds here. They may have less reach, but an ax has plenty of striking force, and obsidian is both sharper and stronger than glass by far. The weapons are concealable, lightweight, and immune to Allomancy. If you had to fight another mistborn, obsidian weapons are definitely the best bet, and the smaller ones like daggers are the perfect weapons for the ultimate assassins that are Mistborn.

[cometaryorbit]

I think at least one of the Inquisitor weapons described in the first book basically is a macuahuitl or something very similar - multiple blades set along a piece of wood, not one axe head.

[king of nowhere]

15 hours ago, cometaryorbit said:

I think at least one of the Inquisitor weapons described in the first book basically is a macuahuitl or something very similar - multiple blades set along a piece of wood, not one axe head.

in addition to that, there's a thug in urteau that fights spook with a stave with obsidian shards embedded, with is basically the same thing.

[Ishikk]

The obsidian knife is probably the best bet for a Mistborn (maybe a longer knife than used in the books) because of its weight, size, and it's ability to be concealed which beats other possible weapons for the uses of a Mistborn. You might even be able to have a short sword like the Romans used made of obsidian which would be lighter and more easily concealed than the macuahuitl but would have a longer reach than the knife (though you would have to be careful to not smash and break it which is probably why it has not been used.)

[king of nowhere]

10 hours ago, Ishikk said:

The obsidian knife is probably the best bet for a Mistborn (maybe a longer knife than used in the books) because of its weight, size, and it's ability to be concealed which beats other possible weapons for the uses of a Mistborn. You might even be able to have a short sword like the Romans used made of obsidian which would be lighter and more easily concealed than the macuahuitl but would have a longer reach than the knife (though you would have to be careful to not smash and break it which is probably why it has not been used.)

obsidian alone is too fragile to make good weapons. a knife is the biggest you can get, even that is a stretch and would shatter very easily.

in fact, i would say that even the knife would be better off built as a macauitl - with a wooden body and obsidian shards around it.

[MangoBoi101]

7 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

obsidian alone is too fragile to make good weapons. a knife is the biggest you can get, even that is a stretch and would shatter very easily.

Not necessarily, remember the inquisitors used obsidian axes and we have no evidence that the obsidian there is the same here (as far as I know) 

[Frustration]

4 minutes ago, MangoBoi101 said:

Not necessarily, remember the inquisitors used obsidian axes and we have no evidence that the obsidian there is the same here (as far as I know) 

Probably just the axe head was obsidean, the rest would be wood.

[cometaryorbit]

3 hours ago, Frustration said:

Probably just the axe head was obsidean, the rest would be wood.

Yeah. And it might even be multiple smaller blades combined macahuitl style, just all bunched at one end of a haft rather than arranged along its length.

(The Mistborn Adventure Game art seems to show them as more like macahuitls, but that's not canon).