Knight

Wyvern · Type of Dragon — Legendary two-legged, winged reptilian creature

The wyvern is the two-legged, bat-winged dragon of medieval European heraldry and folklore, named from Old English 'wivere' (viper) — itself from Latin 'vipera' — and distinguished from the four-legged Western dragon by the absence of forelegs (the wings serve as arms) and by a long barbed tail terminating in an arrow-shaped venomous sting. The heraldic form was codified in late twelfth-century Anglo-Norman heraldry under Henry II, and Juliana Berners's 'Boke of Saint Albans' (1486) is the first English manual to set the wyvern apart from the four-footed dragon as a distinct heraldic beast. The Welsh red dragon Y Ddraig Goch became an official badge of the Tudor dynasty after the battle of Bosworth in 1485, and nineteenth-century English heralds harmonised it with the four-legged form as a 'four-footed wyvern'. The same silhouette has been adopted in J.R.R. Tolkien's Fell Beasts in 'The Lord of the Rings' (1954-55), the wyverns of FromSoftware's 'Dark Souls' (2011), the Rathalos line of Capcom's 'Monster Hunter' series (2004- ), the dragons of 'The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim' (2011), and the dragons of HBO's 'Game of Thrones' (2011-2019).

Full-body steel armor of the medieval knight

Plate armor is the full-body armor of the European knight, encasing the wearer from head to foot in shaped steel plates and perfected in the 15th century. Steel plates about 1 to 2 mm thick were hammered to the curve of the body and joined with rivets, hinges, and internal leather straps to cover the whole body, the smooth curved surfaces glancing a descending blade aside. The total weight came to some 20 to 30 kg, but spread evenly over the whole body, so that a trained knight could run, mount a horse, and even roll while wearing it. The gaps the plates could not reach, such as the armpits and groin, were filled with mail, and beneath it all a padded garment (the arming doublet) had to be worn to absorb shock, so that the armor was a whole system. The Italian Milanese and the German Gothic were its two great styles, and since each harness was custom-made, a single set took enormous cost and many months to make.

Transitional armor with iron plates riveted inside fabric

The coat of plates, also known as the pair of plates, is the transitional armor that grew up in Europe from the middle of the 13th century to the late 14th century, in an age in which the mail hauberk alone could no longer take all of the shock of arrows and sword points. Inside a coat of cloth or leather, a number of iron plates large and small were fixed by rivets, and the arms of the family were painted on the outside, so that from without it looked like an ordinary surcoat, but inside hidden plates covered the chest, the back, and the flanks. The order of dressing was set: under it the man wore a thick padded gambeson, and over that the mail hauberk, and over that the coat of plates. These three layers together formed the standard of the 13th-century knight, and with a great helm laid on top, this is the figure of the knight most often shown in the illuminated manuscripts and tomb sculpture of the age.

Armor of small plates laced together with cord

Lamellar armor is armor made of small plates, usually rectangular and called lamellae, pierced with holes and laced directly to one another with cords or leather thongs. Unlike scale armor, which fixes its scales to a backing of cloth or leather, lamellar has no backing at all: the plates themselves are laced together in rows, both vertically and horizontally, to form the structure. The hard plates overlap densely to stop cuts and arrows, while the laced joints flex and follow the movements of the body. Originating in East and Central Asia, it spread across Eurasia, and the Japanese o-yoroi, the lamellar of Goguryeo Korea, the Byzantine klibanion, and the armor of Mongol horsemen are all built this way. The lamellae could be iron, bronze, hardened (lacquered) leather, horn, or bone, and at roughly 15 to 20 kg the armor rivalled plate in weight. A damaged plate could simply be re-laced and replaced, which made repair easy, but the lacing itself demanded constant care.

Barrel-shaped helmet enclosing the entire head

The great helm is a fully enclosed European knight’s helmet of the late 12th to 14th century — a cylindrical or bucket-shaped steel canister that encloses the entire head, face, and upper neck. Early versions had a flat top; later ones were rounded or coned into a “sugarloaf” shape to deflect blows. A narrow eye slit (occularium) and a scatter of small breathing holes were the only openings, giving the best protection of its day at the cost of severely limited sight and ventilation. It was not worn against the head directly but pulled over a padded coif, a mail coif, and sometimes a small skullcap (cervelliere), which spread the shock of a blow. Iconic of the crusader and the 13th-century heavy horseman, it was the heavy, solid “battle canister” donned just before the mounted charge.

Traditional helmet of the Japanese samurai

The kabuto is the traditional helmet worn by the Japanese samurai with his armor. Several iron plates are riveted together to form the rounded bowl (hachi), behind which hang several lames of a neck guard (the shikoro) covering the neck and shoulders, while the turn-backs (fukigaeshi) folded up at the front of the shikoro guard the sides of the face and bore the family crest. At the front of the helmet a crest called the maedate was mounted, to show who the wearer was on the battlefield and to display his dignity. By the Sengoku period commanders vied to make individual 'transformed helmets' (kawari-kabuto), their shapes built up in lacquered paper, wood, and leather; the crescent moon of Date Masamune and the fern-leaf crest of Tokugawa Ieyasu are especially famous. The weight came to about 2 to 5 kg depending on the ornament, and inside it was lined with padding and secured by a chin cord (the shinobi-no-o).

Grand armor of the Japanese samurai

The o-yoroi (great armor) is the classic large-style armor of the Japanese samurai, perfected in the Heian period for the mounted warrior. It is a lamellar armor, built from small scales (kozane) of iron and lacquered leather laced densely together with colored silk cords (odoshi) and finished over with leather and silk in splendid fashion. Above all it was designed for mounted archery: the box-like cuirass wraps the body, the right side covered by a separate piece called the waidate so as not to hinder the bow, and a panel of tooled leather (the tsurubashiri) over the front kept the bowstring from catching on the lamellae. Large square shoulder guards (o-sode) hung at each shoulder, serving like small shields that covered the flanks when the arms were raised to shoot. The skirt of hanging plates (kusazuri) was divided into four sections so the wearer could sit a horse, and at roughly 25 to 30 kg it was heavy armor. From the Heian into the Muromachi period it was worn for some five centuries as the armor of high-ranking warriors.

Tubular forearm armor of the medieval knight

The vambrace is the plate armor that wraps the forearm in a tube, a core part of the arm defense of the European knight and heavy infantryman in the 14th to 16th centuries. Its name comes from the Old French 'avant-bras', meaning fore-arm. Two plates, each wrapping the inner and outer of the forearm, were joined on one side by a hinge and on the other by a catch, so that it commonly opened to put the arm in and closed to fasten. The vambrace was not used alone but functioned as a part of an integrated arm defense, forming a set with the rerebrace covering the upper arm and the couter covering the elbow, joining shoulder to wrist without a gap. The material was usually plate steel, but cheaper forms made of hardened (boiled) leather, cuir bouilli, also existed as means allowed. On the shield-bearing arm, where the shield took the place of defense, there was also an asymmetric practice of omitting that vambrace or replacing it with a lighter material.

Japanese armored gauntlet and forearm guard

The kote is the armor made to guard the arm and hand of the Japanese samurai, a composite structure of mail (kusari) and small iron plates sewn onto a cloth sleeve. Unlike the Western gauntlet, made wholly of plate, the kote combined metal and textile to seek a balance of flexibility and protection, showing the design philosophy of Japanese armor as a whole. The back of the hand was covered separately by an iron plate (the tekko), and the forearm and elbow were wrapped in mail and small plates. In the early age of mounted archery in particular, it was common to wear a single kote only on the left arm (the bow-holding arm), or to guard the left arm more heavily, an asymmetric practice that shows archery was at the heart of samurai combat. Worn as a set with a cuirass such as the o-yoroi or do-maru, it guarded the whole arm, and developed into various forms through the Sengoku period.

Classic triangular shield of the medieval knight

The heater shield is the standard shield used by the European knight in the 13th to 15th centuries, marked by an inverted-triangle shape, wide at the top and tapering to a point at the bottom. The name 'heater' is a later term, from its resemblance to an old clothes iron (a heater), for in the Middle Ages it was simply called a shield. It is a form shrunk from the large kite shield used in the 11th and 12th centuries, the lower part that had covered the leg becoming unnecessary as leg armor developed. About 50 to 70 cm tall, it could be handled easily with one hand, and was made in a layered structure of wooden boards covered with several layers of leather and cloth, the edge reinforced with a metal rim. Above all, the face of the shield became the chief field for painting the coat of arms, letting a knight be recognized on the battlefield and tying directly into the development of medieval heraldry. After the 15th century, as plate armor came to cover the whole body, it gradually declined on the battlefield, but it continued in use in the mounted joust.

Articulated metal glove of the medieval knight

The gauntlet is the metal glove worn by the European knight in the 14th to 16th centuries to guard the hand and wrist, the intricate defense that takes the end of the plate arm harness, the hand. At its heart is the joining of several small plates (lames) at each finger joint, riveted so the fingers and fist can flex freely. The wrist is wrapped in a wide cuff that joins to the vambrace, and the back of the hand is covered with plate, while the inside of the palm is left as a leather glove so the hand can grip a weapon. It divides broadly into the hourglass gauntlet, covering the back of the hand with a single wide plate, and the fingered gauntlet, wrapping each finger separately. Because of the conflicting demands of securing the grip and free movement of the weapon hand while also having a seamless defense, the gauntlet was reckoned the hardest piece of the whole armor to make.

Japanese horse armor of the samurai era

The uma-yoroi (umayoroi, horse armor) is the armor made to guard the warhorse of the Japanese samurai, a distinctive defense applying Japan's own armor-making technique to the horse. Three parts form its core: the bamen covering the head, the kubi-yoroi wrapping the neck, and the muna-ate covering the chest, and it is light and simple compared to the Western barding that encased the whole horse. The way of making it by lacing small scales (kozane) with cords is the same as the samurai's o-yoroi, so it kept the flexibility and ease of repair distinctive of Japanese armor while still giving ample defense. The bamen was often decorated splendidly and menacingly, modeled on the face of a dragon or beast beyond a mere cover, showing that the aesthetic of armor craft reached even to the horse. As mounted combat grew in importance in the Sengoku period, the use of uma-yoroi expanded, but it never spread as widely as Western barding.

Full-body armor for the war horse

Horse barding is the full-body armor made to guard the warhorse of the medieval European knight, a top-grade piece of war gear famed for craft and cost no less than the knight's own harness. Five parts come together to wrap the horse completely: the chanfron over the head, the crinet over the neck, the peytral over the chest, the flanchard over the flanks, and the crupper over the haunches. It began in the 12th century as a mail trapper laid over a cloth caparison, and by the 15th century a full plate barding of two smooth shells wrapping chest and rump was complete, its weight reaching 30 to 40 kilograms. Together with the knight's own armor it meant that one horse had to carry more than 100 kilograms, so the barding was usually put on only just before battle and stripped off on the march to be carried by another horse. Its price matched a knight's harness, so only the highest nobility could afford it, and so the barding stood as a symbol of both the splendor and the limits of medieval mounted war.

Polished plate-and-mail armor of the Islamic world

Mirror armor, grown from the Persian char-aina, which in Persian means 'four mirrors,' is a piece of composite armor in which four great plates of steel, covering chest, back, and both flanks, are hung over a mail coat by straps and small hinges. The face of those plates was polished as smooth as a mirror, gathering the high desert sun to a single point and dazzling the eye of the enemy, and this polish made the same seat a place where beauty and the work of battle stood together. Keeping the softness of mail alive while laying a hard plate of one face only over the weakest seat, the chest and the back, the weave runs along a different path from the Western road of wrapping the whole body in one suit of plate, and stands as a core of Islamic war-gear thinking, in which protection and freedom stand at one seat together. A single suit, including the mail, weighed only twelve to eighteen kilograms, far lighter at one seat than the Western full plate of the same age.

Close-fitting Italian helmet of the 15th century

The armet is the close-fitting battle helmet that grew up in 15th-century Italy. Its mark is a streamlined, rounded skull that follows the curve of the head, with a pair of cheek pieces that hinge open inward from each side and shut at the chin to form a single closed shell. Unlike the earlier bascinet, which carried a mail aventail at the neck, the armet's two cheek pieces meet beneath the chin and lock at one point, covering head and neck-sides with one face of plate without a single mail ring. On its front a visor is set on hinges, lifted upward, so that in combat it could be closed with only a narrow sight slit left and in camp it could be raised to set sight and breath free at once. By the late 15th century the armet was the standard headpiece of the Italian white harness, and the form polished by the masters of northern Italy, above all the Missaglia workshop of Milan, is the very face of the Renaissance knight as we picture him today.

Large kite-shaped shield of the Norman knight

The kite shield is the great shield carried by the knight of 10th- to 13th-century Europe, and it took its name from its kite-like form, rounded at the top and tapering to a long point at the bottom. Standing about 100 to 120 centimeters high, on horseback it covered the rider from the left shoulder down to the knee with a single face, and so it served as a single wall to catch the spears and arrows of the enemy on the left in the heavy mounted charge that the Norman knight set as his way. A core of light wood, mostly lime and willow, laid in cross-glued planks, was covered with hide and bound at the rim with an iron strip, and on the inside were fastened the enarmes, the straps for the arm, and the guige, the strap for the shoulder, so that it could be borne well. On its face was painted, more and more clearly with time, the arms of the family, so that the knight, his face hidden under mail and helm, could be known from afar, and so the kite shield also served as the very surface on which European heraldry took shape. It is in the Bayeux Tapestry of the Battle of Hastings of 1066 that it is most clearly seen, borne alike by Norman knight and Anglo-Saxon housecarl.

Mitten-style metal gauntlet with unified finger shell

The mitten gauntlet is one branch of the metal glove that the knight of 14th- and 15th-century Europe set on his hand, and took its name from the form in which only the thumb stood apart while the four fingers were bound together within a single metal shell. While the finger gauntlet that grew up at the same time covered all five fingers each on its own, the mitten gauntlet covered four fingers in a single face with hardly a gap between the knuckles, so that the grain of the protection over that face was a little thicker and unbroken compared to the finger gauntlet. The hand of the maker took less work at one place, so the price of a single pair was lighter, and so in the early 14th century, when the full plate harness was just taking root, almost every knight set the same shape on his hand. Despite the great fault that the fine play of five fingers each on its own was held back, the same shape fit a spear, a poleaxe, or a flail, in which only the grip needed to be sure, and so it held firm in the seat of the tournament until the late 15th century.

Pointed medieval helmet with detachable visor

The bascinet is the standard helmet of the European knight in the 14th and 15th centuries. Its skull rises to a point, designed so that a blow coming down from above slides off the sloping surface. Around the lower edge a curtain of mail (the aventail) was hung by small staples (vervelles) to cover the neck, shoulders, and nape. At the front a visor that could be opened or removed was mounted, so that it was kept open for vision and breathing at most times and lowered to guard the face in the thick of battle. Thus, while it carried on the protection of the great helm, it greatly improved sight and breathing, and in the mid-14th century it swiftly replaced the great helm to become the most common helmet of the late Middle Ages. Many variants existed by the form of the visor, the most famous being the pointed, snout-like 'hounskull' or pig-faced visor.

The quintessential two-handed sword of medieval Europe

The longsword is the two-handed straight sword most widely used in Europe from the 13th to the 17th century. With a blade of about 90 to 130 cm and a long grip of 20 to 30 cm, it can be handled in one hand or two, and so it is also called the bastard sword or the hand-and-a-half sword. Its traits are a straight double-edged blade, a cruciform guard, and a heavy pommel, and thanks to the balance of the pommel, which sets the point of balance about 10 cm forward of the guard, its handling is excellent. Its total weight is about 1.1 to 1.8 kg, far lighter than commonly imagined. It is a versatile weapon equipped with a wide range of techniques: cuts and thrusts, of course, but also half-swording, gripping the blade to thrust, and the Mordschlag, striking down with the pommel.

The spiked ball weapon of medieval warfare

The morning star is an impact weapon with a round head set with several metal spikes — a spiked, ball-shaped head on a wooden or metal shaft. Its name comes from the German Morgenstern ('morning star'), the spikes radiating outward likened to a star or the sun. It delivers blunt shock and spike puncture at once, crushing mail or padded armor while also piercing it. Cheap and easy to make — a club studded with nails or iron spikes — it was widely used by medieval infantry and peasant or town militias. Its forms ranged from short one-handed clubs to long two-handed versions.

The curved cavalry saber of Persia

The shamshir is a deeply curved single-edged cavalry sword developed in Persia, with a blade about 80 to 90 cm long. Its defining feature is the pronounced, continuous curve running from hilt to tip, which makes possible the drawing cut: slicing a foe in passing while riding at full gallop. The blade was often forged from wootz steel, the crucible steel the West called Damascus, giving it a beautiful watered surface pattern, and it is light and well balanced for fast, repeated cuts. The point is rounded or blunt and was rarely used for thrusting, while the hilt is typically a downturned pistol grip dressed with ivory, horn, or precious metal. From the Safavid era onward it was the emblematic weapon of Persia between the 16th and 19th centuries, spreading across the Ottoman Empire, Mughal India, and Central Asia.

The curved cavalry sword for slashing

The sabre is the standard sword of European cavalry from the 17th to the 19th century, marked by a gently curved single-edged blade about 80–90 cm long and a D-shaped knuckle guard that encloses the whole hand. The curve of the blade is optimized for the slash — the draw cut delivered while riding at full gallop — leaving a deep wound in the instant of the charge. Descended from the curved swords of 17th-century Eastern European and Hungarian cavalry, it spread across Western Europe and, in the Napoleonic era, became the main weapon of the cavalry of France, Britain, Prussia, and every major power. About 900 g–1.1 kg and wielded in one hand, it symbolizes the 'age of cavalry' alongside the gaudy uniforms of the light horse. The sabre event of modern fencing descends from it.

The cavalry charge weapon of the mounted knight

The lance is the core weapon of the medieval cavalry charge: a horse-only spear of a long wooden shaft about 300–400 cm tipped with a steel head. A vamplate (conical hand guard) at the middle of the shaft absorbs the shock and shields the hand, and the shaft is locked into a grapper (lance rest, the arrêt) fixed to the breastplate. This 'couched lance' technique gathers the rider's weight and the horse's full speed into a single point at the tip, creating a shock penetration that no infantry or cavalry can meet head-on. After the first impact the shaft usually broke or, having run a foe through, was dropped for a sword or mace. In the joust, deliberately frangible lances were used to reduce injury.

A blunt weapon designed to defeat plate armor

The war hammer is an anti-armor striking weapon made to counter the plate armor that developed in the later Middle Ages. Its head is split in two: one side is a flat or textured hammer face that delivers a heavy shock, and the other is a sharp spike, called in French the bec, or beak, that punches through armor. When a sword could no longer cut through hard plate, the war hammer broke a foe in two ways: a blow with the hammer face drove the shock through to the body beyond the armor to break bones or knock him senseless, while the spike pierced weak points such as the helmet or the joints, or a relatively thin plate. It ranged from one-handed versions of about 60 to 90 cm to polearm forms of 120 to 180 cm, the one-handed kind usually weighing about 1 to 2.5 kg.

Sleeveless overgarment worn over armor

The surcoat was a loose, typically sleeveless garment worn over armor, originating during the Crusades to shield metal armor from the Middle Eastern sun. It quickly evolved into the primary means of displaying a knight's heraldic arms on the battlefield, making it central to the development of European heraldry and knightly identity. Made of linen, wool, or silk with the wearer's coat of arms embroidered on the front and back, it was most widespread in the 13th-14th centuries before being replaced by jupons and tabards.

Armorial surcoat of the medieval knight

The tabard is a knee-length sleeveless over-garment worn by medieval knights above their armor, emblazoned on front and back with the wearer's coat of arms to identify them in battle and tournament. It originated in the 12th century Crusades when white cloth was thrown over metal armor to deflect the desert sun; painting family arms onto the cloth evolved the garment into the surcoat, simplified by the 14th–15th centuries into the open-sided tabard. Heraldry — the rule-bound design of arms — governed the tabard's motifs strictly, with subtle variations marking inheritance lines. In tournaments, where knights were masked by helmets, the tabard was their sole identifier, proclaimed aloud by heralds. British royal ceremony preserves the tradition through the Kings of Arms who still wear tabards of the royal arms today. In fantasy RPGs, the tabard marks the knight, paladin, and kingdom's man-at-arms.

Valkyrie · Warrior Maidens — Choosers of the Slain in Norse Mythology

The Valkyrie (Valkyrja) is a female demi-divine being in Norse mythology guiding warriors' souls to Odin, god of war. The name means 'chooser of the slain' (Val-kyrja) in Old Norse — they decide who falls gloriously in battle, then guide the heroes' souls to Valhalla, the gods' hall, gathering an army for the final battle of Ragnarok. In Valhalla, Valkyries pour mead and serve the fallen heroes. Traditionally thirteen Valkyries existed. The most famous is Brunhilde — her tragic love for the hero Sigurd became central to Wagner's opera Der Ring des Nibelungen. Depicted in shining armor, winged helmets, mounted on horses or swans, they appear in all Norse fantasy from Marvel's Valkyrie to the Diablo series and God of War Ragnarok.