I need help for my comic project...

[Slim_Ghost]

Hey all, I am currently doing research for my comic, which is themed on the Malacca Sultanate in the late 15th century.

Seeing at how you EB guys make a lot of research about weapons, how their designs reflect their stats, the materials, etc, etc. I was wondering whether you could help me with these few questions I had in mind:

1- The hero in my story uses a criss/keris. I am sure at least some of you may have an idea on how kerises tend to look. Would it be realistic if I instead make his keris sword-length and straight hilted with a thicker blade for more battle effectiveness?

I plan to make his keris resemble a sword since I really dislike the idea of someone wielding a dagger to compete with spears, machetes, broadswords and other dominant weapons in the battlefied at that time. I don't plan on giving an impractical looking dagger absurd supernatural powers to overcompensate for it's uselessness in battle like what most other comic artists do.

Besides, this may be merely a conjecture, but I personally feel that war kerises DO resemble swords, but the main reason they are reduced to daggers is because they are made obselete by firearms.

2- About adding waves to weapons (like flammards), do they really have a practical use other than giving a weapon an exotic look?I prefarably wouldn't add waves since they are a very new invention in the comic's timeline.

3- As stated, this hero would be wielding a keris and fights as one would with a one-handed weapon. Can someone with a one-handed weapon fare well against someone who uses, say, a poleaxe or a halberd?

4 - This hero is also good at hand-to-hand fighting. Let's just assume that he has reached perfection in his art - both in terms of strength and technique. Could he punch someone who is wearing an iron cuirass and hurt him from the inside?

[Pharnakes]

no expert but:

1. I would call a kris neither a sword nor a dagger, but a dirk. In case nobody outside of Scotland knows what that is, it is basicaly a croos between the two, and yes can be extermly effective against everything when weilded with sufficent skill.

A Kris should be slightly wazy and about as long as the weilders arm from wrist to armpit. The hilt should be 1.5 times the weilders palm measurment.

A kris is not a sword, it os something differnet, but no less efective for that, just a different style.

2. I belive they were partitaily funnctional, I have read they it helped penentrate the fibre armour popular in those areas, by preventing jamming as the blade is forced side to side.

Also, the lateral movment the balde takes on would cayse much more seveer internal injury than a strait blade. Slightly more force would be required for penentration, though, and it would be less effective against metal armour.

3. Provided he can close to very close quaters, and prevent the 2 handed guy from effectivley swinging his weapon (get inside his reach) then very much so. Hvae to be quick on your feet though...

4. Depends on the construction of the cuirass. If jointed, he could at least wind his opponent. Ofcourse, unless he was wearing brass knuckles or gauntlets, he would hurt himself even more...

Also I don't think iron armour was very comon. A very few bits of earupoean starting to appear, maybe, and probably some chinees lamelar, but not much else.


Hope this helps a bit, and I await your comic with great interest.

[Slim_Ghost]

Thanks a lot for the reply

And BTW, the Portuguese would be the ones wearing the cuirass. They would appear at teh end of the comic's timeline. Yeah...I am imagining that the disarmed hero kicking the ass out of the overconfident soldiers.

[Tellos Athenaios]

First of all I am no expert:

1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris
2) Imagine what happens if you stab someone with it horizontally, 'push' your weapon into some softer tissue (let's say the belly); turn it 90 degrees so that the horizontal 'plane' is now a vertical 'plane' and then pull it out quickly & ferociously...? Rip out, methinks, would be a suitable verb to describe the situation.
3) Yes. There's a good reason why units with big two-handed equipment were always more of a special feature to the army rather than the norm. (The bulk.) Mainly because these weapons aren't very effective in close combat. (That is: close enough to be actively hitting your target rather than stabbing/swinging stuff blindly.)
4) Not really realistic. Especially since the cuirass was specifically designed to effectively withstand frontal blows like that.

[Pharnakes]

What was that polynesian dagger called again? The one made of a stingray's backbone?

[Cyclops]

Is a kris a bit like a kopis? I imagine it as a very heavy chopping short sword.

A quick glance at that Wiki link shows a variety of styles, one like a machete/kopis design, but others are wavy, or even leaf bladed.

Looks like a versatile weapon, suitable for a variety of fighting styles like jungle fighting, naval encounters and those sort of disorganised close quarters combats, and just big enough for a stand up fight. I'm guessing it wasn't used with a shield?

Tellos' point about the waves is interesting. I understand curves (generally a single smooth curve like a katana) give a better cutting performance to a blade, at the expense of their stabbing performance.

Maybe the waves are a compromise? The mean the point stays in a line with the handle (allowing stabbing force to be effectively delivered) but you would still get some of the superior cutting effect from the curved portions (like a bread knife).

I imagine the wavy blade would make thrusting harder, as it effectively broadens the profile of the blade, but it would definitely cut up the sides of the wound as it went in: I'm thinking "black talons" vs AP ammo. Very fricken nasty looking frankly.

On point 4, yeah, a cuirass is unlikely to be hurt by a bare hand or foot. Maybe an armoured foe could be hurled onto a hard object like a rocky outcrop or a metal spike, and crushed or punctured that way?

Augustus the Strong of Saxony has a party trick where he would pick up a fully armoured guard (in full medieval kit, not just cuirass) and tip him out the window, so its doable, if unlikely.

[Slim_Ghost]

I don't really like to use wikipedia.org. It's an encyclopedia where everyone can edit. Anyone can put whatever they like.

Wikipedia is grossly inaccurate when it comes to Malay culture. I mean, just for one example this encyclopedia claims that Hang Tuah said that "Tak Melayu Hilang di Dunia" - whereas that was an afterword left by the author of the book Malay Annals.

Cranked hilts facilitating slashing and stabbing attacks?What the hell?If that's the case why didn't I see legionaires using gladius with 90 degrees bent hilts?Other cultures have been involved in far more battles than the Indonesians, thus surely they must have came up with it first and used it widely if indeed weapons with awkwardly bent hilts are effective.

The kerises that has the cranked hilts tend to be the ones that are very short and very brittle, used only for ceremonial purposes. The warfare oriented kerises like the Moro Kris (they insist that I use the word Kris instead of Keris. Whatever.) have straight hilts, and often have the reputation of being very deadly.

I am sure the EB team did not use wikipedia as basis for their research either, isn't it?

[Tellos Athenaios]

No you missed the point of the 90 degree bit. First stab it into something, turn it round for 90 degrees and pull it out.

And there's a good reason why you wouldn't want to try this in battle formations or some such thing:
a) It requires a good deal of force since you have to 'relocate' a lot of internal organs + cut through a lot of tissue that hold them together;
b) It's kinda impossible against opponents with a cuirass, or other decent body armour. And it isn't likely to work against shields either.

Mind you the kris is the weapon of choice to defend yourself with in streets or other 'chaotic' enviroments; not in the ordered and 'controlled' battle formations. It's a bit like the air gun: you can use it to defend yourself with, but you wouldn't want to equip an army with it.