Northern Spear
| Northern Spear | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| Basic Info | ||
| Cultures: | ||
| Weight: | 7 lbs | |
| Trade Value: | 360 | |
| Flammable: | No | |
| Combat Information | ||
| Skill Required: | Spear | |
| Blunt Damage: | 4 | |
| Edge Damage: | N/A | |
| Point Damage: | 8 | |
| Attack Bonus: | Decent | |
| Defense Bonus: | Little | |
The northern spear is a a two-handed weapon that can be thrown, with hit chance and damage determined by the Spear combat skill.
This spear type is one of the unique and typical weapons of the Northern cultures.
Contents
Usage
This is arguably the most useful of the spear-type weapons, given its strong Point damage combined with the ability to use it effectively while skiing.
Maximum damage output from a Spear-trained character may require a different choice.
Secondary uses
It's the only spear that functions as a ski stick, when wielded as either a primary or secondary weapon.
It is also usable for fishing.
Availability
A new character from any of the northern tribes has a good chance of starting with a northern spear.
Though a powerful spear, fine and masterwork quality northern weapons are incredibly rare or non-existant in the current version (3.17). - Might need an update.
URW Game Encyclopedia description
The official URW in-game encyclopedia (accessed by the F1 key) describes the Northern spear thusly:
The northern spear has a long, sharp blade and it is used in hunting. It also has a special cross-piece usually in the dull end of the shaft, so that the spear can be used as a ski stick.
Real life context
Like much of the economy and unique equipment of the northern cultures, the northern spear is based on the Sámi people's invention of a combination spear-and-ski-staff. Interestingly enough, this practice also sometimes extended to longer Sámi bows, which were similarly modified to serve as skiing sticks whenever needed. Skalastet, a Sámi from of spearfighting, is one the few surviving traditional martial arts of the Sámi, and has been studied by historical martial arts researchers.
- Use of spears as ski sticks during hunting - Page 175 of A Year in Lapland: Guest of the Reindeer Herders describes how the Sámi people used spears combined with ski sticks during occassional wolf hunting in winter.
- Traditional Saami hunting - This article also mentions the use of spears that also double as ski sticks.
- Sami bow from Örbyhus Castle - A discussion on a historical specimen of a Sámi hunting longbow combined with a ski stick, very similar to the more famous spear-and-ski-stick combination.
- Skalastet - Sami quarterstaff & spear fighting tradition in Northern Sweden - Research article at Hroarr.com on surviving Sami traditions of polearm martial arts (with quarterstaffs, spears, etc.).
