Foolishness.

Dual-Wielding is a convention of cinema and video games that has led to a degredation of the art of combat. There is no "dual-wielding longswords" in real life. It's cumbersome, and has only ever been seen in history by fools who are quickly murdered on the battle-field because they decided to go out with two swords! The idea of "dual-wielding" blades (like guns akimbo) originally comes from early Hong Kong Cinema, as a stylization of fighting for action movies.

The idea of dual-wielding arises from Main Gauche Fencing, in which the "main gauche," a parrying dagger, is used in the off-hand. The Parrying dagger is usually a Poignard (but can also be a sword-breaker, or a trident-dagger), and the standard length is 22 inches en totale, with a 14 inch blade. Many parrying daggers can double as bucklers, depending on the size of the hand guard. Hand guards on parrying daggers are often very large, as the dagger is used to catch and deflect an opponents blade. Main Gauche Fencing became popular in the late middle ages and the early renaissance amongst the nobility, and was considered an art form, often depicted in illustrations of the time. However, this has led to uninformed appreciators of medieval times to think that it is useful to use two long blades at once. It's not. It's suicidal.

The samurai had a similar form of combat to the Main Gauche in which they wielded a katana in the main hand and a wakizashi in the off-hand, but it is still dagger and sword combat, with the dagger used for parrying and surprise attacks.

I have loved the Elder Scrolls games not simply for the story or the cultures, but because they don't rely on the trite fantasy conventions that so many video games like Dragon Age and WoW fall prey to. There is sword and shield combat, there is single weapon combat, and their is zweihander combat. There is none of this fantastical, unrealistic bull-[censored]e that is Dual-Wielding. The Elder Scrolls is above such things. And in this sense, I respect TES for following realism, and not popular opinion.

(I would approve of dual-wielding a dagger and a main-hand weapon, however)

many arts used dual weapons. In FMA double espada ( many of the techniques of which are preserved in the doble baston), and espada y daga, Burmese Thaing, Krabi Krabong ( daab song muu ), Chinese had dual jian and dual dao, Pencak Silat has double blade forms, in WMA there was a case ( or brace) of rapier using dual rapiers as well as sword and dagger forms ( Manciolino (1531), Marozzo (1536), Agrippa (1553), di Grassi (1570) ) , as mentiond above there seems to have been some use of double falchions, some sources speak of indonesian forms with dual peudeung on Aceh. Kuk Sool won has dual blade techniques ( Sang Kum or on horse Ma Sang Sang Kum), Musashi's treatise on it has been mentioned above

-Mind you these are all for small weapons.


Now can you guys link me some real life ice-bolt fighting forms?

@realism discussion:
Accepting magic is one thing; As long as the magic is logically designed and implemented, it is a fantasy element everyone can deal with.
Accepting changes to things that exist in real life is another thing; they are often not logical. If gravity is the same, steel is steel and a sword looks like a sword; I expect it to handle like a sword. If this took place in a world where weapons were made out of liquid with near no gravity and characters having no arms and legs, but instead the ability to move objects with their minds, I'd accept any logical weapon design within that setting. But as long as we're talking human(esque) characters with steel swords, they should handle the same unless a logical explanation is given why it would be different.

Foolishness.

Dual-Wielding is a convention of cinema and video games that has led to a degredation of the art of combat. There is no "dual-wielding longswords" in real life. It's cumbersome, and has only ever been seen in history by fools who are quickly murdered on the battle-field because they decided to go out with two swords! The idea of "dual-wielding" blades (like guns akimbo) originally comes from early Hong Kong Cinema, as a stylization of fighting for action movies.

The idea of dual-wielding arises from Main Gauche Fencing, in which the "main gauche," a parrying dagger, is used in the off-hand. The Parrying dagger is usually a Poignard (but can also be a sword-breaker, or a trident-dagger), and the standard length is 22 inches en totale, with a 14 inch blade. Many parrying daggers can double as bucklers, depending on the size of the hand guard. Hand guards on parrying daggers are often very large, as the dagger is used to catch and deflect an opponents blade. Main Gauche Fencing became popular in the late middle ages and the early renaissance amongst the nobility, and was considered an art form, often depicted in illustrations of the time. However, this has led to uninformed appreciators of medieval times to think that it is useful to use two long blades at once. It's not. It's suicidal.

The samurai had a similar form of combat to the Main Gauche in which they wielded a katana in the main hand and a wakizashi in the off-hand, but it is still dagger and sword combat, with the dagger used for parrying and surprise attacks.

I have loved the Elder Scrolls games not simply for the story or the cultures, but because they don't rely on the trite fantasy conventions that so many video games like Dragon Age and WoW fall prey to. There is sword and shield combat, there is single weapon combat, and their is zweihander combat. There is none of this fantastical, unrealistic bull-[censored]e that is Dual-Wielding. The Elder Scrolls is above such things. And in this sense, I respect TES for following realism, and not popular opinion.

(I would approve of dual-wielding a dagger and a main-hand weapon, however)

Just because it is fantasy doesnt mean we get to completely ignore physics, magic can effect the real world is a commonly held fictional truth but ignoring how real sword fighting or the laws of physics because "I wanna have a claymore in each hand" is idiotic. Tes as a series is a Fantasy setting that feels immersive because it is realistic and deep from a fiction standpoint.

It should be obvious that twohanders can't be dual wielded. I'm getting tired of people even mentioning them in their posts.
Two handed weapons are of course out of the question, it's a reason they are two handed. :grad:

It's just an idea... a fun idea. It would be boring without. It wll add somethung new & fresh. Please give me an argument besides realism as to why there should be no dual wield.

I don't recall anyone saying they want to dual wield claymores. Dual wielding lighter short swords and daggers do not defy the laws of physics.......and dual wielding is a commonly held fictional truth. You don't really need me to cite instances where dual wield is in fantasy games, do you?


Edit: I just don't get it....If you don't want to dual wield, then don't do it, but don't deny others something that enhances their game play.

Sir I think your avatar just took acid.

this argument that "its optional, if you dont want to dont" is really getting old. Games are made to work with the feature provided dual wielding if implemented would have to become ether common place or fairly frequent for it to be worth the dev time there for portions of the game will be based around it, its the same with fast travel Oblivion had no other system but fast travel so those who didn't like it had to walk instead of other options. and regardless there are plenty of mods for people to use if they really want it. Dual wielding is a commonly held High Fantasy idea not an over all fictional truth, magic can be seen across all spectrums of fiction.Ffor some reason we have this infatuation with dual swords, dual hand guns dual what ever... they are entirely impractical.

this argument that "its optional, if you dont want to dont" is really getting old. Games are made to work with the feature provided dual wielding if implemented would have to become ether common place or fairly frequent for it to be worth the dev time there for portions of the game will be based around it, its the same with fast travel Oblivion had no other system but fast travel so those who didn't like it had to walk instead of other options. and regardless there are plenty of mods for people to use if they really want it. Dual wielding is a commonly held High Fantasy idea not an over all fictional truth, magic can be seen across all spectrums of fiction.Ffor some reason we have this infatuation with dual swords, dual hand guns dual what ever... they are entirely impractical.