![mail-breaker-onhand-large[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/Zd45mk0.jpg "mail-breaker-onhand-large[1].jpg")
Souls games feature a little rapier called the "Mail Breaker". I didn't think much of it. And it's not the first game to feature it. Ragnarok Online and FFXI featured it in 2003.
I swear that this weapon goes back even further. I was familiar with the weapon before Souls games, and I never played RO or FFXI. I swear it was one of those snes rpgs that did it first. But I can't confirm it.
Some guy claims this is a mistranslation from "Letter Opener". As in, the Nips mistranslated the word, and thought it meant a specific type of dagger/rapier, and thought "mail" referred to armor mail.
>>321259993
You are right, it goes back even further than ragnarok.
In fact, around the viking age, daggers started to be used to rip off the links of mail.
While a sword or axe can slash, it cannot break mail effectively. You need instead a weapon that can go inside of the links, and break them. Something pointy and short.
Knights always carried daggers and they were used quite often to find gaps in the armor, and, to tear holes in mail by violent yanking.
Most of the time you wanted to take prisoners, so you would push the knife into the gaps of the armor and make the person surrender.
The one used in dark souls is how it evolved into the renaissance.
>>321259993
a letter opener is way smaller than that and looks mroe like a slightly larger pocket knife
>>321262424
The theory is: Nips mistranslated Letter Opener, and thought it was a distinct class of weapon.
They then include it in rpgs. Other people then copy those games, thinking it's just a small dagger.
Souls is not the first one to use it. By the time they use it, it's morphed into a parrying dagger.
>>321262808
Mail Breaker is a pretty easy to understand name, seeing as it was designed to break chainmail, which larger blades would have a rough time with.
Usually mail breakers were very sharp on the tip, slender, and not flat. They would be used to literally tear the armor apart, as this >>321261154 anon said.
>>321263142
>>321261154
Only thing "mail breaker" brings up are weapons from video games. Any reference to these existing?
![AQuziIL[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/PKxMFha.jpg "AQuziIL[1].jpg")
Googled: "Dagger used to break mail armor" and pretty much got the exact weapon.
The gateway to the site is broken, but this was pulled out of it by google:
".. maybe even the best, anti-armour sword. It can be both used to thrust against the gaps of plate armour, and to penetrate mail and padded armour."
>>321262808
that theory is objectively incorrect, the weapon is called mail breaker because it is useful agaisnt armor.
the end.
>>321264362
>>321264263
Is "mail breaker' then a vidya only term?
>what is a chainmail
It's designed to go through aror
>>321263310
It doesnt show up because the term 'mail breaker' did not exist. They are simply called dagger.
Daggers that did not serve the purpose of breaking links in armor were called "Knife".
A shorter dagger is a common sidearm to a rapier when fencing
It's better than having some kind of shield for blocking attacks, and then you could counter with a strong thrust from your main weapon
That's why the mail breaker gives an extended window for riposting. Because that's what it was actually used for historically.
>>321264420
THe weapon itself isn't vidya only, but the term 'mail breaker' is
>>321263310
Look up rondel daggers and estocs. These are medieval weapons dedicated to thrusting. Later period bastard swords (~1500 and on) had awl-like tips to serve the same purpose.
>>321264672
>THe weapon itself isn't vidya only, but the term 'mail breaker' is
Mail breaker is a cool fucking term.
