"Why is it that flails on figures" Topic

So often are depicted on "Evil" or "Chaotic" or non-Human figures (frequently all three) ?

Is it just the figures I am looking at?

Is that some trope in Fantasy?

Is it because "Good Guys" uses swords is part of our literary heritage i the First World nations?

I have figures of a male dwarf and female human from Reaper with flails but as I wandered though the online stores recently it seemed that the flail is seldom seen and much less on "Good Guy (Human, Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling) Hero" appearing figures.

Just something I was wondering about this morning…

Flagellants in the Empire range most often have flails in the GW range. Chaos Marauders can also take them but you don't see that quite as commonly. I think there were a few Bretonnians knight characters that had them as well.

I have never noticed them being more often on evil than good figures, actually I think I most closely associate them with those Sigmar following lunatics.

I have noticed that. IMO, it IS "a thing". I guess in appearance and function, it seems like more of a "bad guy" weapon. Spike-ball maces, too.

Of course, gnolls frequently have them because in AD&D, their deity and his clerics wield flails.

It's not a weapon you can handle with finesse – I guess the relative brutality of it lends it more readily to bad guys.

It's that combination of whips with spiky bits. It says "Well, yes, I'm evil."

Historically, flails are strongly identified with peasant-centered uprisings, whether socio-political in nature or religious. The Hussites are the most well known example.

Such uprisings, even without the religious element, represented a dramatic break in the social order. Those that were religiously motivated added the element of heresy. Both kinds were often accused of fanaticism, whether deserved or not.

Turning various agricultural implements into rough and ready weapons (spiked clubs, crude polearms, etc.) also has a sinister undercurrent. It is literally the unarmed masses turning their peaceful tools into instruments of death. Little wonder that so many of the "subhuman" evil races of high fantasy (e.g. Orcs) are often armed with crude pole weapons, axes, etc.

What happened to "medieval?"

My infantry officers in my "barony" medieval army are all armed with either maces or flails. Now I know how the rest of the world views my "barony", as EVIL. I had not known. The "Baron" himself uses a double-bitted ax. And he has a black two-headed eagle as his barony's symbol. Overlaid on this is the Baron's personal emblem of a grinning human skull. But I never thought of myself as "evil"….

Not 'evil,' GWA – just bad a-- !

The flail is not the sort of weapon for the faint of heart or sound of mind

Wasn't the flail often a weapon favored by the clergy in medieval times? Or am I remembering that wrong?

I thought that was a reason for early D&D priestly types to often have one.

And obviously a trip to the Dawghouse forbids me to speculate about whether organised religion is evil, so…

er… I have no idea!

John T

The weapon most fantasy figures flaunt as a flail (another of those D&D misidentifications that has stuck) isn't a flail it's a morning star (multiple balls and chains on a short haft). Although I agree it's an evil trope.

A flail is a jointed wooden threshing device hence its use by peasants.

I think the only time I've seen it used and correctly identified is in Braveheart – though quite how Mel keeps it secreted behind his head while riding to the fort is a mystery.

My infantry officers in my "barony" medieval army are all armed with either maces or flails. Now I know how the rest of the world views my "barony", as EVIL. I had not known. The "Baron" himself uses a double-bitted ax. And he has a black two-headed eagle as his barony's symbol. Overlaid on this is the Baron's personal emblem of a grinning human skull. But I never thought of myself as "evil"….

….. Just misunderstood?

Might be my misunderstanding but I always thought of a morningstar as being a staff with a fixed head with either (smallish) spikes or flanges on a ball or cylindrical head.
Except for dimensions almost the same as the holy water sprinkler.

A flail or chain mace would have a staff and one or more separate chains with balls ( spiked or not'

Which sort of weapon would you prefer to see as teh trope for baddies?

A Man threshing corn with a flail in Chronica Majora by Matthew Paris, c.1240–5

Flagellants use a scourge.
Christ scourged. The de Burgo manuscript, an illuminated book from Connacht ca. 1578

Druzhina
13th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Multi-headed flails, definitely, for "baddies".

@WillieB: Yes, my understanding as well: "flail" is anything from the peasant tool for flailing grain, to the military derivative with usually a single chain and head. The head can be a simple round ball, solid or hollow, or with nodes or spikes protruding. Adding a second or even third ball and chain does not give it a different name, it is still a "flail". I don't know of any examples of military flail heads that are not round, except in fantasy miniatures and art.

The "Morningstar" is a specified mace with a shaft and round head that always has spikes protruding from it in all directions.

Maces are different in having a variety of differently shaped heads, usually with flanges, at least four in number….

There is a war-flail on the left of a picture of a Hussite Wagon Fortress, Johannes Hartlieb: 'Kriegsbuch', 1437 with 3 spikes on an elongated head. On the right is a soldier with a spiked mace.

Druzhina
15th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

I like cheesecake

link

Standard TVTropes warning applies.

Could you flailing a dead orc on this?

The flail is an intimidating and very "different" weapon, sort of an evil twin to the mace, just like the scimitar another classic bad guy weapon is its the "Arabian Nights Style" is the evil twin of the long sword.

Plus its bot spikes on it.