How MEDIEVAL CLOAKS affect SWORDS and COMBAT

[Music] ratings I'm shad and as you probably be now to tell I want to talk a little bit about cloaks but not just cloaks I want to talk about how they would affect fighting and combat and because it's actually quite important if you're wanting to capture an accurate medieval aesthetic in your fantasy setting and even like say role-playing and stuff and - a fan is sitting like literature if you're writing fantasy but if you're also just playing in fantasy capes and cloaks actually quite an important element to consider because have just how prominent they were in the medieval period for a very important utilitarian reasons these are useful items of clothing so before we get into the direct kind of comparison of how problematic these would be for fighting and if you can order the air some pros and cons I actually want to dive into a little bit of the history and utility of the cloaks just so you know what role they really should fulfill in your setting and the general utility of them so what I'm wearing right now would classically be called a cloak complete with good you do not know that power sorry clearly visibility is an issue that we're pretty helpful but but a good cloak needs a good hood for the reasons we'll go into but the other interesting thing about this is this is distinctly a cloak separate to a cape what's the difference between a cape well for one a cloak is mainly a garment to keep you warm when it's cold but also it's basically the medieval raincoat and if it's rainy everything a cloak is meant to keep you dry and the to achieve that purpose it needs to close at the front otherwise you've got this big whole thing where rain can fall in so it needs to be out of clothes in the front go all the way around then you've got a full cloak where you could be one of the dark mysterious travellers on the room some Road so what I'm wearing right now is specifically a cape there's no hood and it can't come for I may be at a stretch but it's difficult okay this is mainly a fashion accessory and so when you just fold over the sides like so it actually can look rather striking with your entire ensemble look at market my Cape is amazing so capes generally more of a fashion accessory especially when you see the kind of royal capes that our king is wearing or something like that and cloaks have a far more practical purpose in keeping you warm and keeping the rain off the interesting thing about that is that a cloak can function as a cape when they're dressed up quite a lot sorry and if you are wanting me to comment on my whole medieval look if you haven't seen it before I have a whole video already assessing the accuracies and importantly the inaccuracies of this new medieval outfit I'm wearing and don't worry the gambeson will never go away okay I think I'll only have to be able to bring this out on special occasions when it's particularly appropriate like assessing the utility of cloaks in medieval combat utility well I mean look there are some interesting uses but how much they get in the way and other things like because if you're role-playing okay especially there is an interesting thing cloaks actually quite common in terms of the magic repertoire I remember when I was playing classic boulders gate the cloak of protection was one of the most important owners like you because it was an additional inventory slot cloaks always used because it was another item where you could put an enchantment on and they had really cool uses things and again a quicker protection is like one of the classic things about look at Lord of the Rings okay they caught the elven the elven kind cloak or something like you know that is able to keep you hidden more so cloaks are always there they're very important but if they're always there that means we should be paying attention to how they would affect combat for instance if they are getting in the way one of the first things you might want to do whenever you get in combat is to remove your cloak but if it's for serving our funk you know magical purpose to either protect you or you know disguise you and stuff well that means you might get a tan appropriate negative on your combat score we're dealing with it and if you're writing you might actually have to say specifically what they do with their cloak to just get out of the way and these are just small little elements that add great you know immersive bits of realism that draws you in and everything so this is good to consider I'm gonna move back to my cloak now because because I kept what I mean cape is fabulous but I think the cloak is going to be more common for adventures and stuff like that because of its usefulness okay and just to get ahead of the many questions I usually get because it happens regularly if you're wondering where I got this stuff from I got sweet calm and no this is not sponsored but when there's a company that I use that's good quality and stuff like add more than having to give them a shout-out because they deserve it and so there we go free promotion hi there shadow versity video but basically yeah everything I'm wearing comes from arm Street the boots cloak even the the sword frog video where I address this and yes that's pretty good so just so you know in case you weren't aware cloaks have been used for a very long time throughout the past and it's kind of a kind of a tragedy that they've fallen out of fashion that's because we have the technology and ability to make things that serve the purpose that cloak serves but a lot better and that's basically raincoats and other things like things with sleeves and stuff because as soon as you have sleeves well instead of having to wrap this all around me I can actually make it part of my regular clothes and I could actually put up say a belt around it instead of getting you know my sword caught on the cloak and other things because it's kind of sticking out there there's there's something wrong with this image is this a sword under my cloak or am I just happy to see you now I should mention that generally there is no standard you know cloak form okay in many instances a blanket alright wrapped around someone's neck without kind of like this brooch easy thing to clip it to get all not clip I decided to pin basically pin it on serves the function of a cloak okay and I think even now lead you made great video lloyd from the Lindy page made a whole video addressing kind of blankety clicks and stuff been a while since I watch the video but I remember it being good so yeah that's a good one to check out but then of course you have specific custom-made cloaks that were made to be cloaks and also to be fashion accessories they can be dressed up and everything and they existed all the way through to the 1800s okay you're going outside general convention is if you wanted to be warmer and just in case of rain yourself I add here Wow wear a cloak with you and you'll generally take it off inside because inside would be warmer and stuff like that and one of the things that you'll find that sit can be interesting tricky with a cloak is trying to manage sitting down and stuff I went to a medieval feast recently gonna be a whole video on it during the abbey medieval festival which was actually hosted by the organizers part of the events of the abbey medieval us over this face grade and I wore my cloak while Andy hiking there was no coat rack to hang it so of course I needed to wear it generally or always be like a coat rack we can just take it off hang it sit down and drive me off and it was interesting how often the cloak would get in the way because as soon as you sit down well the cloak rubs on the floor and other things like if it's a high back chair kind of got a swinging around just gets in the way so when you're sitting down you want to take a cloak off just just an interesting observation which means you would rarely ever wear them inside but would you wear them when fighting hmm let's know explore that because just looking at what we see here the sword is getting away of a cloak I mean it's poking out as I was a bit you know immature with before but you see the sword underneath okay now it can still fully wrap around you that's it's covering the mic fully wrap around you so my sword here isn't actually getting in the way too much with the function of the cloak I can close it fully keep myself you know dry from the rain I'm gonna you know I'm not sure if they were meant to be read that way but uh I heard that could mean food you can hear like I wonder how difficult be to kind of hide the sword underneath have to try and put it there but yeah if you were using a regular long sword instead of sorry if you're using a regular arming sword instead of a long sword much easier to conceal because that wouldn't be sticking out so much but this is an important point if you're trying to sneak into somewhere and hide your weapons in their fins you're all playing or in literature well it's kind of hard to hide the sword maybe you could hang it on your back a bit long back scabbard could get oh dang it I need a test this is my back scavenger stay tuned that scabbard tests look like coming it's really not getting in the way too much I mean because my hands are extended beyond the cloak itself it's very hard for the cloak to get in the way from any of you know your stances all right guard positions attacks and stuff so okay yep yeah we're all good here yep just the fact that it is resting on your arms and you feel this kind of simple drag okay and you really wanted to focus on the fighting aspect I think if you had the preference you'll probably take it off but if you couldn't it wouldn't be so detrimental that I'd say role playing for instance you need an actual penalty on your attack trolls or whatever because you're wearing the cloak if you're wearing a hood on the other hand well yeah as we've seen this one mm-hmm but even here okay my peripheral vision is very much affected not my glasses off okay so this is interesting like one why on earth would you keep the hood up when you're fighting yes I'm looking at you assassin screen thank you in that was very convenient so yes is freedom looking you fighting with your hood on all right your peripheral revision is really affected I look at how much I need a turn before Oh basically right now bang like that that's that's the version and if I was actually you know put it down my peripheral vision goes all the way over if you can see my hand I can still see it so see it still see my fingers twirling right here so I my peripheral vision if I'm gonna bring it is about like that okay so pretty darn wide and it's very useful to seeing anything coming in on the side your peripheral region don't block inside that with a [ __ ] with the hood up no I was just wearing the hood normally where I want it IKEA is there a chance that was moving around everything two points reason why new glasses could fly off but if the hood could fall further down and it's got so much room like this oh you would be a bloody [ __ ] to fight with the hood up you just you want to [ __ ] with it because you say I don't have much hope here interesting in my video you know uh is the back scabbard a plausible real like is it he is it useful okay I know we know it's not historic and stuff but I'm a successful video so I have a soft spot in my heart for that video we do postulate or I pasta at least certain elements which make the back scabbard useful yet I wonder if this could be another point of reference which might indicate why they were not so common in history because if cloaks were very very common okay ah and it gets in the way of the utility noose fulness of my back scabbard well I mean that means you wouldn't be out of wear a sword on your back if you wanted to wear a cloak as well we'll give a test and find out but that would mean a sword on your hip would be because uh we saw I was able to use it not a problem at all with the cloak and everything so we might have discovered an answer right there again it'll test to see how easy it is take the cloak off I'm not to practice at out lot alright so there we go okay it's not that difficult with practice you've a table just lift your head and click it's off ok first let's just test that still working yeah ok and yep still got it but a cloak issue that's gonna be really so the key here right is not so much if I can put it away because when your adventurer the important part is drawing the sword because that's when you need it ok presumably when you're putting the sword away that's what all the bad people are dealt with monsters whatever and if the cloak gets in the way with putting it away that's not too much of an issue so find out hmm problem one I can't even close sorry if you're wearing if you're wearing a back scabbard you'll need a custom-made cloak too now alright so that's the first problem I am gonna test the back scabbard being worn over the cloak so that'll be weird and interesting but that might solve the issue Pat close it at all but doesn't mean the experiment has failed just yet because I still got my keep my medieval cape and this has a much longer string on it to tie it closed so ya on sir let's see if this will wrap around it kind of okay alright how are we looking on the back there oh you know I bet as soon as I draw this it's gonna pull up and over the back scab it and I'm not getting out for the back you know I encourage that so I honestly I would need to keep it a bit loose to hang down a bit even for so I neither type maybe here look I got vagabonds I'm excited a little bit at least come up we're coming through there am I still beautiful all right Kay let's keep it there I'm not gonna be added up but anyway okay so we are discovering the same problem there you have one gyro it from a regular scabbards eye that's a fail I still can't get it out max gavin and cloak alright test 1 is failed what about wearing the back scabbard over the cloak alright so honestly if I was gonna try and do this properly I would actually cut a kind of a slit about Annie and I'm down here I can exist somewhere there right where the bottom belts of the back scabbard could loop inside the cloak and then come in over my chest and then I loop over the shoulder if that was done I actually think you would get the full utility of the cloak still and you could wear it and that's the way to do it bad - I don't want to cut a hole in my new cloak so I'm just gonna they're gonna have to try and do him it's still I think this will actually work because if there was no way to wear a cloak with a back scab it'll be an interesting kind of thing to bring up in your old playing I go you've got a cloak of protection how are you wearing your sword on the back on the hip okay and you might say oh it doesn't really matter you can just wear on hit but remember in my video where we actually look at the utility of having a back scabbard there are certain things in which having a sword on your hip gets in the way like crawling it'll they can hit the ground so that will give you a stealth penalty climbing even running and jumping alright having a side scabbard can get in the way and a back scabbard was more secure sorry wear this really think do you want your cloak of protection because you need where on the hip it's very hip you get these penalties in these situations but that's only if you can't wear a back scabbard with a cloak together which I think I think we might be out of pull this off quick and nasty way this time just just a test which means I need a whole the belt down like this so it doesn't slide back usually I loop it around my belt there which then secures it's in place but it's like this okay obviously the cloak is getting away but like I said if this is able to thread to the inside of the cloak this wouldn't be an issue and yeah yeah sure this air isn't a problem so all right okay I think we just got cloaks and back scabbards hadn't work together thank goodness would it break my heart if I go in but I got I hadn't it's been good to know doing the real test see we're asking the real questions here on shadow versity ah it's kind of get in the way the hood but oh hoods with the hood flap fall over I think it does it pulls over thing so aha hoods could get like hoods on cloaks I don't much sure how you could work it will always get in the way on the backs cabbage so you might need specifically a hoodless cloak because i have a look at this alright so i got caught on it already and yeah so if this was a high speed you know high-stress situation where you just wait laid by monsters and things you try and get you back to heaven but you got a hood on a coat and you get quite like ah I think you did so hoods and back scabbards they do not work and I thought I only I didn't predict it I only discovered this through testing it exactly and then like how is the hood the hood is over the back scabbard I really it might not be but is it all right I'm gonna try Oh yeah okay I didn't see I guess I'll find out post right if the hood can just rest up here or you throw it you say and I keep the hood on the side like this and then then you can draw your sword and you can put it away with the hood there and everything and can I just say deer you noticing how good I am at drawing this sword putting where in the back scab practice makes perfect like I said this thing works just like it works which ah where is your Chabot yeah I know you got a back to him at the corner where they're still my ones bare backs cabbage can work with hoods you just need to be aware of the hood all right sorry if you're walking along some of things and of course it slipped on the inside so this isn't getting away you can wrap the hook you know the cloak all the way around the inside and you're an in situation where you might need to draw this cavity he's gotta grab the hood bring it on the side and then you're all good all right okay I am happy about this ah I like back scabbards and quotes they don't cause you wanna they still work right by clicking protection and backs governor I don't get my penalties that I'm cool I want to say crawling and climbing around there in the woods when you're crawling or you're climbing are you running in you're jumping because back scab is a useful know situations and I can still get my cloak of well I will disinfect you know cloaks of elven kind where they blend in the virus because it's on the back but maybe not real things to consider just walking around with a cloaking sword obviously perfectly fine okay there's only slight inconveniences here and there all right so honestly I don't think the cloak is going to get in the way too much is it of course an interesting tug on the neck sorry if that is a hit in the mic sorry fire we'll see I wouldn't want to do flourishes with a quote already I can see it getting caught on it like especially on the downward swing when I go in like this if I get on the inside and then go up well sorry I wouldn't say you all undo flourishes but what about like downward strikes and you go in the regular stances yeah okay so perfectly fine I don't think this actually gets in the way too much I don't think it's obviously bad okay it's not bad not bad but there is a chance it might get caught on something so if you're not getting any benefit of the cloak and it's not too hard to just unclip and kind of hand let's see how quickly I could do it if I wanted to take this cloak off and I don't know much practice well that was pretty easy and then you just you would throw it away I don't wanna throw it away because a nice cloak and then you're good to go so look cloaks aren't that hard to take off especially if it's a pin if it's a tied knot or just simply are pull release yeah you're all good so for the most part they didn't get in the way I would still be cautious of it getting in the way just so to be safe I think if there's no benefit you just might want to take it off and throw it but is there a I can actually use you could have this in combat well yes there is now it would be much more difficult doing this we're that we ended sword so if you had a one ender sword this is when you can actually use the cloaks to kind of actually like flap knock away the blade or even wrap the blade pull on it and fight and so I actually using the cloak in combat is something that we do see even in the historical treatises it's an additional tool and if you're not using anything offhand like a paring dagger or or a buckler or even a coral or anything like that and you have a cloak it's an additional tool to use and there are certain advantages that you can get with it you know the flapping whole thing and there's another thing that you can do as well you can actually wrap it around your arm and you can use it to block incoming strikes I'm kid you not what is a gambeson many many layers of linen essentially and if you have a cloak that's a wool linen or whatever you have around like that this will actually legitimately stop certain sword strikes I'm not going to say all of them it is a risk but in the world where drooling was far more common say in the Renaissance is people using rapiers rapiers have far less kind of bike in the cut and also having said that the effectiveness or the ability a sword has to cut effectively through linen really much determinate is dependent on how sharp it is scholar Graham has done many tests which very instructive where he is pitting what he regarded as really sharp sword against gambeson Billy likes many minions didn't even get through the first layer but then he got someone to sharpen it up to you like insane levels we're talking like crazy crazy level stop as you possibly can and then it was devastating his test okay it was able to get through like Ambersons that were how many layers I forget how many lives better 30 or so even more elves crazy and so the usefulness of say a cloak kind of blocking defending weapon to actually catch sword cuts and things that even just pushing it aside well it's about as useful as generally what a jamison would be i would say and depending on the sharpness of your opponent's weapon will really determine on how effectively this would be out of block incoming sword strikes and that's just talking about blocking like full-blown hits and stuff like that there's a lot of contact you can have with another blade that where there's odd not a lot of force but behind it you can actually just throw your arm forward and just trying to knock aside a plate without them actively cutting down on it and again that would not cut through something like this you'll get a lot of utility out of it you probably get a decent amount of cuts so you're willing to sacrifice it but seriously if it's a choice between your own life and ruining of a nice fancy cloak i think you would choose you know your own life over protecting your cloak depending on how seriously it took fashion of course so interesting thing to pay attention to if you have a character in a story or you're role-playing or anything like an even like you know video and developers and stuff if someone is using a one-handed weapon and they have a cloak having the optional thinking that because they're not using a paring dagger or anything else even they say they picked up just a single sword one-handed very difficult to do it with yes but seriously on it that's interesting like cuz long swords look they can be used one-handed they're not meant to it the balance is a lot harder about look you absolutely can use a long sword one hand and you know you're getting the whole parachute gosh so much more cumbersome but it can be done okay and if you think that you would get more advantage out of trying to one hand a long sword because you have a cloak and you want to use the cloak in conjunction with it and to try and catch lock aside because seriously if you're able to lock the side push aside the opponent's weapon in one instance enough to open them up in the fight and kill them well you would want to take that advantage yeah you win not being able to do that so that kind of wraps up my thoughts on cloaks in combat and I'll round off this video by just saying that you know if you wrong son if you're got a medieval setting whether it's legit role-playing games whatever and cloaks aren't a consideration well there's a distinct element of unrealism in accuracy there because of how useful a coach patiently are all his fare in the past we're going outside of course and stuff like when you're high if you're not using the cloaking you're out in the rain getting wet kind of wish you would have a cloak so I'm not saying there's no cases of people not wearing quicks in the medieval past I'm not saying that okay but if I have the money and the ability like this is this is one of those things that so many people liked maybe maybe I'll show you how this does up so you see it the pin is either pin and I thread the pin through the cloak and it goes down like that and then you just hospital and then go you have the cloak and a mine knocking the microbiology z-- ha I am Groot you know that's where the concept comes from you know like in Star Trek and everything they got a cloak on supply because it helps you hide but dancing [Music]

Channel: Shadiversity

Views: 1,055,973

Keywords: sword, swords, cloak, cloaks, medieval, middle ages, history, historical, weapon, weapons, scabbard, wearing, longsword, hema, reenactment, historical european martial arts, sheath, carry, back scabbard, shabbard, witcher, game of thrones, lord of the rings, skyrim, fantasy, dungeons and dragons, dnd, d&d, armstreet, clothing

Id: CcoXRknPipo

Length: 25min 31sec (1531 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 02 2019