Full Item Description
A Gomeral Sword is considered a primitive type of sword as it lacks a protective crossguard. Instead, the blade flares significantly wider than the haft of the sword. The tang of the blade is wide, close to three inches, and being intended for single handed use, the blade itself is only 26 inches in length. The large flat tang of the blade offers a good surface for decorative etchings, and many Gomeral swords boast family crests, mottos, and other devices of symbolism and primitive heraldry.

History
Gomeral Swords are primitive forbearers of the modern short sword. The design saw it’s heyday some decades ago when this type of weapon was the official armament of the Kings Guard of the city-state of Gomeral, hence the common name. The King’s Guard, trained to fight not in fields of battle, but in the halls and chambers of a castle preferred the smaller weapon, and officially carried a pair of these swords. The Gomeral technique was difficult to master, as it required alternating a sword to block and a sword to attack with. This meant that only a small number of soldiers gained the skill needed to join the elite King’s guard.

The City-State of Gomeral suffered a number of calamities that all lead to a coup against the King and his court. Several hundred peasants along with a double handful of rebels stormed the castle and attempted to capture the king. Such an uprising would have easily been crushed by the skilled warriors of the King’s Guard but there was a rotten core in the king’s elite. Because of slights real and imagined, the King’s Guard turned on the King and he was slain by one of his own guards.

Already a primitive weapon that remained only in common use because of the King’s Guard, the Gomeral Sword suddenly became a very unpopular weapon. Those who carried it were seen as sympathizing with the traitorous kingslayers and their commoner uprising. Most regular folk of militaristic bent (adventurers, mercenaries, militias) discarded their Gomeral blades and replaced them with more modern short swords. Those who did support the King’s Guard would eventually find their way to the gaol, the hangman’s noose, or feel their life’s blood gush out onto a thirsty field of battle. Some six months after the coup, the King’s Guard was routed by royal forces from the next city state and almost all were hung. Those who survived scattered to the winds and went into hiding.

Magic/Cursed Properties
Having been a popular weapon for approximately 8 generations of warriors, there were a large number of Gomeral swords in circulation. With the King’s Guard using said type, there are a disproportionately high number of masterwork Gomeral Swords as well as enchanted and magically unique versions of the weapon. After the backlash against the treacherous guard, the mundane Gomeral swords were broken, or recycled to make new swords or plowshares. The more expensive magical versions and unique versions were much more likely to be wrapped in a cloth and forgotten in a cellar or hidden away than be destroyed.

To find such a sword is almost a guarantee of a high quality, or even magical weapon. Unfortunately this comes at a cost. Even years later, the Gomeral sword is still strongly associated with regicide, treason, and murder.

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