Flail

Flails, also known as horseman's flails, were a type of one-handed, martial melee weapon.

Description
Flails consisted of a haft about long with a heavy metal ball or rod attached by chain to the end of the haft. This ball or rod was often spiked.

Weaponology
These lighter flails were typically used as one-handed weapons from horseback, but there were also heavy flails and dire flails for infantry that required two hands. Flails could be used to trip opponents and their flexible chains increased the chance of entangling an enemies weapon, thereby disarming them.

History
These military flails evolved from threshing flails, a type of farming implement used to thresh grain, replacing its linking rope with a sturdy chain and iron weights.

On Toril this occurred sometime before, when military flails first became available in the Netheril Empire.

Realmslore
Flails are often used by priests, although several warriors of note, including the genasi Cephas preferred the flail to other weapons.

Notable flails

 * Flail of Ages
 * from Baldur's Gate (game)

Appearances

 * Video Games
 * Dungeons & Dragons: Eye of the Beholder