Morning Star

ext">Historically speaking there seems to beaspergillum used by the church to sprinkle
some confusion as to whether a morning star is aparishioners with holy water, and "goedendag" or
flail, defined as "a medieval weapon made of one"good day".
(or more) weights attached to a handle with aIn modern times the term morning star is mostly
hinge or chain." or a mace, defined as "a strong,used in fantasy role playing games, which is
heavy wooden, metal-reinforced, or metal shaft,where one would most likely encounter the
with a head made of stone, copper, bronze, ironweapon outside of a museum or weapon shop. In
or steel". Now, usually we consider a morning starthe games, a morning star is a flail, or at the least
to be combination of a mace and a flail. Thea combination of a mace and flail. Also, this
weapon is constructed of at least one spiked ballweapon is used by the priests and clerics more
which is attached to a haft by a metal chain.than by any warrior class in a role playing game.
However, there may be more than one spikedThese classes are usually restricted to using
ball and chain utilized which is what often causesbludgeoning weapons, such as a mace,
the problems in defining the weapon accurately.warhammer, or quarterstaff. Odd isn't it that a
Some examples of a morning star show themweapon removed from tournaments due to its
being pole arms — over 6 feet long.lethal damage to be classified with those weapons
Others have them as side arms, to be wielded bythat bludgeon rather than pierce.
one hand while the other hand employed the useIt would seem that there is no strict definition of
of a shield. Again, the problem with the name.which weapon the morning star actually is and
Oddly enough morning stars have other names asthat it would fall to the owner of the weapon as
well, being called "holy water sprinklers" due to theto which he prefers. Is it a mace? Yes. Is it a flail?
fact that they somewhat resemble theYes. What is it best known as?