Character Suggestion: Bolognese Sidesword Fencer

[JAZZPIRAT]

I think a character based on Bolognese swordsmanship would be awesome. The Bolognese tradition is a really awesome real historical fighting style that was described in a lot of texts, mostly from the 16th century. These days, it's been revived by the HEMA community so they can bash each-other's heads in with style.


1 - The Weapon
While the Bolognese tradition describes fighting with all sorts of stuff, obviously the sidesword makes the most sense for this game.
The sidesword (spada da lato) is essentially the direct descendant of the medieval arming sword. Generally, sideswords tend to have longer (but still broad) blades and more hand protection. It's the predecessor to the "true" rapier, but stayed in use because it's more versatile and suitable for military purposes.
Like the rapier, they are often held with one finger looped over the crossguard. This makes thrusting easier and more precise, gives you a very secure grip, and aids in edge-alignment.
The game takes place during the 17th century, but the heyday of the sidesword was during the 16th, so the sort of sidesword you'd see at this point would be a very late version with a very protective swept or basket hilt, such as a Schiavona:
https://imgur.com/a/zMvzylC
Some swept hilt sideswords:
https://imgur.com/a/3HSGBtn

The sidesword was frequently used with offhand items such as bucklers, parrying daggers, cloaks, large shields, or even a second sword.
However, I don't see how a character who uses any of those things could be made balanced in this game without essentially turning him into a complete idiot, so it'd probably make sense for him to just use the sword on its own.

2 - The Fighting Style
"Move in such a way as to give him the impression that every gesture from you carries the potential for inflicting a crippling wound. Make your attacks so cruel and violent that even the slightest blow is enough to fill the opponent with dread. In this art, you need to act and have the countenance of the cruelest of lions or the angriest of bears. Actually it wouldn't be a bad thing if you could make yourself look like a great devil and act like you wanted to whisk away his soul.”
-Anonymous Bolognese Manuscript

The Bolognese tradition is pretty well documented and has a couple of distinctive features.

2.1 - Starting with the footwork, which is notable for using a lot of passing steps. This seems to stem from the fact that they often fought with offhand items, and just sorta kept doing it even when the left hand was empty. Most guards and actions can be done with either foot forward.
As is common with styles that use lots of passing steps, the there's also a lot of emphasis on lateral movement. The distance between the feet is also extremely variable. Some guards are recommended to be done with the feet close together, others at an extremely wide stance.
I could go into further detail, but I think it wouldn't be too relevant to the game.

2.2 - Most actions (such as cuts, parries etc) in Bolognese swordsmanship aren't just powered by the arm, the whole body is generally involved. This is aided by the frequent usage of passing footwork. Often this is a necessity, as Sideswords can be quite big, heavy things - just relying on the arm tires you out. It also means that big, powerful cuts are quite commonplace in this style.
As a result, the orientation of the body is heavily affected by where the sword is being held at the moment. This is best shown with pictures - note how when the sword is on the right side, the left shoulder leads and when it's on his left, his right shoulder is way in front, resulting in a more bladed stance:
https://imgur.com/a/EzOKHzX
(Pictures from Achille Marozzo's Opera Nova)

In motion, combined with the footwork, this results in a rather "dancy" style of fighting when done well. A very brutal dance for murdering people.
Note also how in these pictures, the arm's always held long, even in the retracted guards. So rather than bending the arm, the character would hold his sword either really high, low, or rather far out to the side when not in the extended guard, usually threatening with the point.
Of course there are exceptions to this, but for this game's sake, I think keeping the arm long would help to distinguish the character.

The Bolognese used both cuts and thrusts roughly in equal amounts. Cuts were performed with both edges. Cuts with the false edge were frequently done in a rising fashion.
One very common basic combo:
First, you do a diagonal rising cut starting from the bottom left. This cut can be done for a lot of reasons - wounding the opponent's arm, beating his weapon away, parrying an incoming attack, or just to unnerve or distract.
Then, follow up with another cut from the left, this time a descending one with the true edge to hopefully kill the bastard. Combined, the two cuts result in a sort of ribbon shape.


3 - Balancing:
As I said at the start, a character who uses a buckler, parrying dagger or shield would be really hard to balance, although on the other hand, it would be awesome to be able to kill your enemy by smashing his skull in with your buckler!
Sideswords, like all historical weapons, varied heavily in terms of size and weight. Generally however, they're a fair bit longer and heavier than the sabres currently ingame. I think for both stylishness and balance reasons, it would be best to depict the character with a rather big and heavy one, and to put emphasis more on the big, powerful cuts, even though the real style is full of smaller ones too.

I'l leave you with some sparring footage:
https://youtu.be/NL9FQyDimH8

P.S. the character should wear a massive codpiece.