Let's see. In order to qualify as underrated, it has to be an incredibly effective weapon that actually appeared somewhat frequently in medieval history as a battlefield weapon, but be hardly ever mentioned in the literary world.
In this case, the question was "the most" underrated medieval weapon. For that, we need the single most extreme meeting of battlefield effectiveness with vanishingly uncommon amounts of it seeing play in fantasy writing.
Yeah, for that intersection, I'm going with military pick. It's got the same kind of ability to open armor as blunt weapons like maces, so it's brutally effective. However, unlike clubs and maces, you see zero mention of military picks in fiction. I don't just mean as MC weapons. You don't even see military picks used by the side characters in most fantasy fiction out there.
Well, we all know that when it comes to fantasy fiction, it's usually the swords that get the front seat in the MC's arsenal. So what do you think is the most underrated fantasy/medieval weapon in literary fantasy?
I'll start with the Spear. I've seen a few fantasy protags use it as their weapon; it's usually the arms of the other characters, but not the main one.
The mere fact that spears are used by protags means it's not all that underrated. It's just got an unjust second-fiddle position.
Also...
Royal Road has a top-10 listed series with a spear user protag.
Axes kind of in general. Maybe halberds are a bit more common, but you never really see full, double-sided battle axes.
Hmm... interesting you should mention that. I heard about a weapon called the Igorot Axe. A tribal axe from the Igorot tribe in the Philippines. However, despite being a design used by a primitive tribe, this thing is an engineered monster that would have ruled the battlefield in medieval Europe if they'd ever had the brains to come up with the design themselves. That thing is the single most deadly axe ever made. It's pretty much the nightmare child between a battle axe and a military pick, and it wound up creating a liger cub in the cross-breeding. The versions that have been crafted from factory steel since the design was discovered by anthropologists have proven to be able to cut through armor like it's not even there.
It's a 1-handed single-blade axe, but I decided to turn it double-bit and design a fantasy embellished version that is able to actually successfully pass as a disguised mage's staff while really being a brutally deadly melee weapon, and then I gave it to my MC. I got the thing in the cover art for my series, you should take a look.
I would do anything to heal my granddaughter, including selling my soul. So, when a woman professing herself to be a fallen goddess appears promising to offer that exact deal to me, I ultimately accept despite my misgivings. The woman tells me I have accidentally re-discovered a special...
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