Whale Flail

A whale flail is a flail with a very long cylindrical or rectangular head - perhas 2-3x as long as a typical flail, or 12"-18" long. They were invented in Chamonix, which at the time knew of no other styles of flails and had little contact with other realms. They were not originally called whale flails - the whale flail was a particular weapon which happened to be covered in blue cloth covered with whales. This weapon was brought to Tir Asleen for the first all-Iowa event (and the first time Chamonix had fought with Tir Asleen and Nan Belegorn), where it made quite an impression. Hearing the name of the weapon, people from those realms assumed the term was used to describe all weapons of that style, and the name has stuck ever since.

Whale flails behave significantly different than normal flails. The heads tend to be much heavier (Chicken has two whose heads alone each way about 16oz), so they cannot be flicked and much of their technique involves controlling, maintaining, and using their momentum. They also wrap much differently than traditional flails due to their size, and must be blocked differently as well. While their large heads make an easier target to block or parry, any block which falls short of the head is much less likely to be effective, due to the long reach of the head itself.