In Search of the Swords of Darius

Although Darius was a barbarian warrior for more than three centuries, neither the television series nor the Watcher Chronicle CD provide any information about his swords. Rebecca Neason's Highlander novel Shadow of Obsession, which features Darius as a major character, contains several fight scenes in which Darius uses a sword, but gives no details about what type it was or what it looked like. Since the "official" sources remain silent on the subject, I can only speculate on his choice of weapons, based on the limited information available about Darius' early history.

To begin with, I think that we may safely assume that Darius had more than one sword during his career as a warrior. Several reasons come to mind. The design of swords changed over the centuries and advances were made in the production of sword blades. As a professional soldier and leader of armies, and as an Immortal actively involved in the Game, Darius would surely have been interested in obtaining the very best equipment available to him at the time. And, as we all know, even superior weapons are subject to breakage, damage and loss when used in combat. Darius might have commissioned new swords so as to always have a backup in reserve, and he might have even carried more than one type of sword into battle. Battles also could have provided him with opportunities to acquire new weapons for use as replacements, and one can easily imagine the barbarian General Darius taking weapons as part of his share of the spoils as his armies went pillaging through Europe. In fact, the scant information we have from the series, Watcher CD and novel implies that Darius covered quite a bit of territory during his "misspent youth". Along the way, he would have encountered different types of weapons and fighting techniques, and might have acquired new equipment (and skills) in the process.

Keeping these things in mind, I will take a chronological approach to my investigation of Darius' swords, and I will also take into account his whereabouts and activities during the time periods discussed. Because there is not much information to work with, I will be discussing, for the most part, possibilities and likelihoods rather than certainties. I must also warn you that I am not an expert on swords or history, simply a Highlander fan who is interested in both. I hope you will enjoy the results of my research, but please don't take it too seriously! Also, please don't copy what you find here to another site without permission. It may be a frivolous piece of fluff, but I wrote it, and I do mind :-)