Merfolk Weapons

[Joy&RaptorsUnrestrained!]

The classic image is the merman with the trident, nets, knives or spears, but there are a bunch of other possibilities out there, and I thought that there should be a thread to explore some of them.

Divers are aware of the many undersea uses for knives and daggers.

Aegir and Ran captured drowned sailors in nets and dragged them to their palace.

The Mermaid: A body found mockumentary showed a number of watery spears made from stingray stingers and the like.

One of the submissions to the Mermen Fashion challenge this month has included a crossbow.

In a roleplaying game supplement, The Sea of Fallen Stars, a number of the marine races (including merfolk, tritons, shalarin, locathah, and sea elves) use a weapon called a tapal that is somewhat like a curved L-shape, with hand grips in the blade itself, enabling it to be used as a swimming aid, to stab or to slash with minimal resistance from the water. (here's a description from TV Tropes: "Forgotten Realms Tritons has tapal as their weapon of choice. It's a crystalline piece with bent between boomerang's and fisher hook's, handle on the inside, edge on the outside and sharpened ends. Which allows the short arm to be wielded as a dagger and long arm as a short spear (when inverted), scythe or long saber (as a streamlined balanced "wing" it's the optimized for swim-by cut).") Oddly enough, I can't find any images of it online, but I'll try and scan some of the pictures from the book and see if I can post them on here.

Anyone else have any suggestions for mer weapons?

[Mermaid Lorelei]

I've always liked the idea of throwing needles and other such items. Perhaps poison barbs.
Bladed Tonfas would be cool too.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31FIvyqaj%2BL._SL500_AA280_.jpg
Or Riddick Blades.
http://www.trueswords.com/images/prod/c/TS-RIDDICK2_540.jpg

[Fortuna]

I'd think mermaidweapons, like knifes and blades, would be made from the bones of larger fish. Like we did here on dry land, since you can make almost anything from bones, as long as theitr big enough..:)

[Drowning]

Love these ideas!! I like the thought of carrying a net to drag swimmers under to drown, and a bone knife to cut air hoses...

[Joy&RaptorsUnrestrained!]

I'd love the image of merfolk with whips, but I don't know that it would be possible to get the same force behind the swing underwater... might be particularly cool with a cephalomer like Ursula (the whip does have some similarities with tentacles).

[Gem Stone]

I think that they would use knives, nets, and other close range weapons. It would be hard for a mermaid to throw something with enough foce to take something else down underwater. I would think close range weapons would be a must and possibly traps like netting covered in sea urchin spines or something.