The only really fancy looking weapon I liked was in Oblivion was the Sword of Dusk and Dawn. I wish they had put it in Skyrim somehwere....

Dwarves are only called Dwarves because of giants. They were actually a race of Elves called Dwemer or 'deep elves'.

http://images.wikia.com/elderscrolls/images/7/77/Dragon_priest_dagger.png
This is a unique looking dagger in game.

There's no evidence that "silver weapons" are made out of solid silver. Most likely its just silver plating over a decent iron or steel weapon. And as others have said, 'glass' weapons aren't really made out of ordinary glass, they're made of a volcanic mineral that has to be mined. Skyrim changed the lore a bit when they decided to use malachite (an ore-like mineral associated with copper) as glass ore rather than the 'raw glass' used in Morrowind and alluded to in Oblivion.

Moreover, silver weapons have a specific function in TES games, to provide the ability to kill certain supernatural creatures at low levels when elven weapons or better aren't available. The silver isn't to make them look pretty. Keeping a silver weapon looking nice would in reality take a lot of effort and care, since silver tarnishes like crazy.

Fancy knives were historically just a way of showing off wealth in a macho way. The real viking swords weren't http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cawood_sword_2010.jpg.

I'd say that in actuality, Skyrim's swords are rather prettier than their historical counterparts on average.

Silver isn't strong enough. A pure silver sword is useless. Best you can do is make a sword with silver plating, and it still serves only decorative function - no one in their right mind would use it in battle. It only makes sense in fantasy settings where silver is supposed to have a greater effect on certain creatures.

As for gems, like you say, "fancy ones". I don't see why you'd need them to battle werewolves - they certainly wouldn't help you... I'd sooner see them installed in the scabbard.

I agree it wouldn't hurt to see some decorative weaponry, though. Gems, nice coloured plating, fancy shapes... I'd like to show them off on some of my characters. Then again, I would only wear them, not USE them - I'd feel really stupid going into battle with a gold sword, I don't care that it's just a game.

Yay, shiny daggers...

I know you obviously have absolutely no knowledge of what you talk about, but seriously... this is just stupid beyond comprehension..
A full-plate armour would weigh around the same, or less than what a modern soldier is expected to carry into battle, depending on quality. On top of that, a full-plate is built to distribute weight all over the body, rather than a bag-pack of the modern soldiers, so it'd actually be less stressful to wear.
... and a 35 pound sword? Even two-handed swords like Long-swords, Claymores and zweih?nders would weigh little more than 2-3 kiloes (4-7'ish pounds).

Uhm...I still like weaponry in Skyrim better.

The Nords are pragmatists at heart. They make things to be useful, not too look good. In their eyes, only elves and milkdrinkers use pretty weapons over a simple steel blade.

When you value war above everything else, you're going to make weapons that'll last on the battlefield, not on a mantle above the fireplace even if they're old.

Ever heard of bulletproof glass? I think the glass in game is similar

That's on the one hand, but on the other...
It's much easier to swing your limbs when you're wearing a backpack. Armor covering your legs makes running significantly more tiresome; as a matter of fact, using heavy armor contributed to the French losing the battle of Agincourt. They had to trek to the English stationary lines through a muddy field and by the time they got there they were too exhausted to fight effectively (I'm obviously disregarding other factors here, so please don't tell me I know nothing about the Hundred Years' War )
Not to mention the load on breathe muscles coming from the briastplate.

It all comes down to what you have to do in heavy armor and for how long.

The most weapons aren really made the tradiotional way. They get mass produced in Factorys. You won't really know what a traditional forged sword would cost. And also i don't think swords in the Medieval (Skyrim is in a Fantasy age i know) weren't decorated like that. Specially not if they were used for the fight.

And to finish it all, there are actually enough fancy weapons in Skyrim. Just look at Daedric, Ebony, Elven, Glass...

He`s defintely screwed up the 35 pound sword bit. I`ve held a hand and a half sword. They`re actually pretty lite. The heavy part comes in when you have to continually wield it in battle. That`s where strength and endurance is needed.

That sword was less than 5 kilograms in weight which is about 8lbs (pounds). I even have a Conan`s father`s sword which is fantasy and that`s HEAVIER than the real medieval sword, but it`s still in no way 35lbs. Even a powerful man would be having serious trouble holding a 35 lb sword aloft let alone to even be able to swing it in battle.

I`ve also worn re-enactment armour and coif, etc... again a lot lighter than you expect because the weight is distributed over your body.

Some people really don`t know what they`re talking about here.

p.s. Wearing authentic full-faced armour is amazing. You really do feel like a medieval knight. I could`ve worn that stuff all day. View`s a bit limiting, but it didn`t matter.

glass can be made hard, not all glass shatters easily

In-game armor is created using rare metals studded with volcanic glass. One can assume that in a fantasy setting volcanic glass might be somehow differenet than glass IRL.

Also, bulletproof glass weights more than steel.

Oooooooookay.

First off, those weapons are not practical whatsoever, and they are purely ceremonial. A gold dagger lol? Can't tell if serious, gold is like puddy. It doesn't hold an edge.

Second off, this is war. Weapons and armor are being mass produced for armies. Are smithies going to take 6 days per weapon laying all of those gems and gold lace, the engravings, etc? No, that is absurd.

Thirdly, Glass armor and weapons are not made out of what you know as Glass on Earth. The "glass" in Nirn is not fragile and it does not shatter, it's harder than steel. Lore up, please.

I'm no expert on the Hundred Years' War but I've read several discussions about it, and in short it was a combination of things from what I've gathered. The French knights got too hungry for glory and willingly forgot all about tactics and instead just charged head on, towards a group of longbowmen in a defensible position. And as you said, they had to trek through mud after riding into a rain of arrows, and walking in certain types of mud alone can be tiring even without fearing for your life or wearing armour. So most of what you said, but in the end a combination of things. Judging from the accounts I've heard, lack of plate for the knights would just lead to them dying a lot earlier, since the plate was most likely what saved them from the volleys of the English longbowmen.

But with that said, in the end there are loads of misconceptions about plate armour going around. Same goes for weapons, vikings and a lot of other things. And to add a thing to the weapon weight discussion, here are some numbers related to it http://www.thearma.org/essays/2HGS.html. There are lists of swords, their length and their weight farther down on the page. Notice that they are all two-handed swords, yet the heaviest weapon is no heavier than roughly 6kg/13lbs.

Weak argument. JRPG games do not have more than one type of armor per character, yet in Elder Scrolls you find intricately designed armors like Daedric and Glass, does this mean that Elder Scrolls is merely a complementary of JRPG?

Also, come on people. While you may argue that "beautiful weapons are not fit for killing", there is the argument that you can breathe fire in Skyrim. Don't use real world as excuses. They simply did not think of adding more detailed weapon, is all.

For the most part, most weapons will be massed produced. This means low quality but cheap. It also means no fancy stuff. I doubt that a smith would make something like that unless through special order and probably with a down payment. The down payment would be for the purchasing of rare materials such as the cut gemstones.

As much as it is a tool, it is also an accessory like rings, necklaces and circlets. So I could see nobles not having some cheap, plain old, dagger or sword on their hip. They would have something more expensive and showy. Not only would you see gemstones around the grip but also on the sheaths.

When not mass producing and not taking special order, the smith will take their time making a fine blade with some fancy design but nothing over the top. It cost money to make it, he doesn't know when he may sell it, and if it's too expensive, people just wouldn't be able to afford it.

Those look to fancy to actually use in a fight

TES tries to make their weapons realistic/practical. And I am VERY thankful for that.

the low tier weapons like steel aand iron even elven look great and actually functional. the high end weapons like ebony and daedric just look stupid and would NOT work in real life at all. im hoping someone ports the models from MB warband over and then gives them higher res textures. that game had much better weaponry.

My favorite weapons are elven and daedric. Cause their shiny.

Ebony weapons, especially the swords look ridiculous. Like an uncircumsized phalic ninja blade.

Glass weapons and armor isn't made out of the glass you think.

Its Dwemer, not Dwarf. Thats just what the giants called them because they were puny compared to them.

And with the orcs. Seriously? You can't comprehend another fantasy world? Tolkien had short orcs? Oh that must mean that any other orcs that are tall I can't understand. Get Tolkien out of your mind when you think of orcs, and realize that Bethesda isn't going to make everything what Tolkien wrote. This isn't The Lord of the Rings: Skyrim, its The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. /end rant.