Battleaxe vs Waraxe

[Rezalon]

Something I find confusing is the naming system for the weapons with the War and Battle prefixes. The Battle weapons are bigger than the War weapons, yet, in reality, Wars are bigger than Battles. Was this an oversight on Bethesda's part or is this a real-life naming odditiy?

To make things odder, they got Warhammers and "Battlehammers" (maces) named how I see they should be named.

[Dark Spark]

It could be a matter of linguistic size rather than conceptual: 'war' is a one-syllable word, smaller and quicker to say and write. 'Battle' is the bigger one that way.

[MetaCthulhu]

Not just a Bethesda thing.* If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say it's because war-axes are worn 24/7 during wartime, but people only picked up their battle-axe for actual battles. Just a guess, (and it doesn't explain the mace thing).

*Source: The Lord of the Rings Weapons and Warfare by Chris Smith.

[Varyag]

Technically/historically, they've both battleaxes

From Wikipedia:

A battle axe (also battle-axe or battle-ax) is an axe specifically designed for combat. Battle axes were specialized versions of utility axes. Many were suitable for use in one hand, while others were larger and were deployed two-handed.

Axes designed for warfare ranged in weight from just over 0.5 kg to 3 kg (1 to 6 pounds), and in length from just over 30 cm to upwards of 1.5 m (1 to 5 feet), as in the case of the Danish axe or the sparth axe. Cleaving weapons longer than 1.5 m would arguably fall into the category of polearms.

[MARS]

As a rule of thumb moat weapon designs and names in TES games have little to no connection to reality. Some basic things are sound but a lot of the more "exotic" designs are just plain impossible to use without setting yourself up for defeat irl. I'm on mobile and can't link but check out a youtube channel called Lindybeige. There's a lot of stuff on medieval weaponry and also fantasy/real world comparisons.

[Dark Spark]

In Skyrim, I've taken liberties to "correct" some names, like renaming the Orcish Greatsword to Wrothgarian Falx. It does resemble what you may get if you take the blade of a scythe and affix a sword handle to the end.

[Pilaf The Defiler]

Naming conventions for medieval weapons are inconsistent across codices and other literature, to say the least.

Is a Waraxe the bigger one, or a Battleaxe? Depends on your source, to be honest. There's no hard-and-fast, 100% true answer to this. We're talking about terms that originated way before consensus on word definitions was even a common concept.

What we do have here is an internal consistency in Bethesda's rpgs about what these words mean. Their terms have been evolving over the past few years, especially in terms of swords. The two-handers were called Claymores in older games. Now they're going with the more generic Greatsword. The axe thing has been pretty consistent throughout all their games, though. In Bethesda games, a War-axe is a one handed weapon, and a Battle-axe is the longer, heavier weapon. Not always true in real world sources, but a safe assumption here.

[billy7557]

Maybe they thought a big axe would be too heavy to lug across a whole war, and a little axe wouldn't be enough for a single battle.

[Imbalance]

I always figured the war axe was one-handed so you could equip a shield in the off hand. In a skirmish, you'll not need the plate to duck behind, thus you can get both arms into a swing with a battleaxe. But if you and your fellows are hewing the line all day, it may behoove a warrior to swing light and bash with the shield, and to take a defensive posture when fatigued or dodging a volley. Of course, if you're a savage you've got an axe in each hand and a grin like a butcher's dog.