I'm putting together a new setting bit by bit, and I'm currently considering a tribal steppe culture. They specialise in being light, nimble riders, and the thought occurred to give them a whip as a signature weapon. Yes, it's kind of useless against armour, but they themselves don't wear much in the way of armour, they could use it to disarm enemies at a bit of a distance, they're skilled enough to strike at the eye or other openings, and they can snag people as they ride past them.
I'm thinking of justifying this by by making the whip a less-lethal weapon typically used in petty cattle raiding between tribes. They'd have something of a gentlemen's agreement to keep those bloodless, to avoid costly feuds.
Of course, you can't whip someone who is within sword-striking range, and it isn't much use in traditional formation fighting. But they'd keep an axe or a short sword for face-to-face fighting, and fight almost exclusively with hit-and-run tactics anyway.
Does this sound reasonably plausible?
I'm thinking of justifying this by by making the whip a less-lethal weapon typically used in petty cattle raiding between tribes. They'd have something of a gentlemen's agreement to keep those bloodless, to avoid costly feuds.
Of course, you can't whip someone who is within sword-striking range, and it isn't much use in traditional formation fighting. But they'd keep an axe or a short sword for face-to-face fighting, and fight almost exclusively with hit-and-run tactics anyway.
Does this sound reasonably plausible?