Accurate Polearms

In the late years of the Third Era, the Nord kingdom of Solitude began an aggressive campaign to integrate Imperial holdings. After the conquest of Roscrea, Breton nobles, fearing that Solitude would soon march against the western Reach, begged the Empire for assistance or at least a sternly worded letter.

Somewhere, some bureocrat decided to placate Breton concerns by making them feel more relevant to the Empire. This, the bureocrat felt, was best done by taking Breton categories of polearms and applying them to the existing weapons, which were all inaccurately called "halberds" at that time.

And while Solitude is on the march and greedingly eyeing the imperial holding of Solstheim, everyone else now has to deal with an increasingly frustrated bureocracy spitting out politically correct polearm names.

Even the Bretons are unhappy as their own scholars have started arguing wether the Direnni weapons recently uncovered are actually Bardiches, Voulges, Glaives, or Lochaber Axes.

The only one laughing now is the Fighters Guild, because instead of Halberd combat training, they now offer over 11 new, expensive classes without changing the actual training.

And this is why, starting with 3E433, everyone simply stopped using polearms altogether instead of dealing with this mess.