-"And then he shot me with an arrow, on it was a QR code. Naturally I was intrigued, so I scanned it. The last thing I saw before awakening here was indeed, a Rickroll..."
I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee. I was pissed at first, but then I saw a note attached to it. The note had one big smiley face on it. Such a nice gesture.
"Lt. Dreben, I've got a message for you." Proceeds with a salvo of gunfire. Lt. Dreben, "whats that? I couldn't hear you over all that gunfire." The Naked Gun
A few ideas for when you'd want to shoot a message: 1: Dramatic effect. If you send a message by page, you're a coward. If you deliver it yourself, you are both brave, and serious. Shoot a message and get it stuck in ground outside your enemy's tent, you are on a different level. 2: In an effort to one-up the guy who just shot you a message. If he did it, and it worked, imagine if you shot it back. 3: To drive home the fact that the people in castle you are about to siege that this is the LAST CHANCE to surrender.
In order to overcome difficulties with range you do the classic corpse on a horse messanger strategy with your message attatched to one of the many arrows sticking out of the back on the messanger.
A spy inside castle walls needing to send messages outside to his allies is also a very good justification for messages in arrows. A colored rag could also be used as a substitute for a flare gun as a means of signalling
Another way is to use light signals. Do it right and those signals can only be visible at a given location. This is done by NOT standing in a window to do it but inside a room creating a "tunnel of visibility". Since people usually cannot fly this "tunnel" could be aimed through the air connecting to an observer position outside like on a hilltop outside. Sending messages back to the spy are more tricky thou and should be done only with simple signals pointing to preset messages.
issue i see with the flag on an arrow... is that unlike a flare, it wont stay up in the air for long and wont attract attention (a flare is a big source of light at night and smoke at day, both lingering a while, the arrow doesnt so your allies REALLY have to be waiting, looking up, waiting for that message or they will miss it simply because they had no bloody reason to look up and that way at the time)
@@casthedemon Pain corrects posture. Unless you've shot a heavy Bow and your Wrist swells up to twice the size within minutes due to a ruptured vessel. Then you buy a Wristguard for next time. Guess how i know ;-)
21:10 the build up to that was hilarious. Shad's prediction, Tyranth's confident "pooh-poohing" of said prediction, loosing the arrow, Tyranth's magestic post-loose pose as he stares manfully into the middle distance, the comedic pose before he pretty much goes "OOWwwwwww". You guys should do a short of that moment, and cut in Tom's scream from Tom and Jerry, the one where he just goes "AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Tyranth is a very spicy addition to the cast, glad to see Shad playing along. Great chemistry. Todays lesson, tightness helps get the message across and worse case scenario the recipient still gets the point.
A good way to send messages would also be this: If you decided on a number of short messages between you you could dye or colour the arrowshaft and the fletching itself Depending on what message you want to say you can then fire a specifically coloured arrow and thus convey the message, even in code which makes it a bit more secure Its a bit more limited, but less risk of losing the message in the process
This made me think of a book I read recently. When ever the army would move out. They would leave an archer every 100 meters. Then if a message had to be sent back to the king they could pass it down the line with special arrows that had blunt tips and a hollow shaft to put the arrow in. They fired it and it would hit a bronze gong to alert the archer to send the message along. It was supposed to be faster then sending a rider and more reliable then a pigeon.
I honestly liked how Ranger’s Apprentice handled this. They had arrows with small canisters attached to them and they had to be specially balanced to make sure they flew properly.
This could be useful where there is more distance to run in a vertical sense, such as from one tower to another tower. Also, it could be useful if you had a critical message in a larger town/city and you were shooting from the top of one building to another when there is an issue with using the streets. For instance, a message of the guards are coming to other criminals to give them the chance to flee or hide evidence. On a side note Shad, you may want to consider determining your pace count when walking in a field. You could get a pretty decent idea of the distance while walking, if you forget the measuring wheel you used.
At work so I can't actually watch yet but there's a book series, Ranger's Apprentice, that deals with this. They have special arrows with a head that has a compartment inside for a message. When filled, they're weighed to make sure they have the same center of balance as a normal arrow so that when fired, the weight won't throw them off
As soon as I saw this, my brain jumped to the Ranger's Apprentice books, where the Ranger Corps had specially designed message arrows and paper for them. The arrows were metal, and had a screw compartment inside of them, and were carefully weighted and balanced, with the weight being partially adjustable with a small bag of sand in the compartment. The paper is a special thin paper (honestly probably just pretty similar to modern paper considering the overall medieval setting, the usual paper they'd be using, if not parchment, would still probably be noticeably thicket than modern paper).
Worry not about the arrow with your name on it, because it is just one. Instead, worry about the arrow addressed "To whom it may concern", for there are many.
You and Tyranth seem like you've been friends forever so if you guys first met for the job interview, you guys have really good chemistry...platonicly speaking. I fired my bow with a message on it, it says "Shad, review A Knight's Tale!"
Shad Facts: One night, while Shad was practicing longbow technique in his sleep, someone put a 1200 lb draw weight crossbow in his hands. Shad continued on, uninterrupted, even holding it at full draw for multiple seconds. This was done multiple times.
Imagine Medievil battlefields where archers were shooting messaged arrows at each other. In addition to getting hit by arrows, injured and in pain, the recipient unrolls a message on it that says something like "your mother was a hamster".
The shadlands looks specially good today. I've been so eagerly waiting for more archery. The best archer in the Brooks family hasn't been enough. Also this video would've been so good for a sponsor. Like one of the papers having the sponsorship written on it.
I still love your content Shad, watching since 2014 or something! The channel keeps evolving and growing and yet you seem to stay the same humble, goofy, nerdy guy. Also the chemistry between you and all the new guys and girls is just perfect! You harmonize so well together, I genuinely love seeing and hearing all of you guys! Knights Watch is also a great addition to the "Shadworld". Thank you sooo much for producing this high quality content thats obviously made with a lot of passion as well as hard work. The editing and everything is just soo good. I know I am fanboying right now, but what can I say? Love it, mate. Love it. Y'all have a fine day!
You can't yell a map! Or a magic scroll if we enter fantasy settings. Also it can be a good way of smuggling information out. You don't want to be noticed leaving or yelling, so you shoot arrows with the message, which your accomplice outside knows where to look for. And finally when you want to relay a message, but the receiver might want to apprehend you, you get a big headstart when shooting the message with an arrow.
That was great fun Shad. For my medieval social media, I would use flags, mirrors, lanterns, or horns (bagpipes as well). The Chinese also used kites. These message sending devices go much further than arrows can.
My personal favourite use of a note tied to an arrow is in Deltora Quest. When the kingdom was invaded, King Endon used a golden arrow to signal his friend Jarred. When Jarred got near the Palace's front gate, he found a toy arrow with a note tied around it, the toy arrow was dismissed by the guards, but the note had a coded message that told him about a secret tunnel that leading to the palace chapel, where the king was waiting and when the palace was lost, Jarred, and the Royal family used it to sneak out unnoticed.
“Message for you sir” and I think it depends on the paper and method of delivery, if the message is encased in a capsule attached to the arrow it could work, also what if the message was written on the arrow?
From some informal messing around turning straw wrappers into projectiles, as long as you tie the message tightly enough and place it towards the rear half of the arrow, it should theoretically fly. The issue though is that it's likely to not fly as straight as you'd like and there'd be a reduction in distance as well. Ideally, the tighter you could tie it to the arrow the better.
Verticality comes to mind. Such as trying to send a message to someone far below you, or even a good distance above. Also a spy or just someone who got into a castle or whatever, needs to send something to an ally outside the castle. Granted in the day the arrow may be seen, but would they know/think about it holding a message? Also even if they do, what was sent? A love letter? Battle plans? Some critical document stolen from the king's chamber? The wife's shopping list? I could even see it being used to send messages during a siege, even between enemy sides (to avoid the risk of an envoy being killed).
See, this is what I was thinking. This really isn't about the message, but the paper: it really is better than shouting or visually signalling only in that you have the physical piece of paper in the new location. You just need to imagine circumstances where possession of a document is as/more important than the message itself. Coded messages or decoding matrices. Legal documents. Maps. Getting something like that means this actually makes sense. Also it seems we all forgot ships exist and that added to any of the above circumstances would make even more sense in that context
27:50 Sending a message anonymously or from a safe distance I think is the primary reason here. Delivering threats makes this worth the effort, if you don't want this to be around to be caught. Also delivering a message to or from one opposing force to another (separated by a wall perhaps) makes sense. It maybe the wrong tone for negotiating peace. I wouldn't think a love letter would be well represented by this method personally. 😅 It would be funny if you were sending a long-winded legal agreement this way. _"Part 12 of 45..."_ 😆
In Mercedes Lackey's novels, the Heralds use arrows to send messages in clever ways. Each agent would have a unique fleshing pattern. And the state of the arrow, usually hand delivered or fetched with magic, would say something about the condition of the Herald it belongs to. There were also hollow arrows with hidden messages that could also be hand delivered or fetched with magic. In a non magic setting. I think the idea of having fetching patterns, notching, or something else communicate some kind of message is brilliant. I mean, you can't control if the head will snap of if you shoot the arrow. So that's a limitation. But imagine writing a message in Ogham an flitting the arrow off in a safe direction.
Runes look like they look because they where designed to be carved into wood. Let that wood be the arrow and all you need to do is to add some scratches to the arrow shaft itself. No impact to flight characteristics whatsoever.
The limited range really makes this kinda hard to judge. As mentioned, shooting a message across a river is indeed a good idea, so maybe using arrows is good to overcomes obstacles in general and there are different kinds of obstacles. With a high shot, you could shoot a message over a high wall for example, which might be interesting for spies to some degree. Also, the range would increase a bit if you shot the arrow from an elevated position. I'm not saying this would be great for watchtowers or such structures, but it could perhaps be useful in mountainous regions or to get a message down a steep cliff without having to climb or yell and have everyone hear the contents of the message. It might also be worth thinking about the arrowheads. I mean, using a normal arrow is certainly fine if you want to deliver a message to your enemy, but otherwise you might want to regard safety a bit higher.
@@jeradw7420 flag signals are/were used on ships in a fleet. But also needed a decode book for that. Because else also the enemy would know what you are signallinmg and can prepare.
@@reiniernn9071 You could still use the alphabetical signals. If you type a code word or signal it doesn't matter. The whole points of codes is the assumption the code will probably be intercepted. It is still easier to wave a flag than any method of shooting an arrow.
These arrows cause no damage themselves, but were used to carry messages to places inaccessible to the Ranger that fired them, such as enemy prison cells. The arrow, instead of having a point has a cylinder that can open up to put a message in. Before anything can be fired, the paper must be weighed and a little math must be done in order to calculate the perfect trajectory of the arrow.--Ranger's Apprentice book series
I think it could be useful if say if a castle is under siege and you need to stealthily deliver a secret message at night or something. Also Tyranth seems like a cool guy, you should have more of him in your videos.
issue is, you ally HAS to be expecting the message, be unable to reach the wall (else you could just drop the message), yet at the same time be in archer range.. and then find the arrow in the night without being spotted themselves (so without light)
@@thorveim1174 I meant deliver a message to the castle not from the castle (something like hold out for 5 more days for reinforcments). I imagine a good archer could shoot the arrow in the right window, or a guard tower so it would be noticed.
@@Vovan07 Into a window is extremely unlikely, the windows in castles were specifically designed to make that not practical, anything not interior facing, lower than the wall, or way too high to be within range of a bow would be an arrow slit that is far too narrow to accurately shoot through from a distance. Over the wall might be possible, but it might require a few attempts.
Should definitely have Tyranth ("Tyrant" with an "h"... LOL) on more. He's got one of those TV faces. He's got the looks, the nice hair, the youth, the debonair charm. He brings a bit of Hollywood feeling. Would probably attract more viewers.
The Ranger’s apprentice series has a good example of it. The Rangers have inhuman levels of accuracy and they get a message to one of their alies stuck in a castle tower by shooting it through the bars of the room
you would need to fold up the message and have a mechanism where the force of impact triggers the deployment/unfolding of the message... get Jorge on it
Great, Tyranth spells his name. At first I couldn't tell if Shad was calling him Perrin, Tywin, or Tyrin...all were wrong. (Well, I knew the Tywin was wrong, I just heard something close and my brain picked something familiar.) You two are comical together. An old school mentor-student dynamic I love in books.
Another scenario that might be useful: Coordinating a breakout attempt between a tower and other defenders during a siege. Or perhaps organising a raid, or sending a message to them in the following a way: A fortress near the coast and a boat that's supposed to tell the defenders how long until reinforcements arrive, but they can't land anywhere close to the fortress so they shoot an arror to them with the message attached
The problem with this szenario is: If the boat and the fortress are in shooting range of each other, the boat is probably in shooting range of the attackers, too.
I think the best use of attaching a letter to an arrow is to get a secret message in and out of a fortified location like the love letters in "Tom and Jerry meet Robin Hood"
Since lighter arrows shoot further why not have the letter rolled up inside a hollow arrow. Another good idea use of sending a message with an arrow is communicating with allies across a gorge or chasm where no bridge exist for a messenger to cross.
With modern arrow materials that would work. With wood-shafted arrows, that round probably result in the firing stress shattering the shaft. But a purpose-built hollow arrow head would probably work.
In the fantasy setting I'm working on there are fireweapons, so one of the ways I kept bows viable making it so arrows can be enchanted by either attach a piece of paper with a spell or carv it on the arrow's wooden part, you can't do that with bullets because 1- they're too small to carv and 2- you can't enchant normal metal and magic alloys are too expensive to make ammo So yeah, another use for messages on arrows (in a fantasy setting), the message is "Fireball!"
You actually _can_ carve bullets. At least, some of them. I carved a pentagram into the face of a shotgun slug, and the Cross onto the face of a .45 colt (Larping as a supernatural hunting cowboy lol) with a pocket knife. They were both unjacketed lead so it was easy to scratch it on. I assume a jacketed round, or one with a pointier tip, would be more difficult to do it withour proper carving chisles. And most bullets are flat bottomed, so you could carve quite the intricate patterns on them (with the right tools) and it would remain protected and generally wont deform too much when fired.
Fantastic topic, thanks Shad! Could you do a video covering whether a flaming arrow is snuffed out or remains lit after being shot? Flaming arrows are a common trope in films (see Gladiator).
My first thoughts were that this could be used to send messages between towers, where climbing all the way down one then all the way up the other could be very tiresome especially in dire circumstances. My second thought was that this could be used for example to keep a map of local defenses or troop movements out of reach of the enemy. In a fantasy setting this could be a treasure map or amap to the passage that lets you bypass the kingdom's defenses 300-style.
It wouldn't be very good for carrying messages between towers, at the range a pow can reach you could just have a rope spanning the gap that could be raised or lowered on either side, and hang a bucket from it. If you need to send a message put it in the bucket and raise your end of the rope and the bucket would slide down to the other side. This way you don't have to worry about missing or hitting someone on the other side
@@DjDolHaus86 The main issue with those would be that they can be seen by people other than the intended recipient. Also, during the period where attaching a message to an arrow would be useful, lightboxes would be a challenge. But yes, I'd imagine that you'd be far more likely to go along with something like that, at least for the limited number of things that you'd care to say. And if you were going to use an arrow to communicate, you probably wouldn't attach a message to it, you'd probably just paint the entire thing a coded color.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade an outside party intercepting the signal only matters if they know the cipher. A light box is not a hard thing to make, you just need a tube closed at one end, a bunch of candles and recessed sliding gate/flap, these are all conceivable throughout most of civilised history, if you can make a door you can make a flap. It would offer a reasonable amount of denial of visibility to anything below the line of sight. Although it could in theory be used to send detailed and complex messages it would likely just be used for basic stuff to avoid confusion
Another use of the messages on arrows would be in a siege. The forces in the castle may want to shoot a message to allied forces outside the castle. I remember this happening in Bernard Cornwells book Vagabond for example. They also used some kind of wax tube or something to keep the message from being ruined by water.
There's all sorts of reasons you might want to shoot a message. Shad mentioned there being a river in the way, but there could also be difficult terrain between sender and recipient, or a wall, or a guarded border. Or maybe you need to get your message into a specific room of a building, or between land and ship.
After reading the tile, I immediately thought of that scene from Monty Python's Holy Grail, and, lo and behold, not even a minute in to the video, there it is!
I imagine a tale of a fair maiden being courted by a talented archer stationed on the town walls. Every night when he knows no one will notice, he fires an arrow with a love note from the city walls to her father's estate. Perhaps his archery targets or a specific tree where she receives them when she awakes.
And then, fair maiden decides to see who is sending her this messages. Being pure and innocent maiden she is, she goes to the tree at night to see where this messages are coming from. She hears a sound of air, ripped by an arrow... ... ... Next day, father posts a BIG bounty for archer's head.
Can't say much on historical accuracy but from a story point of view another good use would be if your castle is under siege yet your second in command was able to get out but needs to know their instructions. Maybe a delegation went well or bad and a new or old ally is now available or not available for aide? If you shouted your plan in the middle of the night I'm sure enemies would be more likely to intercept the second in command on his mission to seek reinforcements
I might be interesting to engineer an arrow that is specialized for that kinda stuff. Maybe with careful notches in the shaft that don't compromise stability but give the note more grip or a cone like tip that creates airflow that won't catch onto the paper. I am pretty sure you could overengineer it to the point of projectile scroll.
@@GreatKingCody ah, I see, so it was in this video you notice the tattoo, I imagine? I wasn't actually looking at the video for the most of it, so I didn't see any tattoo. So I thought you learned about the tattoo elsewhere and I was just curious xD
This would be a good way to communicate covertly with your allies if you arrived to find them besieged in their castle and wanted to work out how best to help them.
The new squire is defiantly working out well and i love how well they are able to bounce off each other. In robin hood prince of thieves gey had a variation of this on whistle arrows as an alert but a short series of outposts shots could cover a quite big distance fast. So not just a 1 bank system where terrain is impassable but something where you wanted to get it vast differences a sort wallbetween which you can walk 1 side always set to recivie. You could get a pretty fast warning system and the further the amount of distance you are covering the greater the speed compared to convential message transport...probally to a certain point at least.
i feel like its a good thing for shooting an arrow over a wall mainly. also the thing that the arrow falls out of the air at the last bit makes sure you wont kill an ally when sending the message.
So, several examples of arrows with messages: 1. A (more or less) historical one. During the siege of Chersonesus in Crimea by Vladimir the First of Kiev (around 988 AD) either a Varangian mercenary Zhdbern or an Orthodox priest Anastasius send a message on an arrow from the city to the siege camp with a suggestion to destroy underground waterpipes to the city and a location of it, so citisens would surrender because of thurst. The message was either was written on an arrow itself, or on a note, tied to an arrow. (Also it is possible that Anastasius wrote the message and Zhdbern shoot the arrow). 2. A literature one. In "The Headless Horseman" by Mayne Reid Maurice Gerald and Louise Poindexter exchange romantic messages on pieces of paper, impaled onto arrow, across the river. It is mostly done to keep their relationships in secret. 3. A cinematographic one, from Soviet ecranisation of "Ivanhoe". Here the special arrow itself is a message. th-cam.com/video/dLFqELDuqXs/w-d-xo.html
When I first saw this video I was really hoping that Shad brought up the scene from monty python and the holy grail and he did which I liked. But there was another scene from the curse of silverthorn on knights watch that has lindybiege's character shoot an arrow with a message on it from a castle, that I was hoping would be included as well.
I think we need to give Tyranth a chance. Let him find his groove. If i recall correctly, Oz wasn't very comfortable in front of the camera at first either.
I feel like the main reason to do this is when you want to send a message a short distance and don't want the recipient to know who you are. Like you're hiding in the bushes and send a message to someone that way.
I'm thinking: if you are besieged and you're trying to coordinate with forces sent to aid you by attacking the siege army from the outside, it could be a good idea to send them messages by shooting arrows with notes attached to wherever the reinforcements are located outside the castle walls
I do not expect that you can reach reinforcements by message arrow. Than the sieging army is well within bowshot range and could be shot from your walls. Mostly the sieging army is a few hundreds meters from your walls in camp. Something else: The reinforcements could sent someone creeping between the lines to the town/castle and shoot from nearby the message over the walls telling when they plan to attack....tryiong to get an attack from both sides on the sieging army.
In terms of when to use it, I feel like it could be a form of intimitiation. The arrow with the massage landing somewhere near you instantly has the subtext of "I could have shot you with this you know". Also, when you do this, the person getting the massage would reflexively look at the arrow first, by the time they start looking for where it came from, you could hide, let's you send the massage anonimusly.
-"And then he shot me with an arrow, on it was a QR code. Naturally I was intrigued, so I scanned it. The last thing I saw before awakening here was indeed, a Rickroll..."
not the worsed wsy to go
🤣🤣🤣
Or an add for raid shadow legends.
the Raid ad would be the worst way to go
I have that QR code on the back of my car lol
I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee. I was pissed at first, but then I saw a note attached to it. The note had one big smiley face on it. Such a nice gesture.
Was there a job offer for the town guard on the reverse side?
@@Charon-5582 Yup. It's sent to any adventurers that take arrows in their knees
😂😂😂
You can easily send a message with an arrow
As long as the message is, "I'm not especially fond of you!"
I've got an arrow with your name on it, basically. 🤣
"Duck" also works
Yeah, and if we are playing Pathfinder or D&D, just scribble Explosive Runes on the message....
"I know you slept with my sister"
Is also an easy message to send with a bow and arrow.
"Lt. Dreben, I've got a message for you." Proceeds with a salvo of gunfire.
Lt. Dreben, "whats that? I couldn't hear you over all that gunfire."
The Naked Gun
A few ideas for when you'd want to shoot a message:
1: Dramatic effect. If you send a message by page, you're a coward. If you deliver it yourself, you are both brave, and serious. Shoot a message and get it stuck in ground outside your enemy's tent, you are on a different level.
2: In an effort to one-up the guy who just shot you a message. If he did it, and it worked, imagine if you shot it back.
3: To drive home the fact that the people in castle you are about to siege that this is the LAST CHANCE to surrender.
In order to overcome difficulties with range you do the classic corpse on a horse messanger strategy with your message attatched to one of the many arrows sticking out of the back on the messanger.
Re: 2 - getting a message shot at you and shooting it back with all the grammar mistakes corrected
Tie it to the ballista bolt!!!
@@JaneXemylixa The ultimate power move!
@@JaneXemylixa Nice!
A spy inside castle walls needing to send messages outside to his allies is also a very good justification for messages in arrows. A colored rag could also be used as a substitute for a flare gun as a means of signalling
Another way is to use light signals. Do it right and those signals can only be visible at a given location. This is done by NOT standing in a window to do it but inside a room creating a "tunnel of visibility". Since people usually cannot fly this "tunnel" could be aimed through the air connecting to an observer position outside like on a hilltop outside. Sending messages back to the spy are more tricky thou and should be done only with simple signals pointing to preset messages.
issue i see with the flag on an arrow... is that unlike a flare, it wont stay up in the air for long and wont attract attention (a flare is a big source of light at night and smoke at day, both lingering a while, the arrow doesnt so your allies REALLY have to be waiting, looking up, waiting for that message or they will miss it simply because they had no bloody reason to look up and that way at the time)
Or into a besieged encampment.
better then a colored rag is a whistle-head ;) That is making noise while flying! A Chinese invention if i am not wrong :)
Why ise a colored rag when you could just die the fletches different colors?
Puts a whole different meaning too the phrase "I'll shoot you a message."
Shad talking about Tyranth not having a wrist guard.
Tyranth asking what he's saying.
Shad saying, "nothing. Nothing."
Shad, you are EVIL 🤣
The Padwan will learn the hard way of the force
Sometimes the Master likes to take a step back just to see how accurate his predictions are.
I mean most people never had those.
@@casthedemon They may have adapted a pad from wool skin or similar
@@casthedemon Pain corrects posture.
Unless you've shot a heavy Bow and your Wrist swells up to twice the size within minutes due to a ruptured vessel.
Then you buy a Wristguard for next time.
Guess how i know ;-)
The message read: "go read a note!' 🤣 Loved the video, and well done Tyranth! Your delivery with the paper arrow was so well done!!!!
We faced the same situation in my D&D campaign but after failing on the endeavour, PCs decided to write a message over the arrow shaft.
PCs?
@@benholroyd5221 Player Characters
@@benholroyd5221 Player Characters
@@benholroyd5221 Player Characters
@@benholroyd5221 Player Characters
21:10 the build up to that was hilarious. Shad's prediction, Tyranth's confident "pooh-poohing" of said prediction, loosing the arrow, Tyranth's magestic post-loose pose as he stares manfully into the middle distance, the comedic pose before he pretty much goes "OOWwwwwww".
You guys should do a short of that moment, and cut in Tom's scream from Tom and Jerry, the one where he just goes "AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Tyranth is a very spicy addition to the cast, glad to see Shad playing along. Great chemistry. Todays lesson, tightness helps get the message across and worse case scenario the recipient still gets the point.
He definitely would fit in on FNT with Shad 😂😂😂
yep, they ssure do get the "point"
@@kingmike07 that was literally the joke...
He feels like Shad's equivalent to GarandThumb's Charlie
Shad has become a Mythbuster for weapons and fantasy and I love it
I love these practical tests that you do out in the field. Is that a section of the Shadlands? It looks beautiful out there.
You're the man, Raf!
Hi Raff! And yes indeed this is on the Shadlands 😁
Yo Raf! I always wondered if you and Shad or Skall would do a colab!
@@shadiversity You should do a comparison using a sling and paper-wrapped stone.
@@shadiversity hey is this PS5 give away legit or is it BS
The way Shad drew that 100 pound bow like nothing; His strength is unmatched!
im 17 and skinny and i can pull a 90 pound korean bow
A good way to send messages would also be this:
If you decided on a number of short messages between you you could dye or colour the arrowshaft and the fletching itself
Depending on what message you want to say you can then fire a specifically coloured arrow and thus convey the message, even in code which makes it a bit more secure
Its a bit more limited, but less risk of losing the message in the process
This is actually really smart
What I want are whistles tuned to different keys. Different elevations for length of notes, symbol targets for percussion. A symphony.
Sounds a bit like naval signal flags
They probably did that, actually...
also, you could simply write the message directly on the arrow, in situations were the predefined code isn't enough.
This made me think of a book I read recently. When ever the army would move out. They would leave an archer every 100 meters. Then if a message had to be sent back to the king they could pass it down the line with special arrows that had blunt tips and a hollow shaft to put the arrow in. They fired it and it would hit a bronze gong to alert the archer to send the message along. It was supposed to be faster then sending a rider and more reliable then a pigeon.
I honestly liked how Ranger’s Apprentice handled this. They had arrows with small canisters attached to them and they had to be specially balanced to make sure they flew properly.
Do you refer to the books or is there an adaptation (series, game etc) that I'm not aware of?
@@alcoolamus4208 There is just the books.
I love Ranger's Apprentice.
Ranger's Apprentice is probably one of the best "realistic" low fantasy novels out there.
I love Ranger's Apprentice!
Shad is the only person I know with a 4 tone beard. He's got white, grey, brown, and orange all in 1. Legendary.
This could be useful where there is more distance to run in a vertical sense, such as from one tower to another tower. Also, it could be useful if you had a critical message in a larger town/city and you were shooting from the top of one building to another when there is an issue with using the streets. For instance, a message of the guards are coming to other criminals to give them the chance to flee or hide evidence.
On a side note Shad, you may want to consider determining your pace count when walking in a field. You could get a pretty decent idea of the distance while walking, if you forget the measuring wheel you used.
I feel like that would result in what we saw with Monty Python XD
He has too much fun making Tyranth walk back and forth.
The banter between Tyranth and Shad is just golden😂😂😂
At work so I can't actually watch yet but there's a book series, Ranger's Apprentice, that deals with this. They have special arrows with a head that has a compartment inside for a message. When filled, they're weighed to make sure they have the same center of balance as a normal arrow so that when fired, the weight won't throw them off
Huh, I'd totally forgotten about Ranger's Apprentice. I actually met John Flanagan when I was at school, nice bloke.
Definitely one of my favorite book series.
@@atomicmillenial9728wow thats sick!
Shooting over an enemy's castle walls, through a window etc could be useful.
As soon as I saw this, my brain jumped to the Ranger's Apprentice books, where the Ranger Corps had specially designed message arrows and paper for them. The arrows were metal, and had a screw compartment inside of them, and were carefully weighted and balanced, with the weight being partially adjustable with a small bag of sand in the compartment. The paper is a special thin paper (honestly probably just pretty similar to modern paper considering the overall medieval setting, the usual paper they'd be using, if not parchment, would still probably be noticeably thicket than modern paper).
It's one if my favorite book series!
@@dane-bankssame!
Shad is becoming an expert in arrow dynamics.
Highly underrated comment!
I hate that I laughed at this, good job
Haha! You’re a terrible person! 😂
Worry not about the arrow with your name on it, because it is just one. Instead, worry about the arrow addressed "To whom it may concern", for there are many.
You and Tyranth seem like you've been friends forever so if you guys first met for the job interview, you guys have really good chemistry...platonicly speaking.
I fired my bow with a message on it, it says "Shad, review A Knight's Tale!"
This series is arguably one of the best ones on TH-cam!
you mean objectively?
@@Benjamin15151515 *objectively, you're right.
you obvioulsly dont see much xD
@@Menelutorex whats better chief?
Shad Facts: One night, while Shad was practicing longbow technique in his sleep, someone put a 1200 lb draw weight crossbow in his hands. Shad continued on, uninterrupted, even holding it at full draw for multiple seconds. This was done multiple times.
Imagine Medievil battlefields where archers were shooting messaged arrows at each other. In addition to getting hit by arrows, injured and in pain, the recipient unrolls a message on it that says something like "your mother was a hamster".
"Thwangggg! Message for you, sir!" was my text message notification sound for years, lol
The shadlands looks specially good today.
I've been so eagerly waiting for more archery. The best archer in the Brooks family hasn't been enough.
Also this video would've been so good for a sponsor. Like one of the papers having the sponsorship written on it.
I still love your content Shad, watching since 2014 or something! The channel keeps evolving and growing and yet you seem to stay the same humble, goofy, nerdy guy. Also the chemistry between you and all the new guys and girls is just perfect! You harmonize so well together, I genuinely love seeing and hearing all of you guys! Knights Watch is also a great addition to the "Shadworld". Thank you sooo much for producing this high quality content thats obviously made with a lot of passion as well as hard work. The editing and everything is just soo good. I know I am fanboying right now, but what can I say? Love it, mate. Love it. Y'all have a fine day!
Thank you so much, truly.
@@shadiversity i would love to see a video about how many arrows you can/should carry and what types etc,
love your videos
This gives a new meaning to the saying, "I've got a [arrow] with your name on it"!
Even sling stones had messages carved on the stones like eat this
You can't yell a map! Or a magic scroll if we enter fantasy settings.
Also it can be a good way of smuggling information out. You don't want to be noticed leaving or yelling, so you shoot arrows with the message, which your accomplice outside knows where to look for.
And finally when you want to relay a message, but the receiver might want to apprehend you, you get a big headstart when shooting the message with an arrow.
Can't believe they'd write a message saying "Go read a note!!!" to Shad! How dare he do such a thing!
That was great fun Shad. For my medieval social media, I would use flags, mirrors, lanterns, or horns (bagpipes as well). The Chinese also used kites. These message sending devices go much further than arrows can.
My personal favourite use of a note tied to an arrow is in Deltora Quest. When the kingdom was invaded, King Endon used a golden arrow to signal his friend Jarred. When Jarred got near the Palace's front gate, he found a toy arrow with a note tied around it, the toy arrow was dismissed by the guards, but the note had a coded message that told him about a secret tunnel that leading to the palace chapel, where the king was waiting and when the palace was lost, Jarred, and the Royal family used it to sneak out unnoticed.
“Message for you sir” and I think it depends on the paper and method of delivery, if the message is encased in a capsule attached to the arrow it could work, also what if the message was written on the arrow?
It could be the clue that leads us to the Holy Grail.
The arrow in question should be carried to it's target by a swallow
From some informal messing around turning straw wrappers into projectiles, as long as you tie the message tightly enough and place it towards the rear half of the arrow, it should theoretically fly. The issue though is that it's likely to not fly as straight as you'd like and there'd be a reduction in distance as well. Ideally, the tighter you could tie it to the arrow the better.
Verticality comes to mind. Such as trying to send a message to someone far below you, or even a good distance above. Also a spy or just someone who got into a castle or whatever, needs to send something to an ally outside the castle. Granted in the day the arrow may be seen, but would they know/think about it holding a message? Also even if they do, what was sent? A love letter? Battle plans? Some critical document stolen from the king's chamber? The wife's shopping list? I could even see it being used to send messages during a siege, even between enemy sides (to avoid the risk of an envoy being killed).
See, this is what I was thinking. This really isn't about the message, but the paper: it really is better than shouting or visually signalling only in that you have the physical piece of paper in the new location. You just need to imagine circumstances where possession of a document is as/more important than the message itself. Coded messages or decoding matrices. Legal documents. Maps. Getting something like that means this actually makes sense. Also it seems we all forgot ships exist and that added to any of the above circumstances would make even more sense in that context
Shad's new minion is a great addition to the show. Really fun episode.
27:50
Sending a message anonymously or from a safe distance I think is the primary reason here.
Delivering threats makes this worth the effort, if you don't want this to be around to be caught. Also delivering a message to or from one opposing force to another (separated by a wall perhaps) makes sense. It maybe the wrong tone for negotiating peace. I wouldn't think a love letter would be well represented by this method personally. 😅
It would be funny if you were sending a long-winded legal agreement this way. _"Part 12 of 45..."_ 😆
In Mercedes Lackey's novels, the Heralds use arrows to send messages in clever ways. Each agent would have a unique fleshing pattern. And the state of the arrow, usually hand delivered or fetched with magic, would say something about the condition of the Herald it belongs to. There were also hollow arrows with hidden messages that could also be hand delivered or fetched with magic.
In a non magic setting. I think the idea of having fetching patterns, notching, or something else communicate some kind of message is brilliant. I mean, you can't control if the head will snap of if you shoot the arrow. So that's a limitation. But imagine writing a message in Ogham an flitting the arrow off in a safe direction.
Ogham would be useful here. Nice thought
Fletching
Ogham would be brilliant to send coded messages!
Runes look like they look because they where designed to be carved into wood. Let that wood be the arrow and all you need to do is to add some scratches to the arrow shaft itself. No impact to flight characteristics whatsoever.
Just wanted to mention WW1 they actually used Bow and arrows to send messages from the trenches.
The limited range really makes this kinda hard to judge.
As mentioned, shooting a message across a river is indeed a good idea, so maybe using arrows is good to overcomes obstacles in general and there are different kinds of obstacles. With a high shot, you could shoot a message over a high wall for example, which might be interesting for spies to some degree.
Also, the range would increase a bit if you shot the arrow from an elevated position. I'm not saying this would be great for watchtowers or such structures, but it could perhaps be useful in mountainous regions or to get a message down a steep cliff without having to climb or yell and have everyone hear the contents of the message.
It might also be worth thinking about the arrowheads. I mean, using a normal arrow is certainly fine if you want to deliver a message to your enemy, but otherwise you might want to regard safety a bit higher.
Skip the arrow and use a trebuchet to lob a runestone over the walls...
With the limited range, just wave at the person on the other side. A person making it across would have been just as easy.
@@jeradw7420 flag signals are/were used on ships in a fleet. But also needed a decode book for that. Because else also the enemy would know what you are signallinmg and can prepare.
@@reiniernn9071 You could still use the alphabetical signals. If you type a code word or signal it doesn't matter. The whole points of codes is the assumption the code will probably be intercepted. It is still easier to wave a flag than any method of shooting an arrow.
@@jeradw7420 Correct...but still deliver messages in code.If you use visible signals (or sound signals)
These arrows cause no damage themselves, but were used to carry messages to places inaccessible to the Ranger that fired them, such as enemy prison cells. The arrow, instead of having a point has a cylinder that can open up to put a message in. Before anything can be fired, the paper must be weighed and a little math must be done in order to calculate the perfect trajectory of the arrow.--Ranger's Apprentice book series
I've read these books, and this could be a great way t0 get messages to people.
why not use pre-cut pre-weighed paper and avoid the arithmetic,.
Man, I loved those books. So many fun things I learned from them.
Recipient retrieves arrow. "Oh, bum wipe!"
I think it could be useful if say if a castle is under siege and you need to stealthily deliver a secret message at night or something. Also Tyranth seems like a cool guy, you should have more of him in your videos.
issue is, you ally HAS to be expecting the message, be unable to reach the wall (else you could just drop the message), yet at the same time be in archer range.. and then find the arrow in the night without being spotted themselves (so without light)
@@thorveim1174 I meant deliver a message to the castle not from the castle (something like hold out for 5 more days for reinforcments). I imagine a good archer could shoot the arrow in the right window, or a guard tower so it would be noticed.
@@Vovan07 Into a window is extremely unlikely, the windows in castles were specifically designed to make that not practical, anything not interior facing, lower than the wall, or way too high to be within range of a bow would be an arrow slit that is far too narrow to accurately shoot through from a distance. Over the wall might be possible, but it might require a few attempts.
Should definitely have Tyranth ("Tyrant" with an "h"... LOL) on more. He's got one of those TV faces. He's got the looks, the nice hair, the youth, the debonair charm. He brings a bit of Hollywood feeling. Would probably attract more viewers.
The resolution of this camera and it’s recording ability is amazing
The Ranger’s apprentice series has a good example of it. The Rangers have inhuman levels of accuracy and they get a message to one of their alies stuck in a castle tower by shooting it through the bars of the room
you would need to fold up the message and have a mechanism where the force of impact triggers the deployment/unfolding of the message... get Jorge on it
That’s if you wanted to do it cartoon style, in real life they might use special message arrows that come with special capsules for them
Could do a latch door on the shaft to put it in like carrier pigeon
An ”I did a thing” and Shadiversity cross over.
It could be fun.
Just use a Ballista with a hollow harpoon
Um, why? Why can't the one receiving the message just unwrap it?
Tyranth is a phenomenal addition to the team.
Finally I can bring back an old classic...
"This should have been on the Archery with Asher channel"... Ahh.. Feels good!
Great, Tyranth spells his name. At first I couldn't tell if Shad was calling him Perrin, Tywin, or Tyrin...all were wrong. (Well, I knew the Tywin was wrong, I just heard something close and my brain picked something familiar.) You two are comical together. An old school mentor-student dynamic I love in books.
Another scenario that might be useful: Coordinating a breakout attempt between a tower and other defenders during a siege. Or perhaps organising a raid, or sending a message to them in the following a way: A fortress near the coast and a boat that's supposed to tell the defenders how long until reinforcements arrive, but they can't land anywhere close to the fortress so they shoot an arror to them with the message attached
The problem with this szenario is: If the boat and the fortress are in shooting range of each other, the boat is probably in shooting range of the attackers, too.
Shad: Your bleedin’ arm’s purple!
Tyranth: TIS BUT A SCRATCH!
Glad to see you more energetic shad, and what a good video, as always
Have a good one
Also, the bit with the daisy was HILARIOUS.
This was very entertaining. Have you done a video on close range VS long range damage with a bow? I think that would be interesting.
"tightly around the shaft". Yes, that's desired. I knew right away that simply sticking the message on the end would cause too much air drag.
I think the best use of attaching a letter to an arrow is to get a secret message in and out of a fortified location like the love letters in "Tom and Jerry meet Robin Hood"
Love the idea of a bunch people at Agincourt having messages attached to their bodies
Life long answered for all of us-
I am really digging Tyranth and your chemistry. You guys are hilarious. Looking forward to more shad!
Since lighter arrows shoot further why not have the letter rolled up inside a hollow arrow. Another good idea use of sending a message with an arrow is communicating with allies across a gorge or chasm where no bridge exist for a messenger to cross.
With modern arrow materials that would work. With wood-shafted arrows, that round probably result in the firing stress shattering the shaft.
But a purpose-built hollow arrow head would probably work.
I love that the large message just has "go read a note!!!!!" on it
In the fantasy setting I'm working on there are fireweapons, so one of the ways I kept bows viable making it so arrows can be enchanted by either attach a piece of paper with a spell or carv it on the arrow's wooden part, you can't do that with bullets because 1- they're too small to carv and 2- you can't enchant normal metal and magic alloys are too expensive to make ammo
So yeah, another use for messages on arrows (in a fantasy setting), the message is "Fireball!"
You actually _can_ carve bullets.
At least, some of them.
I carved a pentagram into the face of a shotgun slug, and the Cross onto the face of a .45 colt
(Larping as a supernatural hunting cowboy lol) with a pocket knife.
They were both unjacketed lead so it was easy to scratch it on.
I assume a jacketed round, or one with a pointier tip, would be more difficult to do it withour proper carving chisles.
And most bullets are flat bottomed, so you could carve quite the intricate patterns on them (with the right tools) and it would remain protected and generally wont deform too much when fired.
I'm so glad you did the paper aeroplane one. The whole time I was thinking about that and it was just as godawful as I expected it to be.
Fantastic topic, thanks Shad!
Could you do a video covering whether a flaming arrow is snuffed out or remains lit after being shot?
Flaming arrows are a common trope in films (see Gladiator).
Fairly certain he did already, look back at his old videos
My first thoughts were that this could be used to send messages between towers, where climbing all the way down one then all the way up the other could be very tiresome especially in dire circumstances. My second thought was that this could be used for example to keep a map of local defenses or troop movements out of reach of the enemy. In a fantasy setting this could be a treasure map or amap to the passage that lets you bypass the kingdom's defenses 300-style.
It wouldn't be very good for carrying messages between towers, at the range a pow can reach you could just have a rope spanning the gap that could be raised or lowered on either side, and hang a bucket from it. If you need to send a message put it in the bucket and raise your end of the rope and the bucket would slide down to the other side. This way you don't have to worry about missing or hitting someone on the other side
Light boxes/semaphore would be far more reliable and far less likely to injure your own troops
@@DjDolHaus86 The main issue with those would be that they can be seen by people other than the intended recipient. Also, during the period where attaching a message to an arrow would be useful, lightboxes would be a challenge.
But yes, I'd imagine that you'd be far more likely to go along with something like that, at least for the limited number of things that you'd care to say. And if you were going to use an arrow to communicate, you probably wouldn't attach a message to it, you'd probably just paint the entire thing a coded color.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade an outside party intercepting the signal only matters if they know the cipher. A light box is not a hard thing to make, you just need a tube closed at one end, a bunch of candles and recessed sliding gate/flap, these are all conceivable throughout most of civilised history, if you can make a door you can make a flap. It would offer a reasonable amount of denial of visibility to anything below the line of sight.
Although it could in theory be used to send detailed and complex messages it would likely just be used for basic stuff to avoid confusion
Another use of the messages on arrows would be in a siege. The forces in the castle may want to shoot a message to allied forces outside the castle. I remember this happening in Bernard Cornwells book Vagabond for example. They also used some kind of wax tube or something to keep the message from being ruined by water.
that gag at 15:33 with the daisy was hilarious by the way
Australian daisies look like dandelions and are hallucinogenic.
There's all sorts of reasons you might want to shoot a message. Shad mentioned there being a river in the way, but there could also be difficult terrain between sender and recipient, or a wall, or a guarded border. Or maybe you need to get your message into a specific room of a building, or between land and ship.
After reading the tile, I immediately thought of that scene from Monty Python's Holy Grail, and, lo and behold, not even a minute in to the video, there it is!
I imagine a tale of a fair maiden being courted by a talented archer stationed on the town walls. Every night when he knows no one will notice, he fires an arrow with a love note from the city walls to her father's estate. Perhaps his archery targets or a specific tree where she receives them when she awakes.
And then, fair maiden decides to see who is sending her this messages. Being pure and innocent maiden she is, she goes to the tree at night to see where this messages are coming from. She hears a sound of air, ripped by an arrow...
...
...
Next day, father posts a BIG bounty for archer's head.
@@Teurger why you gotta ruin my headcanon 🤣 it's supposed to be a forbidden love, pre agreed upon thing in my mind lol
@@MartinCancholaJr Teurgers desctription totally fit's this. Both ran away, so there is a bounty.
@@steemlenn8797 perhaps I'm reading too much into it but if they ran away together why would he suspect the archer unless they left evidence? Lol
@@MartinCancholaJr An arrow can be quite a hint, especially if other arrows and theri message are found.
Can't say much on historical accuracy but from a story point of view another good use would be if your castle is under siege yet your second in command was able to get out but needs to know their instructions. Maybe a delegation went well or bad and a new or old ally is now available or not available for aide? If you shouted your plan in the middle of the night I'm sure enemies would be more likely to intercept the second in command on his mission to seek reinforcements
As an American, I can confirm our unit of measure is washing machine
Started watching from that kamikoto scam video, stuck around for the great character. Keep it up fam, great video
I might be interesting to engineer an arrow that is specialized for that kinda stuff. Maybe with careful notches in the shaft that don't compromise stability but give the note more grip or a cone like tip that creates airflow that won't catch onto the paper. I am pretty sure you could overengineer it to the point of projectile scroll.
The message at 24:44 clearly said, "Nunchucks are a great weapon and are better then daggers."
Its funny that in order for Shad to (what I assume is) keep his very family friendly brand, he covered Tyrnath's forearm tattoo!
What's the tattoo?
@@SirZelean I'm not sure, you can only see a glimpse of it. It may also be a logo for a game or something, so he doesnt want a copyright strike!
@@GreatKingCody ah, I see, so it was in this video you notice the tattoo, I imagine? I wasn't actually looking at the video for the most of it, so I didn't see any tattoo. So I thought you learned about the tattoo elsewhere and I was just curious xD
@@SirZelean at about 22:15 when they are talking about the wrist slap of Shad's longbow.
@@DH-xw6jp Thanks!
“Can you shoot an arrow with a message on it?”
Shad: …Yes*
*terms and conditions apply.
Shad I absolutely love your videos wishing you a wonderful Christmas stay safe and good health good cheers and may the mall ninjas not find you lol
that daisy was amazing, i was laughing pretty good
This would be a good way to communicate covertly with your allies if you arrived to find them besieged in their castle and wanted to work out how best to help them.
The side angle with the highlighted arrow path is excellent! Thanks for that.
The new squire is defiantly working out well and i love how well they are able to bounce off each other.
In robin hood prince of thieves gey had a variation of this on whistle arrows as an alert but a short series of outposts shots could cover a quite big distance fast.
So not just a 1 bank system where terrain is impassable but something where you wanted to get it vast differences a sort wallbetween which you can walk 1 side always set to recivie.
You could get a pretty fast warning system and the further the amount of distance you are covering the greater the speed compared to convential message transport...probally to a certain point at least.
I love the banter with Tyranth!
i feel like its a good thing for shooting an arrow over a wall mainly.
also the thing that the arrow falls out of the air at the last bit makes sure you wont kill an ally when sending the message.
"To whom it may concern... duck"
Great work, guys, this is such a fun series! 😃
*seemingly simple question*
*30 minute video*
love this
I still think I won our measuring contest Boss…❤
So, several examples of arrows with messages:
1. A (more or less) historical one. During the siege of Chersonesus in Crimea by Vladimir the First of Kiev (around 988 AD) either a Varangian mercenary Zhdbern or an Orthodox priest Anastasius send a message on an arrow from the city to the siege camp with a suggestion to destroy underground waterpipes to the city and a location of it, so citisens would surrender because of thurst. The message was either was written on an arrow itself, or on a note, tied to an arrow. (Also it is possible that Anastasius wrote the message and Zhdbern shoot the arrow).
2. A literature one. In "The Headless Horseman" by Mayne Reid Maurice Gerald and Louise Poindexter exchange romantic messages on pieces of paper, impaled onto arrow, across the river. It is mostly done to keep their relationships in secret.
3. A cinematographic one, from Soviet ecranisation of "Ivanhoe". Here the special arrow itself is a message.
th-cam.com/video/dLFqELDuqXs/w-d-xo.html
When I first saw this video I was really hoping that Shad brought up the scene from monty python and the holy grail and he did which I liked. But there was another scene from the curse of silverthorn on knights watch that has lindybiege's character shoot an arrow with a message on it from a castle, that I was hoping would be included as well.
Shadiversity opens the message on the arrow:
😝 *RAID SHADOW LEGENDS!*
I very much enjoy all your archery videos. So great to see another one! I preferred seeing your previous servants over Tyranth though.
I think we need to give Tyranth a chance. Let him find his groove.
If i recall correctly, Oz wasn't very comfortable in front of the camera at first either.
I feel like the main reason to do this is when you want to send a message a short distance and don't want the recipient to know who you are. Like you're hiding in the bushes and send a message to someone that way.
I'm thinking: if you are besieged and you're trying to coordinate with forces sent to aid you by attacking the siege army from the outside, it could be a good idea to send them messages by shooting arrows with notes attached to wherever the reinforcements are located outside the castle walls
I do not expect that you can reach reinforcements by message arrow. Than the sieging army is well within bowshot range and could be shot from your walls. Mostly the sieging army is a few hundreds meters from your walls in camp.
Something else: The reinforcements could sent someone creeping between the lines to the town/castle and shoot from nearby the message over the walls telling when they plan to attack....tryiong to get an attack from both sides on the sieging army.
Horns and drums would be better in that regard
*SHAD! PLEASE READ THIS!*
Next time you do something like this, use a GPS app on your phone to plot out the distance.
_(You're welcome in advance!)_
In terms of when to use it, I feel like it could be a form of intimitiation. The arrow with the massage landing somewhere near you instantly has the subtext of "I could have shot you with this you know". Also, when you do this, the person getting the massage would reflexively look at the arrow first, by the time they start looking for where it came from, you could hide, let's you send the massage anonimusly.