they did that bc the forging system has a hoshido variant and a nohr variant, like. swords are nohrian, katana are hoshidan, swords need one type of ore to forge and katana need a different one
likewise, nohr has spears, axes, tomes, and staves, and hoshido has naginata, clubs, scrolls, and rods, respectively. and they all need different forging ores. the side variants have diff stat effects too yeah
(this is compound bow in the traditional sense of "bow made of layers of different flexible materials glued together", vs selfbow "bow made of a single solid piece of flexible wood")
much like its plotbaby vortexThe Time WigglerBABYREALMSi'm joking but only a littlegun emblem