And they spent most of the books either following people who could barely use it or when it all died and nobody had magic anyways.
Anyways, Truenamers with their 3/4 BAB make decent gishes...if you have a stat left over after that INT, toss it into STR and take up the sword.
There was a chart on CharOp that showed Truenamer success chances...you're going to start rapidly getting worse, but after a few levels your chances start going up. Get an Item Familiar, you'll need its bonuses. Refluff your Amulet of the Silver Tongue as actually talking that way, it'll be hilarious.