[Dragaera] Speculation on weapons and sorcery

[Davdi Silverrock]

On 6/25/07, Howard Brazee wrote:

> It is interesting to note that in our world there are some ancient sling
> stones with curses printed on them (I don't remember whether
> these were clay with stamped curses or what).

I vaguely remember seeing something about those.  They might have been
sharp shards of pottery, like ostrakons, and the curses scratched on.
Or perhaps stamped hollow fired clay, meant to fragment on impact.


> I don't recall this concept being used in any fantasies that I have read -
> for some reason slings tend to be ignored, possibly because they are
> primarily a weapon used for general artillery - David vs. Goliath is an
> exception.

Yeah, I pretty much forgot them as well.  I can't really think of a
way that my idea of "sorcery used for finding things" could really
work against slings - what, a scrap of leather or a strip of cloth?
Some random stones (or pottery, as above)?

Bah.

> But let's think of various ways that working magic can
> impact how weapons are used.   Maybe it works easily
> against low-mass weapons.

Hm.  Maybe the missile shield is simply a broader and stronger
instance of the rain shield.  And slung stones, used as artillery,
aren't very fast. I think.  Perhaps that can work as an explanation as
to why they aren't used in Dragaera?

> While Vlad uses darts and such, this isn't in a war-combat situation.

Quite true.  Vlad is very up-front that such things are mostly to
distract the opponent, and if they work at all, it's because of
surprise.  Note also the famous quip about daggers and shoulderblades
(the point being that the target wizard is not aware of the attack).

> Protection spells against mosquito type weapons might be prevalient.

Yet I suspect that as with rain protection spells, the constant
concentration involved in maintaining the spell has its own risks.