[Dragaera] javelin shooters (no spoilers)

[Jon_Lincicum at stream.com]

"Mark A. Mandel" <thnidu at yahoo.com> 
Sent by: dragaera-bounces at dragaera.info
08/06/06 02:47 PM

To
Louis Eastman <almagaiz at gmail.com>, Jon Lincicum <lincicum at comcast.net>
cc
Dragaera list <dragaera at dragaera.info>
Subject
Re: [Dragaera] javelin shooters (no spoilers)




>What follows is all my own opinion.
>
>These ARE bows and arrows, but Vlad has never seen them before, and to 
the
>Dragaerans they are less familiar than javelins. A (comparatively) recent
>invention, in fact, so they are still called by a name reflecting their
>derivation.

I think I take issue with the idea that bow-and-arrow are in any way 
"recent" inventions.

This is based on the fact that apparently Dragaeran conventional warfare 
has not really changed very much over the Eons.

The impact of improvements/changes in the use of sorcery seems to be the 
primary driver in changing tactics of warfare. (See Kiera's discussion 
with Vlad about Spell-sticks, flashstones, etc in /Orca/.) However, the 
primary technological drivers for change in pre-firearm warfare in our own 
world were basically threefold:

1. The use of Steel over Bronze/Copper weapons.
2. The advent of mounted cavalry vs chariots/battle-wagons.
3. The constant improvements in armor technology vs bow/crossbows meant to 
defeat the armor.

Now, given the fact that Zerika I and Kieron had forced the Serioli smiths 
to reveal the secrets of weapon-metal at the dawn of the Empire, I think 
we can assume that for the entire history of the Dragaeran Empire it has 
been using Steel weaponry.

It is not clear when mounted warriors began to appear in Dragaera, but I 
would postulate that they have been around for a long time. (Likely, good 
horse stock was stolen from Easterners during Kieron's Great March).

We do know that for about the first four cycles, Sorcery played very 
little part in warfare--it was used mainly for illusion and intelligence. 
(Lishni's fire-ram (4th cycle) being, presumably, one of the first 
examples of an offensive spell.) So, for a good 30,000-50,000 years, the 
only types of ranged attacks that would have been possible would have been 
conventional ones. (Slings, arrows, etc.) 

Then sorcery comes along, and we get spell-sticks, and flashstones, and 
all sorts of alternatives for ranged attacks. This caused armor to fall 
out of favor in battle, but, I would say it is likely, the same factors 
that caused armor to fall out of favor also caused the primary *need* for 
armor (defense vs projectiles) to fall out of favor, as well.

So, we're left with the battle between armorers/bowmakers. Did Dragaerans 
really have steel weapons and mounted warriors for tens of thousands of 
years without developing the comparitively simple (stone-age) concept of 
the bow-and-arrow? OR, as seems more likely, is the apparent "recent 
development" of "javelin shooters" really just represent a "re-invention" 
of technology that (prior to the Interregnum) had become obsolete (due to 
the prevelence of sorcerous attacks and defenses)? 

Majikjon


>
>Maybe the Easterners use them and have independent names for them in at
>least some of their languages. But these experienced and learned Dragon
>soldiers know them as a way to shoot (little) javelins.

Likely, the whole development of weapons/tactics in the east has been 
substantially different, given the absence of sorcery.

>IMHO (he said redundantly) this "mistranslation" is a clever way for SKZB
>to tell us all this.

Agreed.

Majikjon