Firearm
About thousand years ago in China, some people figured out that certain chemicals mixed together (such as potassium nitrate, carbon and sulphur) exploded when brought to spark, which became known as "Black Powder". After some toying with this little tidbit of information, they discovered that a tube sealed off at one end could be used to focus said explosion to propel an object at high speeds. After a few centuries of refinement they managed to take that mechanical principle and apply it as a weapon of warfare which changed the game, the Arquebus. Cheap, Easy to make, easy to learn to use and capable of penetrating all but the heaviest armor, this marked a transition away from close quarters to ranged warfare.
In modern times, firearms are the staple weapons of any nation, normally using futuristic weapons that doesn't even fire solid projectiles like lasers.
A Brief History of Firearms
1200s: The Chinese realize they can make barbarians shit their pants by shooting hollowed arrows packed with powder at them.
1300s: Various gunpowder weapons begin to proliferate westward along the silk road. Crude versions of hand cannons, grenades, rockets, and flamethrowers all see use. Despite considerable psychological effect most of these weapons are only marginally more likely to kill the target than the user, and their use is not widespread.
1400s: Hand cannons see continued and expanded use. The first "true" firearms are invented with the advent of the matchlock. By clamping a lighted wick into a flashpan via a trigger the shooter is able to aim and fire at the same time, making him markedly less likely to blow his own jimmies off. Despite advances the matchlock was unwieldy, unreliable, and generally inferior to a good bowman. This didn't stop some inventive commanders from seeing their potential, particularly with poorly trained conscript soldiers. Some forces made a go of it by carrying two or three guns at a time and just throwing the spent ones away like a really shitty Matrix movie.
1500s: Guns continue to evolve with the invention of spring loaded firing mechanisms. The wheellock spins a steel plate against sulfide rocks to produce sparking (think cigarette lighters) which ignites a flash pan. This was revolutionary in that soldiers could prime their weapon in a matter of seconds instead of fucking around with a lit wick. It also means that for the first time guns weren't completely fucked in the rain, just mostly fucked.
1600s The wheellock is refined into the simpler and more reliable flintlock. Muzzle loading is simplified with the creation of paper cartridges, essentially the pre-measured cake mix of murder.
1700s: The French invent the bayonet, allowing their troops to be choppy while they were shooty. This is the point where gun infantry tactics become the dominant (though still not only) form of fighting.
1800s: More research into firearms go in, Springfield Armory from 'Murrica realized that by rifling (putting grooves) the barrel of muskets, their slugs would go faster than they would using smoothbore barrels. Cartridges that contain both a propellant and slug, similar to modern-day bullets, are developed. By this time, wars were largely fought using firearms rather than meele weapons. People now realize that putting a place where you can easily cycle through ammunition and using a mechanism to load it into the chamber much simpler, rather than tediously loading a new round each time you fire, is a grand idea, giving birth to the concept of "magazines" and simpler mechanized feeding systems like slides and bolt-actions. The likes of Pump-action shotguns, bolt-action rifles and level-action rifles, and revolver and semi-automatic pistols, are developed and/or developed upon, giving a glimpse on how weapons in the future would function.
1900-early 1930s: The hey-day of guns because of the advent of WW1. The idea of bolt-action rifles are popularized, along with semi-automatic and fully-automatic weapons. Bolt-action rifles meant that riflemen no longer had to be confined to shooting one at a time as they could now load individual clips that contained 5-10 rounds a piece. Machine guns are now becoming more and more popular in the battlefields, punting aside infantry horde charges that commonly assured victory by allowing gunners to fire hundreds of rounds before needing to reload. Submachine guns, the first automatic infantry weapon, are developed by the German Empire and issued to their stormtroopers, giving the rest of the world an idea on the wonders of a fully-automatic weapon that could easily be carried and fired by a regular soldier, which was previously restricted to heavy weapons.
late 1930s-1940s: Automatic and semi-automatic rifles start phasing out bolt-action rifles for standard infantry use with the start of WW2. Nazi Germany invents the Strumgeweher 44, the first assault rifle in history. This weapon would later become the template for modern weaponry.
1950s-1990s: People now realize the power of a fully-automatic rifle. Assault rifles become more and more common with armed forces of the world and are extensively developed upon.
Relations here
Most fantasy writers tend to exclude firearms. There are a variety of reasons for this, such as:
- Most fantasy comes from Tolkien, who did not have guns. Though gunpowder does exist in Tolkien's works.
- Most fantasy (whether copy-catting Tolkien or not) is based on medieval Europe. Depending on your definition of "medieval," Europe did technically have firearms towards the very end (crude and unreliable ones, but firearms nonetheless), but most authors base their fantasy on earlier medieval Europe.
- As in real life, firearms mean that vulgar, dirty, peasant conscripts can take down the author's Mary Sure, noblemen knights that trained so hard in the arts of swordsmanship and melee combat. That statement is a simplification and leaves out the rise of pike formations and standing armies, but it is, in part true.
All that being said, most fantasy authors are much more open to cannons, which became viable on the battlefield long before smaller firearms.
Generally speaking, if a world has both the "stock" fantasy races and guns, there will a strict hierarchy of who uses them, from most to least likely:
- Dwarves: They almost always have the best, most plentiful guns. If only one race gets firearms, it's them.
- Humans: Unlike the other races, which are usually an all-or-nothing deal, different human nations have different likelihoods of having guns. Italian and east Asian analogues, as well as the "industrious" or "scientific" nations, are much more likely to have them. Your barbarians, guys keen on knights and chivalry and the more conservative less so.
- Orcs: Orcs would probably love guns if they could actually build some. However, they're usually either incapable of building things or have a hard time organizing themselves to the point that large-scale firearm production is possible.
- Elves: Being arrogant pricks, they see guns as crude, inaccurate, foul-smelling contraptions that are no substitute for a bow. However, they'll still use them when necessary, even if they don't like it. That said they also had a good reason to not use them, namely most firearms in a fantasy settling would be Arquebus-type which were out range and had slower firing rates than a bow, the main advantage being ease of use and armor penetration. As the main problem of a bow, it takes years to learn, itsn't a problem for long life elves, a bow is simply a better choice.
- Wood Elves and other Fey/Nature types: They'd rather die than use a firearm, even if the rest of the world has moved onto biplanes, bolt-action rifles, shell-firing cannons, and tanks. If this happens, this means they either have powerful magic (so the actual weapons used are unimportant), they are really really good shots with a bow, or they're about to die out.
Of course, sci-fi writers almost exclusively use firearms, seeing as how it's THE FUUUUUUTTTTTUUUUURRRREEEE. The one exception is Warhammer 40,000: although guns are the main combat implement, close combat is still alive and well, and most armies have at least one elite, close-combat unit wielding weapons that are distinctly not firearms.
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