Initharian Defining Tech: Bronze Age
Proposal: Refocyte/Refocyte LongbowsRefocyte
Refocyte, called “Nima Silver” by our ancestors who discovered it, is a metallic ore that in many ways resembles silver - hence the colloquial name. As an ore, it is nothing special - it is quite difficult to distinguish it from other silver-colored metals in it’s natural state. But when processed, some very unique properties can manifest themselves. Our ancestors discovered this when working the metal, thinking it to be bronze or iron.
When refined, Refocyte doesn’t seem to distribute force as a normal material would, but instead stores the energy of whatever forces act on it. It continues to do so, until the Refocyte makes a strong impact - at which point, all the force is released at once. If one takes a hammer to a bar of Refocyte a few times and then drops the bar, it may well damage the floor as the force of the hammer blows is released.
Refocyte Longbows
Sunaka tried to calm his rapid heartbeat as he sighted in on his target. The invaders were unaware of their impending death. He realized he’d closed an eye - “Sloppy. Throws off your aim, your depth perception,” his grandfather had told him when explaining why it was a mistake. He opened his eye. He drew the bowstring back to his chest, breathing heavily. “Take a breath and hold it, or your aim will drift with your breath.”
He had learned from his grandfather while hunting, using a smaller bow that was like a longbow to him at the time. He had learned archery, and now he could hit the wings off a fly at 200 paces. Sunaka had killed before - but animals, not men. But these men had killed his fellows, wished death upon him and his family. And, with the longbow passed down from his father, and his father’s father, and so on down their line, he would do something about it.
As one, a hundred arrows flew between the trees. The invader’s formation simply disintegrated as arrows pierced bronze armor as easily as cloth. Sunaka’s target didn’t even get a death rattle - he was a corpse before he hit the ground. The survivors fled, as the Inithari archers readied another precise volley.
Men, it would seem, were just another kind of animal.
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While bows had been in use among the Inithari’s ancestors since near the start, it was this invasion where the prevalence and quality of the bows shot up. Inithari Longbows were tall, about the height of a man (taller than some), made from the same trees that they built their boats from, and had a draw weight that surprised foreigners. While it required intense training to use, a skilled archer could kill their enemy from long range, well before they were in any danger. During this period, the arrows also changed, using metal heads instead of the sharpened stone of ages past - more specifically, arrowheads made of Refocyte. Carefully forged and imbued with kinetic force during the creation process, and stored in a specially made quiver to prevent a premature discharge of the energy, the arrows would hit their target and release a large amount of force into them all at once, piercing armor and inflicting grievous wounds.
Difficulty: Very HardResult: (6+3)-2=7,
AverageWhile the Inithar Archipelago contained a wide variety of wildlife and terrain, one thing (besides the inhabitants) was shared by each island: an abundance of a strange material known as Nima Silver or Refocyte. This material proved difficult to extract from the earth at first - miners tried to carve the ore from the hard stone it was found within, when in fact if a miner applied enough force to the ore itself the impact would be amplified through the rock around it, weakening the stone and more often than not freeing the ore for gathering. The Initharians had worked the material into spearheads and arrows but soon did away with them when they proved to cause too much damage to the meat and bone of their prey. The Refocyte, it turned out, was capable of converting kinetic energy to potential energy and storing it until a threshold was reached, where it would unleash the sum of all collected force at the point of impact.
When the first massive ships from the Median Empire were spotted in Initharian seas the people were wary, but did not expect a generation of war to result. The first Median landings were on relatively uninhabited islands, and they were quick to build up fortresses and settlements to support their expanding empire. The Initharians kept their distance until they could no longer. A large Median landing fleet struck the shores of one of the Big Five Islands of Inithar, the major hubs of the nation. The landing was bloody and violent - the Medians took no prisoners, gave no quarter, and the largely unprepared island was slaughtered to the man. Almost.
A single ship bearing remnants of an unremarkable family managed to slip away and spread word of the brutality of these newcomers bearing weapons and armor made of mighty metals. Nothing the defenders of the island brought to bear did significant damage, and while these invaders secured their position many Initharians believed all was lost. That was, until a few mastercraftsmen recalled the devastating damage an arrow tipped in Nima Silver could do to a beast.
Equipped with longbows (a fairly recent creation themselves carved of wood with a string of sinew or plant fibers) and Refocyte Arrows the first of what would become many raiding parties struck out to test these weapons against their foes. The Initharian Longbowmen had to be careful when transporting the Refocyte Arrows, wrapping each one in a cloth to help prevent accidental discharge and chain reactions of force dispersal, but the effect was well worth it. While the energy stored in these arrows could fade, that still left a usable arrow for the Initharian Longbows.
When the first Initharian ships came across a Median vessel they opened fire with these arrows, striking the wooden hull and causing it to burst and splinter at the point of impact. With better range and a higher rate of fire than the Median ship's siege weaponry, the Initharians handily sunk vessel after vessel before slipping away. These raiders, the
Tahoratakarar, were able to cut off the Median supply ships and diminish the strength of the wood and stone fortresses defiling their islands. Once the defenders were forced to live off the land to survive the Initharians struck, and from distances too great for the Medians to sufficiently respond. Initharian vessels circled occupied islands like sharks, and if the Medians could understand and differentiate ship markings, they would have noticed the occasional ship disappear from the blockade as they landed on unoccupied, unwatched portions of the islands. The Medians, as advanced as they were, capable of fielding whole armies with iron armor, could not withstand the Initharian ambushes and probing assaults. They'd watch as relief vessels approached over the horizon, only to be swarmed by much smaller vessels and battered into the sea - if they felt confident enough to poke their heads out of cover. The iron armor did little to protect the Medians from Refocyte Arrows, which had a tendency to blast the armor inwards and cause devastating damage to the wearer.
Fortress after fortress was starved out and the defenders whittled away. Yet the Medians still attempted to strike at the Initharians, and so a council of the most renowned Initharians decided to take the fighting to the Big Island. Fighting in unfamiliar territory was difficult, and the inability to take advantage of the ocean stymied Initharian progress, but the amount of men and resources the Medians had sent only to be buried beneath the waves left the empire in a precarious position. Not only had they begun to succumb to infighting, but other opportunistic nations had sought to break away from their Median overlords or take a piece of the pie for themselves. The large, slow moving masses of Median infantry, and the huge targets provided by cavalry, were easily cut down by Initharian raiders who probed further and further into Median territory with each passing month. While a few losses were suffered, the multitude of threats meant the Medians were never able to truly press their advantage. By the eighth year of war the Initharians found themselves preparing an army outside the walls of Media, the illustrious capital city, viewed as untouchable until recently, and impenetrable by it's inhabitants. Two massive stone walls encircled the the massive city defended by the best of what remained of the Median military. It would have indeed proven quite the task were it not for the dozen other armies seeking to sack the city.
While many nations partook in the Siege of Media, the Initharians stood out as a pivotal force, using bows that surpassed anything else of the time to launch the devastating Refocyte Arrows at and over the walls, crumbling both stone and morale. Once a breach was forced though, the barbarity of street fighting was taken on in large part by the other nations seeking vengeance, loot, and/or a bloodbath. Fighting over actual control of the ruins of the city soon erupted between rival groups, though the Initharians withdrew. They had succeeded in toppling their foe. They didn't leave the Big Island empty-handed though, and occupied or absorbed towns and cities near the coast that used to belong to the dead empire.
The Initharians could no longer go back to their isolationist ways, and their toppling of the Medians was only the tip of the iceberg...
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IT IS NOW THE REVISION PHASE.Once again you will be given some leniency on what you can do with your revision, but note that these revisions should be used more for bringing past advancements into the current age. Your special resource, Refocyte, lies firmly within the sphere of
(Physical Force). Keep that in mind when using it in the future.
Voyaging Canoe: A single-outrigger canoe with a sail. Constructed of stone-carved wood and 8-10m long. Stable, sturdy, seaworthy, and reliable. This stands out not just in Inithar history, but in the history of the world.
Refocyte Longbow: A bow as tall as a man with great range known for it's pairing with Refocyte Arrows. The arrows use Refocyte heads capable of transferring the stored energy within through the tip and into the target to devastating effect.
Tales of Color: A highly complex system of identification and communication relying solely on colors and patterns. It is nearly impenetrable for outsiders even by today's standards.
Unique Resource - Refocyte: A metal that in it's base state stores energy applied through impact until a threshold is reached, where it will deliver the entirety of the stored force at the point of impact.
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Topic: Mechanized Warfare: Inithar Thread / Final Phase, 1941 Cold Season (Read 36908 times)