Firearm

A firearm is a device which projects bullets at high velocity through a controlled explosion, whether through magic or science. The firing occurs by the gases produced through rapid, confined burning of a propellant. This propellant is typically black powder or some magical force in the case of gun mages.

The firearm is widely used in Lorasia by gun mages and in Nora by tiefling artificers.

Tiefling firearms are often modified with an attached blade, oft times quite larger than the gun itself. These are known as gunblades.

History


Midan Empire

Cannons and hand-cannons

Durzagon

Blunderbusses, dwarven hand cannons and arquebuses (tüfek).

Reshaga

Arquebuses improved. Matchlock. Jezail muskets.

Seruzhar

Lightning guns

Nora

Brought into Nora by Tieflings. Gunblades.

Lorasia

Caplock and magelock

941 NS; matchlock invented
991 NS; Wheellock invented by Oliver Gulvont.
1070 NS; Rifling is invented
1154 NS; flintlock invented
1337 NS; Caplock is invented

Subtypes


Pistols

Muskets

Rifles

Multiple Barrels

Gunblades

Firing Mechanisms


Matchlock

The matchlock was the first mechanism invented to facilitate the firing of a hand-held firearm. Before this, firearms (like the hand cannon) had to be fired by applying a lit match (or equivalent) to the priming powder in the flash pan by hand; this had to be done carefully, taking most of the soldier's concentration at the moment of firing, or in some cases required a second soldier to fire the weapon while the first held the weapon steady. Adding a slow-burning cord or twine fuse made the firing action simple and reliable by a single soldier, allowing them to keep both hands steadying the gun and eyes on the target while firing.

Upon the pull of a lever (or in later models a trigger) protruding from the bottom of the gun and connected to the serpentine, the clamp dropped down, lowering the smoldering match into the flash pan and igniting the priming powder. The flash from the primer traveled through the touch hole igniting the main charge of propellant in the gun barrel. On release of the lever or trigger, the spring-loaded serpentine would move in reverse to clear the pan. For obvious safety reasons, the match would be removed before reloading of the gun. Both ends of the match were usually kept alight in case one end should be accidentally extinguished.

Flintlock

Caplock

The percussion cap or percussion primer is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. This crucial invention gave rise to the cap lock mechanism or percussion lock system using percussion caps struck by the hammer to set off the gunpowder charge in percussion guns including percussion rifles and cap and ball firearms. Any firearm using a caplock mechanism is a percussion gun. Any long gun with a cap-lock mechanism and rifled barrel is a percussion rifle. Cap and ball describes cap-lock firearms discharging a single bore-diameter spherical bullet with each shot.

The percussion cap is a small cylinder of copper or brass with one closed end. Inside the closed end is a small amount of a shock-sensitive explosive material such as mercuric fulminate. The caplock mechanism consists of a hammer and a nipple, sometimes referred to as a cone. The nipple contains a tube which goes into the rearmost part of the gun barrel. The percussion cap is placed over the hollow metal nipple. Pulling the trigger releases the hammer, which strikes the percussion cap and detonates the mercury fulminate, which releases flames which travel through the hollow nipple to ignite the main powder charge. Percussion caps have been made in small sizes for pistols and larger sizes for rifles and muskets.

Magelock

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License