Bronze Age Weaponry

12 days ago by JustGhoustSalt to c/worldbuilding

Hi, I’m new and I’ve been working on a medieval-esque setting inspired by Pokémon. I decided to go into the history of the world before expanding the regions I already have.

I have this section under the Bronze Age,

“The Bronze Age also brought the peak of new weaponry: the crossbow and the sword — two types of swords, actually. The crossbow was invented toward the end of the Bronze Age, at ~3,350 BE, meaning it was in use for about 150 years before the Iron Age. These were not true crossbows, as they required two people to man it, so it was technically a bowgun. The majority of the gun was wooden, with bronze-reinforced limbs. The Bearer would hold up the front of the crossbow and carry bolts, putting them in the barrel. The Gunman would notch the bolt onto the rope, crank to load, turn the stock to aim, and pull the trigger to fire,”

and I was wondering if the bowgun seemed too complicated to understand without visuals or if it was just unrealistic. I know the actual crossbow was invented in the Iron Age.

Btw, “bow” means a handheld projectile weapon, like a bow, sling, crossbow, etc; “gun” means a larger or mechanically powered missile weapon, like the catapult, ballista, cannon, etc.

CombatWombat 5 points 12 days ago

I don't think it's too complicated to understand. It's close enough to a ballista, which I suspect most people have at least a passing familiarity with (as you mentioned).

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Sanctus 4 points 12 days ago

I'd go further and just call it a ballista, then maybe have weapons development slide into irrelevance with whatever Not-Pokemon they have planned get intertwined with human society. It'd be interesting to see people become dependent on these other species so much so all their technology revolves around them.

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CombatWombat 2 points 12 days ago

I could see it going either way. When I imagine a ballista, I imagine it on wheels, whereas it sounds like OP is imagining the bearer as the platform. It seems reasonable to have two different names so as to make that distinction obvious.

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Sanctus 3 points 12 days ago

Oh when I read it I just pictured a ballista, yeah that seems like a logical Pre-crossbow step.

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