> > >PotD spoiler follows: > > > > > > > >Good points, but > >1) Vlad is a specialist in death - how come he never mentions rifles, if > >they exist? See for example the description of Temek the weapons master I agree that if rifles were currently available to someone like Vlad, he would use them. But this only means that they aren't currently available, not that they never were. > Just because firearms may have been invented at some point in the Dragaeran > past does not mean that they are at all common, or even existant, any > longer. Dragaeran history is long enough that lots of information can be > lost. To the left, between Lyorn compulsiveness, and the (as you mention below) documented survival of incredibly ancient documents, I'm dubious that any technology that existed long enough to be widespread could possibly be lost. ["Lost" in terms of "completely forgotten". I can easily conceive of certain kinds of industrial infrastructure being allowed to fall out of use.] > >2) I still feel that the brigands we meet in PotD would be armed with > >muskets or blunderbusses or whatever if there was ever any firearm tech > >on Dragaera. > > Again, this is assuming that knowledge of them has been retained. If, as I > speculated, they were rendered obsolete by sorcerous counter-measures at > some point in the distant past, it is easily feasible that knowledge of > their construction, and even existence, would have been lost, or only > available to diligent scholarly research. "Only available to scholars" is a good argument. Another good argument is that firearms require a fair amount of "support" industry. While I could easily believe someone in Vlad's time deciding to (re?)start those industries, the Interregnum seems an unlikely time for such industrial efforts. Alexx Alexx Kay Opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily those of my employers alexx at world.std.com http://world.std.com/~alexx "All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another." -- Anatole France