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BLACK POWDER
A substance synonymous with gunpowder, although the cannon and firearm has not yet been invented.
Discovered during the era of Haradicoh, that once great and illustrious civilisation that encompassed Alithidel, Eptemia, and other nations, the secret of the manufacture of black powder was almost lost when that distant empire of the Haradicans ended. However, while trying to consolidate allies for his expedition against Ithraya, Sephas sailed to Alithidel just in time to arrive while a group of scholars were rediscovering the old formulas. Almost killed himself by an uncontrolled explosion, Sephas insisted on harnessing this destructive new weapon for his up and coming campaign. However, of the three ships that sailed loaded with black powder from the shores of Alithidel, one blew up just after leaving port, another disappeared outright on the voyage never to be seen again, and the third was damaged upon rocks in a storm upon arrival at its destination. Although the crew survived, the cargo of black powder had become considerably waterlogged and therefore unusable and useless for the task Sephas had planned for it. Thus Sephas was forced to assault the legendary fortress of King Minan in Irrax without the aid of this wondrous weapon. However, due particularly to the element of surprise, Sephas eventually succeeded in this endeavour after a heavy fight. He never forgot the black powder though.
After founding the Corianth Empire the new named Sephis I took to thinking again on black powder and possible uses. More cautiously, he ordered for more to be manufactured, this time for use in mining, due to his lack of enemy states. In this work he was far more successful, though eventually many miners refused to work with the stuff, pointing to the high mortality rate experienced from working with little understood explosives.
Since then, black powder has acquired a somewhat mystical image, as being like some terrible fire of the gods. However, limited amounts are still manufactured in only a handful of licensed locations throughout the Corianth Empire, and both the Emperors Guard and the College of Armaments of the Order of Omicron have their own small supplies.
As a closing note, perhaps it should be mentioned that it was claimed in the decades after the death of Sephis I, by those of Alithidel, that the formula had been better perfected and made much more potent. However, this was just at the very moment that a certain Emperor named Polithos decided to enter upon a crusade against supposed demonic infidel states. Whatever new knowledge may ever had been gleaned was soon destroyed in the terrible destruction that swept over Alithidel in the wake of Polithos' conquering armies, and any chance at improving such a dangerous technology has so far eluded not only the scholars of the Corianth Empire, but also the rest of the known world. Until, perhaps, now.
Mulrek has re-designed the formula by specially commissioning the addition of volatile nitrous compounds to the original mixture. Of those small amounts successfully manufactured, he has authorised Loura to test them on particular enemies. First it was a demonstrated successfully upon a hapless accountant. Next he demands it used upon the main characters. |
