Post by Reese on Nov 30, 2011 22:58:43 GMT -5
Crossbow:
The common missile weapon of the Assassins is the crossbow, which can remain set indefinitely, while waiting in ambush. It is also useful in fighting from room to room, when one may have to fire on an instant's awareness. Too, of course, it can be fired from the prone position and is easy to use behind defensive works. Crossbows are of either the hand-drawn or windlass variety.The hand-drawn variety is most frequently used by the Assassins. Both have a stirruplike fixture before the bow. The weapon is lowered, and a foot placed in the stirrup, to hold the weapon in place, while the bow is drawn, by hand or windlass. The hand-drawn variety utilizes a wooden bow, and the windlass variety utilizes a steel bow. The windlass variety, with two handles, each turned by one hand, can draw a more powerful bow, because of the leverage involved and the ratchet-and-pawl arrangement. Both sorts can pierce most armor, the windlass variety at longer range. The hand-drawn variety, naturally, can be more quickly reloaded, but it lacks the range of the windlass variety. The bolts or quarrels used in the crossbow are short, say , ten inches in length, and may be of metal or wood. The metal quarrels can be metal-finned. The arrows of the longbow, in contrast, are generally long, a yard or more in length, slender, of wood, and feathered. Tarnsmen, incidentally, when on tarnback, commonly use the "cavalry bow," or "short bow." The prime advantage of this bow is that it can clear the saddle, making it easier, for example, to fire either to the left or right. One thinks of the dagger, of course, as the prototypical weapon of the Assassin.
Quotes:
Long Bow - The Great Peasant Bow:
The little known, yet much respected weapon of the Peasants, described as difficult to use but vicious and extremely powerfull in long range situations, in the hands of those who have mastered it. It is the weapon that leads Rencers to independance from Port Kar.
Quotes:
And there was, too, the great bow, of yellow, supple Ka-la-na, tipped with notched bosk horn, with its cord of hemp, whipped with silk, and the roll of sheaf and flight arrows. I counted the arrows. There were seventy arrows, fifty of which were sheaf arrows, twenty flight arrows. ---Raiders of Gor, p 68
:
Crossbow The common missile weapon of the Assassins, the crossbow comes in either the hand-drawn or windlass variety.
Quotes:
..and on Gor the crossbow, inferior in accuracy, range and rate of fire, with its heavy cable and its leaves of steel, tends to be generally favored. ---Raiders of Gor, p 2
the crossbow is the assassin's weapon, par excellence; further, it might be mentioned that, although it takes longer to set the crossbow, a weaker man, with, say, his belt claw or his winding gear, can certainly manage to do so; accordingly, for every man capable of drawing a warrior's long bow there will be an indefinite number who can use the crossbow; lastly, at shorter distances, the crossbow requires much less skill for accuracy than the long bow. ---Raiders of Gor, p 2
Hornbow of the Inuits:
A small bow built of layered pieces of tabuk horn bound with sinew. It is a weapon of the Red Hunters, native of Gor's Polar bassin.
Quotes:
About his shoulder he had slung some coils of braided rope, fashioned from twisted sleen hide, and, in his hand, he carried a sack and a bundle of tied furs; at his back was a quiver containing arrows, and a short bow of sinew-bound, layered horn. ---Beasts of Gor, 3:
The horn bow, unfortunately, formed of pieces of split tabuk horn, bound with sinew, is not effective beyond some thirty yards, One must, thus, be almost upon the animal before loosing the shaft. Wood is scarce in the north and the peasant bow, or longbow, is not known there. More importantly, in the colder weather, the long bow would freeze and snap, unable to bear the stress of being drawn to its customary extent. ---Beasts of Gor, 13:
Hornbow of Wagon People:
A small bow built of layered pieces of bosk horn bound and reinforced with metal and leather, banded with metal at seven points, including the grip. It is a weapon of the Wagon People, native of Gor's Southern Plains.
Quotes:
I learned as well the rope and bow. The bow, of course, small, for use from the saddle, lacks the range and power of the Gorean longbow or crossbow; still, at close range, with considerable force, firing rapidly, arrow after arrow, it is a fearsome weapon. ---Nomads of Gor, p 66
His lance remained on his back, but he carried in his right hand the small, powerful horn bow of the Wagon Peoples an attached to his saddle was a lacquered, narrow, rectangular quiver containing as many as forty arrows. ---Nomads of Gor, p 11
The small bow, interestingly, has never been used among tarnsmen; perhaps this is because the kaiila is almost unknown above the equator, and the lesson of kaiilaback fighting has not been much available to them; perhaps it is because of tradition, which weighs heavily in Gorean life, and even in military affairs; for example, the phalanx was abandoned only after more than a century of attempts to preserve and improve it; or perhaps the reason is that range is commonly more important to tarnsmen in flight than maneuverability of the bow. I suspect, however, that the truest reason is that tarnsmen, never having learned respect for the small bow, tend to despise such a weapon, regarding it as unworthy a Warrior''s hand, as being too puny and ineffective to win the approval of a true Gorean fighting man. Some of the riders of the Steels, I recalled, seeing it among the belongings of Gladius of Cos, had jested with me about it, asking if it were a toy, or perhaps a training bow for a child; these men, of course, had never, on kaiilaback, and it is just as well for them, met Tuchuks. It seemed to me that combat on kaiilaback, and combat on tarnback, had much in common; I suspected that the small bow, though it had never been proven in battle on tarnback, might prove that it had worth in the Gorean skies as well as on the dusty, southern plains; I had further, in many nights of training with my tarn, taught it to respond to a variety of voice commands, thus freeing my hands for the use of weapons. Commonly, the tarn responds only to one voice command, that of "Tabuk," which tends, roughly, to mean "Hunt and feed"; further, I would have liked to use the Tuchuk temwood thrusting lance from the saddle of a tarn. The tarnsman commonly carries, strapped to the saddle, a Gorean spear, a fearsome weapon, but primarily a missile weapon, and one more adapted to infantry. The tarnsmen, of course, centuries before, had been developed from land forces; it had always seemed to me that the tarn cavalries of Gor might be considerably improved by a judicious alteration of weapons and training practices; however, I had never had a command of tarnsmen of my own, and my ideas were of little interest, even to the tarnsmen of Ko-ro-ba, my city. ---Assassin of Gor, 22:
Ship Bow:
High firing rate short, stout and maneuverable bow used in crowded quarters and galleys locked in combat.
Quotes:
All things considered, the ship bow is an ideal missile weapon for close-range naval combat. it is superior in this respect even to the peasant bow, or long bow, which excells it in impact, range and accuracy. ---Rogue of Gor, 32:307-308
Northern Short Bow:
Short bow of the Northern areas of Gor, used with short, heavy arrows. Said to be accurate with a short range of a hundred and fifty yards. Useful in close combat on a ship, and easily fired through a thole port with the oar withdrawn.
Quotes:
the short bow of the Gorean north, with its short, heavy arrows, heavily headed, lacks the range and power of the peasant bow of the south, that now, too, the property of the rencers of the delta, but, at short range, within a hundred and fifty yeard, it can administer a considerable strike. It has, too the advantage that it is more manageable in close quarters than the peasant bow, resembing somewhat the Tuchuk bow of layered horn, in this respect. It is more useful in close combat on a ship, for example, than would be the peasant bow. Too, it is easier to fire it through a thole port, the oar withdawn. ---Marauders of Gor, p 52
Small Bow of Red Savages:
Said to be by far, the quickest in rate of fire of all Gorean weapons, this bow is favored by the Red Savages of the Barrens.
Quotes: The small bow has many advantages. High among these is the rapidity with which it may be drawn and fired. A skilled warrior, in the Gorean gravity, can fire ten arrows into the air, the last leaving the bow before the first has returned to the earth. No Gorean weapon can match it in its rate of fire. At close range, it ca be devastating. Two further advantages of the small bow that might be mentioned are it manoeuverability and its capacity to be concealed, say beneath a robe. It can be easily swept from one side of the kaiila to the other. ---Savages of Gor, 1:46
Flight arrow:
A metal-piled arrow for the great bow, fletched with three Vosk gull wing half-feathers, approximately forty inches in length.
Quotes:
...the flight arrow is about forty inches in length. Both are metal piled and fletched with three half-feathers, from the wings of the Vosk gulls. ---Raiders of Gor, p 68
The arrows of the longbow, in contrast, are generally long, a yard or more in length, slender, of wood, and feathered. ---John Norman, Letter to the Gorean Group, Sept 20th 2000
Hunting arrow(commonly referred to as non barbed online):
As the name indicates, an arrow fitted with a head made for hunting. More specifically, this term is used in describing one of the two types of arrows used by the red Savages.
Quotes:
... The heads of certain war arrows and hunting arrows differ, too, at least in the case of certain warriors, in an interesting way, with respect to the orientation of the plane of the point to the plane of the nock. The heads of certain war arrows and hunting arrows differ, too, at least in the case of certain warriors, in an interesting way, with respect to the orientation of the plane of the point to the plane of the nock. In these war arrows, the plane of the point is perpendicular to the plane of the nock. In level shooting, then, the plane of the point is roughly parallel to the ground. In these hunting arrows, on the other hand, the plane of the point is parallel to the plane of the nock. In level shooting, then, the plane of the point is roughly perpendicular to the ground. The reason for these different orientations is particularly telling at close ranges, before the arrow begins to turn in the air. The ribs of the kailiauk are vertical to the ground; the ribs of the human are horizontal to the ground. Savages of Gor, pp 40-41
Quarrel:
Small, high velocity arrow used with crossbows.
Quotes:
On each side of the saddle hung a missile weapon, a crossbow with a quiver of a dozen quarrels, or bolts, on the left, a longbow with a quiver of thirty arrows on the right. ---Tarnsman of Gor, 5:
The latter had trained his crossbow on my breast. At that distance he could not have missed, and if he had fired at that range, most probably the quarrel would have passed through my body and disappeared in the woods behind. The initial velocity of a quarrel is the better part of a pasang per second. ---Tarnsman of Gor, 7:
Sheaf arrow:
A metal-piled arrow for the great bow, fletched with three Vosk gull wing half-feathers, a little over a yard in length.
Quotes:
The Gorean sheaf arrow is slightly over a yard long, the flight arrow is about forty inches in length. Both are metal piled and fletched with three half-feathers, from the wings of the Vosk gulls. ---Raiders of Gor, p 68
As I strode toward the camp, my hand held the great bow. Over my left shoulder, slung, was sword and scabbard. At my belt was a sleen knife; at my hip, in a verr-skin quiver, temwood sheaf arrows, nineteen of them, piled with steel, winged with the feathers of the vosk gull. ---Hunters of Gor, 12:
I fitted an arrow, of black tem-wood, with a pile point, to the string of the yellow (long) bow. The string was of hemp, whipped with silk. The arrow was winged with the feathers of the Vosk gull. ---Beasts of Gor, 11:
Simple pile arrow(aka "barbed" arrows):
This term may be applied to flight or sheaf arrows and indicates that the tip of the arrow, is shaped in such a way that it may be withdrawn from a wound in the direction of entry, as opposed to a Tuchuk barbed arrow, which requires 'pushing' it through the wound to remove it.
Quotes:
I had used simple-pile arrows, which may be withdrawn from a wound. The simple pile gives greater penetration. Had I used a broad-headed arrow, or the Tuchuk barbed arrow, one would, in removing it, commonly thrust the arrow completely through the wound, drawing it out feathers last. One is, accordingly, in such cases, less likely to lose the point in the body. ---Raiders of Gor, p 79
The common missile weapon of the Assassins is the crossbow, which can remain set indefinitely, while waiting in ambush. It is also useful in fighting from room to room, when one may have to fire on an instant's awareness. Too, of course, it can be fired from the prone position and is easy to use behind defensive works. Crossbows are of either the hand-drawn or windlass variety.The hand-drawn variety is most frequently used by the Assassins. Both have a stirruplike fixture before the bow. The weapon is lowered, and a foot placed in the stirrup, to hold the weapon in place, while the bow is drawn, by hand or windlass. The hand-drawn variety utilizes a wooden bow, and the windlass variety utilizes a steel bow. The windlass variety, with two handles, each turned by one hand, can draw a more powerful bow, because of the leverage involved and the ratchet-and-pawl arrangement. Both sorts can pierce most armor, the windlass variety at longer range. The hand-drawn variety, naturally, can be more quickly reloaded, but it lacks the range of the windlass variety. The bolts or quarrels used in the crossbow are short, say , ten inches in length, and may be of metal or wood. The metal quarrels can be metal-finned. The arrows of the longbow, in contrast, are generally long, a yard or more in length, slender, of wood, and feathered. Tarnsmen, incidentally, when on tarnback, commonly use the "cavalry bow," or "short bow." The prime advantage of this bow is that it can clear the saddle, making it easier, for example, to fire either to the left or right. One thinks of the dagger, of course, as the prototypical weapon of the Assassin.
Quotes:
Long Bow - The Great Peasant Bow:
The little known, yet much respected weapon of the Peasants, described as difficult to use but vicious and extremely powerfull in long range situations, in the hands of those who have mastered it. It is the weapon that leads Rencers to independance from Port Kar.
Quotes:
And there was, too, the great bow, of yellow, supple Ka-la-na, tipped with notched bosk horn, with its cord of hemp, whipped with silk, and the roll of sheaf and flight arrows. I counted the arrows. There were seventy arrows, fifty of which were sheaf arrows, twenty flight arrows. ---Raiders of Gor, p 68
:
Crossbow The common missile weapon of the Assassins, the crossbow comes in either the hand-drawn or windlass variety.
Quotes:
..and on Gor the crossbow, inferior in accuracy, range and rate of fire, with its heavy cable and its leaves of steel, tends to be generally favored. ---Raiders of Gor, p 2
the crossbow is the assassin's weapon, par excellence; further, it might be mentioned that, although it takes longer to set the crossbow, a weaker man, with, say, his belt claw or his winding gear, can certainly manage to do so; accordingly, for every man capable of drawing a warrior's long bow there will be an indefinite number who can use the crossbow; lastly, at shorter distances, the crossbow requires much less skill for accuracy than the long bow. ---Raiders of Gor, p 2
Hornbow of the Inuits:
A small bow built of layered pieces of tabuk horn bound with sinew. It is a weapon of the Red Hunters, native of Gor's Polar bassin.
Quotes:
About his shoulder he had slung some coils of braided rope, fashioned from twisted sleen hide, and, in his hand, he carried a sack and a bundle of tied furs; at his back was a quiver containing arrows, and a short bow of sinew-bound, layered horn. ---Beasts of Gor, 3:
The horn bow, unfortunately, formed of pieces of split tabuk horn, bound with sinew, is not effective beyond some thirty yards, One must, thus, be almost upon the animal before loosing the shaft. Wood is scarce in the north and the peasant bow, or longbow, is not known there. More importantly, in the colder weather, the long bow would freeze and snap, unable to bear the stress of being drawn to its customary extent. ---Beasts of Gor, 13:
Hornbow of Wagon People:
A small bow built of layered pieces of bosk horn bound and reinforced with metal and leather, banded with metal at seven points, including the grip. It is a weapon of the Wagon People, native of Gor's Southern Plains.
Quotes:
I learned as well the rope and bow. The bow, of course, small, for use from the saddle, lacks the range and power of the Gorean longbow or crossbow; still, at close range, with considerable force, firing rapidly, arrow after arrow, it is a fearsome weapon. ---Nomads of Gor, p 66
His lance remained on his back, but he carried in his right hand the small, powerful horn bow of the Wagon Peoples an attached to his saddle was a lacquered, narrow, rectangular quiver containing as many as forty arrows. ---Nomads of Gor, p 11
The small bow, interestingly, has never been used among tarnsmen; perhaps this is because the kaiila is almost unknown above the equator, and the lesson of kaiilaback fighting has not been much available to them; perhaps it is because of tradition, which weighs heavily in Gorean life, and even in military affairs; for example, the phalanx was abandoned only after more than a century of attempts to preserve and improve it; or perhaps the reason is that range is commonly more important to tarnsmen in flight than maneuverability of the bow. I suspect, however, that the truest reason is that tarnsmen, never having learned respect for the small bow, tend to despise such a weapon, regarding it as unworthy a Warrior''s hand, as being too puny and ineffective to win the approval of a true Gorean fighting man. Some of the riders of the Steels, I recalled, seeing it among the belongings of Gladius of Cos, had jested with me about it, asking if it were a toy, or perhaps a training bow for a child; these men, of course, had never, on kaiilaback, and it is just as well for them, met Tuchuks. It seemed to me that combat on kaiilaback, and combat on tarnback, had much in common; I suspected that the small bow, though it had never been proven in battle on tarnback, might prove that it had worth in the Gorean skies as well as on the dusty, southern plains; I had further, in many nights of training with my tarn, taught it to respond to a variety of voice commands, thus freeing my hands for the use of weapons. Commonly, the tarn responds only to one voice command, that of "Tabuk," which tends, roughly, to mean "Hunt and feed"; further, I would have liked to use the Tuchuk temwood thrusting lance from the saddle of a tarn. The tarnsman commonly carries, strapped to the saddle, a Gorean spear, a fearsome weapon, but primarily a missile weapon, and one more adapted to infantry. The tarnsmen, of course, centuries before, had been developed from land forces; it had always seemed to me that the tarn cavalries of Gor might be considerably improved by a judicious alteration of weapons and training practices; however, I had never had a command of tarnsmen of my own, and my ideas were of little interest, even to the tarnsmen of Ko-ro-ba, my city. ---Assassin of Gor, 22:
Ship Bow:
High firing rate short, stout and maneuverable bow used in crowded quarters and galleys locked in combat.
Quotes:
All things considered, the ship bow is an ideal missile weapon for close-range naval combat. it is superior in this respect even to the peasant bow, or long bow, which excells it in impact, range and accuracy. ---Rogue of Gor, 32:307-308
Northern Short Bow:
Short bow of the Northern areas of Gor, used with short, heavy arrows. Said to be accurate with a short range of a hundred and fifty yards. Useful in close combat on a ship, and easily fired through a thole port with the oar withdrawn.
Quotes:
the short bow of the Gorean north, with its short, heavy arrows, heavily headed, lacks the range and power of the peasant bow of the south, that now, too, the property of the rencers of the delta, but, at short range, within a hundred and fifty yeard, it can administer a considerable strike. It has, too the advantage that it is more manageable in close quarters than the peasant bow, resembing somewhat the Tuchuk bow of layered horn, in this respect. It is more useful in close combat on a ship, for example, than would be the peasant bow. Too, it is easier to fire it through a thole port, the oar withdawn. ---Marauders of Gor, p 52
Small Bow of Red Savages:
Said to be by far, the quickest in rate of fire of all Gorean weapons, this bow is favored by the Red Savages of the Barrens.
Quotes: The small bow has many advantages. High among these is the rapidity with which it may be drawn and fired. A skilled warrior, in the Gorean gravity, can fire ten arrows into the air, the last leaving the bow before the first has returned to the earth. No Gorean weapon can match it in its rate of fire. At close range, it ca be devastating. Two further advantages of the small bow that might be mentioned are it manoeuverability and its capacity to be concealed, say beneath a robe. It can be easily swept from one side of the kaiila to the other. ---Savages of Gor, 1:46
Flight arrow:
A metal-piled arrow for the great bow, fletched with three Vosk gull wing half-feathers, approximately forty inches in length.
Quotes:
...the flight arrow is about forty inches in length. Both are metal piled and fletched with three half-feathers, from the wings of the Vosk gulls. ---Raiders of Gor, p 68
The arrows of the longbow, in contrast, are generally long, a yard or more in length, slender, of wood, and feathered. ---John Norman, Letter to the Gorean Group, Sept 20th 2000
Hunting arrow(commonly referred to as non barbed online):
As the name indicates, an arrow fitted with a head made for hunting. More specifically, this term is used in describing one of the two types of arrows used by the red Savages.
Quotes:
... The heads of certain war arrows and hunting arrows differ, too, at least in the case of certain warriors, in an interesting way, with respect to the orientation of the plane of the point to the plane of the nock. The heads of certain war arrows and hunting arrows differ, too, at least in the case of certain warriors, in an interesting way, with respect to the orientation of the plane of the point to the plane of the nock. In these war arrows, the plane of the point is perpendicular to the plane of the nock. In level shooting, then, the plane of the point is roughly parallel to the ground. In these hunting arrows, on the other hand, the plane of the point is parallel to the plane of the nock. In level shooting, then, the plane of the point is roughly perpendicular to the ground. The reason for these different orientations is particularly telling at close ranges, before the arrow begins to turn in the air. The ribs of the kailiauk are vertical to the ground; the ribs of the human are horizontal to the ground. Savages of Gor, pp 40-41
Quarrel:
Small, high velocity arrow used with crossbows.
Quotes:
On each side of the saddle hung a missile weapon, a crossbow with a quiver of a dozen quarrels, or bolts, on the left, a longbow with a quiver of thirty arrows on the right. ---Tarnsman of Gor, 5:
The latter had trained his crossbow on my breast. At that distance he could not have missed, and if he had fired at that range, most probably the quarrel would have passed through my body and disappeared in the woods behind. The initial velocity of a quarrel is the better part of a pasang per second. ---Tarnsman of Gor, 7:
Sheaf arrow:
A metal-piled arrow for the great bow, fletched with three Vosk gull wing half-feathers, a little over a yard in length.
Quotes:
The Gorean sheaf arrow is slightly over a yard long, the flight arrow is about forty inches in length. Both are metal piled and fletched with three half-feathers, from the wings of the Vosk gulls. ---Raiders of Gor, p 68
As I strode toward the camp, my hand held the great bow. Over my left shoulder, slung, was sword and scabbard. At my belt was a sleen knife; at my hip, in a verr-skin quiver, temwood sheaf arrows, nineteen of them, piled with steel, winged with the feathers of the vosk gull. ---Hunters of Gor, 12:
I fitted an arrow, of black tem-wood, with a pile point, to the string of the yellow (long) bow. The string was of hemp, whipped with silk. The arrow was winged with the feathers of the Vosk gull. ---Beasts of Gor, 11:
Simple pile arrow(aka "barbed" arrows):
This term may be applied to flight or sheaf arrows and indicates that the tip of the arrow, is shaped in such a way that it may be withdrawn from a wound in the direction of entry, as opposed to a Tuchuk barbed arrow, which requires 'pushing' it through the wound to remove it.
Quotes:
I had used simple-pile arrows, which may be withdrawn from a wound. The simple pile gives greater penetration. Had I used a broad-headed arrow, or the Tuchuk barbed arrow, one would, in removing it, commonly thrust the arrow completely through the wound, drawing it out feathers last. One is, accordingly, in such cases, less likely to lose the point in the body. ---Raiders of Gor, p 79