[Mkguild] Fireworks and their alternatives

[JL Badgley]

On Fri, Aug 22, 2008 at 9:23 PM, Ben Kaufman <kaufmabr at gmail.com> wrote:
> As a side note mabey to go along with the idea of the iluminators guild,
> they wouldnt be as powerful as whales but i thought of a different idea with
> them.  HAve them Employed by the emporer of Os-Var-Khai.  Remember that the
> chiniese discovered gunpowder  long before europeans. But they <as far as my
> knowledge, used it in a gun form other then something like a cannon, and
> even those were pretty rare. Have them be the personal entertainers for the
> emporer while also giving them the ideal that a job done without magic more
> spectacular. Just another idea that i thought of, it would get rid of there
> "power" that i spoke of earlier and since they are employed by the emporer
> her could send a couple to metamor as gifts , like he did Mong Ho, Ye and
> Desuka.

Chinese had rockets, and the Mongols had a type of pot that would
explode (basically a handgrenade, though it could also be flung from
various seige weapons).  The Europeans eventually figured they could
put it in a metal tube and push either a bolt or metal ball out the
end.  Still, most of this revolved around the fact that it burned--it
didn't 'explode' like most people think.  Also, you need a small hole
or you would end up having it blast backwards in your face, and if
your metal wasn't very well worked or the ball got stuck, or, or,
or... lots of things could go wrong.  'Hoisted by his own petard'
anyone?

I don't see there being a contradiction in having rockets but no guns,
personally.

-Tatsushu