On Medeavis, iron does not belong to common people. Every ton dug from the polar mines goes to Metropolis, for ships the natives will never see. So the people of Medeavis fight with what is left: bronze, wood, rope, fire, and the best archers in the Helios System.

Iron for the few

Only the knights, men tied to the lieutenants of Metropolis, carry iron: battle-axes made to break plate, lances built to shatter on the charge, full armor. Everyone else fights in bronze. Short swords, daggers and infantry axes are good enough against anyone without plate. Those who cannot afford a blade carry a mace.

A people of archers

The most common weapon on Medeavis has no blade. The Colonial Cities raise generation after generation of archers who hit moving targets at distances a knight in armor cannot even see. The faithful of the Cult of the Phoenixes add the crossbow. Arrowheads change with the job: barbed for hunting, narrow for war, hooked at sea to tear sails and rigging.

The Pyromancers’ Flame

Metropolis has always hunted down gunpowder. It never noticed this. The Pyromancers dry and grind flowers and resins from the volcanic peaks, in proportions only the initiated know, and get a mixture that ignites with a spark or a blow. On an arrow it burns its target. Sealed in a clay shell, it is thrown by hand or by catapult. Pirates use a crude copy, the Raw Flame: weaker, less stable, good for burning everything in sight.

Ships that lie about the wind

Three kinds of ships cross the Vorkai and Selthar seas: wide, slow cargo ships, the war galleons that escort them, and the light, fast craft of the pirates, who know every shoal and every current of the Twilight Oasis. Almost all of them sail on wind alone. Almost. On some official ships, Metropolis has hidden engines. Their small, trusted crews raise sails that do nothing and steer as if the wind were pushing them. Anyone who notices does not stay on Medeavis for long.

Siege tactics, ship sizes and speeds, and naval warfare are in the full entry.