History: Firearms

For many years, even in the Technological Revolution, Mobian society eschewed the use of any firearms. The accidental death of a Mobian prince by an Overlander handgun several generations before led to a general distrust and fear of these ranged weapons. No firearms of any sort were used, owned or produced by Mobians for hundreds of years.

By stark contrast, Overlander society had a strange passion and enthusiasm for the gun. Virtually all adult Overlanders owned and carried one, and occasionally, the gun played a larger role than politics in determining positions of power in their culture. These two societies were perhaps destined to clash because of this alone.

The beginning of The Great War brought these two races together on opposite sides of the battlefields. Mobian soldiers and knights were by far the better trained of the two races, and in their heavy plate and master-crafted weapons, the Mobians were devastatingly effective martial fighters. The gun, however, in the hands of the Overlanders made all the armor and melee weapons in the world irrelevant. 

Overlanders slaughtered Mobian forces by the thousands. The entire First Royal Knight Corps was wiped out to the last Mobian in one battle. The lack of a more advanced ranged weapon than the crossbow was costing the Mobian race the whole war. Ultimately, Mobiankind faced a sad choice; abandon their long-held belief that nothing good came from firearms and embrace the gun, or face total defeat.

In sad testament to the power of guns, or perhaps to the power of desperation, King Frederic Acorn delivered his famed ‘Declaration of Martial Equality’, effectively opening the door for the Scientific Council to begin research on lethal ranged weaponry.