Amaya Blackstone (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
special_rabbit) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2022-02-02 03:49 am
special_rabbit) wrote in fandomhigh2022-02-02 03:49 am
Weaponry; Wednesday, Second Period [02/02].
"'Morning, class." Once again, on a bright, sunny field, Amaya and Rosa stood between a couple of racks of weapons, with a table in front of them for demonstration, ready to begin another exciting class of weaponry and mayhem.
Well, much more weaponry than mayhem so far, but this week's class definitely had some real potential for that last one!
"So far, we've covered quite a few melee weapons, from your daggers to your swords to your axes, and today, we're going the distance," insert long pause for appreciation for a joke she was far prouder of than she had any right to be, "with the quintesential long-range weapon, the bow and arrow!"
"Like most weapons," Amaya continued, "bows are fairly simple in concept, but a lot more complex in practice. As I mentioned, they're a long range weapon, used from a distance, and have been around since time immemorial, as an effective way to not only defend oneself from enemies, but to also hunt. Once again, you'll notice the trend of a weapon also being useful as a tool. It consists of an elastic launching device...that's the bow itself...and long, shafted projectiles to shoot. That's the arrow. Other fun terms to bandy about? The art of shooting a bow is called archery, and has been incredibly popular as sport as well as for function for a very long time, in this world as well as others, though it's mostly popular for just sport these days in this world, what with having guns and all. A person who makes bows is called a bowyer, the person making the arrows is a fletcher, and the person making the metal at the tip of the arrow is the arrowsmith, and I'm proud to say, I'm a decent hand at all three titles.
"Now," Amaya continued, picking up a simple one to point out some of the things she was going to start talking about, "basic bows come in quite a few different shapes and sizes, especially once you start branching away from wood and into the fancy, loaded up ones they've got today, but the basic principle's the same. You've got an arc," tracing the shape of the bow with her finger, "and a bowstring," giving it a little pluck. "It's important that the arc is semi-rigid; you don't want a stiff arc on your bow, it needs to be a bit flexible, a bit elastic, so when you're picking out bows, that's always something to look for. It's not all the bowstring! In fact, the strings are often and frequently changed and switched out. Got a bad bowstring, it's easy to find another, but if your arc is no good, then you've got a bad bow all around. When you string a bow, you want to make sure it's high-tensile and tight, but not too tight. You want a little give. The end of your arrow nocks into the bowstring, and the archer pulls the bowstring back, creating tension and building up kinetic energy, using the arc to help aim the projectile, and then...whoosh! Release, and the arrow goes flying. It takes many years of practice to get it down, and I myself am definitely no archer, but, thankfully, Detective Diaz here is, and so she'll be showing you all exactly how that works. I'm mostly here to talk about the bones of it all.
"As I've said, bows come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and designs, but we're going to focus on three of them today.
"There's the recurve bow, where you'll see the limbs of the arc curve away from the archer at the ends, see? It's shape and size allows for it to store more energy than a more straight limbed bow, making it very popular with mounted archers. Depending on the materials and the severity of the recurve in the design, it can flex and bend in some interesting ways. This method of archery puts a lot of stress on the arc, and you'll hear it when you shoot it, and, if you're not careful, you can flex it too much, and you'll need to go find yourself a bowyer after that!
"And then a compound bow is actually sort of an...enhanced bow, as it involves a series of pulleys on the ends to help give the archer a mechanical advantage. Because of these pulleys taking the pressure off the arc to pull the bowstring, the arc of a compound bow can be much stiffer and firmer, making it much more energy-efficient, and also more durable when it comes to things like temperature and humity, all of which will likely alter how your more traditional bows are shooting. A compound bow is an excellent example of how even the most simpliest machines of technology can improve upon a weapon, especially one that requires a lot of physical and kinetic factors.
"Then, finally, we have the longbow, the big guy! Typically, a long bow will be about the height of the archer themselves, which allows for, as the name would suggest, a long draw. Clearly, this isn't the bow you're going to want to totewhile prancing around on a horse! Traditionally, woods like elm and yew are used for longbows because of their elaticity, and, unlike our previous bows, they're traditionally made as one solid piece for the arc, rather than two...or more!...joined together. When it's made from one piece, we call that a self bow. A longbow, while larger and not as powerful as our other bows, is much lighter, it's much quicker to prepare a shot with one, and it's quite a bit quieter, too, making them ideal for combat situations or hunting.
"That just about covers the basics," Amaya grinned faintly. "If there's any questions, though, let's have 'em, and then we're going to get to work. First, before we get to the fun part, I'm going to teach you all how to actually string a bow, because a bow's not much good if you've gone and snapped a string or worn it down and can't replace it with a new one. Then it's off to Detective Diaz, where she'll go over nocking, aiming, and shooting at the targets we've got set up over there, and I'm sure, by the end of the class, if you're not an expert already, you will be!
"Or," she added, chuckling faintly, "at the very least, since we're in the Danger Shop, if you're not an expert by the end of class, at least you'll not have lost an eye."
Well, much more weaponry than mayhem so far, but this week's class definitely had some real potential for that last one!
"So far, we've covered quite a few melee weapons, from your daggers to your swords to your axes, and today, we're going the distance," insert long pause for appreciation for a joke she was far prouder of than she had any right to be, "with the quintesential long-range weapon, the bow and arrow!"
"Like most weapons," Amaya continued, "bows are fairly simple in concept, but a lot more complex in practice. As I mentioned, they're a long range weapon, used from a distance, and have been around since time immemorial, as an effective way to not only defend oneself from enemies, but to also hunt. Once again, you'll notice the trend of a weapon also being useful as a tool. It consists of an elastic launching device...that's the bow itself...and long, shafted projectiles to shoot. That's the arrow. Other fun terms to bandy about? The art of shooting a bow is called archery, and has been incredibly popular as sport as well as for function for a very long time, in this world as well as others, though it's mostly popular for just sport these days in this world, what with having guns and all. A person who makes bows is called a bowyer, the person making the arrows is a fletcher, and the person making the metal at the tip of the arrow is the arrowsmith, and I'm proud to say, I'm a decent hand at all three titles.
"Now," Amaya continued, picking up a simple one to point out some of the things she was going to start talking about, "basic bows come in quite a few different shapes and sizes, especially once you start branching away from wood and into the fancy, loaded up ones they've got today, but the basic principle's the same. You've got an arc," tracing the shape of the bow with her finger, "and a bowstring," giving it a little pluck. "It's important that the arc is semi-rigid; you don't want a stiff arc on your bow, it needs to be a bit flexible, a bit elastic, so when you're picking out bows, that's always something to look for. It's not all the bowstring! In fact, the strings are often and frequently changed and switched out. Got a bad bowstring, it's easy to find another, but if your arc is no good, then you've got a bad bow all around. When you string a bow, you want to make sure it's high-tensile and tight, but not too tight. You want a little give. The end of your arrow nocks into the bowstring, and the archer pulls the bowstring back, creating tension and building up kinetic energy, using the arc to help aim the projectile, and then...whoosh! Release, and the arrow goes flying. It takes many years of practice to get it down, and I myself am definitely no archer, but, thankfully, Detective Diaz here is, and so she'll be showing you all exactly how that works. I'm mostly here to talk about the bones of it all.
"As I've said, bows come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and designs, but we're going to focus on three of them today.
"There's the recurve bow, where you'll see the limbs of the arc curve away from the archer at the ends, see? It's shape and size allows for it to store more energy than a more straight limbed bow, making it very popular with mounted archers. Depending on the materials and the severity of the recurve in the design, it can flex and bend in some interesting ways. This method of archery puts a lot of stress on the arc, and you'll hear it when you shoot it, and, if you're not careful, you can flex it too much, and you'll need to go find yourself a bowyer after that!
"And then a compound bow is actually sort of an...enhanced bow, as it involves a series of pulleys on the ends to help give the archer a mechanical advantage. Because of these pulleys taking the pressure off the arc to pull the bowstring, the arc of a compound bow can be much stiffer and firmer, making it much more energy-efficient, and also more durable when it comes to things like temperature and humity, all of which will likely alter how your more traditional bows are shooting. A compound bow is an excellent example of how even the most simpliest machines of technology can improve upon a weapon, especially one that requires a lot of physical and kinetic factors.
"Then, finally, we have the longbow, the big guy! Typically, a long bow will be about the height of the archer themselves, which allows for, as the name would suggest, a long draw. Clearly, this isn't the bow you're going to want to totewhile prancing around on a horse! Traditionally, woods like elm and yew are used for longbows because of their elaticity, and, unlike our previous bows, they're traditionally made as one solid piece for the arc, rather than two...or more!...joined together. When it's made from one piece, we call that a self bow. A longbow, while larger and not as powerful as our other bows, is much lighter, it's much quicker to prepare a shot with one, and it's quite a bit quieter, too, making them ideal for combat situations or hunting.
"That just about covers the basics," Amaya grinned faintly. "If there's any questions, though, let's have 'em, and then we're going to get to work. First, before we get to the fun part, I'm going to teach you all how to actually string a bow, because a bow's not much good if you've gone and snapped a string or worn it down and can't replace it with a new one. Then it's off to Detective Diaz, where she'll go over nocking, aiming, and shooting at the targets we've got set up over there, and I'm sure, by the end of the class, if you're not an expert already, you will be!
"Or," she added, chuckling faintly, "at the very least, since we're in the Danger Shop, if you're not an expert by the end of class, at least you'll not have lost an eye."
Listen to the Lecture - Weaponry, 02/02.
But there's always time for questions if you got 'em!