I was curious, how exactly did black powder become presented to The Empire?
I have heard that the Dwarves introduced it to them, but did The Empire pay for the technology? Or was it gifted to them?
Any and all information would be more than useful,
Thanks Hommies!
Well, as I can say, there's no specific one moment where the Empire went from Did Not Have to Did Have. Some of the older Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay books like Shades of Empire mention that Tileans introduced the idea of cannons and gunpowder during the age of the Three Emperors (and made the Dwarves angry thanks to the Empire adopting really really shoddy weapons), there has been mention of a cannon taking off Vlad von Carstein's head during the Vampire wars, the Steam Tanks always had their swivel gun on top, etc so on, so forth.
From what I understand, Emperor Magnus was the guy who standardized cannon and gun manufacture, as well as giving the Imperial Charter to help fund the Gunnery School in Nuln, but it's not like that there were no gunpowder weapons in the Empire before then. It just became much more widespread (and reliable....I guess?) afterwards.
The Dwarves have taught The Empire a small amount of their engineering/ballistics/metallurgy knowledge, but I'm not sure on the exact date on the Imperial Calender. Basically, after the War of the Beard, both the Elves and Dwarves had reduced their numbers to make their current holdings unsustainable. The Dwarves retreated into the World's Edge Mountains & found an ally with Humans since they both fought Greenskins (this is pre-Sigmar). Over time, probably beginning with Dwarf traders, Dwarf technology began to spread across what would become the Empire. So at the very start of the Empire there's a fair amount of interaction with Dwarves. The Dwarves see a strong Empire as really the only thing letting them hang on to what they have so they have an interest in helping. Humans have made their own improvements and inventions based on Dwarf technology. Some Black Library books suggest Dwarves have given Humans only a fraction of their true knowledge.
Blackpowder could have been brought to the Empire by dwarfs who live there.Originally Posted by Durpp
Many large towns in the Empire have dwarf communities that make a living by selling dwarf crafts. Outcasts of the Dwarf engineering guild sometimes move to the Empire to continue their work in a less restricting enviroment.
My theory is that dwarfs brought gunpowder to the Empire through hired gunsmiths. Some stayed and kept producing gunpowder commercially for armories of the Empire. Eventually some humans figure out the recipe from the materials that keep going into dwarf workshops and by watching them work or getting hired as labour.
I think it was probably a case of the Imperials copying what they saw the dwarfs doing with limited/disasterous results, and the dwarfs saying well if you got this far on your own, heres how you dont lose all your fingers firing that hand cannon. And from there it moved on. The High King probably forbade any dwarf from teaching humans this tech before that point.
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In God King a Dwarf party are ambushed with their organ gun. It is brought to Reikdorf and after the final battle there is some black powder left that the chief smith reckons he can replicate. It said the ingredients were learned from traders from Cathay, just the quantities and any unknown ingredients (that causes slow burn or less explosiveness) were hard to figure out without the sample left by the Dwarfs.
Presumably then, we're looking some time around Sigmar's 40th birthday, whatever year that is on the IC.
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The appearance of the organ gun in God-King was, for me, somewhere between a shark-jump and an outright wall-banger. I thought it couldn't get worse after Empire, but clearly no depths were to be unplumbed.
Indeed. Black powder weapons are a fairly recent addition to the empire army.
Handguns were still experimental in 1999 (see Mordheim) but cannons have been in use for a longer time.
Dwarfs taught their human allies how to create cannon during one of the Empire many wars but I can't remember which it was.
In IC 1979 the Wizards War broke out in Middenheim and spread throughout the Empire. The Dwarfs decided to share their oldest and simplest blackpowder tech with the Empire (ie. cannons).
In IC 1999 during 'the Mordheim event' most blackpowder weapons were bought from the dwarfs at great expense, though some forges in Nuln and Altdorf had started to experiment with making handguns.
As I mentioned in your other thread.
Thanks hommies!
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