Bowyer

A delicate craft, requiring patience, nimble fingers, a strong knowledge base of botany, specifically the qualities of various types of wood, horn, and sinew. Also a slowly dying trade, bowyers find themselves the slow victims of the inevitable march of progress.

The art of bow-making, while still having a strong cultural significance in a few countries such as Depenwood, Rohara and Valewyr, is a slowly dying craft. With the advent of smokepowder, and as firearms improve in quality and become more and more readily available, this is an unsurprising outcome. Guns are easier to use, and therefore easier to arm a military force with. Less training, less expense. As with any weapon or armor making trade and business, the instant the military coin begins to dry up, the trade will experience decline, such is the nature of things.

This is not to say that it may every truly die. There does lie a level of cultural significane, especially to those of the Depenwood and Rohara, in the art. Bows are a central cultural heritage in those nations, a part of childhood is learning to shoot. However in more urban areas, this is beginning to change. In most countries it has, as Bowyers are more a curiosity now, than a vital part of the military industry. They have been relegated to the realm of interesting curiosities. Guns do the same job better, more efficiently, and for less carried gear, all of which are big wins. Guns also have more stopping power and are more damaging and dangerous, and generally even have a longer effective range. All these factors have led to a marked and rather steep decline to the art form of bowyering.

The final toll of the bell for this craft, as it were, was and is the beginnings of industrialization. There are certain types of firearms that can be easily manufactored en masse in a way that just wouldn't be effective with bows. Combine this with the need for far less training, far less investment to get the same level of combat effectivenss, it is easy to see why militaries of the day are moving away from bowmen and crossbowmen.

Type

Military