Levin pistols are one of the newest weapons being developed in Arbor. Capable of hurling bolts of purple lightning from a handheld device into a hapless victim with barely any sign of a kick back they are in some ways an improvement over the already formidable
Steam Pistol. However because of their reliance on
Levin Stones they have not seen a wide adoption in the city's populace or official needs.
"Something about those purple lightning shooters scares me. I saw a guy get hit with one and he didn't stop shaking for three days and he still can't taste anything but burnt toast." - Green Cloak Inspector
History
A recent invention created by
The Bonded as a direct competitor to the Steam pistol and its related technologies. At present only the Bonded's operatives even carry the things though a few have found their way on to the open and black market as new regulations haven't quite caught up to them.
Inventor
The nature of the Bonded orginization is such that no individual has been named as an inventor and instead the orginization itself lays its claim to it and the intellectual property that it represents.
Impact
At present it is one of the defacto weapons for several criminal orgnizations that cannot get a hold of steam pistols as they are a highly controlled device. In some ways Levin pistols level the playing field between those gifted with magic and those who are not so expect the
Silver Council to step in soon and regulate them much the same way they regulate the Steam pistols though how effective this will be is any one's guess after all the genie is well and truly out of the bottle at this point.
Utility
Levin pistols offer two significant advantages over Steam Pistols:
Levin Pistol Output can be adjusted
Unlike steam pistols which hurl a ball of iron through the air at incredible speeds and are thus always lethal Levin pistol output can be adjusted to go from simply shocking and incapacitating a target to vaporising them completely and everywhere in between, of course at present study needs to be conducted to determine how much energy one needs to actually incapacitate a person without killing them and given the myriad of sizes and shapes within Arbor this may be more an art for than science for now.
Ammo for Levin Pistols is far less dangerous
Many a
Green Cloak will tell a tale of a fellow officer or themselves having their steam cartridge explode either in their hand when reloading or being hit by stray fire and detonating in their side are. The Levin Pistols suffer no such problem and in addition the Crystals themselves can be recharged simply by taking it back to the bonded.
Still with these advantages comes the drawbacks, steam power and thus recharging the compressed steam is far more ubiquitous and in addition the need to recharge is measured in lots of 50 shots for pistols so it's rare for one to run out in the course of a day whereas the Levin Pistols only manage at most a dozen shots before needing to be replaced and the only spot in the city to offer such services is the Bonded themselves.
Components
A levin pistol comprises two main components: the crystal itself held in a chamber in the handle and then the main body of the weapon which includes focusing crystals and special dials that are used to dial in several settings for the weapon. Much of these dials control things like intensity beam width and length and colour of the lightning produced. Most users don't really change much of these settings and simply leave it on the default.
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