The
Firelance, also known as a
Gunlance (
Ognennoye Kop'ye - russian, Vohnyanyy Spys - ukrainian, Działo -polish) is a new age take on an old age weapon. What could best be described as the modern day cousin to the medieval
Lance, the Firelance is designed entirely off of the ancient weapon of the same name, which was the first true gunpowder weapon and the ancestor of many modern firearms. However, unlike the Firelance that first appeared in 10th–12th century China, the Firelance of post-war Europe, retains almost a
gun like design and compared to the Lance, the Firelance is a unique weapon that is quite different from its brother. Instead of running full speed ahead hoping for damage, the Firelance was designed to eject exploding shells that could deal massive damage to anything the lance was pointed at.
As the name implies, the Firelance has a gun embedded in it, which when activated with a press of a button, allows it to be
fired. The shots are quite short ranged however and do not cover long distances as say the common Gun does, but despite this short-distance limitation, the Firelance does work well when linked with the stabs of the Lance. When a shot isn't required the Firelance is a bastion of defense while having impressive range and damage, with its basic attacks being a mix range of stabs, sweeps and slams. Its because of this, many users of this weapons tend to customize their weapons with various forms of offensive "bayonet's" such as spikes or clubs.
Beast Jousting
Beast Jousters are specialist hunters who hunt large prey, often dragons, but it is not uncommon for them to hunt other large beasts. And while the "dragons" of the post-war European age are a far cry from their stereotypical and somewhat medieval, fire breathing relatives from a bygone era, they are none the less an interesting thing to hunt and many make a career out of it.
Spear hunting could quite possibly be one of the oldest method of hunting in the world. The only thing that could be simpler would be throwing a heavy rock or a stick. Spears and spear hunting has been around since as far back as 400,000 years ago according to archaeological digs in Germany. Spear hunting has even been observed in different primates, including the western chimpanzee and the orangutan. Spear hunting became so prominent with early man it is a theorized that hunters with spears helped cause the Quaternary extinction event by killing so many herbivores. The reason spears rose the prominence was their simplicity, with the most basic spears being sharpened sticks.
In Europe, spear hunting has a long history embedded into it. For example, once commonly found in many parts of Great Britain, the wild boar was strictly preserved in the royal forests during the medieval period for the benefit of the monarch and favored noblemen. Boar were hunted by packs of large mastiff-type hounds at this time, and when cornered and held at bay were slaughtered using swords and spears. Over time when they were hunted to extinction is much of Britain, Sportsmen then began to travel to mainland Europe in pursuit of wild boar, usually staying as invited guests with local gentry or members of the aristocracy in countries such as Austria, Bohemia, France, Germany, Hungary and Russia.
As the spear slowly gave way to the gun however, spear hunting became less popular as time went on. However those who enjoyed the thrill it gave them kept the hobby alive. Despite this, hunting with a spear still remains more dangerous than hunting with a gun, or even a bow. If you miss with a spear you may only scare the game away. If you miss a vital spot on your chosen game then you may have to face a wild wounded animal, which is never safe.
Enter the production of the
Firelance.
The Firelance was suppose to be the answer to both
Power and
Convenience as well as upgrade the typical use for a hunting with lance/spear that many people still used. And while it does have it's downsides, the Firelance still remains one of the most popular weapons to use against large game as it presents a unique twist on a historical method of hunting which many big game hunters find thrilling, and people tend to often pay more for a spectacle, despite the obvious dangers it presents.
Despite this, while hunting large game, Firelance's are not usually the first weapon of choice and are usually used as a back up too deliver a final coup de grace to fallen creatures by stabbing it into a weak spot on the creature, such as the chest or the eyes and then repeatedly firing into it. In most cases the spear part of the weapon is often designed as such that once it penetrates something, it is quite securely anchored into the target. Those who desire a challenge however, will often remove the hook in favor of something else like a club or a large blade too do added damage to swing and slam attacks.
Certain regional design choices also make changes to the weapon that allows the gun portion of the weapon to be fired more than once, making it capable of delivering up too several lethal blows once it has been anchored into the creature, 7 is normally the limit as anything higher ends up being a concern of a potential weight distribution issue thus making the Firelance too top heavy. Changes like these are also often regional as material required to make the weapon more customizable are very hard to come by in poorer parts of the country and as such using a Firelance to hunt is often saved for those of "rich" upper status or simply those who can afford the material or are willing to pay someone to have it made for someone such as
Royal Beast-Hunters or
Hunters for Hire
Mount are often used due to potential of the lances unwieldy size, but they are not necessary as an averagely built man can carry and run with the lance and accurately pierce it into their target just as easy as one with a mount. As a results, mounts are often only used when a Beast Jouster is participating in a
blood-sport, where timing and precision for quick kills are discarded for flashy foot-work and expert maneuvering skills and lengthening the hunt as long as possible.
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