United Exian Weaponsmiths

History

The United Exian Weaponsmiths, or Susamanid Varoda e Gavar Sekarajete Etekusia, directly translated as "Combined Sword and Gun Create People of Exia", is an ancient collection of small shops and factories under a single name, who have supplied Exia's military with arms and armor for hundreds of years.

An Age of Swords

Long ago, in BC188, the first exian weaponsmiths would produce the first "Choppers". Massive cleavers that functioned as the standard sword for the Exian military. They would change over time in keeping with the need to penetrate stronger and stronger armor, adding handguards, narrowing the blade until it came to a point needed to puncture mail and fit between plates.
Sometime in the AC500s, the first "Light guns", or "Galogavar" would be made. Galogavar are small wooden tubes set into silver handles etched with instructions to the charge. A piece of soulstone would be dropped into it, and the end pointed at an enemy. The wielder would will it to be fired, causing a burst of magical energy to be directed out towards the enemy.
The wooden tube would be entirely destroyed after one or two shots, making them effectively single use, and carrying too many foot-long wooden pipes was not feasible. This would be seen many centuries later as the basis for the Ivanovka BRM956, the crystal charge firearm.
These weapons would eventually result in a weapon known as a light cannon, or "Galogavari". This weapon was a scaled up version of its predecessor. An entire hollowed tree trunk carried into battle by twenty men, chanting spells until it was set up on its stands. These weapons would blast entire legions of men into ash and devastate cities, but its use was extremely expensive.
They saw little use by Exia, let alone any of the other Drow kingdoms, and was seen as a war crime by the majority of human nations at the time, as anti-magic sentiments were high.

The Restoration

When Amalxa's royal family came back to the world alongside several others in the early AC1000s, the Exian Armories were restarted with the nation, now officially solidified under the name "United Exian Weaponsmiths". One of the first weapons put into production by the new Exian Weaponsmiths was the Denidarian Arms Company Carbine, Model AC1069, a trapdoor breech loader design created by and licensed from the Denidarian Arms Company.

As the arms race in nearby countries swept up into a whirlwind in the AC1130s, 40s, and 50s, Amalxa reached out to her allies and old personal friends. Requests included a rifle that accepted soulstone batteries that they were already making. Exia recieved aid from Dalera Se-Irrindal, being shipped a dozen prototype models of a modified Irrindal Model AC1160 rifle. This would come to be known as the Exian Model AC1165 Rifle.

The short "bolt" is simply used to lock a battery in place, which can be fired from either in short blasts or as a solid beam of magical energy. While it proved to be effective, it was unreliable and unpredictable, with the number of shots per battery ranging from five to eight depending on exactly how long the trigger was held down.

A World at War

With the increasing militarization and violent patriotism in their neighbor, now called New Dendarin, they decided it was important to find a replacement for their old rifles. The design came from Bausable in the form of the Ivanovka Model AC1179 Repeating Rifle, or IM79-RR.

This was seen as a bonus in more than one way, as the two nations were growing increasingly close thanks to the ties between the two royal families, with both sharing an heir in the form of Anya Deroya, or Anya Adrianaisil Iraisil Exiaej, as she is known in Exia.
The weapon was updated to accept magazines a year later to catch up with other nations, such as New Dendarin and Sterlina.

Shortly before their war with New Dendarin, Ivanovka would produce two additional weapons. The first was in the form of the Ivanovka Automatic Carbine, Model 1181. This was intended to fill the gap between the full power SLR-M86 and M80 pistol, but what Exia had asked for was a battle rifle, much like the Shwetz Armament Company StGM81 used in New Dendarin.

Viktoriya thought ahead well, reasoning that a fully automatic rifle in Exia's standard PR8.3x54mm, or even her own P7.7x55mm cartridge, would be a very uncontrollable weapon in full auto fire. She took a case from a 9mm light rifle cartridge from Lameianis and necked it down to 7.7mm. The carbine itself would be a delayed blowback system using a bolt face that recedes into the bolt body. Its retreat causes the bolt body to rotate and unlock, allowing the action to cycle on its own. The weapon would be produced in limited numbers and treated more as a submachine gun than the assault rifle it was.
It would see a resurgence of popularity and return to production during the Polustranyan Independence war in AC1186 as the Polustranya 3-Line Assault Carbine, Year of 1181. They would add a metal spur to the grip to aid in controlling the rifle in automatic fire, but otherwise left it unchanged.
The second was the Ivanovka Armor and Vehicle Rifle Model AC1181, a single-shot bolt-action rifle intended to be carried by a single soldier, fired from the shoulder or from a bipod or tripod against heavy infantry or vehicles, especially planes, which New Dendarin had proven to be fond of. While not the first weapon of its kind, that title belonging to the Kizae Type 171 Heavy Rifle, it was the first ever put into service in its region.

The militaries of Bausable never used very many of them, as they were quite heavy and the recoil was strong. The weapon was something far more suited to the stature of the drow as opposed to that of humans. When loaded in its Mobility configuration, without a stand, it weighed slightly more than 21 pounds, or 9.5 kilograms, and measured in at 54.9 inches in length, or 138.5 centimeters.
It featured a simpler notch rear sight as opposed to the half-ring featured on the M79-RR, and a hole was milled into the grip. Into the hole, a steel plate was inserted and held to the main stock with two pins, with one screw fixing the front of the trigger guard to the forestock. Scales were fixed to the protrusion to function as a grip, used to support the rifle and aid in handling it due to its weight.
After one and one-half years, in AC1183, the classification of the weapon would be changed to "long range and anti-material rifle", after the Shwetz Armament Company Landschiff und Fliegergewehr Modell AC1182, now being seen as an important weapon class by New Dendarin due to the success of the IAVR-M81.

The M83 Heavy Rifle became the mark of Exian and Bausablite marksmen thanks to its long barrel and high charge volume, giving it excellent bolt coherency over distance and armor penetration capabilities that outstripped any other piece of military small arms at the time. Changes made uncluded adding a box magazine well that accepted 5-charge magazines, an optic mounting rail at a 60 degree offset, and a redesigned trigger guard that was no longer part of the grip tang plate.
The repeating rifle would see retrofitting to accept small box magazines to modernize the rifle, as it had been designed by Viktoriya Ivanovka some two decades before, but it was accepted as both adopters were desperate for more modern arms. Exia being armed with their M65, and Bausable having dragged their feet and relying on a rifle designed by one of their client states back in AC1140, fed with a tube magazine.
Six years after the magazine had been changed, the rifle was updated again to gain an advantage in the rebellion of Novya Polustranya against Bausable. A new receiver was made to turn the rifle into a self-loading rifle. The Ivanovka Self-Loading Rifle, Model AC1186 was made.

A New Breed for the South

During the Polustranyan Independence War, the Alpha Undying operatives tearing through Bausable's rear line used a new, inexpensive rifle called the AU-AR, or Alpha Undying Assault Rifle.

The rifle was very short, and fired a weak charge when compared to other long arms at the time. When the AU operatives defected to the side of Exia and Bausable, the rifles were turned over to UEW and Bausable's national armories. The rifle's construction was complex, but while the geometry required specialized tooling, the amount of material needed was quite low.
The body and magazine were composed of stamped and blackened steel, the carrier group and barrel were made from cast high-carbon ferrosilver, the handguard was made from stamped aluminum, and the stock and grip scales were made from black fiberglass polymer. It operated on a variation of the Wind Crystal Impingement System created by Shwetz that functioned by cycling the bolt via a burst of air after a short delay rather than relying on a sensor to track when the charge bolt had left the rifle.
The system was also present in the SS1181-R, but the version of the system in the AU-AR had not been patented by the A-U program to maintain secrecy, Ayla Shwetz, now residing in a satellite state to Exia, had access to these rifles and sought out a settlement from the Sterlinian government. One they refused to pay.
The concept of the firearm's mechanism was taken by Exia to create the Self-Loading Rifle Model AC1189 as the war ended. Their version featured a far simpler cast receiver and bakelite furniture, and was chambered for their L12.37x77mm charge accepted in M80 rifle magazines.

Bausable trialed the weapon but put off adoption to save funds for recovery from the war.
When the Shwetz StKM90 was created and adopted in New Dendarin and Polustranya, Sterlina further improved their rifle to produce the SS1191-R, this time stealing technology from New Dendarin, and more nations saw the benefit of the lighter charge, Exia followed suit by downscaling their UEW-M89-SLG to create the UEW-M92-AG, a smaller, lighter rifle chambered for the 11.35x56mm charge.

Type

Corporation, Manufacturing

Alternative Names

• U.E.W.
• Susamanid Varoda e Gavar Sekarajete Etekusia
• S.V.G.S.E.