Grey-powder, or Plant-based Gunpowder
"I am a Mihurite, if the nose here on campus is - off."
"Yaa..."
"Well. What is it?"
"Shallow breaths, sir."
"--Will ye not say more?"
"Shallow breaths."
"Botanists?"
"Who else?"
"Best keep me nose clear, then."
And the friend to the Botanist spake his questions and wandered off. Himself the Botanist ventured into the reinforced faculty of chemistry, and smiled upon seeing archaic suits of iron armor lined upon the sturdy wooden wall. His professor, a colonel, was shaking as if a race horse.
"Op! Best get the smithies bring their proves here. See'gif it goes through." spoke he, and the young Botanist rubbed his hands together, as a musket was brought to a sergeant, and quickly cupped them on his ears as a piercing 'Blam!' rang all around the block, followed by the sergeant cursing and hissing for he had nearly dislocated his elbow for the force of the new type of gunpowder.
"Lubbers and shite me side-wick."
Gasped the colonel, venturing to the iron cuirass to have been shot through as if paper. "Full piece bet that the rest will shine through the sun as well."
And the others grinned, and nobody took the bet.
Utility
War, mining, and eventually recreation, as the powder had psychoactive components to completely smash a person's sobriety, and cause an often aggressive high. The misuse caused the user to fear being deprived of said feeling, and create extreme feelings of envy and paranoia. This was used heavily by Khórr, who realized he would have to use everything and anything he had in order to defeat the hostile force, or at the very least negotiate an interim - he ordered the Botanists, a technically independent collegium of scientists and nobles with an interest in science to create combat narcotics typical to Kiri centuries before-- they said yes, and soon 'The entire Dog was turned rabid, and all hell broke loose, everywhere and all at once.' as Mholmorin, a historian, wrote upon seeing the drug fueled frenzy of Tripartite forces for the first time.
Manufacturing
Industrially at first, eventually homegrown by trained gunsmiths, as well as to accommodate the greater recoil and range enabled by the wood-powder. Cottage manufactoring was eventually used, as fears of leaking the invention were overshadowed by demand for the army.
Access & Availability
Grey-powder was created of plant-matter, which meant it was based on a renewable resource, which fully regenerated every twenty years or so. Most swamps in the House-lands of Issqara, Tvbéra and Raq-huemea had not been dried, thus the matter was abundant.
Complexity
Fairly simple: one needed a basic factory, and a solid laboratory to arm a regiment of 2 000 musketmen for a summer, with an expert chemist. There was fear that the House-retainers would desert with the formula, which they eventually did, so they were paid well, and generally held under some guard. However, the rich bogs common to the Houselands were less common elsewhere, thus there was no real fear of others using the formula.
The number of chemists was limited, and was kept purposefully as such for a several years into the 2nd North Sea War, as to maximize the shock of said invention, which was, deep down, very easily dissected and copied once laid bare...
Discovery
The House of Khórr was a major player in Issqaran Kiiri politics. The Lord of Khórr at the time, Thems'k funded a great deal of research to find alternative means to gain resources for war and peace both, as a great plague had reduced the House-lands in prestige, population and wealth decades prior. They had been retarded severly in development.
Grey-powder was a very potent type of gunpowder gained from diving into the pits of swamp all around Issqara, and using a well guarded formula, refined the condenced plant-matter into a smooth, steady and very potent explosive, which created a stock of musket which out-ranged other armies, and punched through virtually all types of plate. Tergaledian armed forces quickly abandoned all types of men-at-arms, and reduced their cuirassiers into dragoons upon venturing into war with the Issqarans - such was the potency of said invention, innovation, that entire doctrines had to be built ground-up.
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