Erkhav (Air-xav)

Every once in a while technology takes a great leap forward due to the genius of a few. The water-wheel for industry, the general wheel for transport, agriculture, advancing metals...
Shāmalta have long known they lost more from the First Empire's fall than they retained, or even remembered. Scholars estimate that 90% of the writings and knowledge from those elder days has been lost.
That's why when some inventions arrive, the makers are considered cultural treasures.
Prāv Kherashno is one of those, sadly now deceased, treasures. Coming from a jewelry and foundry background after a childhood on the family farm, Prāv is remembered most for the invention of the erkhav: the repeater.
Sometimes erroneously called a repeating crossbow by others, only very early prototypes retained the crossed limb and stock of mundane crossbows.

Utility

The steep price and discriminating nature of who Prāv accepted as clients prevented widespread use of the erkhav, and many Shāmalta have never even heard of it. Its use is mostly restricted to special mobile legion forces that patrol the surface borders of Īdsāzag, their territory.

Manufacturing

Each erkhav is a bespoke creation designed with the size and strength of the owner-to-be in mind. He took no apprentices and made each of them by hand in his own extensive workshop. Even in his prime he had a decade wait list to even begin speaking with a client, and the price for a basic model was a hard-working Shāmalta's yearly wages. Models containing rare (and expensive) metals could set an entire family back so their children got no inheritance.

Inventor(s)

Prāv Kherashno

Access & Availability

Few are willing to sacrifice such an expensive item for others to even attempt reverse engineering, so its use is fairly rare. Most outside of the legions aware of the technology consider it a novelty at best, and usually out of their budget. Prāv extensively vetting his clients also lead to it being so uncommon.

Discovery

Prāv didn't invent the technologies necessary to devise the erkhav, but he did invent a way to mate them together to create his grand achievement.

Related Species

• Shāmaltā