Usuario:Vegvisr/Firearms in the Cosmere

This page is a compendium of the info we have about the various types of firearms in the Cosmere, separated by magical vs traditional, and then by planet. This is quite unfinished, as I am lazy, and will be expanded as we learn more (and as time progresses in the Cosmere). Please feel free to add to this!

Traditional Firearms

Scadrial

Current

Northern Scadrial is the most technologically advanced society we have seen to date (not counting Sixth of the Dusk), and their gunsmithing skill is no exception. They have access to smokeless powder and therefore cartridge projectiles, which is the type of firearm that most people are familiar with in our world today. The most common type of gun appears to be revolving cylinder handguns (revolvers), although lever-action rifles exist as well. The revolving cylinder rifle has been invented but is fairly uncommon.

Future

More interesting is really what Scadrians have just recently developed, which includes but is not limited to: semi-automatic handguns, some form of fixed rotary gun (certainly a type of Gatling gun), artillery (in the form of naval guns aboard ships like the Pewternaught), and the creation of aluminum-alloy guns as well as bullets. The implications of each of these are interesting, let's break it down.

Semi-Automatics: A side-note, before we begin: I recognize that lever-action firearms are also semi-automatic (in particular those with tubular magazines) which is what the rifles and shotguns used by Wax seem to be. However what I am referring more to in this section is semi-automatics with a removable magazine. I make this distinction because a removable magazine typically also implies a bolt that relies on blow-back or recoil to cycle the action, which is very important for further development of fully automatic firearms. Lever-action firearms make use of mechanical force to cycle the bolt (instead of gas blowback) and so are not relevant to the development of machine guns.

Jackstom Harms is seen brandishing a semi-automatic pistol, which is noted as being both of a modern design and popular among constables in Elendel. I expect these type of removable magazine semi-automatics to become the norm very quickly in Scadrial, as they are (generally) just as reliable as a revolver but with a much higher bullet capacity, with the added advantage of being much safer to operate.

Rotary Guns: The Vanishers used a rotary gun in one of their train car hijackings, surprising Marasi, though Wayne seemed to be somewhat familiar with them. This suggests that they are relatively uncommon, perhaps expensive or difficult to produce. Rotary guns are a type of fully-automatic firearm, however their design prohibits a handheld variant (a Pewterarm could conceivably wield one, actually). A rotary gun is really a series of barreled upper rifle assemblies arranged in a circle, which fire sequentially. This type of machine gun is a series of separate rifles that fire one shot individually, one after another, very quickly in sequence. This design is quite bulky, although it facilitates an incredible rate of fire, and is useful into the modern era. Typically they are mounted on ships, vehicles, planes, or at a fixed position. The reason they are useful in the modern era is that given their stationary nature, they are able to fire a much larger round than would be able to be handled by a handheld rifle. This is why you see them mounted on vehicles, helicopters, or naval ships.

Automatics: The only mention of fully automatic firearms in the Cosmere so far is on Scadrial, in the form of the submachine gun mentioned in Shadows of Self. It regrettably gets this single mention, and is discarded by the user before we can see the action on-screen, but we can assume much from this small amount of detail.

The submachine gun is differentiated from the machine gun only by the cartridge that it fires, that is to say that SMGs employ a bullet typically fired by pistols, while machine guns fire a rifle round. The action of automatically cycling a new bullet into the chamber (as opposed to pulling the trigger for each shot fired) is no different. My conclusion is that either the Scadrians already have fully automatic rifles, or will develop them quite soon.

Artillery: The Scadrians, somewhat surprisingly, have developed naval artillery. In Era 1, The Lord Ruler suppressed knowledge of gunpowder - this means that there is relatively little time (or motivation, post-catacendre) for the Scadrians to develop cannon technology, the obvious precursor to artillery. Nevertheless, they have it, and in a big way: twelve-inch naval guns with a range of sixteen miles! I suspect that these armored warships will quickly develop flak-cannon technology if a war between the northern and Southern Scadrians becomes a reality. Flak being an anti-air round fired by canons, my reasoning being that air superiority is a major advantage of the Southern Scadrians at this point.

Aluminum Weapons & Projectiles: This is "the big one" in terms of having a really lasting Cosmere effect for the Scadrians: aluminum guns & bullets are a serious check against Allomantic Iron & Steel. This is doubly true once Scadrial fully industrializes and aluminum becomes not only common but cheap. I truly believe this may be the most important "Cosmere gun" contribution that Scadrial makes, given aluminum's seemingly Cosmere-wide immunity to magic. Aluminum bullets are immune to allomancy, and I suspect that they would also be immune to essentially any type of magical interference. For example, an Elantrian would probably not be able to magically shield themselves from an AlumBullet. It is my assumption that an aluminum bullet would be more effective against Shardplate than a bullet made out of lead, which is the common material.

Taldain

They have black powder pistols & explosives, seemingly no rifles. The handguns look like flintlocks but act like a cartridge firearm... difficult to tell. There is also the Zinkall, which is technically an air gun, not a firearm, as the projectile is driven by mechanically compressed air instead of a chemical propellant.

Ashyn

Confirmed flintlock technology, which is interesting in the Rosharan System. Of course, Ashyn is completely uncanonical right now anyway so who knows what is subject to change.

First of the Sun

I debated whether to put this under First of the Sun or Ones Above, and decided I would stick to assigning the technology to the planet upon which it is seen. The people of First of the Sun have canons and gunpowder-based spear guns, likely given to them by the Ones Above, but this is not explicitly stated. It is safe to assume that they did not develop naturally, however, as Dusk does not even recognize the spear gun for what it is until he witnesses it being fired. I think it is safe to assume we will see rapid weapon technological development on this planet, if we ever get another viewpoint from its inhabitants.

Magical Firearms

Threnody

As of circa 342 PC on Scadrial, Nazh carries a handgun that appears to fire Shades, which cause the instant deterioration of anything they touch. The projectiles appear to be made of ghost-shaped energy and scream as they travel through the air. The handgun's side is covered in runes that glow green normally, switching to red when about to fire. The pistol can be temporarily disarmed by a Leecher, although it is quickly able to be readied again.

First of the Sun (Unpublished)

"The alien trust out his armored hand and smoke or mist coalesced there out of nowhere and formed into a gun, longer than a pistol, shorter than a rifle. Wicked in shape with flowing metal along the sides like wings. It was the sapling's pistol what a shadowy deep beast might be to a minnow. The alien raised his other hand and snapped a small box, perhaps a power supply, into the side of the rifle, causing it to glow ominously. "Tell me, President," the alien said to Vathi. "What are your local laws regarding challenges to my life? Do I have legal justification to shoot this man?"

Speculation on this is obviously not-canon, but useful nonetheless. This appears to be a Skybreaker or perhaps a Windrunner of at least the 4th Ideal, and able to manifest their spren into a gun. Much like soulcaster fabrials are spren manifested in the physical realm, I believe this gun to be a Radiant spren manifesting as a firearm, one which clearly needs a power supply or perhaps ammunition to be actually fire. Any further speculation without additional information would be useless, so I will leave it at this.