To be fair, making a shitload of reliable guns and leaving the province awash in them isn't a
bad thing. Freddy has titles like "Count of Cannons" and "Graf of Guns" for a reason. We won't regret trying
@mmgaballah 's idea, it just leaves us up to our asses in gunsmiths, which is not a bad thing for our purposes, since drowning our enemies in hot lead never gets old.
I just don't think it'll have the effect
@mmgaballah expects, because I think Mmgaballah fundamentally misunderstands
why the Ulricans reject guns.
He seems to think it's because guns are unreliable or hard to repair. No.
It's because Ulric is a god of primal violence, the struggle for survival, and "nature red in tooth and claw." The use of complex technological artifacts to kill, especially in ways that don't require physical strength, skill, and endurance? That's not something Ulric is going to approve of. To Ulric, you should kill your enemies face-to-face, or
at worst by piercing them with an arrow you loosed from a bow that you drew using your own mighty biceps and heroic pectoral muscles. Using some gizmo to take down an enemy is contemptible to Ulric.
Ulric's view on ranged weaponry is best described in more conventional fiction, I think, by Diomedes from Homer's
Iliad. The text goes something like this.
As he spoke he began stripping the spoils from the son of Paeon, but Paris, husband of lovely Helen, aimed an arrow at him, leaning against a pillar of the monument which men had raised to Ilus son of Dardanus, a ruler in days of old. Diomedes had taken the cuirass from off the breast of Agastrophus, his heavy helmet also, and the shield from off his shoulders, when Paris drew his bow and let fly an arrow that sped not from his hand in vain, but pierced the flat of Diomedes' right foot, going right through it and fixing itself in the ground. Thereon Paris with a hearty laugh sprang forward from his hiding-place, and taunted him, saying "You are wounded- my arrow has not been shot in vain; would that it had hit you in the belly and killed you, for thus the Trojans, who fear you as goats fear a lion, would have had a truce from evil!"
Diomedes, all undaunted, answered, "Archer, you who without your bow are nothing, slanderer and seducer, if you were to be tried in single combat fighting in full armour, your bow and your arrows would serve you in little stead. Vain is your boast in that you have scratched the sole of my foot. I care no more than if a girl or some silly boy had hit me. A worthless coward can inflict but a light wound; when I wound a man though I but graze his skin it is another matter, for my weapon will lay him low. His wife will tear her cheeks for grief and his children will be fatherless: there will he rot, reddening the earth with his blood, and vultures, not women, will gather round him."[/I]
Aside from the conclusion that Diomedes was rather metal, we observe the mindset here- that effectiveness in battle is a direct result of courage in battle, and of fighting with the 'proper' weapons and methods. Namely, forthright, direct, hand-to-hand clashes between warriors.
The Ulrican prohibition on guns is a
direct consequence of other, pre-existing Ulrican beliefs about combat, survival, and the problems of relying on devices, trinkets, or technology to protect yourself.
Cults are not intractable or unreasonable, but certain things are not acceptable to them because they think those things are
wrong because their gods prohibit them.
The cult of Morr is never going to be persuaded that it would be a good idea to raise some undead zombies or skeletons to use as a workforce.
No matter what they will always oppose this, because it is deeply immoral and wicked within their viewpoint. Morr's entire reason for existing is to make sure the dead stay dead where they belong.
The cult of Sigmar is never going to be persuaded that Bretonnia is a greater and better human nation than the Empire. Because
their entire reason for existence is to revere Sigmar and support the empire he founded.
The cult of Ranald is never going to be persuaded that actually, total submission to a complex law code is good and for the best. Because Ranald's
reason for existence is to be the god of trickery, confusion, and manipulation.
The cult of Ulric is never going to be persuaded to adopt guns.
