Art by David Mumford
The Wasp Empire is scarcely three generations old, born when the chieftain of one hill-tribe grew strong enough to force all his neighbours to bow the knee. The Wasps have flown from strength to strength since then, embracing new ways of war, conquering cities and enslaving entire kinden. Now, their war with the Dragonfly Commonweal brought to a satisfactory conclusion, they look to the divided and unsuspecting Lowlands for their next campaign.
Empire armour: The medium infantry wears a heavier version of the Light Airborne — banded hauberk, pauldrons, greaves, helm, sometimes shield. There are various grades of this and there tends to be some blurring between grades between the Airborne and the Sentinels.
So before the snap-bow wasps used heavy crossbows. Did they employ it in the same way, with units of crossbowmen or was the weapon used here and there among the common soldiers?
Well before the snapbow Wasps relied mostly on their innate Art-derived ranged weapons, using crossbows for backup. In the attack on Myna at the start of book one some still carry spears to throw, a holdover from their hill-tribe days. The crossbows the Wasps used to use were inferior to the weapons of most of their opponents — their Art and their mobility won battles that would have been lost by similarly equipped forces from other kinden.
So before the empire all the wasps fought like hornets? With chitin armour, javelins, and broadswords?
Armour… I have a question that has been bugging me for a while. At some point in book four, when Felise fights with Tismaon in the pits, it is said that she has some leather bands strapped across her back, so that she would be unable to call her wings. How are the Wasps (and other kinden for that matter) able to spur wings when they are armoured? I suppose they don't have to run around naked to be able to fly, but obviously there is some limit to clothing that makes flying impossible. Are there special clothes / cuirasses designed to let their wearers fly? With special slits for example? (that would be a soft spot in a combat obviously, so I suppose that's not the case…). Do the wings in fact touch the body, or are they some ephemeral thing hovering over the person, clothing included? (but then it would be impossible to block them like it is done to Felise). Another thing, how substantial are they? Can anybody touch them and actually feel them in any way? If there's a bunch of Wasps attacking at the same time, do they have to keep distance from each other? I suppose the wings stretch to some length to the sides of a person so if they had any substance to them it would be very unfortunate to hit something with a wing while flying. I suppose in confined spaces flying is impossible, but what if wings of two people flap against each other? Would that also be a problem?
A lot of questions to answer… 😉 Sorry for that, but I suppose it all comes down to how 'real' the wings in fact are…
Hmm. In retrospect I should have been very clearer right at the start of Empire. Art wings are not physical — they appear when called on, and vanish when not needed — they show as a nebulous shimmering about the back and shoulders (and I appreciate this is also what the blur of an insect's wings looks like, hence the confusion) — normal clothes or even armour doesn't interfere with them so long as the wearer retains full movement (the sort of armour that would interfere with such movement is also likely to be too heavy to fly in). The Fly-manacles that the Wasps have painstakingly developed are just enough to prevent the use of Art wings whilst letting a slave perform his duties, or a gladiator fight.
Hello :), I was just wondering further to alli's question, are moth and butterfly kinden's wings the same as other kindens? I think at one point you wrote that they unfurl (if not sorry I got it wrong). I was just wondering whehther they were a blur too or whether they are some thing more visually impressive and do they affect those kinden' s flight capabilities as such insects fly tremendous distances. thanks
They use the same mechanism — in that they're not there when being used. They are both slightly different visually — Moth wings glitter less, Butterflies' more.
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Light infantry wear a banded cuirass, sentinels wear full plate. What do medium infantry lancers and heavy shield men wear?