The reference to the Tarshite longbow in IWS came from Tarsh War by Chris Gidlow, Dan Barker and Nick Brooke. I did re-investigate the issue (bearing in mind that Gloranthan canon once gave longbows to dragonewts alone, along with bone samurai weapons, perhaps because they were considered too out-of-period).
I had no reason to break Tarsh War on this fact. In addition the Exiles have always has two unusual unit types for Orlanthi in the Dragon Pass boardgame: cavalry and archers. So there is a desire to keep faith with that.
Popular tradition has the English obtaining the longbow from the Welsh. The Venta were a fierce tribe in the Welsh hills famous for fierce guerilla warfare and their wild elm bows. They fit well with my conception of the Exiles, even though some scholars doubt that the Venta's bow was a pre-cursor to the English longbow. Some scholars assert in fact assert that the longbow was scandanavian in origin, but the English only realised the value of the weapon after fighting the Welsh. But that's OK for Orlanthi too.
AFAIK, Martin Laurie or someone doubtless knows more, the long bow is a self-bow. It is distinguished from other self bows by having a 100- 120 lbs draw instead of a 40-50 lbs draw, giving it the power to punch holes through chainmail. The draw restricts usage of the bow to those who have spent a years training with it. As the Exiles sell their services as mercenaries it seemed not unreasonable that they were selling a specialist skill - again the longbow seems appropriate. To create a tradition of usage, I needed to suggest it was a hunter's weapon, and the reliance on hunting in the hills over farming gives an opportunity to have a body of users to call on.
Finally, I don't tend to use edges so any armor-piercing potential is irrelevant but the mythology of the waepon does have much going for it.
Powered by hypermail