>The Dragonewts use longbows.
>
>The Vorumai most probably have some form of longbow, and I agree that
>the Umathelan longbow theory has some merit, albeit a marginal one :
>erm, I seem to remember once having found a firm reference to another
>Genertelan (human) culture using the longbow, but can't for the life
>of me remember which (the Kingdom of War uses them, of course, but
>that doesn't count).
It seems to me the problem here is one of terminology. Just what the hell IS a longbow? Are we talking about the deep-bellied simple curved selfbow style of the English/Welsh Longbow? Or are we talking Damn Big Bow? If the former, well, I can believe there is only one culture using it, but that's pretty obvious - in Gloranthan terms, only the Rathori can be said to use a Rathori Long Bow...
More reasonably, ANY culture could create a Big Bow. In real-world terms, I'd compare the Yew Longbow, the Japanese Longbow, and the Longbow of some African tribe (who's name escapes me, but it was about 120 pound draw, and they used it to shoot elephants, using the arrow to deliver a deadly poison), and the Indian bow of Alexandrian times (the details of which always confused me, as apparently they were drawn using the feet... can't quite picture that...). All are entirely independently developed Damn Big Bows, all could be called Longbows. All would have pretty much the same characteristics under any game system, Simulationist or Narrativist (barring any strange stance needed to pull the Indian one..).
I find it entirely unreasonable that only one culture in an entire world (or even continent) would develop a Damn Big Bow.
Wulf
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