A Question of Fate Options

[ThatSkyrimGuy]

Brief Intro By The Author

A Question of Fate would be the title of my piece.

I have been back and forth about trying to start and post a fan fic piece. The idea has always intrigued me, but I never considered myself to be a writer, let alone a good writer. I have read a sampling of some of the works that are posted on this site, and quite frankly, it is intimidating. The material is amazing. I must say say that despite the intimidation, it is also inspiring. So I am willing to throw caution to the wind and go for it. There are a few provisos. I work for a living. Often times, the hours I work are long. There may be periods of dormancy in this thread. I will apologize in advance for that. Life outside the internet does have it's restrictions. Also, I am sure that there is an unspoken etiquette that states, "You read mine and comment, and I shall do the same". This is also where I could run into trouble, for the same reasons that there may be dormant periods in this thread. There are stories on this site that I could never hope to read all the way through, with triple digit page counts, while I try to keep posting my own story and work through everyday life. So, with all that being said, I will wait to start posting chapters until I get a sense of what the audience demands. Please let me know if I should start posting a fan fic piece, based on what you have just read.

Thanks.

EDIT - This was originally posted in "General Discussion"

This post has been edited by ThatSkyrimGuy: May 4 2013, 04:41 AM

[SubRosa]

Arrowheads actually tend to be pretty simple. They fall into two basic categories. There are broad-heads, which are best for unarmored targets like peasants or game. Then narrow-points like bodkins, which are made for piercing armor. Or at least have the right design to pierce armor. The aforementioned English bodkins were not really great for armored targets because they were made of iron instead of tempered steel. It should be noted that modern re creationists using English Longbows and bodkin arrows always use steel tipped arrows, which naturally work quite well against steel armor, but of course are historically inaccurate. The English Longbowman had to get really close to an armored opponent to get a successful arrow shot. For example at Agincourt the French had to advance on foot, uphill, through the mud, and the English archery still failed to stop them. The archers only turned the tide of the battle when they dropped their bows and joined in the melee with axes.

Of course the ES universe has a much wider scope of materials available for an archer. Where RL tends to just have iron or steel (and in a few cases bone or stone). I can imagine a broad-headed ebony arrow going through a steel breastplate like tissue paper. Or likewise a steel bodkin shattering on a glass breastplate.

There are a lot of different specific designs to the two types of heads of course. This pic gives some ideas, with armor-piercers at the top, broad-heads the bottom, and a sort of middle of the road head in between. Do some googling and you will find a lot more. Teresa used those middle leaf-shaped points early in her career, then later when she upgraded to elven steel moved to swallowtails (the very bottom).

Another interesting thing about the arrow shafts themselves, is that while many cultures used the standard three straight lines of fletching, some folks actually put the fletching on in a spiral pattern. That caused the arrow to spin just like rifling in a gun barrel, and made it more accurate.

In the TF I have the Imperials doing their fletching the standard way, and the Bosmer using the spiral pattern. I really did not use the regular bows from the game, like steel, silver, dwarven, etc... I only used two types. The longbow for the standard Imperial bow, and the composite bow (the Hunnish Bow to be more accurate) for the Bosmer design. In Morrowind they have chitin bows, but the story never went there. Other provinces would likely have their own special materials in the TF as well. I just never explored them.

*Phew*, on to the story now!

“Hey!”
Oops, Val's idyllic stroll through the countryside has led him right into a viper's nest! I had to laugh at the poor orc though, losing his footing on the steps and falling! Easy enough to believe though.

Then of course I was smiling at poor Val as the dastardly door stymied him. At least until his bracer intervened!

Perhaps Val should learn a low yield shock spell for bedroll bugs?

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jul 15 2013, 09:38 PM