Fiction Friday: A Far-flung Blog Collection

Swords Over Guns

Post by Ari Weyland (Sidhe smith from FAMILY, FRIEND, OR FOE) originally published 9/4/2015 alexisdonkin.com blog.

I know weapons. My family has been smithing a long time. I learned it from my parents, along with my brothers. Our parents learned it from theirs and so on.

I really can't talk about guns because there's no point for Otherworlders to have guns. Why have a gun when you can blow someone up with your mind? That's just stupid. Just really stupid. A waste of time and energy building weapons that are unnecessary. Besides, you could just stop a bullet before it hit you. A little wind, water – anything really - could set it off course. Projectile weapons are pointless between Otherworlders.

Why do Otherworlders use swords, knives, or spears? It's principle. They aren't more elegant than guns. It's just ritual. Instead of using force or elements, we use our hands. It's less messy, I mean, it's still messy. Fighting is always messy. But there aren't any innocent bystanders. There's no chance your sword is going to run through a random person when you're fighting someone. It doesn't happen.

So the next question is why use bows instead of guns for hunting? I mean, maybe you'd wonder why we hunt at all. Heh.

It's all about having as little impact as possible. Hunting is natural. Animals do it all the time. That is what makes a predator and prey. But Otherworlders are not going to kill an entire species using forces or elements. We aren't going to stumble through the woods shooting at anything that moves. That would be dumb. We never hunt for sport. We use every part of everything we kill in one way or another. We couldn't maintain balance if we did anything else. It's all planned out. All strategic. Even the Wild Hunt at Yule is planned.

So no guns.

Just wicked sharp metal.

That's the Otherworlder way.