Fire-lance

Most likely to be encountered amongst Benacian football ultras, and the cudgellers trying frantically to disperse them, the fire-lance is of little use except when blasted into densely packed crowds at close quarters. It has a useful secondary function as a club with which to beat those still left standing.

Fire-lance, a short-range, single-shot, incendiary weapon, comprised of a bamboo tube bound with copper rings set atop a wooden stave, to which a caplock firing mechanism and small copper percussion cap is attached at the top of small bore-hole set in the bamboo tubing. The tube is filled with an appropriate measure of black powder in standard proportions with an additional measure of saltpetre and, separated by a seal of wax and waxed-paper, a measure of naphtha mixed with charcoal powder and scrap metal shards.

An extremely short-range weapon, capable of flame projection for less than four metres from the muzzle, the fire-lance is primarily a psychological weapon whose incendiary effect is used by guardsmen and caravan-merchants in the unsettled spaces to deter the encroachment of bandits or curious Cerids. At close range, and packed with shrapnel, the fire lance can make for a serviceable shotgun and can be adapted for nighttime use as a signal flare.

Believed to have originated in the Razjania-Dehvaz region of western Eura in the aftermath of the Babkhan Holocaust, and subsequently popularised as the stocks of bullets and serviceable rifles available to survivors began to dwindle in the years after 1580. The use of the weapon diminished appreciably after the glut of fire arms available to native Eurans following the two wars and the destruction of Iteru, but nonetheless it remains popular with the town guard in settlements where a significant proportion of income relies upon periodically threatening stranded merchants with the prospect of imminent incineration. Guardsmen will typically carry fire-lances in batches of five and will ideally be supported by a companion with a ranged weapon, such as a rifle or crossbow.

Fire-lances, disguised (not always convincingly) as commercial flares, have frequently been issued by Raspur Pact-aligned governments and militaries to aligned factions in the Micrasian Ultras scene, being employed in crowd disturbances in Krasnocoria, Senya, and Batavia over the years.