: Ah, a good theory.
And corroborated from GURPS (which is prolly where he found it.) Any Dwarves with unusually good eyesight become Mortars; any Dwarves with magical ability become Pathfinders.
: Well, looks like we're in pretty close agreement, though
: I'd still believe Albrecht probably would not want
: guns used in real warfare, utterly devistating as they
: are.
Given the incredible amount of carnage Dwarven technology already produces--is a gun more devastating than a mortar?--I suspect that Albrecht wasn't being entirely truthful. :-) The real reason is probably that Dwarves themselves wouldn't be very good with guns, due to their poor eyesight; so making lots of guns would just raise the combat power of every other race, making Dwarves weaker by comparison. This frequently happens with Dwarven tech, according to GURPS, especially with long-range weapons. Look at cannons: Dwarves made them, but they can't use them because of their eyesight. So who *does* use them? The Ghôls, the Dwarves' greatest enemies. Now can you imagine what Ghôls could do if they carried guns? :-)
Albrecht doesn't want guns produced because they wouldn't empower the Dwarven army, and very possibly would empower Ghôls and other Dwarven enemies. So he bans their production, and throws out that not-very-convincing line of "Oh, they're much too nasty to use in war." Horse apples.
--SiliconDream
