The World Stones

Highly accurate and extremely powerful rifle that shoots bolts of magic.

Description

Steam rifles are exceptionally lethal magimechanical weapons, carried only by specialists trained in the use of such weapons.

Steam rifles shoot powerful blasts of magic, capable of tearing straight through wood, even piercing through thick armor and stone. This is why steam rifle units are extremely feared on the battlefield, as no amount of armor (except adamantite-steel or adamantite) is capable of blocking its shots.

On top of that, most lethal shots move faster than 500km/h, causing an audible bang as they break the sound barrier. They are nearly unblockable and undodgeable, which makes them so feared on the battlefield.

Mechanics

Steam Rifles are highly complex and tuned magimechanical weapons, requiring precise tweaking so as to not explode upon use.

In essence, an iridium trigger/hammer hits a flarestone cell, which causes an adjustable amount of latent magical potential (based on the frequency/tension of the hammer, adjustable by a dial) to be released throughout the barrel. The pressure that builds inside the adamantite-layered barrel, causes the magical projectile to rapidly speed up as it exits the barrel.

The element of the shot is determined by the infused magical energy of the flarestone cell. I.e. the Lumare Empire have water-magic rifles, whereas the Kaligo Empire have fire-magic rifles.

To counteract the massive recoil that the rifle would otherwise have, part of the blast is converted to steam through friction. The steam exits the rifle in a V-shape to both sides of the operator while shooting. This, and the remaining steam exiting the barrel after shooting, is what gives the rifle its iconic name.

The heat is a substantial challenge while operating the rifle, as overheating could easily cause the entirety of the flarestone cell to discharge and explode, killing the user.

To counteract overheating, it is crucial to take breaks in between shots. On average, a safe time between shots is around 30 seconds. The dozens who have attempted to use their rifles as semi-automatic have met their demise in a fiery or watery death.

Use

Used by highly trained professional soldiers, specifically trained in the use of magimechanical weapons.

Misc

The blasts have around 10-200 kilojoules of kinetic energy as they exit the barrel. To put that into perspective, here are some examples:

Shot types:

• Blunt Force Shot (10 kJ): subsonic, like a mini cannonball, shatters the ribcage and deforms armor
• Standard Lethal Shot (50 kJ): 3x the force of a 50cal sniper round, punches a hole straight through standard steel armor (and whoever is unlucky to be wearing it)
• Anti-armor Shot (100 kJ): like a 20-25mm autocannon round, air vaporizes the outer layer (if water projectile) -> trail of steam, heavily dents/cracks, or even punches through lower grade adamantite-steel, unarmored humans “explode”, the limit of standard steam-rifles
• Castle-breaker shot (150 kJ): like a 30mm A-10 Warthog round or a light tank shell, capable of blasting through solid stone walls, the limit of the most advanced standard-issue steam rifles
• Royal-slayer (200 kJ): the absolute maximum of specially tuned top of the line steam rifles (such as Crimsonist, Rosa Lovewood‘s rifle), like a 40mm anti-aircraft cannon or EM railgun slug, hypersonic, go-to for goliath-level threats like Captains and Commanders.

The Flarestone Cell

• Weight/size: varies between 100-250g (roughly the size of a shotgun shell)
• Price: 8 ALU (80,000€) for a standard 200g cell
• Shots per cell: 20-500 (200g cell, varies based on adjustable power)

Rosa Lovewood is one of the few Elite Warriors that use a Steam Rifle as their main weapon.