#hambry

This chapter that we have reached is that which deals with Zrii metal, which comes from the Zrii islands, in the north - nominally held by the Empire, yes, but governed by Zrii except at the very highest levels, and allowed to proceed according to Zrii laws and traditions. Zrii metal is tough, and very light relative to metals of comparable strength. The secrets to blending this alloy from its lesser metal ingredients are jealously guarded by Zrii craftsfolk-priests, who say that Zrii metal is the blood of their most treasured god, given to them (along with the techniques for refining it) as a gift to distinguish them from other (some Zrii say “lesser”) human beings. Sets of armor made from it are very high quality, and, away from the Zrii islands, very expensive as well.

Zrii metal is the grey of a sky heavy with rainclouds that have not yet begun to shed their tears. Or the grey, perhaps, of smoke from a fat fire, in a common-hall, where people are cooking fish and baking bread. If you look at it closely, you’ll see that it has hundreds, thousands, of layers of light and dark in it, though even the light layers should be closer in colour to iron than steel. The borders between these layers should be wavy and indistinct, like following a coastline. Should they be straight, or jagged but uncurving, the metal is very poor quality and will not stand up to much stress before snapping. I suspect that the metal contains silver, and I know that a significant part of it is high-grade steel. But silver and steel alone do not become Zrii metal, and so there must be other metals, or at the very least other substances, in it as well. I am sorry that I cannot give you advice to smith your own Zrii weapons and armor, but I am no great believer in even the moon-and-dead-suns lore of the Empire, much less whatever strange gods the Zrii recognize. They would never share their worshipful arts with me.

Zrii plate armor is by far the more common of the sets, thick-wrought but very light, for heavy armor, and those who wear it are surely to be feared, whether on their own merits or by virtue of being in the employ of someone wealthy enough to visit all manner of misfortunes on those who draw their ire. The helmets are each made, in front, in the likeness of a human face, most commonly twisted in fearsome rage, but sometimes wrought to smile serenely, or sneer in lordly disapproval, or bear no particular expression at all. The leading edges of the gauntlets, where the fingers connect to the hand, these are rounded and blunt and not meant to cut flesh the way some other gauntlets are, but on the back of the hand are a number of raised bumps the size of a knuckle. If you are inclined to unarmed combat while wearing Zrii gauntlets, it may do you well to discard punches in favor of backhanded slaps, which may crack plate and the bone beneath it, with luck. The weight of this armor rests almost entirely on the shoulders, with hardly any on the waist or hips. This will make you very top-heavy, so be certain to keep your stance wide. The join of the legs of the greaves is one of the weak points, so if you should fall on your back or your face it will be like an invitation for an enemy to drive the point of a spear through there and puncture your intestines (this will likely kill you). The other notable weak points are beneath the armpits and at the back of the neck and knees.

Between the padding of the armor and the actual plate metal, there is fabric of a most peculiar type: very durable, and in some lights and some angles, it is a very vibrant green, whereas in others it is so dark as to almost appear black. Generally this is hidden between the padding and the plate, as said before, but for the breastplate it protrudes outward at the bottom to fill gaps between the faulds and - in some cases - at the top, to form a sort of elongated neck that can be used as a scarf or a hood and protect your head and face from the snow or the rain or the bitter winds. This neck-cloth is interesting because it only appears in armor sets made after the adoption of the Zrii lands into the Empire - the islands, after all, lie in the north where there’s no need for such measures to keep warm (indeed, I wonder that they can wear such armor without cooking themselves to death!). If you have Zrii armor without this feature, it was either made before Zrii became part of the empire, or at the most fifteen years afterwards (probably more like ten). Naturally, this is quite a museum piece, and should you find it in the hands of someone who doesn’t appreciate what they have, you would do well to buy it up - there are collectors the ocean over who would pay for such a relic five times what they would for a suit of the same armor fresh from the forge.

Speaking of which - now is a good time to discuss what one might expect to pay for a set of Zrii plate armor. First of all: I know that, especially if you are a young sort of person, you might be considering the possibilities, weighing the positive and negative outcomes, of enlisting in some nobleman’s private army known for outfitting their troops with Zrii armor, and then deserting with your protective treasure in tow. I know that I did, and at least one of my friends from my youth actually went through with such a scheme. But this is foolhardy, and worse, dangerous. Families with deep pockets and coffers full of silver are the ones who are most loathe to part with a single coin, and will (somewhat counterintuitively) spend far more than the actual value of the armor on thalassenes to track you down and bring back their treasured investment. It is one of many peculiarities that i have noted about the wealthy (others detailed elsewhere in this book, and in others yet unwritten).

To return to the matter at hand, I will only be dealing with prices in imperial peng and in shell money, as with other chapters in this book - to list for you an item’s value in every provincial coin and all the outland currencies that make their way across the ocean would not only inflate this text to the size of a book of god-lore, but also very quickly date it into uselessness, as the values of the coins and the metals they were cast from fluctuated relative to each other and the goods they could buy. Anyway, first off it ought to be said that any price that i name here ought to have half again added to it if you are buying straight from a Zrii smith, for they have knowledge of the metal that no other person across the ocean does, and they regard it and the working of it as holy. Don’t try to swindle or cheat or trick or shortchange them, lest you make an enemy whose friends will soon become your enemies as well.

To the point, a breastplate and faulds of Zrii plate are the most basic components, the most necessary, and so if you’re short of coin and looking to protect yourself I recommend prioritizing these pieces. Taken together you should not be willing to pay more than 14,000 peng, or two fat baskets of shells - however, if you ask for them for less than 10,000, you’ll either look like a miser or a fool (determining which is worse is an exercise i leave to the reader). That lower price should be about enough for eight weeks of good bread and fish. If it’s not, use your best judgement in determining what that actually is - this is one of the times I mentioned before, about knowing an area well making your life much easier. The greaves and boots you should pay half what you would pay for the breastplate and faulds. The helmet and the pauldron and gauntlet on one side you should, again, pay half what you would pay for the breastplate and faulds. I don’t have the time or patience to spell out for you what you should be paying for both pauldrons or both gauntlets. Take a problem like that to some accountant or number-juggler in an exchange somewhere, worrying about the small matters like that is their job and not mine.

My head and my hand both hurt a lot. I will continue this chapter later.

Zrii composite armor is the light armor of the Zrii people, and it is even more exceedingly rare than plate of the same provenance, said to be owned by the very most esteemed of their warrior-nobility. I have never in my life seen a set, or even a piece, of this armor in my life (though i am certain that it exists), and so i cannot relate to you whether the light helmets bear the images of faces the way that the heavy helmets do, nor can i say how to distinguish the masterfully wrought sets from the clumsy apprentice works, and in fact all i can say is what has been told me second- or third- or tenth-hand by drunkards or consummate liars in public houses in the small hours of the night. They tell me that Zrii composite armor is like no other light armor, that it offers unparalleled protection from the elements and from all sorts of physical attacks and even from the spells of secret magicians, that it sits on one’s body like silk clothing and that it does not restrict the movement of the limbs or the torso at all, allowing all sorts of acrobatic feats. They say that it is woven from strips and thin, broad plates of Zrii metal, that can twist into any configuration and then spring back into their original shape unbent. It pains me to have to commit these vague rumors and clear exaggerations to the page, but in my long career as a thalassene and soldier, and only slightly shorter career as a scholar, i have been utterly unable to come across more concrete information, and to leave this space blank while the passages on Zrii plate and weapons brimmed with useful information would be as much as an admission of defeat.

And indeed now is a good time to cast our scrutiny on Zrii weapons, for they are many and multivarious. Zrii blades are not much like oceanic weapons of the south, nor are they much like the blades of the imperial holdings on the continent, nor even are they akin to the swords of the ksui lands west of the ocean. I have seen many weapons in my time, and to me, Zrii swords are most like those found in the north east, in Vuatlieo: the general gist of them is straight, but along the edges are gentle curves that come to a point, and their grips are short. The shortswords flare out about two-thirds of the way along their length before coming to their point - this puts more weight behind the swing.

Speaking of weight, this is something of an issue with Zrii weaponry - the metal is much lighter than one might expect, which is a boon for the armor! Not so much for the weapons. The mace and hammer will break bones, for sure, but there are cheaper weapons that will do the same thing and better. The axe will chop through wood or flesh, but there are other axes with more force in their swing. It’s really the swords that one must value more than anything else - the swords and the spears. They don’t rely on their own weight to nearly the same extent that other weapons do, and they can take and keep an edge beyond the ability of lesser metals.

While speaking on these weapons, it is perhaps useful to look closely at a particular one - the Zrii dart. Most Hambric folk are most accustomed to other throwing weapons: the knife, or the shuriken, or even the throwing-axe. Darts are, in our experience, quite rare. But the Zrii have them. The Zrii dart is made entirely of metal, and has three stabilizing fins at one end. The other end is bulbous, very definitely front-heavy (this may throw off even those who have experience with dart-throwing), and has a long, thin nose that comes to a point. The secret of this dart is as follows: the nose is a hollow needle. Within the body of the dart is a chamber, not large but definitely there, that can be filled with poison, far more than could be applied to the outside of the dart’s nose. Those of you favouring underhanded tactics (by which I mean, those of you who intend to survive more than a battle or two) may find this information handy. I have also been told that this dart can be used as a serviceable crossbow bolt in most crossbows, certainly in all orcish ones. I don’t know anything about that, for I am not a criminal.