Equipment
A soldier carries a weapon and, if their class permits, a shield. Gear folds straight into the soldier's numbers — attack onto their blows and mends, defense and guard onto what they endure — and some pieces teach.
Teaching gear
A weapon with a teaching grants its skill to the bearer, whatever their class. The taught skill can be written into the writ like any other — and even if it isn't, it becomes the soldier's quiet last resort: when nothing above applies, they swing what they hold. (An offensive teaching fires at anyone in reach; a mending one only on a badly wounded ally.)
The armory
| Teaches | The gist | |
|---|---|---|
| Bronze Sword | Heavy Slash | A dependable soldier's blade cast in bronze. Attack 10. |
| Bronze Axe | — | A heavy bronze head on a short haft. Crude, but it bites. Attack 12 — the most brute force in bronze, no lessons included. |
| Bronze Bow | Sniper Shot | A short recurve tipped with bronze; favors precision over power. Attack 8. |
| Bronze Staff | Heal Light | A focus rod capped with a bronze sigil that hums with faint light. Magic attack 10 — a staff mends as well as it curses. |
| Bronze Shield | — | A round bronze buckler, dented but dependable. Defense 5, magic defense 2 — and a much better chance of guarding, halving blows it catches. |
What gear changes — and what it never does
Gear moves numbers: how hard a blow lands, how much of it is soaked, how often a guard catches it. It never changes the shape of a battle — the turn order, the reading of writs, the sequence of reactions all stand regardless of who carries what. Better bronze makes the same plan stronger; it does not substitute for one.
A soldier with an empty writ and a teaching weapon still fights — the gear's quiet rule sees to that. A soldier with an empty writ and no teaching simply holds, every turn, until something kills them. If a hireling seems to be doing nothing, check their hands before you check their head.