Whistling Darts

Whistling darts (dsina sxina, literally "hawk-like death" in Old Red ), are weighted war darts made by the Rose people around 100 years before the formation of the Tribal Council. 
==Design==
Whistling darts are composed of a smooth wooden or reed shaft, half a sextant in length and half a pentant across. This shaft is fletched with the materials available, including feathers and thin wooden fins. The head is a barbed point, backed by a rounded weight into which is cast a thin slit. The whole assembly is cast in one piece out of lead, which lends density to the projectile.
These whistling darts are short-ranged projectile weapons with a number of interesting properties. Firstly, their shape allows for even untrained warriors to throw them underhanded considerable heights and distances, albeit slowly. Secondly, their weight and center of gravity means that once they begin to fall, the barbed head points straight down. For this reason, the barbed heads fall on the heads, arms and flanks of enemy warriors and horses, rather than their shields or body armor.
The slit in the lead weight causes the dart to whistle as it falls, giving whistling darts their name. Records from the period claim that this whistling was a tool to intimidate opponents and startle their horses. Modern experimental archaeology has found that these whistling darts produce an irregular, high-pitched sound described as “highly unnerving”.
==History and Use==
Whistling darts have been found in a range of sites across what used to be a contested border zone during a time of intertribal xenophobia. In the period of 100 BP, Flame warriors and scouts ranged south of their traditional territory, seeking new resources and land. They brought with them Blood Stallions and well-crafted metal weapons and shields. Hostilities broke out when they encountered local Rose inhabitants, spurred by the xenophobia characteristic of the tribal collapse of 250-300 BP. To combat better-trained and well-equipped scouts, which to them amounted to foreign raiders, the Rose developed a number of simple but effective weapons. These included the dsina sxina, which could be made in sizeable quantities without special tools or materials, and could be wielded by any Rose warrior. These weapons were also spectacularly effective against both Blood Stallions and their riders, who carried shields but were otherwise lightly-armored, and carried no bows or thrown weapons. Thus, they could be easily outranged and broken by the use of the whistling darts.
Category:Technologies