Archery

**Archery** is the art, sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows. The word comes from the Latin *arcus*. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In modern times, it is mainly a competitive sport and recreational activity. A person who participates in archery is typically called an **archer** or a *bowman*, and a person who is fond of or an expert at archery is sometimes called a **toxophilite**.

## Overview

On Earth, archery began some sixty to seventy thousand years ago and was mainly used for hunting. Eventually, the bow and arrow became the primary, long-range weapon for the warrior and foot soldier. When man became more mobile with riding a horse or chariot, the bow and arrow became the weapon of choice for fast strikes. Archers were also used against aerial targets such as birds.

With the invention of gunpowder and the development of the cannon and firearms, archery became less effective on the battlefield. In current times, archery still remains as a tool for hunting and for sport as it is far less expensive to shoot and maintain a bow with arrows, then it was for guns and ammunition.

There are many types of bow and arrows, such as longbow, short bow, and compound bow while the arrow can be a standard wooden arrow, steel arrow, to the point where the arrow can be modified as an explosive arrow. In terms of long-range fighting, the bow remains indisputable when it comes to stealth as it provides no sound when firing, but the position of the shooter can be known by the arrow itself.

The archery in the modern era are limited to hunting, sport, but it is also used in military, especially special force in military operation that requires heavily on stealth.

## Archery in the New World

### Third Civilization Area and Outside the Civilized Areas

Archery is still a mainstay for hunting and warfare for nations that have medieval to 18th century-level technology. The Louria Kingdom still used flaming arrows on their warships. Incidentally, these proved to be worthless against modern vessels, and the Kongō-Class Destroyer *Myoukou,* only suffered chipped paint to its hull. Other nations, such as the Fenn Kingdom, do have a mystical bow called the Berserker Bow, which can actually bring down a wyvern. However, there was a dramatic improvement in archery during the Japanese-Parpaldian War, when the compound bow was utilized by the Seventy-Three Country Allied Forces, enabling them to kill Land Dragons. For the Parpaldia Empire, their soldiers were mostly armed with magic, flintlock muskets.

### Second Civilization Area and the Gra Valkas Empire

Due to being mechanized nations, Mu and the Gra Valkas Empire have dropped the usage of archery in favor of small arms such as the bolt-action rifle. There are some nations that still relied on magic and therefore were probably armed with either magical firearms or bows and arrows.

### First Civilization Area

The Holy Milishial Empire prides itself on reverse-engineering the weapons of the Ravernal Empire, and therefore are armed with magical firearms. There are some mention of archery in other nations but not to a high degree.

### Japan

Japan has fully embraced firearm technology and sees archery as basically for sport. As a result, weapons like the compound bow were not restricted by the New World Technology Outflow Prevention Act.