Crystal Charges

Crystal Charges, commonly referred to as "Charges", are the source of ammunition for Crystal Charge firearms. They consist of a primary crystal, either composed of Soulstone dust cast into shape using resin or solid soulstone carved into shape for early charges, as well as a cast shell of gold or silver alloys to direct the energy forwards when fired.

Various sizes and shapes exist for different weapons, and some use them differently than others, but they have the same goal in mind: To direct magical energy forward, out of the weapon, and cause damage to the target.

## Naming Conventions

### Measurement Areas

The machining of chambers on guns and rifles uses six areas of measurement.

1. Length, the overall length of the charge from the base of the rim to the tip.
2. Rim Diameter, the widest point of the base.
3. Rim Thickness, the distance between the base of the charge and the widest point, excluding the rim.
4. Base Diameter, the widest point of the charge, excluding the rim.
5. Depth diameter, the width of the point at which the charge's angle changes from side to tip.
6. Tip/Opening Diameter, the diameter of the narrowest part of the charge, as measured at the top end.

### Eastern Standard Designations

The Eastern Standard Charge Designation System, often simply referred to as "The Eastern Standard Designation", is the most commonly used system in the world, seeing widespread use in most nations on the eastern side of Maney, including the arms manufacturing giants of New Dendarin and Sterlina.

The designations for charges are composed of three to five parts, depending on arrangement.

1. Various letters that mean different things.
2. The overall length in centimeters.
3. Casing diameter in millimeters, not including any lips.
4. Diameter of the projectile in millimeters, if the charge is P-Type.
5. A letter corresponding to its alignment, should it have one.

Letter designations include the following.

* C: Conical Tip.
* L: Lipped Casing.
* P: Projectile.
* G: Grooved Casing.

An example is the "LC8.05x7.1mm". This name breaks down to "Lipped Conical, Length: 8.05 centimeters, Diameter: 7.1 Millimeters."

### Polustranya Measurements

Polustranyan Measurements, formerly used in a part of southern Bausable, is now only used in the nation of Novya Polustranya. Names consist of three or more parts.

1. The length of the charge overall in Line, a measurement equal to a tenth of an inch. This is followed by an "X".
2. The diameter of the charge at its widest point in Line, not including any rims, followed by the word "Line".
3. A word preceded by a hyphen that describes the charge's features.
4. Repeat the previous until all characteristics of the charge have been described.

Charge features that may be described include the following.

* Funnel, or F: an open-mouthed casing with a small opening.
* Point, or P: Conical, as in the Eastern Standard designation.
* Rimless, or RL: Smooth sided in ES.
* Rimmed, or R: Lipped in ES.
* Semi Rimmed, or SR: A casing with a middle ground between RL and R, essentially a rimless casing with a slight lip on the lower side of the groove.

An example is the "30x4.5 Line-F-SR" charge utilized by the Polustranyan 4.5 Line Rifle, Model AC1153. Its eastern standard designation is "L7.62x11.4mm"

### Northeast Designations

Northeast designations are used as the official designation system in the nations of Zeliph, Utopia, Randghur, and Greater Amazonia. This system uses a measurement known as "Gauge", a measurement of the charge's diameter based in the diameter of a sphere of steel, counting up to a measurement of weight that are no longer used. The original measurement was equal to 0.31 kilograms.

For example, four quarter-measurements of steel measured by its diameter would be a "Four Gauge Charge". The names consist of a three part name.

1. Measurement of the charge's length in inches.
2. Measurement of the charge's gauge minus a rim/lip.
3. Suffixes taken from Eastern Standard.

For example, the "23 Gauge 2.1 inch L" used by the Kizae Type 177 in Zeliph. Its eastern standard designation is "L5.35x15mm"

## Charge Shapes

The shape of the charge is heavily dependent on what it is intended to do.

### Crystal Tip Shapes

Conical noses on a charge, marked with a "C" in the beginning of the name in the eastern standard designations, are optimal for long range purposes as the small, flat tip is excellent for keeping the shot's diameter small and its length long. This allows the bolt to maintain coherence, or focus, for the longest possible amount of time. The Polustranyan Funnel Tip designation produces a similar effect while also wasting less energy.

Flat tips, unmarked in the name, are useful for vacating the charge in as little time as possible, keeping the bolt short and dense. This is useful for short range stopping power and creating large, deadly wounds. They also allow the maximum possible amount of space inside the casing to be taken up without increasing the overall length.

Longer weapon barrels also assist in maintaining coherence, as the silver alloy barrels repel the energy back into the bolt, tightening it up as it travels.

### Casing Base Shapes

A lipped casing, marked with an "L" in the beginning of the name, is useful for bolt-action and single-shot weapons. They are good for deflecting energy forwards in case of charge failure, and work well with chargers.

A smooth sided casing, unmarked in the name, is useful for self-loading weapons. There is no lip that can get caught on the next charge, and they are easy to load into vertical magazines.

Grooved casings, marked with a "G" in the beginning of the name, are casings with irregular tracks or otherwise odd markings or indentations in the case. They are used with various lugs in the chamber to lock the charge in place, or otherwise serve a functional purpose.

## Charge Alignments and their Uses

### Neutral Alignment

Neutrally aligned charges fire cyan colored bolts that are used to inflict damage, destroying flesh and other non-magic-resistant materials for as long as it remains coherent. Known magic-resistant materials include Gold (reflects magical energy), Silver (diffuses magical energy), and soulstone itself (absorbs magical energy).

### Air Alignment

Air aligned charges fire bolts of yellow light that impart kinetic energy or air pressure onto the target. These are often used for training, violent crowd control or non-lethal self defense purposes.

### Darkness Alignment

Dark aligned charges fire either purple or desaturated blue/green bolts, and can either cause physical pain with no real damage, or stun the target, causing them to go limp and fall to the ground. Charges used for hunting can also cause instant death, saving meat and pelts in the process.

### Earth Alignment

Earth aligned charges are uncommonly seen, but fire green bolts. The most common known use of Earth aligned charges is in volley charges used by Exia and Bausable. These bolts are affected by gravity, unlike bolts fired from any other charge, allowing them to be arced over hills and other cover surfaces.

### Fire Alignment

Fire aligned charges fire red-orange bolts that light flammable structures on fire, as well as cauterize wounds left on living or nonliving flesh.

### Light Alignment

Light aligned charges fire intensely white-blue bolts of light that burst on contact with a solid surface. These blasts release a massive flash that is used to temporarily blind the target.

### Water Alignment

Water aligned charges firel blue bolts of light that may have unpredictable effects, but most often are made to freeze or chill the target to slow it down and drain endurance.

## Long Gun Charges in Modern Military Use

### L10.7x15mm Charge

The L10.5x15mm charge was invented for use in the Kizae Type 171, and specifically intended to produce more destructive energy than the G8.81x14.5mm charge used against Zeliph in the First Sterlina-Zeliph War.

The sheer strength of the charge and intense, painful recoil when paired with hard wooden stocks eventually warranted the addition of spring assisted straight stocks to the M71, being redesignated as the M71/84.

### L5.35x15mm Charge

A shorter version of the previous, the L5.35x15mm charge was made for use in the Kizae Type 154's 23-Gauge conversion after AC1171, and the later Kizae Type 177. It is identical to it in all ways besides its length, which was halved to fit within the action with no modification besides those made to the magazine.

### LC8.05x7.1mm Charge

The LC8.05x7.1mm charge is a modified 8.05x7.1mm charge that was developed over time and used in several prototype designs by Viktoriya Ivanovka over the decades. The charge would see official adoption by Exia and Bausable as the ammunition for the light variants of the Ivanovka M1179 and the later Ivanovka M86 Self-Loader.

The overall capacity was slightly less than it's ancestor's, but the range was increased due to the smaller conical tip and casing length.

### C7.72x12.4mm Charge

The C7.72x12.4 charge is used in the heavy variants of the Ivanovka M1179, a charge with more power, but also more recoil. It uses a crimped case mouth to hold the charge's crystal core within rather than smooth sided cases and adhesive, as well as a tapered conical nose to smooth the flow of the bolt as it leaves the crystal, forcing it to be straighter as it leaves the charge.

### C7.25x7.8mm Charge

These charges are a further evolution of the 8.05x7.1 charge, now with smooth sides for easier use in self-loading rifles, and 10% shorter, but 10% wider overall, increasing the charge capacity by approximately 10%. They were intended for use by the Ivanovka M1184 and M1185 rifles.

### C8x13.6mm Charge

These charges were created in Sterlina for use in the SS1181-R. No reason was given for the decrease in size, but the most likely explanation was to carry more charges in a similarly sized magazine to the SS1155-R line.

Due to espionage and prototypes being stolen, the charge is also in use in the Kobeula 82 rifles used by The Lameianis Confederation.

### C8.81x14.5mm Charge

These are the modern smooth walled variants of the obsolete G8.81x14.5mm charges. Their conical nose makes them accurate and keeps ther discharge coherent at long ranges, and their smooth walled casing suffers less damage than the forked design of their predecessor.

While Sterlina abandoned the charge in AC1175 in favor of the C8x13.6 charge, New Dendarin supports them to this day in everything from infantry carbines to sniper rifles.

### P7.03x9.65mm(6.35mm) Charge

These charges come from the fledgeling nation of Great Amazonia and are unique in their day, having a bottleneck shape, and requiring the invention of a new designation letter due to their solid projectile. They were intended for use in stolen but modified Sterlinian rifle designs that they designated the Pattern AC1188 Rifle. Had they not stolen it, it may have in time become the next SS-R model, quite possibly as early as AC1185.

They function using wind-aligned crystals made by pouring resin directly into the mouth of the casing rather than previous pre-cast crystals retained by adhesives. This allows the bottleneck shape to provide more crystal capacity for a small, light bullet.

When fired, the wind-aligned bolt impacts the rear of the bullet and creates air pressure inside the casing, sending the bullet forwards. The air pressure allowed a gas system to operate the bolt rather than relying solely on spring pressure.

The defensive shielding employed by the combat mages of Zeliph cannot deflect or slow solid projectiles, as their shielding was intended to deflect magical energy.

The rest of the world has not yet made their opinions clear on the use of metal projectiles, having used magical energy for over 200 years before the solid projectile resurfaced in the modern day, as the crossbow bolt and arrow were replaced by crystal charge bolts.

If they are not outlawed and sanctioned against, they could change modern warfare, making the ferrosilver armor fielded by most nations obsolete.

## Handgun Charges in Modern Military Use

### L4.31x10mm Charge

The L4.31x10mm charge used by the New Dendarin Arms Company Revolver Model AC1175, or NDAC-RM75, was intended to be a downsized variant of the L4.31x11.1mm charge employed by the previous service revolver, the Denidaria Arms Company Revolver Model AC1140.

It was 10% narrower, but remained the same length as the previous charge. It was greatly successful, and plenty powerful enough for a handgun. It would also later be used by the NDAC Valchen Pistol Model 1, a semi-automatic pistol fielded by New Dendarin's military in AC1181, following the release of the Ivanovka Model AC1180 handgun in use by Exia and Bausable.

### 2.5x10mm Charge

These charges were simply intended to serve as a small handgun round with no frills or special features, invented on the spot for the new Ivanovka Pistol Model AC1180 from Viktoria Ivanovka in Bausable and Exia. The royalty of both nations requested a handgun to accompany their new service rifles, and the design put forward was extremely simple and functional.

There was a hint of inferiority from New Dendarin when this weapon was released, leading to the design of the NDAC-VPM1 only a year later. The weapon, and by extension its charges, are very popular in the civilian market for personal defense and marksmanship.

## Obsolete and Civilian Charges

### 8.05x7.1mm Charge

While it was not called such when it was first produced in AC956, based on ancient and then illegal Drow weapons of mass destruction, these were the first crystal charges ever produced by a young Viktoriya Ivanovka for her single-shot lever-action rolling-block BRM956 and BCM960.

The casing was often crude, as precision machining was not easily done with the state of disrepair the world's infrastructure was in, and the crystal itself was rough-hewn and readily snapped off at the case edge. These broken charges would be designated the 2.76x7.1mm charge used in the later BPM962.

These are often reproduced in much higher quality, used in commercially available weapons for the purposes of hunting and target shooting.

### 2.76x7.1mm Charge

Beginning as broken 8.05x7.1mm charges, these became standard for use in the shortened pistol-sized version of the BRM956, the BPM962, due to their reduced recoil better suiting one-handed operation. It only had one-third the internal space of the undamaged charge, but was useful for indoor combat often seen by cult hunters and strike hounds employed by the Purists of the day.

These are often reproduced for modern target shooting and self defense due to their low capacity crystals.

### G5.18x12mm Charge

These charges were used by the Kizae Rifle Model AC1095/30, a single-shot trapdoor-action rifle. They featured deep cutouts on the rear of the casing intended to lock into lugs in the chamber to stabilize the charge, as well as serrations to ease in seating the charge in adverse weather conditions where water may make them slippery.

### 6.83x13.4mm Tapered Charge

These charges were among the first to utilize resin poured directly into the casing rather than pre-cast resin crystal cores. This allowed them to utilize the entire inside of the casing rather than losing a fraction to air gaps and glue. The narrow mouth and tapered case was a precursor to the pointed tip, as the smaller exit point assisted in increasing the rifle's range.

These charges and the rifle that fired them, the SS1130-R series, fell out of favor with the military, but remain popular with civilians in Sterlina.

### L5.52x11mm Charge

These charges are used by both the single shot and magazine fed versions of the DAC-LM38. While the rifle and the charge eventually fell out of military favor, they are still seeing popular use in the civilian market and with New Dendarin militias.

### G8.81x14.5mm Charge

These charges were developed with one goal in mind. To overwhelm the defensive shielding employed by combat mages in Zeliph. The casing walls were thin, which allowed more crystal capacity, and made use of cutouts to lock them into lugs on the inner surface of a hollow bolt found in the host rifle, the SS1155-R. The thin, forked casings often warped and bent if improperly handled or ejected, causing jams and making the casings near useless for recycling.

They proved reliable enough to cause the war to end in a white peace, but not enough to see continued use, eventually being replaced by a more traditional smooth walled casing variant. These older charges could theoretically be fired by the updated rifles, but they may have trouble ejecting spent charges, so it is not recommended.

### L4.31x11.1mm Charge

The L4.31x11.1mm charge was the predecessor to the L4.31x10 charge. They were considerably more powerful and had much harsher recoil than the latter, especially given the high bore axis of revolvers with a 12 o'clock barrel position.

The DAC-RM40 that it was originally used in often suffered from both snapped handles and snapped frames. These were remedied by reinforcing the handle, and adding an upper bar to the frame of the revolver, increasing the rigidity of the entire design.

Following the abandonment of these charges, metal and plastic adapters were made for the DAC-RM40 so they could chamber the L4.31x10mm charges that were in active service with the military.

### L6.48x12.8mm Charge

These charges were very common in the southern parts of the world up until high capacity charges came into standard use. A rifle still popular in civilian markets that utilizes them is the Polustranyan 4.5 Line Magazine Rifle, Model AC1144, formerly the Southern Bausable Army Service Rifle, Model AC1144.

Upon the adoption of the 4.5 Line rifle, Zeliph approached them for purchasing surplus ammunition. They had been looking for a new charge for use in their Type 154 revolving carbine, as they needed new weapons for their aerial mage corps to replace their single shot breech loading carbines. Some slight modification was made to the surplus, such as having the rim trimmed to allow them to fit into the carbine's 9-shot cylinder without interfering with the other charges.

The revolving carbine was supplemented by their Type 152 Self Loading pistol in the air, and would be replaced shortly by their Type 169 Hand Cannon. This relegated the charge to surplus, reserves, and civilian use.

## Experimental Charges

### C12.7x14.5mm Charge

These charges were an early response by Sterlina to the L10.7x15 charges. They were essentially intended to show Zeliph that they could make large, high capacity charges to rival theirs, featuring roughly 10% more crystal volume. The intense recoil and expensive casings prevented them from seeing widespread production,

Sterlina instead went on to design something similar to the P7.03x9.65mm(6.35mm) charge, though the designs would be shelved after generally adverse reactions to Greater Amazonia's Pattern AC1188 Rifle, which fired the charge.