Mikhail Ishnat

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Ishnat (3/37/5e209 - 2/17/6e18) was an **Orovite writer, military engineer and small-arms gunsmith** from the City-State of Zgrodny, on the Isle of Oktubrasky. He is most famous for authoring the *Modern History* series of travel compendiae, and for the design, invention and patenting of the Ishnat YD machine gun, which was heavily used by the City States of Orow during the Oktubraskyan Civil War and by the Orovite *Obschaya* during the War of Alliances. He created these over years working as an engineer for the armory of Zgrodny, and after initial success in local markets, his design patent was sold to and adopted by most of the Orovite city states. Ishnat never accepted sole responsibility for his weapon, however, always claiming his works to have been finished by a collective of himself and his fellow engineers.

## Early Life

Growing up, Ishnat was born into a wealthy family, the fourth son of Maria Ishnatya and Aleksander Ishnat, who was the personal translator for the CEO of the Wolfyevich Trading Company. Because of his social status, Mikhail attended both primary and secondary school, which was considered extremely high education only available to the upper class. He excelled in his schooling, particularly in the maths, and he discovered his love of mechanical engineering here. Creating hypothetical firearm designs happened to be one of his favorite pastimes as a boy. He pitched several ideas to the armory of Zgrodny as a teenager, though nothing was accepted.

## Early Literary Career

At the age of 20, Mikhail left his family to travel abroad. He spent the 5e240's trekking overland across the Stanislavic continent, through the Empire of Dana and the Skyriftan peninsula. Here he fell in love with geopolitics and history, later writing in his *Modern History of the Skyre* (Orovite: *Современная история Скырифтица*, *Sovremennaya Istoria Skyriftica*) [5e249] that he became moved by the plight of the Southern Skyre people in the face of the second wave of Skyriftan Verriganism in the mid-5e200's. He found similar interest in the people of the Southern Kingdom of Benth, under the Graecian *Regla* government. He travelled through Therica and the Southern Benthic isles from 5e251 to 5e257, a time in which he authored the *Modern History of the Islandic* (Orovite: *Современная история Островица*, *Sovremennaya Istorya Ostrovica*) [5e255], the second in his *Modern History* series of travel and history compendiae, all of which having been reprinted in several languages since their original publication. He also met his wife, Sofia Calazania, during his stay in the city of Puerto Regla, the capital of the Southern Kingdom. They married there in 5e256.

He returned home to Zgrodny with Sofia in the Dusk Season of 5e257, where he was met with a warm greeting by both the people and government of the city in response to his literary exploits. He finished his final book in his *Modern History* series here, the *Modern History of the Orovite* (*Cовременная история Оровит*, *Sovremennaya Istorya Orovit)* [5e259], before returning to his former passion of military engineering, and landing a position as an engineer for the Armory of Zgrodny.

## Engineering and Gunsmithing Career, Middle Life

He worked steadily, primarily designing minor improvements on existing Orovite weaponry and armor, from 5e259 until 5e278. He fathered two children in 5e265, at the age of 56- a boy and a girl. The boy, Vuk, would grow up to become a gunsmith by trade, much like his father, and the girl, Anya, would become a renowned poet and painter. Ishnat's workflow and income steadily increased as the Western industrial revolution swept the Orovite Isles, with his work reaching an all-time high with the outbreak of the Oktubraskyan Civil War. He was immediately moved to a chief engineering position when most of the young men working the armory went to fight the war, and was commissioned to create a new, man-portable machine gun, pairing down the firepower of emplaced automatic weapons like the Blish Gun and Peppermill Gun into a smaller package. He worked closely with fellow engineer Ygorin Slegrod to create early prototypes of what would become the Ishnat YD machine gun. The design was simplified and revised countless times from 5e278 to 6e03, when it was finished and adopted by the Zgrodny military. After its original adoption, the militaries of Getrograd, Visnoye Sobor, Khelm, and Solnichy all purchased Ishnat's patent and adopted it. The platform survived after the end of the war in 6e05, and saw service all the way into the War of Alliances, due to its durability and reliability in battle, as well as its easily-replaceable parts.

## Later Life

Ishnat suffered greatly from existential crisis after creating the Ishnat YD, retiring and vowing to "never create or handle a weapon of war again". He wrote this in his autobiography (6e13), and that he couldn't bear the suffering that his invention, and by proxy he himself, had caused. After the war, he retired with his wife and now-adult children to the mountains in the North of Oktubrasky. He spent his final years in relative solitude. Mikhail Ishnat died at home on Mud the 17th, 6e18.