Lux /=/ Gun. It in very few ways plays the same role as a gun. Or even a weapon. But you missed the point, and badly.Mutant for Hire wrote:"There is no such thing as an unarmed Raconan" rings about as true as the statement "there was no such thing as an unarmed medieval peasant". The latter statement is technically true. Few peasants didn't have knives, and farmers had all sorts of implements that could be (and often were when they were impressed into service or revolting against their lord) as weapons. And yet somehow the medieval world failed to be an egalitarian place.
The gun was a great societal equalizer mainly because a peasant with only days of training could become good enough that a group of them could do a fairly impressive kill rate on knights who had vastly more expensive equipment and years of training (which was also incredibly expensive). Prior to the gun, the military effectiveness of knights compensated for the greater expense. After the gun, military effectiveness became much more cost effective.
Now if Ralph can conclusively show that an illiterate, uneducated, untrained and underfed Raconan peasant after a few days of training can wipe out a well trained Raconan with years of fancy education and the finest equipment, I'll be willing to believe that lux ability is a great equalizer. Everything he has shown has indicated it is not the case. And he has shown very little reason for me to swallow that a farmer's son like Quentyn is going to be literate, going to be educated, going to have the time and the energy for militia training in his spare time.
Medieval life was vastly different than it was now, with 90+% of the people working hard as farmers and having little time or energy for anything else, even when their ruler wanted them to do so. English kings had a devil of a time getting their adult men to train with the longbow, and the longbow strikes me as a far simpler thing than learning to use lux. Ralph is assuming that even the common folks of what is essentially an early industrial predominantly agrarian society have the wealth, time and educational opportunities of an advanced industrial society.
Lux is equivalent to Tesla's wet dream of electricity. It can do shitloads of stuff... and everyone (even Quenty, despite being a black ribboner) has a natural Lux field with which he can do stuff.
Sure, a farmer has to work hard, regardless of his tools and equipment - but a farmer with electricity or lux has it easier. There's things that'll make the hard work easier and faster, to the point where the farmer HAS time for learning to read, HAS time for milita training.
And even if it IS used as a weapon, you're misusing your comparison as well. Certainly, a peasent with 15 minutes of training can take out an armored knight with a gun, and a 'peasent' Rac Coona could take out the equivalent. But a peasent with 15 minutes of training would be dead on the dueling field against someone who practices for hours every week; so would a Rac Coona against someone who trains with Lux the equilvanet difference.
In addition, I think that Ralph wasn't just commenting on a Rac Coona's armament, but rather temperment. What we DO know about their society is that, at least in the villages like Freeman Downs, everyone goes through militia training, and I'm certain that most carry some sort of weapon on them at all times.
That, and it has been said, how much of their society have we seen? Not much... not much at all.
. Ralph hasn't mentioned it but they had to have invented paper cartridges, powder and ball in one package, cram it in and go.
