At first glance, the art of war in the Locus appears primitive. Battles still revolve around a decisive close combat. Campaigns still revolve around capturing strategic fortresses. Most of the weapons are familiar from medieval warfare: bows and crossbows at long range, javelins and throwing axes at medium range, and swords, maces, and axes in melee. Armor, whether body armor or a shield, is more often than not worth the extra weight.
Upon closer examination, however, one finds the battlefield transformed by the ubiquitous presence of magic. Ranged weapons are far more powerful, making close combat harder to get into, but the disproportionate power of melee weaponry makes it worth the effort. Vehicles, war machines, and monstrous constructs grace the battlefield with their hulking presence, lending a more modern feel akin to armored or mechanized divisions, as well as greatly improved mobility. Various other magical devices provide the soldier with capabilities far beyond their mere medieval counterparts.
We will cover the equipment of the typical Locus military unit in four sections:
Most Locus weapons bear at least some resemblance to some type of medieval weapon (i.e. bow, crossbow, sling, spear, axe, sword, mace, etc.). However, it must be understood that magic is de rigueur: one would no sooner walk into a Locus battlefield with a mundane weapon as walk onto a modern battlefield armed with only a pike. Not only does every common weapon have an enchantment, but many have more than one. Thus, many of the features in the following list can be combined to form weapons of unusual power.
The major weapon categories are as follows:
Contact weapons: these are weapons that must touch their target for their enchantment to have an effect. Usually, these are quite powerful, and form part of the incentive for units to close into melee range.
Extensible weapons: these are weapons which can divide into parts which remain structurally linked by force fields. The effect of this is that, even though the parts of the weapon do not change in size or shape, the weapon as a whole is able to change size and shape dramatically. This permits the creation of weapons which are portable despite being large or can change from being large to being wieldy.
Ray weapons: these are weapons which shoot telekinetic force rays at a target. Because force rays are not affected by wind or gravity, ray weapons are both accurate and long-ranged. However, the ray projector (device which generates the force rays) inevitably requires an external source.
Spell weapons: these are weapons which amplify and deploy prepared spells. This allows magic users to stay well behind the battle lines preparing spells in (relative) safety while the troops still benefit from spell support. Also, because spell weapons amplify spells, a magic user can typically create more spell ammunition than they can actually cast as equivalent spells, and can create ammunition for more powerful spells than they can actually cast. While very advantageous as a means of deploying spell support, the ammunition for these weapons is still rather expensive which restricts them to a minority role on the battlefield.
Mechanical weapons: These are mechanical devices for delivering unusual amounts of damage on the battlefield. Machines too heavy to carry by hand are listed under the section on heavy equipment.
Miscellaneous ranged weapons:
Armor is significantly less diverse than weaponry. This is mainly because enchantments are available which provide resistance against many forms of magical attack. Which is fortunate, since otherwise the average soldier would be forced to wear an impractically heavy armor harness! Below is a brief list of some common armor components (elements of a harness) and armor types (harnesses for specific functions).
There are many pieces of equipment that can benefit a soldier besides weapons and armor. A few of them are listed here:
There are many pieces of military equipment too heavy for an individual soldier to carry, much of which can provide a decisive advantage in battle.