mrsonvsyoutube | mongolian horseback archery

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Been thinking of a talk I had with a friend a while back about the under-appreciation of horseback archery in fantasy stories.

There's two different thoughts bundled up together in there.
One of which is some people like to make orcs "like mongols" in that they do marauding warbands and a religious mandate to conquer the world around them.
But.
You don't typically see orcish horse archers.
People who don't know bows don't necessarily think of them as a "strength" weapon. They're the nimble dexterity weapon, right? For people not strong enough to hack and slash?
...people who know bows are scoffing right now.
Also orcs are brutish and uncivilized and would just eat the horses, right?
...at best this is a Lord of the Rings-inspired viewpoint and at worst it's repackaged racism (it could also be both).
Nah, orcs should 100% have horse archers and it would be EPIC.

But also I'm working with elves for one of my worlds right now, who have a bit of an asian theme to them (It's more complex than that, I'm summarizing). And I decided it would be cool if they had samurai-style horse archers.
There's no orcs in that world. I won't be putting both these ideas in the same place.

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And hold it steady enough to hit what you're aiming at!

When you're lifting weights, nobody cares how much you shake; you can vibrate like a coin-operated bed as long as you get the bar in the right position. With a bow, you must be able to hold it steady. "A Perfection That Eludes Us" has a scene about that.

mongolian horseback archery

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