Weapons of Santhenar (Well of Echoes)

During the Well of Echoes series by Ian Irvine, many different weapons are used by the different species of Santhenar and Aachan.

Old human weapons

Clankers

Battle armopeds, or more informally "Clankers", are large tanks roughly the shape of giant armadilloes. They have slightly varying designs from place to place but all have a large round porthole in the front, are covered in interlocking armour plates and have between 8 and 12 legs. They have a crew of two, one operator who channels the field from nodes into the clankers mechanism to make it move and one shooter who controls the weapons on top of the clanker. The weapons a clanker carries are a small catapult and a javelard, a giant crossbow. Clankers can also carry a squad of ten soldiers though the ride is seldom enjoyable (they aren't called 'clankers' for nothing). At top speed, a clanker can move roughly at running speed.

Air Floaters

During Geomancer, Nish designs a hot air balloon based on a childhood pastime of floating paper toys on hot air. The balloon is kept aloft by a brazier of hot coals just below the bag. However, the balloon is made from silk coated with tar and the basket is made out of wicker, making it very unsafe and prone to catching fire. It also has no means of moving itself and has to move with the wind. By the time the balloon is destroyed in Tetrarch, the improved model, the first air floater, has been developed. The first air floater is shaped similar to the zeppelin and has a propeller on the rear powered by the field in a manner similar to clankers so it can move without or against the wind. It does not rely on hot air and is filled with gas from the manufactory mines (most likely hydrogen due to its explosive nature). The Council develop the final model of the air floater in time for the battle of Snizort. They are larger than the original and do not rely on mines for their gas as they have machines known as floater gas generators which create the gas through a chemical process. All by this time, controllers similar to clanker controllers are being produced specifically for the air floaters and dedicated pilots are being trained. In battle, air floaters can carry up to ten soldiers armed with crossbows and later models are armed with javelards. They have an advantage against Lyrinx because they can float higher than they can fly and survey the battlefield with a birds eye view. However, they have to move lower for their soldiers to fire their weapons which makes them very vulnerable. A slight tear by a lyrinx's claw can become a huge rip and cause the air floater to crash. Also, because they are still made of wood, silk and tar and now filled with hydrogen, a single spark can cause them to explode violently.

Air Dreadnoughts

Unsatisfied with the air floaters and their apparent weaknesses, the Council of Scrutators created a fleet of air dreadnoughts and used them to attack Fiz Gorgo. Air dreadnoughts are similar to air floaters except they are much larger and instead of one gas bag, they have five with four arranged in a diamond shape and one in the centre. While still very vulnerable to fire, they are able to remain afloat if one or even two bags are torn though this can make them very difficult to pilot. They carry a huge complement of soldiers, mancers, artificers and spare pilots and besides the crossbows and javalards, the council air dreadnoughts are also armed with special devices powered by the art which reflect and amplify the suns rays into a beam weapon. They are painted with monstrous faces (not unlike Triremes) because not only are air dreadnoughts formidable machines, they are also symbolic of the council's military might. Thus, when many were destroyed during the events at Fiz Gorgo, the council lost much of its influence.

Thapters

When the Aachim came to Santhenar in Geomancer, three of their constructs were damaged and abandoned. With Malien's help and using the power of the ampliment, Tiaan managed to repair one of them and make it fly. She decided that it was no longer appropriate to call it a construct and named it the thapter. Later in Tetrarch, Malien discovers a way of making them fly using normal crystals. Using this information, the new council salvages the five badly damaged constructs from Snizort and turns them into thapters as well. Apart from being able to fly and making a louder whining noise, they are identical to Aachim constructs (see below).

Aachim weapons

Constructs

Constructs are machines native to Aachan. They are recreated exactly from the wreckage of Rulke's construct. They are long and pointed at the front but flat at the back, with a hatch on top for access to the drivers compartment and a turret just behind, armed with weapons similar to the javelard. Most constructs are black in colour with the exception being the constructs of Clan Inthis which are made of a blue-black metal. Aside from colour, the only variation between constructs is size with some small enough for only a dozen people and others big enough to hold fifty. The inside has one compartment big enough for roughly six people to stand in plus the pilot and another compartment which allows access to the constructs mechanisms as well as doubling as a storage room for food and weapons and a sleeping area. They move by floating a foot off the ground. Constructs have most of the components needed for flight recreated from the original but certain vital parts of Rulke's construct were destroyed completely and no Aachim has been able to discover what they were.

The Aachim of Stassor also begin using thapters when Malien gives them the secret of making them. However, the Aachim of Aachan do not gain this secret.

Lyrinx weapons

Nylatl

The nylatl is a small creature roughly the size of an average dog. It has armour plates with long spines between them which secrete poison, extremely sharp teeth, powerful limbs and the ability to spit acid a large distance. It was created by Ryll and Liett in Kallisin using Tiaan and the amplimet to add more power to their flesh forming arts. However, the first Nylatl is uncontrollable due to being driven insane from the pain of being flesh formed and escapes. Originally, they were designed to grow as large as humanity's clankers as a counter measure. However, when this proved impractical, they were changed to have less armour but more speed and renamed Uggnatl.

Torgnadr

Torgnadrs are large flesh coloured mushrooms also known as a node drainers. They are used to completely drain a node of its power and leave humanity's clankers and mancers helpless in battle. Wherever a torgnadr is present, power leaks out from the node into the surrounding area, causing strange mutations in plants and a warping effect on solid matter. They are not made through flesh forming like most lyrinx creations but through a process known as patterning where humans are placed in special flesh formed vats. Creating a torgnadr requires special qualities in the person they use so they are rare and only four have been successfully completed. Patterning is also used to make other devices such as limnadrs, devices for spying on clankers, or phynadrs, devices used to freeze the tar in the tarpits of Snizort.

Flisnadr

The flisnadr, also known as the power patterner, is large, flesh coloured and shaped like a barrel with slits around the outside which the user puts their hands into to control it. It is an improvement on the torgnadr made by Ryll on Matriarch Gyrull's orders. Rather than have the power from a drained node leak out uselessly, the flisnadr allows the user to redirect this power elsewhere.