A thought occured to me recently whille rereading the part in the Golems Eye where Barti's shield is shredded by silver bullets by those Prague soldiers armed with just muskets/primitive bolt-action rifles. So, I've been considering what would happen if weapons technology was even like what we humans had in WW2? I'm sure the book would have ended rather quickly if some of those soldiers had machine guns loaded with silver rounds.

Well, it may eventually be that some Commoner figures out how to build said guns. What then? Combinded with resilience, Barti and co would be obsolete. Why risk summoning when some ordinary Commoner could fill you Djinn with silver with a twitch of his finger? And you along with it.

I believe it was mentioned that the commoners don't know that demons are the sole source of a magician's power. Don't see why that stops other magicians though. Silver's expensive sure, but there's iron too.

FuzzyLobster wrote:I believe it was mentioned that the commoners don't know that demons are the sole source of a magician's power. Don't see why that stops other magicians though. Silver's expensive sure, but there's iron too.

Indeed, though they now have the possibility of an independant government in Britain, and there are also other places (Belgium I believe was mentioned, maybe Holland :unsure: ) with commoners in charge where something could be invented

Yep.
But, ya see, Djinn are nimble.
You raise a legit point, and one raised before, but you have to remember: they aren't static.
Imagine a guy, machine gun in hand, getting strangled by a near-invisible (or invisible) wisp of smoke...
A fly sends a tiny detonation, causing a stroke...
A rat, slinking about, dropkicks a door guard, busts into the command room, and with a flurry of detonations and infernos, kills everyone in the room...

It wouldn't be too fast, I think :)
Remember, the spirits weren't grunts: they were spies of the highest caste, sneaking around, getting intelligence and assassinating high-value targets.

Most commoners didn't know that silver is fatal to spirits. And like Datsyuk said, they are nimble and have a thousand other tricks up their sleeves. Magicians wouldn't use silver on rival spirits because they know other magicians would retaliate.

nathanielandbartimaeus wrote:Most commoners didn't know that silver is fatal to spirits. And like Datsyuk said, they are nimble and have a thousand other tricks up their sleeves. Magicians wouldn't use silver on rival spirits because they know other magicians would retaliate.

At least, in Britain that is the case. But looking towards a future with much more accesible information, that will quickly change.

The nimbleness and such a are quite usefull, but most of it relies on reacting quickly to threats. In PG, for example, Faquarl is taken completely by surprise by a spasm, which, even if it moves as fast as a bullet, which is somewhat doubtful, as most attacks can be dodged easily (mostly), and requires the user to raise their hand and at least concentrate to se it. In contrast, a bullet moves so fast that you wouldn't here the soundt until it enters you, and requires the mearest twitch of the finger to fire, of course being soewhat obvious and heavy.

The illusory problem raises the question of whether the essence is damaged on all 7 planes, or just the first. Because the 7th is the closest to a spirits actual essence, I woul supect that silvers damage would remain.

Sine the 7th plane essence, also does not change form, this would mean that changing shape would only be a deterrent if the individual could not locate you, as even a near miss could still hit your 7th plane essence. And even one hit of silver hurts. A lot. Having a commoner with Sight along with several normals would allow fire to be directed against a spirits 7th plane essence, even is they were disguised as a wisp of smoke.

Also, in the GE at Prague, battle tactics sem to consist of taking a specific form and charging at an enemy screaming and shooting detonations. A couple machine guns mounted on the walls of Prague, plenty of ammunition, and a handy sniper round in the face for Gladstone would have won the day. Even Nouda in PG, would have been butchered by several silver shots in his general area, as his 7th plane essence would be quite big.

Leber wrote:ThAlso, in the GE at Prague, battle tactics sem to consist of taking a specific form and charging at an enemy screaming and shooting detonations. A couple machine guns mounted on the walls of Prague, plenty of ammunition, and a handy sniper round in the face for Gladstone would have won the day. Even Nouda in PG, would have been butchered by several silver shots in his general area, as his 7th plane essence would be quite big.

They were in battle formation....

Plus most armies razing a city tends to get a little chaotic.

I wonder how spirits would deal with a nuclear blast

Die obviously. Even grenades affect them.

Asmoral_The_Resolute wrote:I wonder how spirits would deal with a nuclear blast

Well, maybe they wouldn't die. It isn't really stated how much of a non-magical attack a shield can take, and as lone as they aren't hit by silver as well, they may be able to withstand its blast, possibly by hiding in a magical refrigerator. Now a silver grenade.......