At the end of Fleeing Victory #1 and toward the end of #2, it’s been shown that the Cordaean armas have mechanical arms attached to their hulls in the same area as the suspension system. I noticed while reading back through those chapters that it could be seen as me making a case for having robotic arms on tanks. Those arms have come in handy time and again. What I’d really be advocating for is smaller crews and A.I. integration, but that’s not what this post is about. Mechanical limbs are a tremendous part of Praedia’s history as a setting. It started with golems and similar things, steadily working its way up through the ages into full blown automata. It won’t matter what time period you look at; somewhere and sometime there is at least one nation, state, or faction that’s using technology along that line of thinking. Engineered limbs, especially those controlled by automata, are one of Praedia’s defining bits of lore, and as such, they’re ubiquitous. Movable armor plating, more versatile cranes, aircraft catapults and retrievers, weapon and equipment hardpoints, and on and on it goes.

(The grappler ships from Outlaw Star would be right at home in Praedia somewhere further up the timeline.)

The armas are just one example of how ancient technology has survived long enough to become ‘utterly conventional.’ Below is an excerpt from my automata article about armas.

Heavy Fighting Vehicle (HFV) – Arma
Armas are quickly phasing out old fashioned anti-vehicle and anti-fortification golems. These treaded near sentient behemoths boast massive artillery housed in special turrets, thick armor, all-terrain treads, intimidating travel speed, and the most heavily reinforced manipulator arms available on any land-based automata. The arms, coupled with an arma’s already impressive armor, is capable of shrugging off direct hits from other armas, though some are capable of piercing these defenses with special rounds. Armas will typically have one or two living crewers; a navigator to guide it, and a commune specialist to receive and relay orders from field commanders. For one man crews, the navigator and commune specialist are one and the same.

You can expect to see a lot more weird tech like this from Central and Eastern Zavodia, but honestly, compared to Western Zavodia, conventional looking vehicles with a pair of grasping arms are just a gripe for engineers and accountants. The West has a flair for the dramatic and a love for natural aesthetics that threatens all practicality. Imagine people riding mechanical wyverns instead of attack choppers. Sure, they’ve got chain guns and rockets, too … but still. Munica is a country in Western Zavodia, so they have some of this as well. I’ll get to showcase some of that in Fleeing Victory before too long here. Definitely before #6.