Imperial Gunnery School
The Imperial Gunnery School is a famed military university and industrial complex in Nuln in the Empire. [1][2][4a]
The province of Nuln is respected across the Empire as the home to the finest handguns and war machines, save for those constructed by the Dwarfs. This reputation is largely thanks to the Imperial Gunnery School who also produce the best master gunners and pistoliers in the Empire. [3][4a]
It dominates the centre of the Universitȁt, a far larger and towering complex than the ill-fated College of Engineering. The forges that produce the famous artillery of Nuln are here, drawing ore from the Industrielplatz. [3]
Overview
Graduates from the School are highly prized for their skills in maintaining the war machines and, in battle, training artillery on vulnerable targets with unerring accuracy. [3]
Defences
Overlooking the River Aver and Avery Island, an 18 foot high wall surrounds the School with the 20 feet high city wall defending the fourth. There are two 25 foot high towers at the intersections of the east and north walls which guard the main gate. A pair of Helblaster Volley Guns guard the gateway from within and the walls bristle with gun enplacements for cannon and mortars. [4b]
History
When humans began to learn the art of manufacturing artillery, Nuln was selected as the site for the Imperial Ordnance Foundry as it was prosperous, was on imprtant trade routes and had a large bell foundry that could be converted to make guns. In addiiton many Dwarfs were already living in the city so could provide a qualified labour force.[4a]
It was completed in the 2200s IC with the Dwarf Engineers Guild allowing some secrets to be shared with the manlings but Dwarf Runes were never to be used on human weapons and a hefty tithe was to be paid to them. [4a]
Locations
- Dock: Located by the West Wall. [4b]
- Dorms: Barrack style. [4b]
- Courtyard: Used for drilling. [4b]
- Mess Hall. [4b]
- Smithies [4b]
Students
Perhaps the most surprising fact is that the School does not create new weapons of war. Such tasks are executed by the Imperial Engineers School, [2] either the well-known one in Altdorf (where luminaries such as von Meinkopt, creator of the Hellblaster, and Pfielmann, inventor of the Grenade Launching Blunderbuss) were taught, or the Gunnery School’s neighbouring College of Engineering in Nuln. Once the Colleges of Engineering create a war machine, the Imperial Gunnery School then start training gunners to use them.
This creates a high demand for their services with only a limited number available at any one time. In spite of this demand, the School refuses to lower its standards, concentrating on producing a small corps of highly skilled gunners and engineers, rather than churning out a large body of sub-standard graduates barely capable of knowing which end of the cannon the ball comes out of.
Most of the students at the school come from the Imperial nobility, sons who show talents in mathematics (or an interest in things that go boom), as well as not being immediately in line for succession to their families' noble titles. Graduates are given the choice of staying on for further study (perhaps eventually becoming Master Gunners) or returning home. For some, the prospect of yet more years of study will send them home to fight as an army’s pistoliers or outriders.
Those who remain will attain the pinnacle of their craft and get to watch their former trainees charge across the battlefield, often to their deaths. [1a] Orphans are cared for by the school who become apprentices and workers and are known as sons of the guns. [3]
The School has also long taught orphan boys of the city a trade with many becomming artillerists, engineers, gunsmiths or soldiers and are well known as the Sons of the Guns. Although the Temple of Verena s the normal destination for orphan girls, a few with the appropriate aptitude have been sposored to study - and given that they have important connections, great care is taken with them including privacy and seperation from the rowdier male students. [4b]
Weapons
The three types of artillery created at the School are Cannons, Mortars and Helbalsters but hundreds of smaller firrearms are also created, each individually cast by hand. [4b]
All the guns of the school are lovingly maintained by their crews and often are named for great heroes of the past, inscribed or painted on to the carriage or barrels.
Cannon are test-fired constantly from Aver Island or our beyond the city walls and a larget part of the grounds are given over to shooting ranges leading to gunfire echoing across the city most days. [3]
Sources
- 1: Uniforms & Heraldry of The Empire: Nuln, pg. 30-32
- 2: White Dwarf 296 (UK): Imperial School of Engineers, pg. 53
- 3: Forges of Nuln: The Lay of the Land, pg. 21
- 4: WFRP Companion, Chapter XI: Bring up the Guns!