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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 5761308" data-attributes="member: 19675">The earliest depiction of a gunpowder weapon i know of is the illustration of a fire-lance on a mid-10th century silk banner from Dunhuang.  The Tê-An Shou Chhêng Lu, an account of the siege of De'an in 1132, records that Song forces used fire-lances against the Jurchens.And gunpowder itself was invented in the 9th century, The first mention of a mixture resembling gunpowder appeared in Taishang Guaizu Danjing Mijue by Qing Xuzi (@ 808AD); the first reference to its incendiary properties is in a Taoist text tentatively dated to the mid-9th century AD.So that gets us pretty far back.  Besides...even tossing out the armor, you have other things in the game and much genre fiction that push timelines ahead instead of back: rapiers, for instance.  Certain types of transport, especially ships.  Even certain castle designs.  Most fantasy writers weren't really historians, after all.And the thing is, in the real world, just because some form of new weapon, armor ship or castle design showed up, doesn't mean the old stuff got abandoned.  Until necessity forced them, the old stuff kept getting used, since it was still generally good enough.</blockquote>