Arknights Lore: An Overview On Firearms And Its Possible Future

‘Firearms... these weapons will truly change the world completely.’ – Vulcan’s Talk 3

Guns are not common nor easy to use in Terra, as it requires Arts and other prerequisites, unlike Earth. And then other weapons like bows or casting units are easier to use, while cold steel is way stronger.

Will what Vulcan say become true? It may happen, for the firearms technology has developed in a new direction ever since Sesa has arrived and now that the Rainbow Squad is in Terra during Operation Originium Dust.

This article will include the gun-related lore so far until Operation Originium Dust. Thank goodness the art book gives an official definition of guns too.

From there onwards, I will also explain that the mystery person in the Promotion Records of the Rainbow Squad is likely Sesa due to his background. The properties of the guns and Sesa’s Archives 4 also show parallels of these guns and real life AK-47s, the deadliest weapon in history.

Before we start, please absolutely remember this:

GAMEPLAY =/= LORE

Guns are just really weak in Terra. Makes no lore sense (cents) that Ash and Chen Alter are this strong but makes dollars.

Lauli explains the firearms lore very succinctly and clearly here, so watch it before reading the rest of this article for more elaboration and theories.

Here is an official description of guns from the Arknights artbook that I have translated:
Gun weapons, shortened as guns, also known as firearms, are a type of weapon that uses spells to pressurise the projectiles to long distance targets.

Compared to other weapons, guns belong to a type of new staff type weapon. The structure resembles wands (Originium firing gear) – crossbows with gun core, which seems more suitable in the study of human factors.

The structure of guns is more complicated. Besides requiring a certain industrial standard to manufacture, the user also needs to possess basic shooting skills and basic Originium Arts talent. Besides needing good aiming technique, the strength to control recoil after firing the gun, a well-versed gun user also needs precise, stable, and high frequency spell ability.

On Terra, most guns are produced in Laterano and are used by the Laterano people. Some Columbian technology companies have attempted to create some simple imitations of gun weapons. And to most non-Laterano people, gun weapons are not a type of practical weapon.

A note from myself because Chinese to English translation is very troublesome:
铳 is really just the olden Chinese way of referring to the modern 枪. And based on the other gun related lore, 铳 seems to refer to Laterano guns while 枪 refers to other non Laterano guns. You will see 枪 when it comes to the more unorthodox guns: Sesa and the Rainbow Squad. Sesa himself is an anomaly and a potential catalyst in the gun lore, with his potential to change it in the future with his (brother’s) invention of guns that do not require Originium Arts.

Exusiai's Archives 2:

The gun is a unique mid and long-range weapon rumored to be discovered by Laterano, thereby becoming one of its symbols.
Its killing power isn't exceptional, but it's better suited to the average Laterano citizen's temperament than cold steel, thus becoming the weapon of choice in Laterano. Everyone now carries at least one for personal protection.
Exusiai may seem laid-back, but her marksmanship ranks among the top at Rhodes Island. On one hand, she lacks the attention span for things other than maintaining and operating her gun. On the other hand, her innate marksmanship talents, including visual tracking and timing, are the envy of all sharpshooters.

Note that guns do not have exceptional killing power and would be considered a weak weapon on Terra. This implies that the Sankta may not be physically strong enough to carry other cold steel weapons, so they carry guns instead. But to everyone else, guns are impractical.

Why are guns not as strong as cold steel on Terra? There is a theory that cold steel have more complicated mechanisms than gun bullets, so more Arts can be used. Material is required to conduct Originium Arts, as seen in the description of the crafting material.

Other races use other guns. For example, Jessica uses a handgun, unlike the rifles of the Sankta.

Another gun user (but not really) is W:

W’s enemy description:

A Sarkaz Mercenary and one of Reunion's squad leaders, she carries around a weapon that resembles a Laterano Gun. However, she almost exclusively attacks using explosives and throwing weapons.

Despite how W likely stole her gun from Sankta, this description implies that W is not good at using her gun. In fact if you watch her animations, S2 and S3 is just setting off explosives. She does not shoot her gun at all.

Anyway, cold steel is clearly used in combat more and is stronger. We have people like Skadi, Hoshiguma, Blaze, and Siege with massive strength and strong weapons.

So why not use gunpowder? Terra clearly has the elements in the descriptions of crafting materials and chemistry should be similar. Even in Chapter 1, Nearl says she smells sulfur from Talulah.

However, it will be even less efficient than guns that use Arts, which already lacks killing power. Why use gunpowder when Arts is better?

It is theorised that the Laterano people discovered guns and then modified them to use Originium to follow their own culture. Laterano also has very high control of their guns as seen in the archives of various Sankta. This is to ensure that their technology is not leaked to others and to prevent misuse.

So as it seems, until Sesa arrives as a huge catalyst to the gun lore.

The designs of the firearms in Arknights have real life references too obviously in a game where references are everywhere.

Nobody has figured out what the heck is Sesa's grenade launcher with his funky design though. I have found the real life reference of the concept of a gun that everyone can use regardless of Arts proficiency (AK-47 that I'll explain later) but I am no means a firearms expert to identify its appearance.

The man, the mystery, the lore, the reason why this lore section exists. Sesa is not a very popular operator, but his lore is absolutely fascinating so I have to keep talking about him. Especially when this article is about guns and Sesa is our guns specialist. Even if he keeps his profile very low.

From last year's Nobel parallel, I have uncovered another 2 more parallels with Oppenheimer and Kalashnikov.

Sesa’s character represents that of several engineers who create great, but terrible things that have changed history. Usually this kind of people are just historical figures, but by bringing such a person into Arknights, we get to think about their issues more.

A summary of Sesa’s parallels and his potential on Terra’s history:
-Nobel (inventor of dynamite, founder of the Nobel Prize): Similar research topic to let people use more explosives and dead brother from lab accident.
-Oppenheimer (father of the atomic bomb): Same birthday, similar background of American/Columbian military laboratory and Hinduism mentions.
-Kalashnikov (inventor of the AK-47 assault rifle, will elaborated later): Similar career as weapons designer/modifier and creation of firearms that everyone can use.

Arknights has a pattern of stuffing multiple references into the same character and Sesa is the most extreme example so far. Throwing in the theory too: Sesa is the genius older brother, not the awkward younger brother due to the sheer number of contradictions in his archives and voiced lines. Anyway, onward to the gun lore.

Archives 1:
In a private inspection, engineers found that this firearm had undergone sophisticated modifications to enhance the strength of its core Originium components, allowing people with even relatively mediocre Originium Arts to draw out most of their potential.

Archives 3:
From the fact that his modifications allow those who cannot use Originium Arts to operate such weaponry, one can surmise that Sesa must have made many unfathomable breakthroughs in his craftsmanship.

Archives 4:
We have every reason to believe that the project the two brothers pursued is the same one that Sesa has mastered - eliminate the high barrier of entry of using Originium firearms for industrial purposes.

(Industrial purposes was cut out in official translation but exists in CN. It is essential to know this for the real life dynamite parallel, making Sesa the potential Nobel of Terra)

My theory is that his brother and him were working on Terra’s gunpowder and dynamite equivalent so that more people can use this kind of technology for industries.

Strange that these things are top secret research on Terra. Or maybe it should have been public, but unfortunately Sesa worked in a Manhattan Project-like setting.

All this will come in handy when the Rainbow Squad arrives.

Arene's Archives 3:

According to this chaperone of his, a colleague of Operator Executor’s, both of Arene’s parents were highly respected Laterano firearms researchers, and the two of them were frequently dragged into all kinds of Laterano firearm-related incidents thanks to their profession. It is precisely for this reason that, when Arene contracted Oripathy several years ago, his parents opted to send him, their one and only son, away from danger to Leithania instead of keeping him close by.
Regretfully, both of his parents were killed during a recent clandestine operation to steal Laterano firearms technology.

Stolen Laterano gun technology from Arene’s parents who died in the incident. Since we know that Columbia is imitating Laterano’s technology, it is not far of a stretch to theorise that the thieves are Columbian.

Beyond Here:
Leonhardt says that casting units are derived from guns. They are easier to use such as requiring lesser Arts ability and less precision, but do not have such high output like guns.

Since casting units are weaker than guns, we can probably rank weapons like this: cold steel, guns, casting units.

WARNING: From here onwards, I will be explaining a lot of real life gun lore, World Wars, and current affairs. There is a high content about death and it may be horrifying for the faint-hearted.

This story may be a collaboration, but it is so lore heavy and is also lore-compliant.

A mysterious unnamed person appears in the Promotion Records of the Rainbow Squad. He has modified their guns and specifically tells you to keep all these a secret and not to let the Sanktas know. He even wants to patent Blitz's new shield.

Tachanka's Promotion Record:
[Classified Log]
Please keep the records of Operator Tachanka's weapon modifications strictly confidential to everyone, especially Sankta operators!

Closure and I studied this heavy, peculiarly-shaped gun... Rather, 'gun' would not be the correct way to describe this weapon. It is a weapon unlike anything we would call a 'gun.'

Unfortunately, we were not able to personally witness the firing of this big guy. Though there isn't any usable ammunition left, Tachanka described to us in detail exactly how this ammunition works.

We've tried countless times to restore the weapons described by Tachanka to working condition, but the results of all our experiments have been unfortunate. In the first 100 samples, most of the ammunition lost all its lethality at a distance of 10 meters, but Tachanka said that this weapon is able to land hits at 600-700 meters. Is that really possible? What exactly is 'nitrocellulose?'

After a week of attempts... a truly disastrous week, we broke a lot of things. Including this month's salary. However, it wasn't all for naught.

Closure mixed some ground Originium powder with raw industrial ketones. After drying, this compound was able to yield ammunition with a range of about 200 meters. In order to fire this ammunition normally, we modified the bore and receiver of the heavy gun and replaced it with a large-caliber gun tube. After several further rounds of modification... at least we can say that we attained satisfactory results at last.

Tachanka was overjoyed, and the feeling was mutual. After all, half a month of grueling labor had finally bore fruit.

The only problem I have, however, is this... this piece of junk is cumbersome, noisy, and doesn't even pack as much firepower as Raythean's semi-automatic heavy ballista! What was the point of all that hard work?! If there's ever a next time for this kind of stuff, count me out!

Blitz's Promotion Record:
[Classified Log]
The Engineering Department has repaired and retrofit Blitz's item of equipment denoted as the G52-Tactical Light Shield. Major upgrades were improvements to its material composition and work done on its flash installation.
The upgrade process itself went smoothly. The Engineering Department had six or seven different materials at their disposal which would fit Blitz's requirements. All he had to do was make the choice and we got it done instantly for him.
As for the flash installation, knowing Blitz is unable to use Originium Arts, I went for a traditional method, converting stun grenades into ammunition and mounting that to the shield's fittings. Give it a pull, it flashes off, boom.
But I did still install a high-power Originium Spotlight model as well. Miss Closure pitched in to help design the accompanying energizer module for it, and no, we didn't suddenly forget Blitz couldn't use Originium Arts. It's part of why we adopted a modular approach to the whole installation's assembly. Makes it so you only need to work by parts to run kit maintenance and repairs on the whole thing. Up there as the most complicated bit of Originium equipment I've worked on this whole year. Only drawback is... the parts are kinda expensive. Operator Blitz's gonna need to deal with that one himself.

Honestly, I wonder if I should apply for a patent for this design...

The guns that do not require Originium Arts are very likely to be modified by Sesa simply due to his specialty of guns that do not require Originium Arts that I explained above. And the fact that all these was done in two weeks with some help of Closure, is a work of a genius.

[Disclaimer: theory until proven true]

These guns have the distinct characteristics of being heavy, noisy, and not being able to shoot far. And the fact that isekai'd Team Rainbow can use these means that anyone on Terra can use these guns.

This concept sounds very much like the AK-47, the most popular firearm in the world. There are 100 million of them in the world. This is because it is easy to use, maintain, and produce. It is so easy to use until even child soldiers can use them, around 200 000-300 000 estimated. Even though it has the cons of being heavy, noisy, and not being able to shoot as far as other assault rifles such as the AR-15 and M16.

In fact even in the original Rainbow Six Siege game, AK-47 is one of the weapons as a standard terrorist issue weapon especially when in reference to real life events.

It also has to be noted that the AK parallels is in terms of the concept of a gun that anyone can use regardless of skill, not the model itself. And the ammo that Closure experimented with might be more of a parallel with gunpowder.

However, on Terra, this kind of gun and its gunpowder equivalent ammo is kept a secret for now. Sesa’s Archives 4 describes the impact of what may happen if his guns become public. This is exactly like the AK-47’s effect on Earth.

Though Sesa might come closer to it than most people, the idea of 'letting anyone pick up an Originium firearm even without being able to use Arts' is inherently not feasible and not allowed. Originium-based technology might still have its limitations, but if certain people throughout Terra catch wind of these developments and attempt to use this technology to escalate geopolitical conflicts, there is no telling what kind of brutal, all-consuming wars we may face in the future.

Compare to the real life AK-47 lore: The AK-47 is known to be the deadliest weapon in human history. Even more deadly than the other creations by Sesa’s other parallels: Nobel’s dynamite and Oppenheimer’s atomic bomb. Every year, more than 250 000 people die from AK-47s. Now, multiply than number by 10. It is now 2.5 million. Multiply this number some more, for people have died in multiple decades due to AK-47s. The number is in the millions and it will continue to grow even after its creator's death. In comparison to the atomic bombs, which have killed 200 000 people and have never been used again due to mutually assured destruction. The numbers are absolutely horrifying and the more terrifying is the fact that the supposedly weak gun is the one that caused way more death than the atomic bomb.

Therefore, the AK-47 and its derivatives deserve the title “Weapon of the Century”, because it is quite simply the most effective machine ever manufactured that allows a man, woman or child to kill another human being with the least possible skill, training, effort or expense. It is not a powerful weapon, but it kills way more than other weapon ever.

The most recent current affairs where AK-47s are surely involved is the Afghanistan situation:
https://legionmagazine.com/en/2020/05/afghanistan-and-the-ak-47/
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/3145350/afg…

If anyone can use guns on Terra, the existing political climate will change for even worse in ways that we cannot imagine. Especially when things are already so bad on Terra so it should be avoided. And so, Sesa continues to keep his greatest secret for Terra's sake.

In references to the other Sesa parallels, Sesa is keeping atomic bomb level of control on his guns that resemble the AK in concept.

Also, in the Operation Originium Dust plot, remember that the people who have made significant impacts besides the main cast are the scientists with different moral alignments.

Lev is a evil scientist who is the villain. On the other hand, we have our helpful mysterious engineer working behind the scenes in the Promotion Records of Team Rainbow to let them use guns on Terra.

Lev has this line:

'Even electronic information technology, nuclear energy... The reason why these technology exist was to kill each other more efficiently in our world.'

This sounds exactly like Nobel's dynamite, Oppenheimer's atomic bomb and Kalashnikov's AK rifles. These has already happened on Earth. Will this happen on Terra too?

In the next section, I will elaborate more about Kalashnikov, like I did with Nobel and Oppenheimer before.

Some lore behind the new Kalashnikov parallel with Sesa: I stared closely at the title of this Chinese lore video about Sesa: 'future father of firearms of Terra?' If you enter 枪械之父 into a search engine, Kalashnikov will turn up. So I started reading about him and the AK-47. And it fits.

Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov, born in 1919 in Kurya, Russia, was deported from his village along with his family when he was eleven during dictator Joseph Stalin’s deconstruction and reorganization. This influenced his childhood, and soon he gave up studies to join the weapons design bureau. From here, he was conscripted into The Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army of Russia as a tank mechanic at the age of nineteen. By 1941, he was appointed to the position of the tank commander.

Design work on the AK-47 began in the final years of World War II. Mikhail Kalashnikov, then serving as part of the 24th Tank Regiment, 108th Tank Division, would be injured following the Battle of Bryansk in October 1941, and would be hospitalized until April of the following year. In the last few months of being in hospital, he overheard some fellow soldiers bemoaning their current rifles, which were plagued with reliability issues, such as jamming. As he continued to overhear the complaints that the Soviet soldiers had, as soon as he was discharged, he went to work on what would become the AK rifle.

In 1946, the AK-47 was presented for official military trials, and in 1948, the fixed-stock version was introduced into active service with selected units of the Soviet Army. In 1949, the AK-47 was officially accepted by the Soviet Armed Forces and used by the majority of the member states of the Warsaw Pact, replacing the Simonov-designed SKS rifle. The Kalashnikov platform continues to serve the Russian military to this day, with the more modern AK-12 variant serving as the standard infantry rifle of their armed forces.

The AK genie escaped its bottle in the 1970s. Between 1970 and 1980, AK-47s were supplied by the corrupt people in power to proxy forces and arms dealers. During the Cold War both the Soviet and US governments supplied AK-47s to guerrillas and premilitary groups. They were smuggled to other countries. AK-47s even reached to Mexico’s drug cartels. They were also stolen from weapons depots because of lax security. Because they were inexpensive to manufacture and produced in enormous numbers, more of them were exported, distributed, robbed, and smuggled.

After World War II, every small-scale conflict and significant war has used Kalashnikovs in one form or another. From the Vietnam War to the Northern Island to Somalia and Congo to the Syrian Civil War, the Kalashnikovs have been the most widely used weapon. The Kalashnikovs have not only been used in conflicts and wars because of their easy availability but because they are also seen as a symbol of revolution, especially in the Cold War. Whether used by the Communist Soviet Union or the capitalist USA, the rebels use Kalashnikovs as symbolic revolutionary weapons. Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, and East Timor all have the Kalashnikov rifle on their national flag or coat of arms.

Kalashnikov, who had been proud of his invention of the AK-47 all his life, was disturbed in his final year of life. After all, weapons do not kill people. People kill people. Yet he kept questioning the use of his invention, and in a letter to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, he wrote:

“My spiritual pain is unbearable. I keep having the same unsolved question: if my rifle claimed people’s lives, then can it be that I… a Christian and an Orthodox believer, was to blame for their deaths?”

This much like of like Nobel’s deep regret about his dynamite which may have led to the establishment of the Nobel Prize and Oppenheimer saying his infamous ‘I am become death, destroyer of worlds’ quote again in the 1950s. The tragedy is deep and is very Arknights flavoured. Sesa has not reached this stage yet, for he is still young and just probably in his late twenties or early thirties due to being a few years younger than Passenger. But will he follow in the footsteps of his tragic historical parallels?

1. Potential effect of the guns that do not require Arts and the AK-47

Sesa: 'The power I deliver is growing closer to the real deal, and it is both dangerous and eye-catching... So, uh, that's why it's absolutely necessary to keep this technology under wraps!'

Kalashnikov: “Then it was like a genie out of the bottle and it began to walk all on its own and in directions I did not want.”

Sesa’s quote from Archives 4 correlates to Kalashnikov’s quote about his technology. If Sesa’s technology became common knowledge, it would go out of control. Sesa will end up like Kalashnikov: suffering even more with the burden of too many deaths. He knows this perfectly, so he decides not to tell anything. But perhaps he makes a bit of an exception when the Rainbow Squad arrives. So he specifically also warns to not let the Sankta know about these weapons too.

When the AK-47 was first introduced, it was such a great weapon that the Red Army actually hid it from the world. The US didn't really know about its existence until the mid-1950s.

2. Specialty in weapon design and modification

Specialty: Industrial design, weapon modification, shooting (ballista)

This is in Sesa’s CN introduction. The fact that he specialises in designing and modifying weapons is the same as Kalashnikov who was a weapons designer.

Industrial design is a process of design applied to products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advance of the making of a product.

In fact Kalashnikov's AK-47 was influenced by the StG 44 of the Germans and he improved the design. Similarly, Sesa could have modified Laterano guns to create his own type of guns.

3. Black market:
Sesa had his stint in Sargon’s black market after the Columbian accident. He even served 3 underground arms dealers as mentioned in A Walk in the Dust. Here is also an extract from his CN introduction.

Because of Sesa, the illegal weapons market attracted crowds. Over time, the firearms dealers who deal there all seem to know of Sesa. Good quality and low price, honest and trustworthy.

The last sentence certainly describes how the AK-47s are like in some areas of the world. Sometimes it is even as cheap as USD$50. The worldwide availability and durability of the AK-47 also makes it an attractive weapon for terrorists, militias and other illegal paramilitary organizations.

Arknights has interesting worldbuilding in its technology with how cold steel is stronger than guns so warfare kind of looks like ancient warfare. Except with magic in the form of Arts.

And with how the concept of Sesa's guns resemble the AK-47, no wonder he has to keep it a secret and refuses to say anything. This heavy burden shows in his voiced lines. Although it sounds chuunibyou, there is truth in there and he just keeps warning about the weapons using strange words.

Originally I thought that Sesa might just not touch his technology again since it is so dreadful. But then the Rainbow Squad arrives and then Passenger. Especially Passenger, whose interests and intentions towards Sesa are less than wholesome. And he holds the parallel of nuclear technology like how Sesa holds the AK parallel. I will introduce Passenger's lore next time when he arrives with A Walk in the Dust.

With Sesa's several real life references, he is likely to change Terra's future. But for the better or the worse? How close will it follow real life? I look forward to see how the technology will move on from now.