Steel or Bronze

The Thunderhead Dominion is in many ways a highly progressive, state but in others it is rigidly traditional. The very fixed concepts of the 'proper' role of Minotaur, mathom and Humans are only slowly being eroded; many circles are in a constant cycle of outgrowing their sanitation systems before finally adopting waste management technology at the level suitable to their new industrial infrastructure, which would be less of a problem if a keen interest in development in healthcare did not result in a state of constant growth in most circles.   Nowhere is the dichotomy more apparent than in the military and its personnel. They field a modern force, embracing forearms and explosives as tools of the trade, but continue to assign rank solely through contests of personal skill or valour. There is also a particularly bitter dispute between an emergent class of military professionals - soldiers - and traditional fighters who resist all changes in methodology - warriors. The distinction is summarised by the axe, symbol of martial valour, although also apparent in other metal weapons.   For the traditionalist warriors, the only metal for weapons is bronze, and particularly the very high quality bronze made with tin and mithrim from the western Dominion, steeped in basal energy from the Plane of Earth. For the modernist soldier, high-quality steel is easier to produce in bulk, making it a superior choice. Steel, however, lacks the symbolic resonance of bronze, which turns a practical discussion into into a philosophical issue. So evocative is this question that 'steel' and 'bronze' are used to describe the the overall camps. Steel Minotaur are modernists, iconoclasts, or simply pragmatists. Bronze minotaur may only be sentimentalists or romantics, or they could be reactionary conservatives, viewing any difference or change as potentially dangerous.