Tyranny of Steel

Aldo von Passau stared at the substance in his hands with a cautious expression upon his face, almost as if he were afraid that the slightest movement would cause the petri dish in his hands to blow up in his face. The substance contained within the glass was none other than Mercury Fulminate, an explosive compound most commonly found within munitions such as percussion caps during Berengar ’s past life.

The middle-aged Chemist gazed fondly at the substance; after years of experimentation, he and his team had finally created a chemical compound that could be used to enhance Berengar ’s military might.

While Berengar ’s enemies had begun the lengthy process of reverse engineering matchlock and flintlock weapons captured in warfare, it could be said that Austria had now reached a crucial point in arms development due to the efforts of the Kufstein Chemistry Department.

It had been close to three years since the Chemist found himself fleeing the church ’s wrath into the then Viscounty of Kufstein. As Berengar ’s borders expanded, so too did the number of Alchemists who were forced into Kufstein ’s labs to learn the science of Chemistry.

With more Chemists appearing among Aldo ’s ranks, they had begun to experiment in many different directions within the field of chemistry; one of these directions was research into explosive compounds.

After years of study, they had finally created mercury fulminate, which Berengar himself was incapable of doing. Though Berengar had a photographic memory filled with many important inventions from his past life, his knowledge of Chemistry was basic, to say the least.

As such, the young King had left the development of chemical compounds to the men best suited to the task, and that was Aldo von Passau and his Department of Chemistry. Aldo was quite excited about this new discovery.