Challenge: Feudal Gunslingers sans ASBs

Having enjoyed Stephen King's Gunslinger series, I've had some interesting ideas for some feudal gunslinger type stories. But, I'd like to do it in a non-apocalyptic TL and w/o ASBs.

So, what'd be required for a non-industrial feudal society that's able to produce a 6 shooter for a few select men-at-arms/knights/cowboys/whatever you want to call feudal gunslingers?
 
Muslims somehow get their hands on Chinese gunpowder. Byzantines get/buy/steal it from them, and then it spreads to the rest of Europe.
It's a longshot, but whatever.
 

TelClaven

Banned
I really dont know if you can. Gunpowder weapons are sort of the anti-feudalism weapon. It was gunpowder that overpowered the armored man on horse that was the feudal lord.

Maybe if gunpowder was held as a closely guarded religious secret, but honestly, once guns are invented, feudalism takes a nose dive.
 
You could make it so guns are as pricey as horses and armor.

Gunslinger-nobles could obliterate the old-school mounted and armored variety, but if guns are expensive, it might not filter out into the peasantry and massed gun-armed armies might be unaffordable.
 

Angel Heart

Banned
Didn't we have something similar like that in zarist Russia? The society there was still of feudal nature even till the 20th century compared to Western Europe and Industrializsation began in the 1920s.
The same was also with the Ottoman Empire.
 
Feudalism isn't about armoured men on horses, it's a way of organising a society (if it can be said to exist at all, but meh). If you can get a society where you either can not develop or otherwise deliberately limit the growth of monetised and large-scale adm inistrative units, you can get a 'feudal' setting with gunslinger technology. Tokugawa Japan would be a good candidate, if you just pushed technology a little bit more.

Of course, there is a big difference between making a six-shot gun and making a six-shooter. The whole point to 19th century guns was that they were supposed to be user-friendly ("Colt - the original point-and-click interface"). A feudalised society depends on small, highly trained bodies of fighting men, not mass armies. I would envision much more finicky, but accurate and effective guns that take long years of training to master. Plus, you'd still have to find an arcane reason to make it happen because if anyone finds a way to mass gunners, the traditional system will quickly change.
 
Are we talking about the feudal era or feudalism?

Er, what I mean is, are we talking about dark fiefdoms each ruled by a guy whose ancestors were given some rank by the Romans and believes he has divine right, with travel away from his manor and small area of lands being an perilous and bizarre adventure...

Or the rise of the more unified kingdom and the king with the mandate of heaven and the other nobles being his vassals that was introduced by the Normans (who were good administrators apparently)?

Really it could work either way.

In the dark ages sure a peasant who managed to steal a gun could wander into town, but just like in the Westerns the small realm's tyrannical lord would have a large gang of men with many more guns and have the entire village too afraid to help the stranger.

Under the Norman style organized feudal system increased travel and trade opportunities help bolster the lone gunslinger a bit, but it allows the law to call in the cavalry (request aid from the vassal one step higher on the food chain).
 
Probably the best way to keep guns as an weapon for elites is to limit the availability of gunpowder. If the process of manufacturing it is kept a closely guarded secret by someone (say the Catholic Church for an example) who sells it in relatively limited quantities; or if it requires an ingredient that cannot be obtained with ease, while at the same time allowing a fairly rapid advance of the technology of making firearms, then you could have a situation where firepower was monopolised by feudal lords:

e.g. A King makes a large donation to the Pope, who in return sends him a shipment of gunpowder (enough for a few hundred shots maybe). The King then dispenses enough gunpowder for a few dozen shots to some favored lords and the same for his personal guards. The rest he stockpiles and the Pope makes a note to ensure this King doesn't get any more until he's had a chance to work through his stockpiles a bit.
 
Why does it have to be gunpowder? Couldn't it be some other chemical that works similarly, but is much harder to produce?
 
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