Cross My Heart, This Is My Crossed Bow: An Allohistorical Tale of Amerindian Arbalists, or just Amerindian Arbalists for short, is a short pre-Columbian timeline and AH story by Petike. Published in early August 2020, it's a bite-sized bit of AH on an overlooked POD topic, and you can read it here.

At some point in the 10th century AD, a native bowyer of a tribe in eastern North America chances upon an interesting discovery. Using an unexpected bit of inspiration, he gradually invents a new type of archery weapon, only somewhat more complex than the bow. In many divergent timelines, his invention fails to spread or spreads only modestly, but in the story of this timeline, the device gradually spreads through North America over the many centuries, and sees some degree of refinement for both hunting and warfare.

The timeline provides a speculative look at how the minor invention of an innovative weapon - simpler versions of the crossbow - could have influenced or even somewhat changed pre-Columbian Native American culture. The story/timeline was based on a discussion from July 2018, where Petike speculated about the viability of crossbows in a non-metallurgical civilization, like those of the New World. Petike began writing the story in autumn 2018 and wrote about a half of it, but only found the time to complete it nearly two years later.

Medieval timelines

Alternate history stories