Gunpowder

Gunpowder is only now coming into its own in the world of Atlantica. There are several reasons for its "late" start. Firstly it requires an industrial infrastructure that wasn't as economically feasible as the already emplaced magical infrastructure. it was easier to train wizards and sorcerers than to build the kind of foundry needed to make cannon that don't explode. The second reason is that early firearms were very unreliable. It wasn't until the recent advent of the flintlock that they became worth the expense for the people of the Western Kingdoms. Fire arms are not mass manufactured, instead they are built individually by master craftsmen largely dwarves and gnomes who have been fiddling with the technology for a couple hundred years.