Glitterarms

In many ways, glitterarms resemble archetypal magic wands of mythology and the occult, and are often referred to as such in casual conversation. They are most commonly thin, lightweight rods made or wood or crystal used to launch a missile of energy at long distances or perform a similar act of magic. The missile is usually launched through a trigger or button on the side, and there is a limited amount of use before the wands must be discarded or recharged. Any glitterarm can be recharged, but they all require a specific ritual of varying levels of safety and feasibility to the extent where some glitterarms are better off discarded.
Since the Breakthrough and the introduction of the English to the World Beyond, glitterarms are being slowly replaced by the relatively-safer gunpowder firearms.

Dangers

The use of glitterarms is considered a far safer way of evoking strangeness than most other methods, but they still have their own risks attached to it. The firing of a glitterarm itself is safe in a vaccum, but the nature of the projectile or effect of one can interact unfavorably with the environment. A common example is a glitterarm that fires a bolt of flame being cast on oil or within flammable gas. Additonally, such a wand, if made of wood, can sometimes ignite itself upon use.
A glitterarm should never be destroyed, even if it can no longer be used. The desctruction of a glitterarm will result in unpredictable, chaotic effects, commonly called glittersurges, and may greatly harm the user or the world around them. The scale of glittersurges is sometimes related to the power of the glitterarm and how many charges it has left. Glittersurges have been known to affect entire continents, although this is rare. The fragility of glitterarms must be considered whenever wielding one, and it is considered its biggest flaw. The natural decay of glitterarms made of wood is also known to activate a glittersurge.

Creation

Glitterarms can either look manufactured or organic, depending on the origin. Some are crafted by artificers or inventors, either for self-defense or to arm a military. Others are created through sheer strangeness or grown on specialized plants. Such plants are cultivated and farmed specifically for their glitterarms. The rituals required to manufacture and recharge a glitterarm pose similar threat to any other ritual. Surroundings may be damaged, being could be summoned or created, the ritualist themself may be modified, or the glitterarms could turn out functioning entirely different from expected.

Utility

The most amount of utility comes from glitterarms as weapons, and Lemurian denizens often own one or two for self-defense. The most common glitterarms launch a mote of fire or sparkling energy that singe the target. Other small projectiles exist, such as high-speed drops of water, corrosive fluids, and transient stones.
Glitterarms that produce more powerful effects are rarer, more dangerous, and harder to recharge. Such effects include larger cones or beams of flame, lightning bolts, miniature tornados, and even moving explosions. These glitterarms usually produce more dangerous glittersurges when broken.
Not all glitterarms are strictly dangerous, however. More utilitarian effects such as producing clouds of smoke, light, or translucent barriers are known. This list is nonexhaustive, and many more effects are known to exist.
Most glitterarms produce fleeting effects, and while some have more permanent effects, such as the creation of matter, such glitterarms do not last long and lose their powers quickly. Glittersurges, and the rituals required to create or recharge a glitterarm, do not follow this rule, for better or for worse.
Glitterarms can only ever produce one effect. Attempts to change a glitterarm's effect, or give it more than one effect, have always been met with disasterous consequences.

Inventor(s)

The true inventor of glitterarms is unknown, but the first instance of mass production of glitterarms was in 11th-century Lemuria. It is possible that glitterarms were invented multiple times in different places throughout The Boundless Expanse independently from each other

Access & Availability

The controverty surrounding how to properly dispose of spent glitterarms is the biggest factor preventing access throughout the civilized world.
Throughout Lemuria, glitterarms are allowed and widespread, but not without opposition.
In Camelot and other Avalonian nations, the possession and use of glitterarms is outlawed entirely. Although this is considered more of a result of stigma against the weird in general brought on by Absolutionism than the controversy around glitterarm disposal.
Only the most powerful glitterarms can function in the Known World at all, and at a greatly dimished effect, due to The Ice Wall keeping out the strangeness of The Boundless Expanse.