Imp-Chan wrote:
as a parallel, we in the real world don't still know how to make quality bronze swords of the type used in the ancient world, or any of a zillion other quality crafts of that time. Why would the Ensigerum still know how to make (or more to the point still have the raw materials to make) the durus flamma weapons thousands of years after being ejected from the society which provided them in the first place?
The reasons were different. Bonze Age weapons, were obsoleted by better technology, like Damascus steel. We'd have kept those technologies had we a need for them. We've only recently relearned how to make Damascus steel but we don't make it the same way. In the process, we also relearned its weaknesses and have actually improved it. However, there is a chrome vandium nickle steel alloy that is superior, as well as some experiments using titanium alloys as well.
Bronze Age weapons are still obsolete, compared to steel. However, quality bronze components are heavily used in aerospace (bearings and self lubricating parts that don't out-gas in a vacuum). If we have to make a bronze sword, there is no doubt that we, today, could make a superior one. Bronze and Beryllium copper alloys are very good and we can even make forgings. Bronze and Beryllium alloys can be highly carcinogenic, however, and is Anthropologically speculated as being one of the reasons for much shorter life expectancies during the Bronze Age.
That said, because the Durus Flamma technology wasn't eclipsed by a superior technology, it would likely have been preserved. The existance of the Spatha, and Poe's comments on it, is probative of the Ensigerum's one time ability to make Durus Flamma weapons and even design/modify new ones using existing Durus Flamma technology. The Order would have preserved the technology even in the absence of the raw materials.
Imp-Chan wrote:
Even if they made a concerted effort to keep the knowledge intact, the fact is they've been living almost entirely in secret for about two millenia. No trade, no exploration, almost no interaction at all. You think they're going to ask the Veracian church for the materials? Without the materials (which for all we know were specialized and unable to be obtained by anyone even if they hadn't been in hiding), how long do you think they could keep teaching the methods?
However, there are various clues, from the time Sarine went before the Elvin Council, that Ensigerum were not completely incommunicado with some Elves. At least, since the barrier went down and maybe before then (The barrier was supposed to keep everyone else out and not the elves in). It is quite possible that that is a source of raw materials.
Imp-Chan wrote:
The odds are just too good that no one has made a NEW durus flamma weapon in a very, very long time.
^-^'
I don't think that making a Durus Flamma is a forgotten technology among the Ensigerum. However, it does appear to be a stagnant technology overall. After all, there has been nothing new since the introduction of the Spatha.