Historical records preceding the Waking Nightmare indicate that even before Lifting Oil was first refined, Man was using raw Ichor in projectile weapons, though these selfsame records suggest that these weapons existed somewhere between 'curiosity' and 'folly', as they were inevitably only commissioned by individuals wealthy enough to afford the raw Ichor to operate them, and they were near as likely to kill their master as they were his foe, for self-trajectorizing planes had not been developed yet. Interest in these weapons waned once gunpowder came into common use.

<span class="mu-i"><span class="mu-r">Annotation in the margins: Disingenuous or ill-informed? Mundane accelerators from this period were 'follies', in the same vein as Puckle the Elder's guns – but Witchwork wouldn't need planes. Must have existed during this period, no doubt.</span></span>

However, once Lifting Oil began to be refined on an industrial scale in Nemours II 8, interest rebounded. Development was further accelerated once Gorgona Secundus, the first 'whole-oil' Refinery in the Known World was founded in Nemours II 15, and it took only three more years for the self-trajectorizing fléchette to be developed and for these weapons to be described as 'accelerators'. With the singular exception of the head, the look of the war-dart has remained effectively unchanged. Pre-Estrangement head designs ran a gamut; barbs, needles, split-heads, wedges – as well as the bodkin-style, now the Standard of the Imperial Arms. Dimensions were also variable; the war-darts of yesteryear ran larger than their modern counterparts.

<span class="mu-i"><span class="mu-r">Dates are solid at least, but has the writing style changed? Could a Censor have re-written this? If so, what is being censored?</span></span>

In addition to hand-accelerators, prototype siege-accelerators were also developed in this period, but while hand-accelerators were considered viable alternatives to hand-guns, siege-accelerators were considered impractical, if not flatly inferior to the cannons of the time. The first 'whole-oil' refineries were only able to produce up to hundredweight Lifting Oil, so the largest fléchettes could only be a few pounds at most, and even still, copious amounts of the most expensive Oil would need to be used for each dart. Moreover, the design requirements of a self-trajectorizing fléchette are at odds with a projectile suitable for knocking down fortifications.

<span class="mu-i"><span class="mu-r">Another potentially deliberate omission; mundane siege-accelerators were considered impractical, but Witchwork artillery were in use during this period. In his <span class="mu-s">Northern Dispatches, Vol II</span> Nemours II considers naming one of his War-Witches his praefectus fabrum for her bombardment of Sicamber.

The history in this text is either compromised or worthless. Will it be the same for the alchemistry, the instrumentality, the millwrighting?</span></span>

- An annotated passage from <span class="mu-i">On the Manufacture of Wandering Whistlers</span>, a Controlled text from the Imperial Arms