Deadeye Arch (Longbow)

The annual summer fair in the southeast part of Mifud, at Stone Road, sees droves of apes from the surrounding districts come in for trade, drink, and general fun. The event lasts for an entire weekend and culminates with the long bow archery contest at dusk on the last evening. This competition has enormous prestigious value for both the archers and the bow craftsmen, as it is the perfect place to show off their skills. The districts eligible for entry are Mifud, Whoos, South Cegelf and Rogeosk. Each district gets to choose the best ape to represent, paired with the best craftsman.

The idea of the contest is to wait for the sun to set and light three lanterns at 350, 400, and 450 yards. The archer then needs to shoot three flaming arrows as close to the lanterns as possible. The archer with the least distance to the lanterns in total would win the competition.

Most of the craftsmen would make great bows of Hickory from Serrean Valley and Hazel and elm bows from Heolt. The craftsmen generally considered these the best materials for both strength and accuracy.

One young and upcoming Thomas craftsman had been on a fieldtrip to the forests of Heolt and managed to come on friendly terms with some of the native apes in the area. Staying there for a while, he had learned the local skill of making Maple bows, which turned out to give the longbows a more balanced feel than the old Hickory, Elm, and Hazel varieties.

The Thomas ape spent several months preparing for the competition. He would spend days and nights making sure that he would craft the best possible Maple longbow. He knew that the other craftsmen would laugh at his choice of material, so this needed to be perfection. To make the bow stand out to the competition he covered it in white paint and had two black stripes drawn at each end of the bow.

During the fair competition, it turned out that the Maple bow exceeded the wildest expectations. When shooting, the archer ape managed to hit all 3 lanterns for the first time in history of the fair. The Thomas ape received great praise, and the announcer would shout that the bow would forever be called the “Deadeye Arch” from this day on.

The Thomas ape went on to sell his blueprints for an incredible amount of $SOCIETY, and to this day, the preferred material of longbows in the southern districts is Maple.