If javelins and clubs are all we have, that's not 'pretty decent'. Furthermore, obsidian and flint are only going to take you so far. I wouldn't say that we aren't in a rush to get a greater advantage in material technology. We don't have one over the barbarian tribes of the forest, at least, if they have iron.
I'd say it is pretty decent, since the only time we've encountered any hint of anyone else having better weapons than us would be the one chief of the beastmen with that single iron weapon. None of the peoples of the coasts near us have been described as having any technology like it, and they're currently our only concern as the beastmen have a peace with us. Our own supply of obsidian is likely to open up in the near future once the volcano dies down, and we already have plenty of our superior obsidian weapons lying around even without that supply. There's not a pressing need to play catch-up right now when we can develop a magic we've devoted extremely few of our resources into and that has applications unlike anything we've seen on Earth. Tell me, what does an army clad in bronze have against an army capable of raining fire down on their opponents, anyway? I do want to pursue metals, definitely, I just think that now is a good time to shore up our magical knowledge while the Wielder is still around, as we don't know what could happen to him in the future.
The discovery of any metal at all, even copper, would mean a great increase in productivity. It also diversifies the tribe's activities, encourages more exploration, and just increases technology in general.
It would, the same as would giving everyone the ability to easily manipulate fire on their own. Having fire magic common among the people also makes business with metals easier, as it gives more people the power of fire manipulation to work with metals than just a select number of privileged fire keepers and apprentices of the Wielder.
Sure, we could get some result like "LOL you guys find nothing of use" but if that's the case, option C can easily result in "lol Wielder insists everyone uses only fire, forever" and be just as valid/stupid.
How would this easily result in our innovation being permanently stunted? I see that as being quite a lot less likely than turning up little on a search for some sort of material to temporarily replace obsidian, though I have to say that I don't think Curufinwe would do this for either option. If anything, teaching everyone magic is likely to improve us by imploding the restrictive fire keeper caste that's been building up on us.
You make a good point about the Wielder not being able to pass on the full extent of his knowledge, but again, we know little to nothing about how the fire magic works. How is it passed on? How do they train in their use of it? Does the Wielder just mutter some mumbo-jumbo and the apprentices get the ability to toss fire around? You don't know how it works, you don't know how it is trained, you don't know its limits. Is there any indication of how powerful fire magic can get? What are its drawbacks? Do you want an entire tribe of warriors who toss fire around and then faint for a couple of days? Can anyone attuned to the gem perform the same feats as the Wielder? Can the apprentices pass on the power? If only the Wielder can, then obviously when he dies there will be no new fire-users so you're just training up a single generation of them.
This is probably the best time we have to learn all about these perfectly valid questions given how we now have a peace with the most difficult enemies we've faced and everyone else around us seems rather pathetic. I know you were talking about teaching everyone fire magic in a future crisis; now, if the above statements you've posted above are true, would you like to find out that information beforehand so that we can scrap fire magic and focus on more useful things, or wait until we're in a situation where we're screwed over and then find out these limitations on fire magic?
Way, way too many unanswered questions about the magic. It has proven to be somewhat useful, so far, but honestly, there's nothing that can't be replicated later on if we have the right ingredients and equipment.
I'm sure that inventing the flamethrower and manufacturing enough for everyone in our society could be done on down the line, but it seems much more effective to me to just get everyone to learn how to toss fireballs with the magic we have right now.
By pushing whole-heartedly into fire magic we are putting all of our eggs into one basket.
How is this putting all of our eggs in one basket? We're already ahead of the coastal tribes with our material technologies, we're far enough ahead of the beastmen that we could fight them off and achieve victory, while for magic so far we've only had a very small number of apprentices and the Wielder.
Let the apprentices do their primitive experiments on the gem. The Wielder's probably training more in secret anyway.
See, the thing is, if we don't know which people are fire wielders we're probably not going to get any benefits of fire-wielding out of them unless there's a change that allows them to be open about their skills. If we sign up about everyone for fire magic, then we have the whole group with some amount of fire skills, and we don't force those learning fire magic into hiding. If people are learning fire magic in secret, they're not going to do fire magic anywhere where we could have a benefit, or else the Wielder would get in worse trouble than he already is. The only thing them learning fire magic in secret provides us is the chance that they'll launch a coup against the muggles to take power. Quite honestly I won't blame them, if the best we can do with a man infused with knowledge of amazing fire magic and willing to teach it to anyone is to get him to scrape manure away from a fence.
Fire magic won't be lost, but we should take the chance to open up new avenues of choice whenever we can. Having another option should be beneficial sometime down the road.
Metal is obviously going to be a choice in the future, but fire magic won't be if we're only getting it's master to shovel manure and the scant number of apprentices start up a caste system and jealously protect their knowledge of fire so that their place won't be taken. That's exactly what the fire keepers did after the discovery of fire, and now it's time to correct that mistake.
"Our starting civilization will be very flavorless, a blank slate to be written upon with very open outcomes. In the future, depending on how the society evolves, I will most likely limit the choices depending on what we've become (for example, don't expect a warlike theocracy meeting another group to have the option 'Trade', at least in the beginning)."
Being fanatics would severely limit our choices in many cases. And yes, C gives the wielder even more showtime, and a legal way to train up more fanatics and convert more. No thanks.
... except that everyone learning fire magic would implode the fire keepers, given that their entire existence extends from limiting the people in their ability to create fires. Yes, the fire keeper himself is a bit gung-ho about the glory of conquering for fire, but he's evidently capable of limiting himself where he realizes it would be beneficial (this allowed us to adopt that one coastal tribe, you'll note that they were not just incinerated) and he's been perfectly willing to hold himself back when we decide not to go through with it. For all this talk about how he's going to overthrow us, he's had plenty of opportunities to burn up our council and establish his own rule and he's never done anything despite the humiliations we're giving him. Just let him teach as many people as possible out in the open, it's healthier than forcing the teaching underground.
In order to reduce the wielder's power we must show the tribesmen we can do without his military might. hence, more weapons. Hence, A
Forgive me, but I don't see how making some bronze knives would lessen the amazing power of fire that he holds. If we'll just accept his teachings and embrace the flame a smidge, we'll do so much more.
Obsidian arrowheads are a much better use of the material. Some guy better figure out how to fletch.