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How advanced is Achaean technology?
How advanced technologically -is- Achaea? Its not a huge issue, but I'm trying to figure out what I'm able to work with here!
As an example, I know we have telescopes, but what about microscopes? Before Hellen, I read a book on the nature of the Red Fog where the author had used a microscope to observe changes to it, essentially equating the Red Fog to midichlorians. I found it kinda strange, but it was a recorded use of a microscope! There has been a few other things here or there that I've seen, such as electroshock therapy over in Creville. I doubt gunpowder will be a legitimate thing though I did sometimes joke about black powder being "a mostly useless pyrotechnic chemical".
As a second question, I know Achaea's nature is a bit all over the place in terms of technology, but in a general sense what kind of era overall is Sapience in?
Comments
Alchemists use incubation chambers to 'reclone' in their home city after dying.
Achaea is in the Achaean era. There's no reason to assume it mirrors any real world era. We have magic, after all, which changes everything.
@Sarapis, while that may be true, there have been several instances where I've tried customizing things (or designing items for other people) that have been denied based on it supposedly being too advanced. It is somewhat inconsistent, with clockwork isle existing, pressurized strongchests with mechanical combination locks being found in the ocean, but my design for a switchblade dirk (with the simple mechanism explained in its long desc, and not -called- a switchblade) gets denied. This is really only one example, but still.
I've always assumed we live in something akin to a cross between the height of the Roman Empire and the Enlightenment era (1650-1800ad), which allows for things like telescopes, mechanical clocks, printing presses, and "modern" concepts of the natural sciences. We just never figured out firearms or steam power, and have magic to solve all our other problems.
A written account of examining the red fog with a microscope is probably stretching it, but more anachronistic references exist, to be honest. I would consider Clockwork Isle to be an oddity, not a standard of Achaean technology.
It would require simple observation for something like a spring to be crafted, though.
Clockwork Isle exists, and a few scattered things like clockwork birds, wind-up toy soldiers, and clocktowers exist, but they have an aversion to going full steampunk (outside Clockwork Isle) with clockwork contraptions, gears, steam-powered stuff, mechanical monstrosities and all that. I'm not sure why, I can only speculate.
There are a couple places where gunpowder is mentioned in room descriptions, like the Hoalanatha in Zanzibaar. It may have been an oversight (maybe whoever wrote the descriptions when ships/islands were first released didn't realise that they intentionally avoided cannons), but it's been there for nearly 7 years now.
Alchemy is a rather interesting addition to the lore of Achaea but the advances the Cauda Pavonis bestowed have almost no correlation to modern chemical technology or even theory for that matter. As @Daeir said, all the labs and basic equipment were built for the city-states by the Cauda Pavonis and revolve more strongly around magical manipulation of the Ether than they do any sort of modern technological apparatus. The Alchemist and his connection to the Ether is the key element to any of the processes they practice.
From what I've seen in past events and lore, although the Cauda Pavonis has some more "advance" tech like glassware and other apparatuses, they too focus their abilities through channeling the Ether(the pillars in their hall, the anchors, symbology etc). Alchemy is the manipulation of the energies in the Ether and one aspect is working with the physical manifestations of those energies yet still doing so through the higher plane of the Ether.
Also, I would be careful to even call the Cauda Pavonis's tech is advanced compared to Sapience. While it is obvious their Ether control is far beyond ours, they markedly commented on Hashan's telescope and how much more advance it was than theirs having been cloistered away in the Ether for hundreds of years with no outside contact.
We're obviously living in Tamriel. Castles and other stone-built cities, lots of magic, and a Dwemer fortress that we call clockwork.
Gun slinger class would be fun. Can't we have pistol technology?!?!
I have mixed feelings about "Steampunk" per se, but I love the idea of sentient clockwork items.
Alchemy is definitely more in a Baconian era, with the attempts to include scientific study within established doctrines, and alchemy as a whole is presented in a Hermetic or Platonic nature. Its not a lie that the Cauda Pavonis probably isn't the -most- advanced technologically, but that's possibly more due to isolation in the Ether and only seeing people as needed, rather than being a bit more open. Antimone commented more than once that Hashan's laboratories were the best she's seen, though the Cauda Pavonis could -very- easily catch up with and most likely surpass Sapience, considering that they have the know-how from their extremely long years of study to give their own workshops an overhaul.
Guns in Achaea would be rather interesting, and there's definitely references to cannon in various places. Giving guns to Achaea could actually be done extremely well, Pathfinder did something with it, gunslingers almost always belonging to something called the "Cult of the Gunpowder" or "Cult of Sulphur" or something where gunslingers were more monastic figures, if I recall right.
In any event, I'm not trying to bring about the Industrial Revolution here, I'm mostly curious about how everyone else sees the state of Achaea technologically, and how it might have evolved differently! As Sarapis said earlier, magic is a thing, and that could easily preclude or make certain technologies evolve in an extremely different manner, and we're probably unlikely to see some things outside of some tinkerers workshop! Someone probably looked at a black powder display at some point in time, and immediately asked 'why bother' with a nod to the local mage guild.
Thanks for giving your views so far, everyone. Please, if you have the time, do keep speculating!
Again, I think @Sarapis put it best, we need to break out of our established paradigms or reality and recognize that Achaea is a fundamentally different world than our reality, magic being the key element to that difference. All technology is based around magical manipulation of the also very different elemental forces that make up that world. Therefore, their concept of technology and high technology is vastly different than ours. Most tech is powered by magic, not steam, clockwork, electricity, etc. Achaea has its own evolution of technology that need not(and probably shouldn't) follow our own.
Vayne said it well, yep.
Having said that, there's nothing saying we wouldn't introduce useful gunpowder some day and have a pistoleer class or more generalized clockwork stuff.
Or perhaps someday Galactic Overlord Xenu will land his forces on Sapience, and you will all soon be wielding plasma rifles and wearing force field armor.
Actually, gunpowder would still have precedence to usurp magic just as it did swords and bows, because point and click interfaces are just easier to learn than effective swordplay, archery, or magic. Of course, that assumes gunpowder itself still exists, and some magical technology might just be developed instead (blasting wand, meteor tattoo, etc.)
Cannons less so, though, since they're less easy-to-use and more just an effective means of destruction. Early cannons were unreliable, so it's unlikely they'd replace magic ever.
You can't convince me that this isn't an elder scrolls game now
but we don't have drago- wait, we do..
aha! We don't have beings from other dimensions trying to conqu- wait, we do..
Artemis says, "You are so high maintenance, Tharvis, gosh."
Tecton says, "It's still your fault, Tharvis."
Oh boy cannons! The Kashari have cannons but they don't seem to help them much. The ships and related technology in Achaea are losely based on Mediterranean style ships. Galleys are galleys, Striders are galleots and Windcutters are useless. These ships were powered more by rowers than their sails because of the general lack of wind in the Mediterranean as opposed to Achaea where ships get more speed from the wind, unless @Vastar decides to be a dick and becalm you (ya, that's right, I know it's always your fault!). A rowed ship with multiple decks for both rowers and cannons would have been far too slow. For a real world perspective it wasn't until the late 1500's that cannons started to really earn a place on Mediterranean. Before then fighting ships only bow chasers, small cannons that faced forward from the bow and you were as like to see archers as you were arquebusers on a ship.
But who needs cannons when you've got Dragon's tears, magical exploding canisters of elemental fire and living sections of deck to draw you instantly across the ocean from one ship to another?
Me...I need a cannon.
I seriously laughed at this for a solid 5 minutes.
The Castro era, look at all the men wearing earring with other men. Very progressive.
I used to live in Clearwater, those guys are hardcore.
There's brewing and distilling, and wooden ships that sail the seas. That's good enough for me.
Finally can be a bulletproof monk?
Personally, I've always thought about Achaea's technology to be akin to the Everworld series- Almost like a separate reality that developed with magic, instead of technology. I love it the way it is, and I'm sure I'll love however we develop the world in time.
that's exactly what it is I think
Know what we need? Magitek.
Artemis says, "You are so high maintenance, Tharvis, gosh."
Tecton says, "It's still your fault, Tharvis."