Hi @TheEdVerse, how are you? I have a question about Laerakond. Are they most advanced technologically in contrast to Faerûn? I mean, in an Eberron sort of way, like having warforged or magic-powered machines (rather than magical machines).
Thanks in advance 🙂— Jon Gomez (@ZeromaruX) February 2, 2019
1)
No, they’re about the same tech level as Faerûn (I say “about” because tech level varies, of course, from place to place across Laerakond). There are some “mad inventors” who are experimenting with both steam power 2)
… beyond huge stationary engines, and with “powered armor” automatons driven by gears and internal walking-wheels, in Ramekho in the Windrise Ports, but they represent the foremost “bleeding edge” tech advances right now.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 3, 2019
Thanks, Ed. I see that the Realms are low technology despite having the resources and geniuses to be more advanced in that regard than they currently are.
Is there any reason for this?
— Jon Gomez (@ZeromaruX) February 3, 2019
1) Sure. Wars, diseases, food shortages, and magic. Those on top currently wanting to stay there. So many inventors get attacked, their work destroyed, or more often seized by a local ruler/powerful person who wants it for themselves. Meaning it doesn’t get into…#Realmslore 2) …widespread distribution, which is the key step in advancing tech. Magic is "easier" and already available, for heavy hitting. Experimentation is dangerous. Really transformative tech, like a widespread system of really good roads, water purification and…#Realmslore
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 3, 2019
3) …pumping, etc. is a LOT of hard work and prohibitively expensive for almost everyone short of governing rulers…who are already on top and mistrust transformative change because it could threaten their status. BUT the Realms is on the brink of surging ahead…#Realmslore 4) …in technology in a lot of places. That's one of the reasons play and tales are set "now," in this era of quickening change, a time that "matters." We've had Realms novels (@PhilAthans penned the Watercourse trilogy) that looked at big engineering projects…#Realmslore
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 3, 2019
5) …and many books (for example, The City of the Dead novel by @rosemaryjones ) that look at social change happening before our eyes. It’s up to individual DMs if something big “happens” in their Realms campaigns; we’re leaving the agency to you. You can build…#Realmslore 6) …the rail lines that cross continents. Look at the Zhentarim; they began as a way for Manshoon and cronies to seize local power (in Zhentil Keep), but the reward he was offering to the mages who joined was wealth…thanks to cornering the shortest/fastest/most…#Realmslore
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 3, 2019
7) …profitable trade route between the mineral-rich Moonsea North and the Sword Coast’s markets and food and textiles. Look at the Zhentarim again and how they got sidetracked into internal strife and other goals. Life has a habit of doing that to endeavours, …#Realmslore 8) …which is why tech levels have for so long ebbed and flowed near the brink of a big surge forward.
Over to you, and Realms roleplayers everywhere, to see if the advances happen.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 3, 2019