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Mapolq
Senior Scribe
Brazil
466 Posts |
 Posted - 06 Oct 2012 : 07:06:22
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Anything up to mid 19th century technology would hardly make a dent on the status quo in Faerūn. Virtually no one uses magic to haul cargo and transport passengers across the land, for example. Thus, trains are a non-issue for spellcasters. They basically do something for a cheaper cost than the alternative they use in the Realms (animal-drawn wagons), which is already cheaper/safer than using magic (otherwise everyone would be doing that instead).
That's just one example. The printing press didn't drive a lot of copist mages out of business, since there weren't many to begin with. Even when you get to technology which can actually compete with magic somewhat (gunpowder artillery, arguably), it's pretty easy to see how spellcasters could adapt to the situation without as much as breaking a sweat. Given how intelligent and inclined to research many spellcasters are, in a few years' time you'd probably have dozens of spells springing up to capitalize on the new invention instead of competing against it.
As long as magic can do stuff technology just can't, the power of the spellcasters won't suffer too much. It doesn't matter if a telegraph can make a Sending spell redundant, you just pray for an Air Walk or memorize a Teleport instead.
Edit: Oh, and I know it's been said already, but the Realms are most definitely not limited to medieval. Even taking gunpowder out of the picture, it seems to feel 16th century-ish mostly, with more- and less-advanced bits springing here and there.
Edit(2): I don't stray that far from canon in my Realms, and I try to keep stuff internally consistent, but in principle I'm not against adding non-fantasy elements to it. I really think the Realms has the potential to transcend genre. |
Never sleep under the jackfruit tree.
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Edited by - Mapolq on 06 Oct 2012 07:27:15 |
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Why are the realms limited to medieval?
