Questa discussione ha avuto 13 risposte

[Illegitimus]

I'm thinking of doing a table-top Dragon Age and that raises the question...what technologies do they have in general usage?  

 

They've got distilling although they don't seem to have gotten into distilled grain alcohol yet.  

 

They have square-rigged sailing ships but they probably don't have magnetic compasses.  Or maybe deep sea monsters just render oceanic travel impractical anyway so compasses just aren't all that handy.  Qunari dreadnoughts are basically 18th century Barbary corsairs

 

Bianca invented a steam engine, so they aren't in general distribution yet, but wait a generation or two.  

 

The Qunari have something like gunpowder...but apparently more complicated to make.  They haven't invented hand held firearms.   Their improbably effective espionage service is retarding any possible development of it elsewhere, but that can't last They also have nerve gas.

 

They've got a lot of clockwork...but do they have clocks?

 

What about lens grinding?  I think I remember something about crystal lenses.  Do they even have glass making?  They must have.

 

They have harpsichords, but apparently not pianofortes.

 

Their heavy armour is really advanced renaissance stuff.  Note that they also have renaissance rapiers.  

 

They have printing presses, paper-making, movable type and book binding...but inexplicably not newspapers.  Those have to be coming soon though.

 

They have crossbows of course.  

[Andraste_Reborn]

The dwarves have clocks! Water clocks, specifically, but maybe other kinds as well. They're probably at the stage where a clock is an expensive, fancy thing that only rich people have (i.e. Earth between when the clock was invented and the middle of the nineteenth century.)

 

Marric's grandfather used eyeglasses, so those are also out there too. Again, probably a thing rich and important people have for reading in private but not something the general population are likely to have seen.

 

I'm not sure they have moveable type? I've been assuming block printing, which would account for why Varric is a famous author but there are no newspapers, but maybe there's something I've missed?

[theskymoves]

'Engraved Compass' is a valuable/junk item found in DA:I, though there's no indication of exact what it is. There are at least two sextants in the first game (one a quest item found in the Alienage and the other a companion gift for Nathaniel Howe in Awakening.)

 

Lens grinding/optical devices are represented in lore both by the previously mentions eyeglasses of Maric's grand-father (of dwarven make, IIRC), and at least two instances of spyglasses - a gift for Sigrun and and a requisition quest in DA:I. (And a telescope in the Trespasser iteration of the Winter Palace. To watch fireworks, which may or may not be the same as 'our' fireworks...)

 

The use of velvet for ordinary clothing is indicative of  advanced textile technology.

[Andraste_Reborn]

The use of velvet for ordinary clothing is indicative of  advanced textile technology.

 

Ooooo, good point!

 

Another thought: all kinds of things are dyed or painted bright blue, with no indication that anyone mortgaged a house to purchase the dye. Maybe the relevant plants grow in Rivain or Antiva and are thus relatively easy to obtain? (In the real Medieval and Renaissance era, dye made from Indigofera was ludicrously expensive and hard to get in Western Europe because the genus is native to the tropics.) Or there's an alternative natural source? Apparently you can make purple dye out of mollusks.

[Illegitimus]

The dwarves have clocks! Water clocks, specifically, but maybe other kinds as well. They're probably at the stage where a clock is an expensive, fancy thing that only rich people have (i.e. Earth between when the clock was invented and the middle of the nineteenth century.)

 

Marric's grandfather used eyeglasses, so those are also out there too. Again, probably a thing rich and important people have for reading in private but not something the general population are likely to have seen.

 

I'm not sure they have moveable type? I've been assuming block printing, which would account for why Varric is a famous author but there are no newspapers, but maybe there's something I've missed?

 

Yeah I wasn't thinking clepsydras.  Earth had those in ancient Egypt.  Rather I was thinking about winding and/or pendulum clocks.  They have really good spring technology (and metallurgy is advanced, although it's hard to assess because they have actual metallic elements we don't).  I can't imagine having an industry of sensational novel publishing without movable type.  Varric has a romantic suspense serial that would be impossible to keep up with if you had to carve each page.  Unless they're using a mage's services to do it somehow...  Also they have the kind of polemic leaflets that you'd see starting in the 17th century.  

[Illegitimus]

Ooooo, good point!

 

Another thought: all kinds of things are dyed or painted bright blue, with no indication that anyone mortgaged a house to purchase the dye. Maybe the relevant plants grow in Rivain or Antiva and are thus relatively easy to obtain? (In the real Medieval and Renaissance era, dye made from Indigofera was ludicrously expensive and hard to get in Western Europe because the genus is native to the tropics.) Or there's an alternative natural source? Apparently you can make purple dye out of mollusks.

 

They do have an advantage in that they have a lot of plants, animals and minerals with phenomenal properties even aside from lyrium.  Better dyes than Europe could manage until fairly recently is only the half of it.  Their clothing, like their heavy armour, is well into the renaissance, which of course fits with the lenses and bound mass produced books,  Do they have any recreational drugs over and above brandy?  All the smuggling seemed to be of lyrium and poisons.  

[Evil Asch]

I've wondered about how magic limits their technology. Whey invent X when that mage can do it faster and better in seconds kinda deal.

[Illegitimus]

I've wondered about how magic limits their technology. Whey invent X when that mage can do it faster and better in seconds kinda deal.

 

There are a lot of things that mages can't do.  Or won't do at a reasonable price.  The steam engine was invented as a device for pumping water.  You're not going to find a mage to sit around at the bottom of a mineshaft and move water out of it.  It's hard to imagine a lot of mages doing the work of threshing machines or jacquard looms either.  There just aren't that many mages in the first place.  Thedas has good springs that they use to create landmines, but the same springs could be used to create carriage shock absorbers.  It's possible that a mage could cast a vision boosting spell, but there's no way he could actually cure myopia, and a lelescope would be cheaper, last longer, and actually increase the effectiveness of such a spell.  The widespread presence of enchanted arrows would discourage the invention of handguns, though.  Even if you could enchant musket balls, they'd be so hard to retrieve afterward.  

 

 (Oh!  Since Bianca invented a steam powered threshing machine, that must mean they already have animal powered threshing machines.  They have wind and water mills too.)

[Evil Asch]

There are a lot of things that mages can't do.  Or won't do at a reasonable price. 

 

Oh definitely which is why I'm curious about how the things they can do and generally do well easily and in a way that can be repeated easily might impact the development of technology. I have a hard time thinking of anything specific that people would just shrug at and not pursue but the pervasive existence and use of magic (mages are rare but not unicorn rare) and the minerals and crops related to magic or unique to Thedas (Lyrijm, elfroot) have to have some kind of impact.

[Illegitimus]

I have considered the potential of wind control magic (which isn't officially present but fits into magic's elemental schema) to create sailing boats that don't have to tack.  Could explain why the boat we've seen doesn't have triangular sails.  

[Captain Wiseass]

I've wondered about how magic limits their technology. Whey invent X when that mage can do it faster and better in seconds kinda deal.

There's a very good reason why mages aren't used this way on a large scale (it rhymes with "zabomination").

 

Plus, the dwarves don't have magic. I imagine a lot of technological developments spread outwards from Orzammar and the embassy in Minrathous.

[Dutchess]

I have considered the potential of wind control magic (which isn't officially present but fits into magic's elemental schema) to create sailing boats that don't have to tack.  Could explain why the boat we've seen doesn't have triangular sails.  

 

Wouldn't Force Magic fit that bill?

[Illegitimus]

Wouldn't Force Magic fit that bill?

 

No they still had sails.  Also apparently nobody has ever thought of the hot air balloon.  You could do a lot with a enchanted heat source and a bag of air.  

[Evil Asch]

There's a very good reason why mages aren't used this way on a large scale (it rhymes with "zabomination").

 

Eh? I don't remember the risk of abominations ever being cited for that. I mean, prior to the Mage-Templar war any group of mages would be accompanied by Templars anyway.