[Dragaera] The New Palace

[Alexx Kay]

>
> ----- "Maximilian Wilson" <wilson.max at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 11:03 AM, Scott Schultz <scott at cjhunter.com>
>> wrote:
>> > At first I was inclined to agree about the Renaissance tech, but then
>> I'm
>> > not sure that we've ever actually had much glimpse of the
>> technological
>> > level of the Empire. We're sort of in the "Magicpunk" scene here,
>> where
>> > sorcery is so ingrained into the culture that you can't necessarily
>> separate
>> > it from simple mechanics and say "This is tech level X".
>>
>> The best glimpse we have of the Empire's tech levels is 1.) boats, 2.)
>> warfare. In particular the fact that bows and arrows are an innovation
>> to Dragaerans.
>
> I'm not certain this is true. It's very hard to judge whether or not
> Dragaerans are unfamiliar with bow and arrow, or simply elect not to use
> them.
>
> Dragaeran warfare has apparently gone through constant evolution with
> changes in military technology. Specifically, according to Sethra and
> Paarfi, the biggest technology changes have involved improvements in
> sorcery. I can well imagine a situation where bows and arrows existed once
> upon a time, but were supplanted later by other ranged weapons
> (Flashstones, et al)....

I suspect it would be Cool if, during at least one period of history,
there were *no* practical ranged weapons.  That would certainly change up
the nature of warfare in interesting ways.  (It would almost have to be
short term, though, as the pressures to invent a trump technology would be
huge.)

> until someone figured out how to counter those,
> and something else was needed.

Bows themselves may have been countered, in multiple ways.

Bows are relatively delicate pieces of technology.  A "bow-breaking" spell
would probably be pretty easy to create.  Eventually, someone else might
invent an enchantment to protect bows from the breakage spell.

Alternatively, someone might invent a "magical arrow-repelling-field". 
Later, someone figures out an arrow enchantment that can pierce the field.

Either or both of these arms-race reversals could have happened multiple
times.

> In that sense, Bow and Arrow could be an "innovation" only in the sense
> that they are an old idea that is making a comeback.

Yep.  This might be the 17th go-round of the technology, for all we know.

Alexx

"...and then... well, and then everybody would live happily ever after,
 I guess.  Something like that.  Mostly, our fantasies didn't get that
 far.  Virgins fantasising about first coitus, we only took our dream
 to the point of orgasm.  We didn't waste time on thinking about avoiding
 the wet spot afterwards or what we were going to say to each other in
 the morning.  And now it's morning."
    -- Alan Moore, in correspondence with Dave Sim about _From Hell_