I know it's terrible, but I actually haven't thought a lot about technology in my world. But that's mostly because my world's technology is pretty basic.

I know it's pre-Renaissance technology. They use only swords and bows and arrows. And books are very rare, as they are written by hand. I do have knights also, but they don't use a lot of armor, because it would slow them down. Plus, my characters are shapeshifters, and armor wouldn't do them a whole lot of good!
Ships don't play a huge part in my world, except for basic things like fishing and maybe some trading with other countries.

That's about as far as technology goes in my world.

Weapons: swords, bows, knives, etc.

The story I'm working on isn't near the sea or anything, so there isn't too much dealing with ships and such. The main modes of transportation are riding horses or walking.

Inesdar,

Your technology level sounds like the period that Paul Mckusker's Passages is set in. A bridge period in which trains and Printing Presses are common, but swords are the primary means of defense, and only officers carry muskets. There is one story in which they have actually developed basic airplanes, but technology digresses a bit after that point.

Technology has been one of those places where I have been terrified to let the cat out of the bag, so to speak, and allow a limited use of black powder in my world.

But, despite my fears, I'm allowing a couple of cultures to dabble in it. I'm leaning more towards the ancient Chinese application of cannons, though, rather than firearms. (I want to find a way to prevent the pesky inhabitants of my world from taking the black powder to that length.)

In the second book of my trilogy-in-progress, the protagonist, an alchemist's assistant, does get roped into helping a besieged culture put together explosive "blast shot" for use in catapults. The main goal of this little packages of mayhem is to quickly take down siege towers and engines.

So, with the alchemy tie in, the powder works there, but it's also going to be at the center of some major strife in my 3rd book, since the cultures that don't know how to use powder view it as a bit of a "secret weapon," and they have a great deal of motivation to find out how to acquire and manufacture the stuff.

But beyond that, ordinary technology remains much like that of the late middle ages, with a culture or two still lingering back more in Bronze Age technology...kept there mainly their nomadic tendencies that keep them from getting good at smelting harder ores and alloys. (Coupled with a lack of good raw materials in their regions.)

So yeah, no steampunk leanings over here.

oh dear. WHICH story do I start with?

um. well, in my MAIN story, it's set in a 900 A.D. technology stone age. So...they USED to have some weapons that were even more advanced than what WE have, but it was all destroyed, and only a few children survived from that part of the world, so...they're pretty much stuck with pitchforks, bows and arrows, and a few swords.

Greetings,

I love reading about the diversity of technological implementations on here! This, I think, is something that needs to be considered, if not directly addressed, if a fantasy story is to be worth anything.

My technology is very diverse, in that my stories span the history of my world from its creation to the coming of its Christ about four thousand years later. That is five ages, and each has its own distinctive signature. Technology plays a key role in that signature.

Most of my ages have varying sorts of 'medieval' technologies. Different sorts of weapons, dwellings, and clothing are used depending on the level of advancement of the society. It also depends on the Tribe that the society drew its culture from. Different tribes have different natural abilities, and that is reflected in their technology.

For example, the Dwarves created 'gunpowder' before the Deluge, although hand guns never came into vogue. (They had the capability, but not the desire to do it.)

However, I have one exception to the otherwise uninterrupted 'ancient but advanced' style in Ithelak: The Fourth Age: The Iron Age. A great empire swore themselves to an ancient and great evil, and from it drew great abilities. A whole nation was made into Ducahoi, and they created technologies that were far in advance of anything else. This was done via the aid of Zeighor (incarnate demons) in various forms. They made handguns, droids, vehicles, etc., and conquered the world. That is the subject of the second book in my trilogy, The Power of Darkness. Kimun (the warrior prophet from the first book in the trilogy) comes back from his hiding and leads the righteous to victory, though through great loss, and wipes out the core of the evil technologies, and thus the core of the empire.

This is not because I hate modern technology (actually, I love it, and it is my career), but because that is what happens in my world. It is a natural result of its nature and the nature of the forces and history at work. I make it very clear in that story (it is in fact a central theme), that technology is not evil, but that technology was a good thing done at the wrong time in the wrong way for the wrong reasons. Very powerful message, no?

By the way, that book has some very interesting scenes in it, some akin to The Last Samurai (which I watched after I thought of the story). Swords vs. Guns is very interesting when done properly.

Mine starts out in a stone age of sorts. Bows, clubs, spears and axes are the main weapons. Animals are the only form of transportation. However, as the story progresses new technology gradually comes onto the scene. Swords and wagons begin to become mainstream toward the end.

Inesdar, I'm still playing around with that, but something like two years. It's toward the end of the stone age.

Basically. It's kind of a sub-plot throughout the whole thing.

Excellent question.

I kind of explain it away with the culture of my world. At least at the beginning it's a very war-like, even barbaric, society. Therefore, weapons innovation would happen fairly quickly. Another factor is that all metals are controlled by centralized military clique. This actually delays the transition from the "stone age" to the "bronze age" by a couple of decades. Meanwhile, the people who do have access to metals just play around with, making small progressions but not really realizing what they what they have.

This goes on for a while until an ambitious young politician/military commander, who also happens to by my main antagonist, utilizes the metal to make better stronger weapons. From that point, the innovation rockets because all the rival members of the military clique are scrambling to come up with new and better weapons to keep their frienemies from getting an edge. In that way it's sort of like the Cold War. I'm already planning a sequel for my first book which will take place about a dozen years later. By that point, technology has pretty well advanced into the "iron age."

Wow. I sort of rambled on a while . Hopefully that made some kind of sense.

Sorry it took me so long to find out that you asked me a question. Haha.

There is sort of. They wouldn't be functional for the most part though.

Yep.

I only have one story set in that time period, but I have some ideas for how the technology issues come into play. But that isn't the focus of that story.

It isn't a focus after it is gone, but it is a big focus when it is there.

Hahaha... I have two books that have anything to do with the technological demonic boost. One during, one after. The one after does not really focus on the technology, the one during does focus on it.

Todo lists of todo lists of todo lists, literally.

Technology plays a role in all of them of course, but the more 'modern' technology is only important in one.

Hehehe... well there are significant differences from us currently. But there is a lot similar. Think Star Wars + Current + Fantasy/Medieval.

Haha... sapient droids controlled by demonic possession, levitation, etc.

Pretty close. But think this: the droids are pieces of metal held together by a living black slime/tar, which is the demon. Different droids let you see that more or less depending on their purpose and design.

Somewhat "automaton" in nature. Do the races have any sort of knowledge of how to actually operate the demonic machinery?

Depends on the machinery. Most of it, yes, and they don't even realize it is demonic. The main character recognizes it though (he has had experience in goblin wars). The droids are actually remotely controlled by Watchers, ducahoi who act like computers.

Both, pretty much.

Um, no both. But if one or the other was predominant, it would be the latter.

They look sci-fi. That book is very sci-fi in feel.

Haha... why?

Haha, that is why I am doing it. It makes perfect sense with the plot, and it creates a unique arena. (Bytheway, I have put mustard on brownies, and liked it, and onions on vanilla ice cream sounds delicious.)

Okay, back to the original topic...some people kind of got off of it onto to something about mustard on brownies...(are we sure we want this guy running the place?) Just kidding!

My world is mostly still in the sword era. They have discovered black powder, but no one has had the bright idea to make it shoot stuff. So they have primitive grenades that are black powder in a small cloth bag with a fuse sticking out the top. They use wagons and armor still. They also have come up with a type of printing press.

I have played around with all kinds of technology, from plain ol' swords to variants on lightsabers (hehe...I played some videogames with a form of lightsabers in them and fell in love with the idea...so someday I'll try it again, if I can do it without it getting a Star Wars feel...) to steampunk.

My favorite is probably is probably my sci-fi world. A combination of an unknown form of robots/droids, highly advanced chainmail-like armor, and blasters meets a Pony Express-like delivery company (literally using horses), traditional swords, and medieval/Ren. style of costuming (right now I'm trying to combine something European with Japanese and avoid SW at all costs...can't believe that I went and had this wonderful idea before I ever saw any SW art --and then George Lucas had to give his Jedi such cool costumes that I can't borrow... ) All with some great heroism/nobility/sacrifice/adventure intertwined, of course...

Haha, yes, my friend RP keeps telling me variants on that.

Onions on vanilla ice-cream does sound good. And mustard on brownies might be okay. It would depend on the mustard.

But, are you sure you'd say it has a "sci-fi" feel, or is a more like a "space opera" feel. Because it sounds like space opera to me.

My world is mainly in the late 13th century tech level, but they have 18th century ships and advnaced stone-working skills. So the fleets are made of frigates armed with ballistas and the marines wear armor and carry swords.

I'm still working on developing my world, but right now I'm looking at steam power, guns, printing press, perhaps even one revolutionary thinker who is working with internal combustion... At first I was thinking I'd go medieval, but now I like the way a steampunk feel would work with my story, so I'm moving in that direction. Lots of research to do yet. I hadn't thought much about this aspect of the world until a couple of months ago, but now I'm really excited about it. Coming up with the right tech for a story is a lot of fun!

Sometimes I think that I'm just lazy as a fantasy writer... which is why I do medieval... it's simpler.

eruheran

Mine is mainly based within the classic fantasy level of tech. Swords, bows and the like, in a few places breakthroughs have been made like a VERY primitive flintlock, bombs, and flying ships like hot air baloons with large steam powerd wings providing thrust. Only one of these will exist and all who see it will run in terror.

My dwarves are hitting their Industrial Revolution. But the rest of the world is far behind in the late medieval.

(They have gas lights, steam powered flying machines, and guns. (Also within the context of my story they have recently started to dabble in electricity.))

This concept reminds me (only a small amount mind you) of Winter Moon by Dean Koontz

My world is in the very early stages of it's history. I would say its tech is most like the iron age (it's hard to make distinctions when the most reliable history book I know places swords around ancient Egypt anyway). The humans have cities rather like Babylon in style but also a good deal of land devoted to farming. The non-human races tend to be nomadic or live in small villages and tribes so their technology is more American Indian in style because of their connection to the natural world. The humans tend to use metals for weaponry while the other races use predominantly crystalline solids or bone. Animals, carts, and ships are the only modes of transportation.

Because of portals to the modern world some modern items are use in certain areas (mostly by those who came through the portals from the modern world) but this has only a very limited influence.

One thing pretty prevelent in dungeons and dragons inplace of robots they have what's called "Constructs" Or Golems. Large hulking metal beings covered in blades and spikes and brought to life through magic or demonic means.


http://arenovalis.deviantart.com/art/Ir ... d-37642058

Well, science-fiction can have a fantasy feel and vice versa. Fantasy in a sci-fi universe anyone?

I had to think what those two sayings meant for a bit. It would be sci-fi in a fantasy world.