Medieval Stasis: Difference between revisions

[[Medieval Stasis]] is a situation in which, as far as the technological, cultural, and sociopolitical level are concerned, thousands of years pass as if they were minutes.

 

 

Furthermore, there have been no wars -- between countries or civil wars -- no redrawing of any national boundaries, no demographic changes (both population increase and epidemic driven population loss have, historically, caused major changes), no changes in dynasty, no new organizations of political or social significance (such as guilds), and no fashion changes, either in art or clothing. Despite these apparent centuries of peace, there will still be a professional warrior caste standing for the entire period. If the landscape changes at all, even in the course of 100,000 years, it won't be due to geological processes, but due to [[World Sundering|magic]]. Otherwise, expect the landmarks and geography to remain identical across the eons.

And then there's the question of whether science even works the way it does in the fantasy world the way it does in our real world. Considering that the [[Standard Fantasy Setting]] typically already violates some of the fundamental laws of science (wizards who cast fireballs and lightning bolts are essentially creating energy out of nothing, which goes against the laws of thermodynamics), who's to say that steam can actually serve as a viable source of power? Do the chemicals that make up gunpowder actually react the way they do in our real world, or do they just fizzle and pop, if they even do anything at all? You might be able to use oil to [[Kill It With Fire]], but can that oil still power an engine? If it can't, would-be inventors and innovators don't have much to work with.

 

{{examples}}

 

** One short story features an insanely evil tinker gnome whose latest invention, while complete, is still theoretical. His loving, if sociopathic, description of how it works place it squarely in the category of an atomic bomb.

** An extremely tongue-in-cheek article in a Dragonlance Splatbook describes one gnome's theory on constructing a giant span of strings sprawling across the continent, connecting every town and place of interest. Since the springs resemble an interconnected rope net, he calls it ''The Internet''. And given it's appearance to a spider's web, he suggests calling it ''The 'Web'' for short.

** Of those ten guilds, four are still ruled by the same immortal magical creatures that signed the Guildpact, two are ruled by immortal councils, one is basically the physical manifestation of hidebound bureaucracy, and the other three are more or less insane and generally poor at long-term planning.

* ''[[GURPS]] Banestorm'''s world of Yrth has been kept at a Late Medieval level of technology and society, in part due to the Megalan Empire's Ministry of Serendipity, a secret police charged with hunting down inventors, technologies and other ideas which threaten the status quo. The other nations of Yrth appear to have similar organisations.

** However, check out the game ''Oracle of Ages''. When you travel 400 years into the past, the world is still pretty much the same--but there are people ''with hard-hats!'' Talk about your [[Anachronism Stew]]...

** Don't forget the [[Minecart Madness]] in most of the handheld games which is absent in the later, chronologically older ''Ocarina of Time''. This and the above imply a slow, gradual evolution across the series' fictional time frame, though they are simultaneously littered with anachronisms (mostly for comedic effect.)

** ''Skyward Sword'' hints that Hyrule's current state may be the result of a past cataclysm, which could explain the schizo tech in some areas. The prevalence of magic and the supernatural may also justify the slow pace of technology progress in some areas (think how much of modern medicine would be rendered obsolete in the face of cure-all potions), and the devastating reach of the Triforce Wars - as well as the various civil conflicts mentioned in backstory - probably didn't contribute much to its advancement.

* Tamriel in ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]''. Though to be fair, they do have a reason: The Dwemer, the ''last'' race to advance beyond the medieval level, were instantaneously banished from the face of the world (or [[Ascend to A Higher Plane of Existence|used their newfound knowledge to leave voluntarily]] - it's a subject of much in-universe debate) when they attempted to scientifically reproduce the powers of a god.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[Wizardry (Video Game)|Wizardry]] VII'', where the party comes across a laser rifle of sorts and wonders why anyone would create such a thing when a few sword swipes would do just as well.

* Played straight in ''[[Battle for Wesnoth]]'', whose timeline crosses nearly 1,000 years without any tech level change, then an unspecified time passes during which technology advances far enough to put another star in the sky (well, technically a big nuclear moon) to improve the climate, which then [[Colony Drop|crashes back down]] enforcing [[Medieval Stasis]] just in time for us to pick up the story again.

** This was averted earlier with Rinnosuke; the man runs a shop that sells "odd things," although most of the stuff consists of things that fell across the border. Among other things, he has a Game Boy, and iPod, and a small personal heater. All of these things work, he just doesn't know how.

* Averted, to a degree, in ''[[Might and Magic]] VIII''. Three plot points centres around recent technological and magical inventions (though you only deal with two of them in any one given play-through): {{spoiler|The stolen Nightshade Brazier, the Necromancers' Skeleton Transformer and the Regnan Pirates' Prototype Super-Cannon}}. In addition, the Handwave given for vampires in the party being able to walk around at day is that the Necromancers' Guild recently developed a new sort of amulet that protects a vampire against the sunlight. It's too costly for producing in any larger numbers, though, so it's only vampires that ''need'' to travel around that gets them.

** This trope is completely averted in ''[[The Legend of Korra (Animation)|The Legend of Korra]]'', which takes place 70 years after the end of the main series. Technology has evolved into full-on [[Steampunk]], complete with skyscrapers, cars and motorcycles.

* In ''[[Adventures of the Gummi Bears]]'', humans [[Humans Are Bastards|forced the Gummi's across the sea and into hiding]] centuries ago by the time the series proper starts. Yet the timeline still seems to be stuck in the [[Theme Park Version]] of [[The Middle Ages]]. However, it is noted that the entire reason for the conflict was because humans wanted Gummi technology, which is quite advanced compared to what humans have.

* Deliberately invoked by the people of Tarkon in ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers (Animation)|Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers]]''. A ''devastating'' war happened on their planet many centuries ago, and the people were hell-bent on making sure that they never again reached a technology level high enough to cause the same kind of devastation. Unfortunately, the rest of the galaxy started to notice Tarkon, and the people are [[Human Aliens]], who are implied to be perfectly compatible with the Queen's psychocrypt. Cue one [[Badass Princess]] waging open rebellion against her society and her father to try and get her planet catching up.

* Parodied in ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]'' where the professor, Fry, and Bender travel in a forward only [[Time Machine]] and see epochs of human evolution that at one point reverts back to middle age castles and knights wielding swords and riding birds.

** [[Did Not Do the Research|There has been more than one industrial revolution]].

** Besides, you know, not having the reason or ability to use it. Having some toy use it and having giant machines work it are very different concepts.

* The political, social and technological organization of Japan remained practically the same from 1600 to 1853 -while the rest of the world evolved- but this was mostly intentional, due to legally enforced restrictions. The basic organization of the Japanese society and state experiences little to no evolution throughout the Feudal period, 1185-1868, despite all wars, upheavals and European conversion attempts.

* The Amish deliberately shun most or all kinds of new technology due to religious beliefs and enforcing a strong belief in hard work as rewarding, instead electing to live a life that is not very different from the lives of those who lived around the 18th century or before that, on the whole part. They do have contact with modern society, and some do use modern technology, like tractors, but they mostly aim to be self-reliant and any use of modern technology is rare at best.

** The Amish value group effort when determining whether to use or avoid a piece of technology. Families are discouraged from using mechanical farming equipment in order to motivate them work together in order to accomplish a harvest. In one case, a governing council actually ''commanded'' an elderly Amish farmer to purchase a tractor as his sons had moved out and he could no longer accomplish his harvest. The idea is that relying on the community discourages vanity and other sins.

** The Amish will use technology when required by the law - modern pasteurization for dairy products was the first example of this. Likewise, if you hire Amish for construction work and ask them to use power tools or supply them, they will use them without considering it a "sin."

* In medieval times, this was a popular perception in reverse. Paintings of great battles or events such as the Crusades would often depict the armies in whatever the latest, most fashionable, and most advanced armor of the present time was; when in reality the warriors fought in little more then chainmail.

** This is also why the popular images of Jesus, the Saints, and many angels look suspiciously like Renaissance-era Italians both physically and in how they are dressed.

* Many peoples were never able to get much beyond "hunting and gathering" up to the modern day. Mostly these have been very isolated communities or tribes (such as jungles) where little trade with other people is possible, there is no single reliable food supply, and every person is constantly working to keep the group of people alive, leaving little time for technological and social advances.

 

[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]

[[Category:Medieval Stasis]]