Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-15888551-20130819093722/@comment-173.217.113.178-20140526081041

I can tell you for a fact that the ancient Romans had all the metullurgical and physics knowledge they needed to make a simple steam engine. They just never thought of it. Why? Because the leisure-class gentlemen who had time to fool around with things like aeolipiles were not concerned with creating labor-saving devices. Need your boat to go faster? Get more slaves! Need to work your farm more efficiently? Get more slaves! They thought they already knew the answer, so they weren't looking for one.

I see Tamriel in the same light. They think they already know the answer to the question of greater empowerment: Magic. And even when scholars are reverse-engineering Dwemer artifacts, those same scholars are invariably mages themselves! They assume from minute one that only someone who understands magic could possibly understand the constructs of the dwarves. That's why they don't advance technologically, because they think they already know the answer.