Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-15888551-20130819093722/@comment-1255618-20190323003026

I have definitely enjoyed reading through this thread, but I find it interesting that nobody has considered how the constant catastrophes have really screwed with Tamriel's development.

Sure, war can lead to increased technological development... to a point. (War advances technology more rapidly in the modern era because modern governments put tons of money into research.)  And apocalypses and near-apocalypses are another story entirely.

Specifically, leaving the disappearance of the Dwemer aside for a moment, I think the centuries-long wars and mass death that occurred during the Interregnum, the Eruption of Red Mountain and devastation of Morrowind, and the Oblivion Crisis really screwed people over.

Again, excluding the Dwemer (who weren't big on sharing with outsiders in the first place), and also excluding the set-backs due to various outbreaks of disease (which I'm honestly not too familiar with), Tamriel's first obvious technological high point in recorded history was the Reman Empire; its collapse really sent Tamriel into a prolonged dark age during the Interregnum (I mean, seriously look how screwed up things are even by E.S.O.) due to massive levels of death, near-apocalypses like the Planemeld, and extreme social instability that really only ended with the rise of the Septim Empire; assuming there wasn't some other catastrophe we aren't aware of, the next technological high point was the late-to-mid Third Era but, between the decimation of Morrowind and the Oblivion Crisis, Tamriel took another major step back. Not to mention the loss of tons of historical records during all the aforementioned events, plus during the First Era both under the Alessian Order and after its fall. Just think about how screwed up the world was after one apocalyptic event in the 'Fallout' franchise. In real life, the loss of knowledge after the collapse of the Roman Empire stunted development in many areas of study in Europe for hundreds of years; we still don't know how the Byzantine Empire made Greek fire. Thinking about this logically, it's no wonder that the people of Tamriel are still trying to get their footing in the early Fourth Era.

We in real life have never had to deal with the supernatural near-extinction events and hundreds-of-years wars that the people in Tamriel have had to deal with, on top of all the stuff that we had to deal with in real life that they also have to deal with, and then we have the gall to say they're technologically lazy for not having advanced enough????!!!!

I think we as moderns tend to overestimate how difficult technological advancement is; I mean, I think we really overestimate it. How many of you really understand how your smartphone works? Like really? (Kudos to those of you who do; I don't.)