Technology

Worldwide

Throughout all regions of Atharen, technology varies wildly based on a plethora of contributing factors. The universal rule tends to follow that countries and kingdoms with relaxed laws on the practice of magic have fewer technological innovations because the populace can more reliably lean on ether than it can on physics, chemistry, and biology. Vice versa applies, in which societies that outlaw and prohibit the application and use of magic see greater technological growth and development, as to substitute for the lack of magic in everyday life.

Examples of this are like the circumstance of Atharen's medical field. Some areas of the world trust in the abilities of accomplished necromancers and alchemists for their healthcare while others swear solely to doctors and botanists. Both supposedly excel in different fields, but it's difficult to find a medium in which both are employed to their fullest potential.

Both magic and science have had a massive impact on the face of Atharen as a whole, but this article is dedicated solely to the application of Atharen's sciences and world magics, and the extent that can be learned/achieved in character.

Scale

Due to the crutch known as magic, Atharen's technology varies greatly between kingdoms and regions. Some parts of the world live in what could be compared to the Medieval Era and prior; riding on horseback, hunting with longbows with bards to sing for their entertainment. Other societies have climbed as high as the Victorian Era, with trains to take them from city to city, firearms in their militaries, and recorded music playing on phonographs and for entertainment on demand.

Culture shock is fairly common on Atharen, as one such mortal accustomed to the comforts of a prosperous city might find despair without all the devices and technologies they rely upon elsewhere on their travels. Likewise, simple country folk are often starstruck by electric lighting and steam engines on trains.

Fields

Below is a composed list of Atharen's innovations and the extent to which they have been developed/discovered. It goes without saying that lesser developments can be employed anywhere in the world at least on a small scale. That is to say that some Rien homes, especially in Lower Nivenhain, might be shanty ramshackle shacks with straw roofing, neighboring tall stone buildings with tile roofs and glass windows.

You can safely assume that more primitive technologies than what are listed below are freely available to the public, as the following are the highest of what Atharen has achieved.

Medicine

Atharen's most advanced doctors largely apply bloodletting and leeches as a means of fighting infection and disease. The common belief is that by expelling all the 'tainted' lifeblood, they allow room for healthy material to grow in its place. In a similar fashion, laxatives and induced vomiting are employed for the sake of 'cleansing the body'. Arsenic, mercury, iron, and phosphorus are commonly used for the treatment of patients. There is no means of combatting infection other than the application of leeches, which may feed on the compromised tissue.

Surgeons with some knowledge in necromancy might employ an experimental treatment in which they manually cut out the rotting, infected meat before it infects the blood. Skin grafting is popular among these experimental surgeons, who often cause just as many infections as they treat. Surgery is normally only skin deep except to remove bullets, arrows, and debris from wounds, in such cases, the wounded might be opened up for the extraction process.

Generally, it's known that open wounds should be kept clean to avoid infections, though this is typically done with water to quite literally 'wash' off the wounds, then later wrap them. More advanced areas of Atharen employ alcohol for the task of cleaning wounds prior to wrapping them with bandages that may or may not be compromised with bacteria. The existence of bacteria is not known, and such, the cleaning of wounds scarcely involves more than washing off loose dirt and debris, which are known to cause problems in the healing process.

Broken bones are typically splinted and wrapped to keep them secure, but with no ability to x-ray the extent of the break, a lot of injuries of this nature leave the patient disfigured or disabled in some way.

Transportation

Steam engines are huge, expensive, heavy appliances that require a very specific set of conditions to work. Across Atharen, these conditions extend exclusively to trains. Their application on naval vessels has been theorized but is currently too advanced to apply. Steam engines require a feed of burning coal to keep the water of the tank boiling. The steam from the boiling water is funneled through a regulator valve in the engine which powers the front of the train and enables it to pull the following carriages across the tracks. The speed is controlled by the valve, which the driver can open to release pressure and reduce the vehicle's speed.

Trains are largely used for the purpose of transporting goods long distances but also serve as means of personal transport for the middle-clas. At large, horses and carts are employed for the sake of moving smaller distances through cities and between towns.

At sea, Atharen's most advanced societies still use sailships for the sake of transporting goods and people. They also serve as weapons of war in the case of frigates, which are built for speed and mobility. Clipper ships are generally regarded as the fastest means of naval transport, though they are relatively new. Steamships have yet to be invented, though concepts of such vessels circle the tables of Atharen's most accomplished inventors. It should also be noted that Druskai ships are far superior to those commonly found on Atharen.

Airships are rare, as their creation relies heavily upon the salvaging of Kilesh from Krish invasions and the floating stones in the outlands. Instead of using steam to operate these vessels, they're kept afloat, steered, and adjusted in speed by the regulation of a magnetic core somewhere on the vessel. For this reason, Airships are priceless in value, as there's a very limited number of them.

Communication & Art

Long-distance communication has largely relied upon messenger birds and mailing systems for the majority of Atharen's history. However, the creation of the Telephone in the Glade of 121 allows instant long-distance communication between two telephone users. This invention is still very new on Atharen and is only seen in the most endorsed and established organizations and establishments for communication between headquarters, and cannot be found as a domestic appliance.

Cylinder Phonographs, though too muffled and quiet to clearly relay the recording of a voice, are often used as a means of replaying music over and over again. They are powered by spring motors, which often break and require replacement parts to begin working again. These appliances are typically quite expensive to maintain and are therefore only found in the homes of the wealthy and the lobbies of some large businesses as a means of flexing on their competitors and drawing in customers.

Photography is relatively new to Atharen but is capable of capturing images like a frozen second in time. They're all greyscale; devoid of color, but can produce works that would require weeks of effort, paint, and canvas to create. They're capable of capturing one-hundred images on a roll of paper film before they need to be returned to the factory to be developed for a hefty fee. The invention of the camera is again limited to the likes of the wealthy and the nobility, but almost exclusively to the population of Lorien & Grisith.

Typewriters are used for the production of text, which can be mass-produced with the use of printing presses.

Utilities

Plumbing and sewage are conveniences that the middle class of Atharen's more advanced societies can indulge. Access to instant clean water has revolutionized the quality of life in a variety of ways, from personal hygiene to diet. Plumbing fixtures are only connected to a supply of cold water, however. In order to heat water for baths and cooking, stoves are employed under metal tubs and above ovens. Very few have their own built-in ignition systems, and only the most wealthy use gas fuel.

Electricity is rare and very prestigious. A very small fraction of Atharen's population is even aware that such a thing exists, and there's no such thing as a power main or city-wide generator. Instead, electronic devices are stand-alone appliances that have their own built-in engines that require fueling and water to activate and maintain.

Street lights, in some of Atharen's greatest cities, are oil-fuelled and need to be manually lit every night.

The preservation of food is made possible with ice boxes, which are kept running through the year with vast underground stores of ice collected during Frost. Whenever the ice melts, it's replaced by fresh cuts of ice. This is mostly unreliable, however, and is usually only employed by farmers looking to produce fresher goods at the market.

Clocks and pocket watches are commonly handled by the middle class as a means of telling the time of day, but the general public in most parts of the world can tell the time off of clock towers in more advanced cities.

Weapons, War, & Combat

At large, gunpowder is used for the operation of firearms and cannons. Handheld firearms are usually flintlock in quality without the aid of 'Mage Guns' and need to be manually loaded through the barrel with a gunpowder charge and a ball-bearing. The strike of the flint hammer on a sheet of steel usually ignites the gunpowder charge and fires the ball-bearing at lethal speeds, but isn't always accurate or reliable.

Cannons operate similarly, but with the ignition of a fuse to light the gunpowder charge, as such weapons have enormous recoil and are dangerous to be around when they launch. These massive weapons are typically employed on naval vessels and as a defense for fortresses. Meanwhile, catapults and other medieval siege engines are still largely at work as weapons of war but are seen as inferior to the use of cannons, which are vastly more proficient in taking down city walls.

Landmines are used in more advanced societies as a means of combatting and intimidating infantry, and grenades are very primitive in that they're metallic shells, filled with improvised shrapnel like nails, metallic scrap, and a gunpowder charge which is ignited by a fuse.

The before-mentioned 'Mage Guns' are the product of artificing, etherforge, alchemy, and science. These weapons are far more reliable than their gunpowder counterparts with greater accuracy and better safety measures, and are thus, more widespread in countries that allow their production and use.

Architecture

Brick and mortar are almost always used for the creation of homes in more advanced societies like Grisith, but the rest of Atharen has mostly adapted this method of architecture as well. Any society advanced enough to bake clay bricks can employ this method of creating sturdy, well-insulated homes.

Glass windows are generally used to allow natural lighting into homes while insulating the interior from the cold. As such, they're usually not too transparent except for in the more advanced areas of Atharen.

Roofing is made of tile and is generally seen as the standard in most parts of the world, as it allows for great protection from the elements and is easy to produce and build.

Pulleys and primitive cranes help to build taller, more advanced homes while the study of foundations and load-bearing designs allows them to stand for longer with less maintenance or risk of collapse. Lorien is the world leader in terms of architecture, as they employ Artificing as a means of welding in place of traditional methods like nails, glue, and mortar.

Leading Innovators

The people of Lorien, Grisith, and Dagrun all lead the world of Atharen in technological innovation, though not always in the same fields. While Lorien is unmatched in architecture, workforce, and comfort, Dagrun leads the world in mechanical innovation with inventions like steam-operated tools and devices, complex steam and clockwork weapons, and bionics.

Though technologies are eventually learned and replicated across societies overtime, Dagrun's recent re-discovery leaves it fairly young and mostly unexplored by the leading scientists and inventors of its neighboring regions. The landscape is also difficult to navigate and transport working machines through, which slows the process of research significantly. More often than not, Gnomish inventors are commissioned for hefty sums of dranari farthings and are made to travel to different regions for the sake of developing new technology and sharing their work with the people of other nations, though the spread is slow and comparably minuscule.

Artificing

Though some scientists are quick to dismiss Artificing as 'Magical Nonsense', it's undeniable that it plays a large part in the development of Atharen's technology and provides a great boon to those willing to invest time and resources in it. Because golems can take all manners of shapes and sizes, some inventors replace motors in their larger, more complex machines with golems, which have a much longer lifespan than motors and require far less maintenance over their lifetimes. These motor-type golems typically only serve a singular purpose; to move a part of the build or keep something rotating to keep the rest of the machine working properly. Examples of this can be found in clocks and watches, where only one cog is made to turn with the use of Artificing, and the rest of the machine follows its pace.

Artificing's golems serve other purposes in the world of science, too, as they're impervious to hazards like human error. Tier four golems and above make useful assistants, typically trained in tasks like identifying tools and specific parts of whatever the inventor might be working on. Steady hands, vast knowledge, and the inability to act outside of their programming make golems well-sought after in the laboratory.

On less of a mechanical scale, Artificing is employed in regions like Lorien for the use of architecture, which allows the bonding of elements and construction materials foreign to one another without the use of nails, bolts, and screws. For this reason, Rien architecture tends to far outlast buildings of other regions and stands taller on average than the typical home in regions like Tyrclaid and Grisith.