Ancient Knowledge FTW!

I believe I saw a bandit with an iPod..

In the midst of technological revolution... yes. Without that focus on technology, things don't advance that much. Ancient egyptians used chariots in battle 4000 years before the romans used the same thing. We STILL rode horses into battle for 1900 years after that. The guns used in the civil war in 1860s were not that much more advanced than the guns that were used in the 1500s. It wasn't until the industrial revolution (discovery and harnessing of electricity) that technology rapidly accelerated.

All focus on development would be centred around magic. If magic reaches is peak of development, then technology would begin to be looked at to fill in the holes that magic has failed to. One can simply assume magic has more milestones to be found.

Heck,look at what as happen in the past 60 years, to even the past 20 years.

i hope having a ballistia to shoot down a dragon would ROCK

Off topic, but there actually is "THAT" much of a difference.

Nvm people have already mentioned it c:

While the dwemer did use steam engines and such, a great majority of their "technology" is techno-magical. Without magic the dwemer would not have been able to accomplish what they did. Magic accounts for the reason dwemer constructs cease functioning the further they are taken from concentrations of dwemer settlements.

We forgot the tecnology needed to make a crossbow between the events of Morrowind and Oblivion so...

No Chinese rifles ... grrr

Wait, so I'm not going to be able to drive my red Camaro on Highway one along Skyrim's northern coast? Bethesda, you just lost a loyal customer.

It's called http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MedievalStasis
A pretty silly trope that even Fable manages to avoid.

yes of course that's why at 2:22 in this video he says imma just firin mah lazor! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QhqYvP8CbM&feature=related

Mundus is filled with magic. Magic has pretty much taken the place of science. Who needs a lightbulb? There's a spell for that.

Well, I suppose that only since the scientific revolution (I dont know if I made that up) has there been a rapid increase in technology. Before that, everything moved much slower. I would assume that The elder scrolls has not reached a scientific revolution of any sort. Besides, how could they advance it?

are you implyin that what fable did was a good thing bc imo the fable franchise gets worse with each release an its worst mistake was haveing a guns and things like than in a series that also has magic a swords.

Now we just need gloves that creat lighting to shoot out of our hands...or a fireball....

The thing with technology is, if you have magic there's no need for it. It gets dark, no need for a light bulb, you have a light or a night eye spell. Need to get somewhere quickly, teleportation spells or you could increase your speed. And who'd need a gun when you can rain down fire from the sky.

This. Nice post

A civilization ruled by religious beliefs rarely have much technoliogical or scientific advancement. Tamriel is rife with religious cults based on beings that actually exist and are actual gods, so Tamriel will be in it's dark ages pretty much forever, unless Mundus in blocked off completely from Oblivion and Aetherius, and magic stops raining from the stars.

Interest being subdued by magical availability isn't even yet a concern, in my opinion.

It's tough to really say what the tech level of the elderscrolls world really is. Because according the the lore they've had late middle ages or early rennaissance tech for pretty much the entire time period covered by the main games(not counting Redguard). Which actually wasn't that long of a time the games only cover about thirty four years in one era. And much of the technology in the world doesn't mete out in the games because of the design process. As for Redguard I think the style of the game and the time it was made kind of informed what the game looked like but regardless it had a similar kind of tech level to the other games even though it's set four and a half centuries before them. So what I think we're going to see is a sort of rennaissance era civilisation going through it's own dark ages period.

I'd like to see minor advances. carriages is a good thing. A crossbow would be nice, or even great cities and factions owning ballistas and catapults. having oil for flaming arrows would be pretty cool

No. This is the equivalent of the Dark Ages in Tamriel. If anything it should be even less advanced.

No.

It only applies to some people. Most, normal citizens and other non-mages, use torches and lanterns. If magic is so handy and omnipresent and so much better, how do you explain that?

Not to mention that even Tamriel has entire cultures that prefer technology to magic. Look at the magic-distrusting Redguards for example. I would be far from surprised if one day firearms and steam powered machines started appearing in Hammerfell.