ON DWEMER AND “TECHNOLOGY:”Assuming that the focus of the Dwemer was technology is incorrect. The Dwemer did not create or utilize technology for the sake of technology; nor were their goals technological. Their culmination of goals (specifically, the goals of Kagrenac) were to return to the first brush, to undo their lower subgradient state as compared to the et’ada. Their means to this goal was the creation of the Brass God. As such, their goal and their means to it were rooted in myth, magic, and metaphysics, not technology.
This also applies to the physical things we see within their ruins in Vvardenfell (and presumably Hammerfell). This mythically rooted concept can be reinforced by the idea of the Dwemer Animunculi. Their operation “combines two incompatible principles, thus denying both.” The core of the animunculi, then, relies on a metaphysical advancement, not a technological advancement. There are also reports that Vvardenfell animunculi deactivate when getting too far from the shores, indicating a possible link with the Heart of Lorkhan, which further implies their true nature deals with the magical, mythical, and metaphysical, not the technological. Any role technology would have played was the immaterial wrapping over the true nature, i.e. the magical, mythical, and metaphysical.
This disinterest in actually focusing on technology in and of itself can be seen in their implementation of weapons. This is a race that has the ability to divide by zero; it is conceivable that they had the ability to create some form of explosives-driven firearms. But they kept it simple, developing only what was necessary for defense; swords, axes, hammers, crossbows, and ballistae. If technological advancement was truly their focus, were something other than a basic means to and end that could be discarded if needed, why did they not spend more time developing deadlier, less-common weapons? One answer is, how does a gun or firearm hold up to mythically creating a new god? Which is a more worthy pursuit: going after a slight advantage with technology, or becoming level with the et’ada via the birth of a new deity with magic, myth, and metaphysics? If firearms were a plausible route of development that the Dwemer considered worth their time, why are there no such firearms in the Resdayn ruins residing in the Dwemer homeland?
Since the Dwemer focus and interest resides with the magical, mythical, and metaphysical, we can assume that most serious research journals will involve such things in detail, and they are far less likely to cover such menial things like physical technology, which is considered the crude, simplistic tool to the grand art. Examples: Divine Metaphysics and The Egg of Time deal with grandiose mythical concepts, not menial technological concepts.
ON TAMRIEL AND FIREARMS DEVELOPMENT:We can likely agree that if any race possessed the ability to develop firearms, it would be the Dwemer. Since the discovery Hanging Gardens made Dwemer able to be roughly translated, it’s arguable that the language barrier is not a large issue. But how many Dwemer books or notes are there to study? The unearthing of Bamz-Amschend in Almalexia also unearthed a plethora of books, but not even Hanging Gardens could help with these. Each one is preempted with: “This book appears to be written in an unknown Dwemer language.” So all we really have are Divine Metaphysics and the Egg of Time (which are metaphysical and mythical treatises, not technological treatises). The only people who seem to be able to decipher these (even with the ability to read them) are Baladas Demnevani and Yagrum Bagarn, and their mental faculties and direct experience (respectively) cannot be compared to the average or even greatly-above-average citizen of Tamriel. The player only received a minimal “explanation-lite” to deliver to Trebonius, and who’s to say what Trebonius in all his idiocy did with such a report? Because of this knowledge-filtering, the odds of anyone actually understanding Dwemer methods well enough to recreate them are insanely close to zero.
Furthermore, we developed guns in the real world over a long-term realization that sharpened projectiles launched at significant speeds held advantage over face-to-face combat. But TES is a world founded in magic from its conception, from the time of Anu and Padhome and the IS-IS NOT. All that guns represent to us in the real world are met and overmatched by magic that has been there since the very beginning. A bow or a crossbow is a relatively simple nonmagical alternative, as opposed to magic which requires some skill to use. However, the idea of firearms coming up are slim to none; society and culture for the entire history of Nirn have known about, and broadened their understanding of, magic. Magic IS their concept of firearms. If someone wanted more firepower than what his bow could provide, he would know or be told via common sense and deeply-rooted-from-the-birth-of-the-world tradition and culture that he would need to join the Mages Guild. Or go attempt to get in with the Psijics on Arateum.
ON REAL-LIFE CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS COMPARED TO TES:Chemistry is not Alchemy. Chemistry is utilizing the natural properties of substances and rearranging said natural properties to form a new substance that still relies on the natural properties of its former components. Alchemy is harvesting supernatural and magical properties from natural properties to form a new substance that manifests supernatural properties and is separate from and not dependant upon the natural properties of its former components.
On the surface, it appears that real-world physics and TES physics are similar; at least, Nirn, the Deadlands, and the Shivering Isles aka Madhouse seem to adhere to real-world concepts of physics. However, there are stark holes in this idea that physics are the same or are even basically similar:
- This is a world where the night sky is nothing more than a great illusion that mortal minds automatically create to account for the impossible sight of the sixteen equally infinite planes of the Daedra intermeshing with one another and the void.
- This is a world where stars are not giant balls of helium gas; stars are literally the tears in the fabric of Oblivion caused by the et’ada who fled before Lorkhan tricked/convinced the Aedra to create the mortal world.
- This is a world where you have documented cases of people traversing through the void and the different realms of Oblivion, which should be physically impossible, due to the fact that each realm (and likely the void itself) is infinite. How does one physically travel from one infinity to another?
- This is a world whose entire universe is not a physical structure at all but a metaphysical structure aka the Wheel.
- This is a world where Gods (!) can physically manifest themselves in the world, and they are by definition both the materialized aspect in Nirn and the infinite plane(t) in the void at the same time.
Can you imagine grafting technology (even basic technology) such as guns on a world such as this?
ON THE OUT-OF-GAME ARGUMENT:Either way, it all comes back to this simple out-of-game-context statement:
Guns do not match the basic premises of The Elder Scrolls.
It doesn't matter if firearms were highly plausible within the context of in-game arguments. TES is a sword-and-magic high-fantasy RPG. That is its genre; that is what people expect and want out of TES titles. Adding firearms to the world changes that genre and clashes with those basic premises, even if they are significantly watered down and balanced. The past two polls, which I linked in my past post, show how the Forum community feels about guns.
They promptly fall under the category of "Do Not Want."
» Thu Sep 09, 2010 2:47 am 
