Well people (elves, humans, beastmen) don't start building glittering palaces and magical towers when they've just crawled out of the muck (or in this case, degenerated into mortality). There is clear advancement in the Elder Scrolls Universe, but it's not has dynamic when you have magic and real gods. Science is magic in Tamriel; the study of the arcane is their study of physics and chemistry. Their gods are clear, real beings, so there is no real push to figure out on how the world began or where it's going.

Basically, most of the big questions about Nirn have been answered, so there's no real need to advance and explore.

Don't. Even. Think. About. IT!

While I do dislike the idea of guns being in a TES game, this logic is still flawed.
By this logic we don't need swords, maces, axes or bows ether.

Took the words right out of my mouth.

First of all, technological advancement does not happen because Beth and the fans want to keep the same scenario. Lore-wise the explanation could be that Nirn has not the same physic as Earth. The TES world basically consists of one godlike thing that creates more and more smaller godlike thingies until it's so "small" that's a rock or grass. On Earth, there exist particles which are influenced by physical energies and most organisms function through chemical processes which don't exist on Nirn. For example, there's no proof that water in Nirn is effectively H2O, it's basically just a thought of the Godhead.
So to me, the laws of physics which allow gunpowder, penicillin and niclear power plants in our world don't exist on Nirn. There's probably no possibility for "our" electricity, since lightnings on Nirn are of magical nature.

I'm pretty sure we do know, we can make kitchen knives after all.

Knowing how to make steel is not the same thing as knowing how fine steel was made by ancient craftsmen, who didn't have modern steel-making methods.

Ah, I see, misunderstood the post.

A technological advancement is just too risky. There's no turning back once it's done, and it might end up as a grave blow to the series and it's atmosphere.
The only safe route would perhaps be an off-shoot secretive culture, think FO 1+2's Brotherhood of Steel meets the Dwemer. They wont affect the gameworld as a whole, and could be disposed of in lore/quests anyway then.

That said, with millenia of established lore with no technological advancement, any drastic increase would appear out of place. Don't fix what ain't broken.

Actually, the Dwemer satchel charges used in the Tribunal MQ indicate that gunpowder can and did exist in Tamriel at one time, but appears to have been lost with the disappearance of the Dwemer. The fallacy is to consider technology a continuous upward progression, where it in fact tends to both rise and fall along with civilizations, although with a slight long-term overall increase due to some knowledge being retained in out-of-the-way places. The long recovery and subsequent rise in civilization since the fall of Rome tends to make us think that it's inevitable over any timeframe.

We don't know all of the details, but the basic principles are pretty clear. The iron was heated on a bed containing sulfur and charcoal, and some of the materials were worked into the metal by hammering. Some Roman short-swords are said to contain "ribbons" of steel embedded in them, due to the repeated forging and hammering process over charcoal and sulfur. Bavaria produced a small quantity of "natural steel" with various trace elements, which could be further enhanced by the above techniques. Other ancient swords were partially converted into steel by being stuck on hilltops and hit by lightning; this may have been the source of King Arthur's mystical sword, and fits perfectly with the information surrounding Attila the Hun's legendary weapon.

We've recently redeveloped or figured out most of the long-lost techniques used in making the pyramids, the underlying principles behind Stradivarius' violins, and seveal other ancient technologies, but others are still "magic" to us.

Yes, we know how to make steel. We just don't necessarily know how ancients did it. I'm not of the opinion that magic was involved.

after reading your coment a thought just poped into my head ( and its just a thought, not what i actually think ). what if back in the day and i mean 1000's of years ago there was such thing as magic and over the ages the knowleg was lost some how and thats why since in the last 2 or 3 hundread or so years we've been developing more and more technology and all that stuff cause we lost the secret of magic.

another thought that goes with this is if you think about some of the storys from the bible like moses parting the red sea and all that sounds like magic to me or they were all on drugs lol like jesus turning water to wine could have been he just gave every one shroom tea or some thing like that and just made them think the water was turned to wine

...or that it's mainly "metaphors" for something else that was well understood then, but the secondary meaning has been lost.

One explanation for a few "miracles" is that by distributing water/bread, the majority of those who did have enough wine/food for their own personal use, and perhaps a bit more to share, were wiling to pull out their personal supplies and give some to the few neighbors who didn't have anything. In an age where you had to carry food and water for emergencies (no McDonald's anywhere in the area), most of them probably had a wine flask (water was questionable due to bacteria) and basic rations. It's a matter of brilliant psychology, not magic.

Most of the ancient literature (of any culture) can be taken from either a religious or a non-religious viewpoint, and still make sense if you understand the circumstances or the nuances of the language. Sadly, most of it is no longer understood, or only partially so. The few tidbits and glimpses into the metaphors, innuendo, intentional vagueness, and hidden meanings that we do know about are intriguing, though.

There's a reference in Gilgamesh often taken to refer to "casting a spell on" another character in the story, allowing them to kill that character, where the meaning could very well be "brought within his juristiction", allowing him to kill the character without repercussions. Another refers to attacking a character when his "magical defenses" were down to only a couple, which could also have been a reference to "personal bodyguards" at that time. Words don't always mean the same thing, and the context changes with events. When there are two possible meanings in ancient literature, one based on magic and one not, is there any reason to believe one over the other? On the other hand, if magic was real, and was lost, it would make equal sense.

Hi there Sharn! Hope you're having a great week.


When stated in absolute terms, nothing ever holds. Don't know about lore, but people in Skyrim still bake goods, hunt game and do other activities that magic might render pointless. Why eat when you can magically regen your health? Why bother to hunt on a rainy day if magic can provide you with all the nourishment? Not everyone in SKyrim uses magic and those who do do it to different extents, not to mention the Nords frowning upon its use altogether. One has to be more cautious when questioning the whole point of technology in a magic driven society. In Skyrim, there's usually a windmill somewhere on the backdrop and a windmill is a piece of technology, not a piece of magic.

I wonder if you're familiar with Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Hi there glargg. How's life treating you? Swell, I hope.

I was not, untill you brought it up. Thank you. I do however fail to see the implications in this instance. I think it's a fair depiction to say that in SKyrim not everyone uses magic for every single purpose. Hence technology. And since this kind of exceptions are notoriously already in place I see no unsurmountable obstacle to a more widespread use of technology nor to some moderate advancement.

My point was that in a world where magic was commonplace, the wind would likely be regarded as a magical force, and a windmill would be a use of that magic.

Incidentally, I bake bread, and I'm here to tell you that the transformation of that lump of wet dough into crusty aromatic bread is nothing short of Magic!

If one believes the concepts of magic and technology to be intrechangeable, I would guess one would see no obstacle to the advancement of both endeavours.
I occasionally venture into baking. Do you happen to have any tips on muffins? Thanks in advance.

Why am I suddenly hungry?

Muffins aside (baking is cool) you guys have hit on it exactly. There is and has been advancement, but because magic is widely accessible, and because even people who can't use magic probably know someone who can to some degree or another, that would mean that it would not go the way ours did even though it still goes. Finding new and more efficient uses of magic and/or enchantment would have the same general effect of better real-world technological advancement (alteration of societal structure and potential increase in quality of life) it would just be cool and original in the details.

One example is the Dwemer constructs. Morrowind Dwemer seemed, based on all the steam, to use a combination of geothermal and latent magic from Red Mountain. Since Skyrim Dwemer were not near a magical volcano (just a regular kind) they came up with the idea to farm Falmer for soulgems to power their devices and powered their cities with geothermal. It's not real-world advancement but it does show that the peoples of Tamriel are not in a constant state of stasis.

Hell, even the creation and use of Arcane Enchanters and the restructuring of magic schools could broadly count as advancement. Or regression. It is, after all, a sort of dark age that the Empire of man has fallen into by 4E201.