Why is it that after hundreds of years, technology in Tamriel hasn't moved forward at all?

I know there's magic and stuff like that, but that shouldn't stop human ingenuity...


I don't understand it :/

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/history-lock-picking

I don't see why people tend towards thinking the Dwemer were the height of technology. They were capable of some things 4th Era Tamriel can't do, but why should you build animunculi when you can summon a Dremora at no expense of raw materials, and that requires no maintenance? Their armor and weapons are by no means superior to what can be crafted in modern Tamriel, and modern magic has spells available that can invalidate any Dwemer crossbow.

Why should you haul around cannons when battlemages march themselves? Why invent a flashlight if you can enchant a rock with magelight?

What technology in particular do you think should be growing?

Because Nirn isn't Earth, and those humans aren't we humans. Also because the writers say so.

I seem to recall a theory on reddit from months ago that basically said that technological advancement is being repressed by et'ada. http://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/10go5y/the_renaissance_that_never_was_or_how_azura/

You can also argue that the idea that technology will always "advance" in certain regards to be part of the myth of progress.

I also hate the idea that magic represses technological progress.

I am here to throw in the word "magic".


Magic advances. The thu'um got lore wise the power of a tactical nuclear strike, an the Numidium is beyond everything todays humanity can dream of fighting.

Magic kind of limits the need. Seriously, what good would a gun do in Tamriel? Nothing. Perhaps the chemicals and physics are not right in Tamriel in order to create nukes.

Plus the game world would svck ass if there was massive advancement in technology.. and if we're comparing them to Earth, it took humans a decent amount of time to come up with what we have now too.

I'm glad people are going "magic prevents the invention of technological weapons" like weapons are the only expression of technology.

Tell me how magic would make something like the printing press, or the tractor, or other non-violent modes of technology useless.

Furthermore, "what good would a gun do"? The same good guns did in the land of bows! Magic takes training, takes time to learn. Put a gun in someone's hand and they can kill someone immediately. Sure, they take training to be useful, but it's not the same.

Well Tamriel does have cannons, so guns, at least in theory, aren't that technollogically far off.

and they have made flying airships, that looks like zepplins, before.

Because they haven't developed it and never will. /thread.

But why would you make a gun when you could make an enchanted staff? Sure, they require handcrafting, but so did the early guns. The kind of soul trade that would be required to fund large scale production of enchanted weaponry and goods is much more interesting than any old-fashioned industrial revolution.

@Ehlnofex man: the dirigible was of dwemer make.