I've been playing these games since number 3 and there is little sense that the world is changing, Skyrim takes places about 200 years after Oblivion but there is no real sense of industrialization or that the people learning stuff is developing. It would be cool to play a future Elder Scrolls game in a pre industrial revolution of some sort so the franchise doesn't always feel the same

True. Although i don't really think Tamriel needs it because of magic. Magic does everything machines can make. They have a simple life and i don't think they need more. And let's be honest, a bunch of buildings and smoke, would definitely ruin the beautiful tamriel

This is a very frequent topic of suggestion, some of the points you will no doubt get:

1) Technology does not progress like the real world, for magical and metaphysical reason.
2) A very vocal group of posters don't like the idea of higher technology in TES
3) Constant strife between races and gods makes it hard for tech to advance.

I thought there were more points than that, but I can't remember right now.

This is kind of wrong. Magic does not replace technology, not by a long shot.

I wonder what tech-level the Ehlnofey had when they first wandered Nirn. I have trouble imagining them with medieval technology right from the get-go.

It's a fantasy game it doesn't need to progress. The game shouldn't progress as progression would kill the game.


It actually does. No point in guns as a mage would slaughter a musket army.

Why would you make a machine gun or a pistol if you can just fry someone with your bare hands? They are fine without tecnology in my opinion. But yeah they could industrialize a bit more tho

Explain to me why bows and arrows exist again?

not everyone uses magic though some warriors can't use magic at all. But they could use magic to fuel some of their technology and make it work.

Yes i know that. Although if you think about it industrializing Tamriel would ruin the world and that's really

They had spaceflight (which the Septims, Argonians, Altmer and Vivec had well into the third era at least) and the ability to blast things into powder with a thought (still possessed universally by all cultures). No clue what else.

Bows and arrows were invented by Bosmer because Bosmer like that kind of thing. Speculation: the more visceral feel was probably more pleasing to the then-entirely carnivorous race. Alternatively Y'ffre told them to.

The difference in resources, access to magic, interventionist deities and mythic god-kings have a lot to do with the comparative technological stasis avoiding yet another steampunk-wannabe fantasy series. Look also at the Dwemer. Thet developed magic robots. There is advancement and regression, just like in the real world. It's just not the same lines of advancement and regression we had and will have.

I think it would help make the game feel unique and more fun to explore that way the world doesn't stay the same throughout every game.

Basically, it all boils down to how fans want the setting to feel. They like a certain flavor of fantasy games, and more science will sour it for them. Any other kind of reasoning is meant to justify their taste, but people should just admit that it is a matter of opinion or preference.

Well as long as the landscape stays unique i'm down with it

... what? A game where one god kills his own monster children with his [censored], another god is three people, people who are dragons eat dragons's souls, and nazi elves try to uncreate existence so they can be gods doesn't feel unique? And that's just the stuff that's made it into pre-existing games, not even tapping into the obscure texts yet!

there is stuff about gods and monsters in the bible and there is a horror movie about nazi elves during christmas called Elves

And what does that have to do with Elder Scrolls?

I was pointing out it's not as unique as you think also all fantasy games have crazy lore full of stuff

And there's a million steampunk books at my library. At least gods and monsters can be interesting beyond it's novelty. Vivec definitely draws from real world stories, just like Talos does. But I've yet to see anything like the Thalmor.

Point is, TES is unique because it isn't one of the million steampunk pseudo-industrial dregs I see all too often, choosing instead to go full mythic.

EDIT: And as to the thread title, the world does change and progress. Just not as a copy of the Fable franchise or somehow unbelievably shoehorned into being 'the real world with magic and elves." Spells are lost, rediscovered, reinvented. Empires fall, rise and strive. There are new stylistic and design choices made in art and architecture.

The Dwemer thought otherwise and used magic and steam (Clean power) to create machines of immense power. Hell they made a machine capable of decoding elder scrolls.

I know. They also made incredibly ugly buildings that screwed up the landscapes. Although they did it in mountains so they were cool enough to do that

That is a matter of personal taste and irrelevant to the topic, which is "Why not" and not "do you like".

The fact is, steam powered guns or magic powered guns (caster guns) are very viable inventions within the TES universe. However, I will add that Skyrim seems to fall under an archetype of fantasy where the world is in a technological stagnation.

I totally agree

It's a parabolic kalpa. It ends how it begun. If there isn't advanced technology at the peak of the curve, there never will be.

Tolkien-esque high fantasy is even more over-used than steampunk stuff. I'd love to see technology emerging in future TES games. Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura has become one of my favorite games as of late because of the fascinating duality between technology and magic in that game.

Are you sure that pertains to knowledge? I thought the prabolic kalpa idea had to do with the "closeness" to the godhead or subgradience.

Let's not forget the Loveletter. It definitely came off sounding rather technological. And then there are the 16th dimensional mathematics used by Hist and exo-form mining machines.