Technology
Several centuries ago, the cataclysm of Losthome stressed the Kingdom to its breaking point. The slow process of expansion stopped, and Alora lapsed into a dark age. Generations passed in relative stasis.
Now that is changing. The world is waking up. Fueled by advances in cultivation, the Teacher program, and a renewed sense of optimism, the Kingdom is on the brink of its own Renaissance.
Let’s review the current state of things.
Mechanical
The Kingdom has used basic mechanical engines such as water wheels and windmills since time immemorial. These can grind flour, pull a cart, and other simple forms of locomotion.
Unfortunately, their reach is limited by the landscape and the ever-shifting storms. In the most peaceful portions of the inner wards, you might find a gondola powered by a waterfall or a minecart pulled by a chain connected to a windmill. Elsewhere, mechanical work is likely done through simple and direct means.
Isekai technology
As a player, you are familiar with a number of nigh-unimaginable technological marvels. From computers to rockets to airplanes, you live in a world that has harnessed science to transform itself.
A key cornerstone of this science is repeatability. Given the same conditions, the same thing happens.
This is not true for the Kingdom. Seln is a world still pulsing with primordial energy and tightly knit to spiritual state.
Imagine how long your phone would last if you took it into space. One good solar bombardment could fry it instantly! Though the elements are not radiation as we understand it, they drastically interfere with our modern technology.
Nevertheless, the idea behind our technology is valuable. We think to conquer the skies and tame the lands where many peoples of the past were content with the tools at hand.
Let’s take a look at a few examples.
Example: Airplane
The basic idea of the airplane is really just a ship for the skies. While a ship can rely on buoyancy, an airplane would need to devise another means to control its elevation. Our method of combustion is too unstable in Seln; there must be another way.
How do Path warriors float like leaves on the wind. By attuning to Air.
Could a ship be attuned in the same fashion?
In one remote corner of the Wehr plains, a troupe of clever youth have followed this logic and amassed a carpet of Air-infused crystals along the bottom of a boat. After much trial and error, they successfully attuned the boat to a ley line of AirWater, and the boat floated six inches above the ground!
This floating boat can only hover a few inches above the ground and only travel along the ley line of Air, but it still represents a tremendous breakthrough. With time and care, could this wobbly prototype be the first step to the skies?
Example: Digital connection
Suppose Truck-kun calls and you arrive in Seln with your smartphone. It has a limited battery but a wealth of knowledge.
A couple things might happen to the smartphone:
- Fried – Seln’s unstable currents roast the delicate electronics immediately
- Power runs out – Once the battery goes to zero, you have a pretty paperweight
- Perfect balance – Just the right balance of elements keeps it alive!
However, that is not the end of the story. If the elements power your smartphone, then they influence your smart phone.
It might start turning on by its own volition. It might start ignoring some of your inputs. Apps that you don’t remember installing might offer glimpses of far-off places. Sometimes it rings, and all you hear on the other end is an alluring song, bidding you follow it beyond the wards.
Much of our modern technology is built on the idea of connection. If you bring an open door, don’t be surprised when someone lets themselves in.
The cunning of the elements
The Kingdom does not operate on identical principles to our own world. The elements are active and volatile. Mechanical advances based on high concentrations of energy are unstable: combustion engines explode, hydroelectric dams collapse.
In other words, high concentrations of kinetic energy tend to vent into elemental form. Those elements deeply resonate with the spiritual landscape, producing wildly divergent effects based on Harmony and cultivation!
Beyond even that, the elements display a surprisingly cunning. Despite being mere energy, the elements seem to know how best to stress a system and escape! That might mean cavitating inside a pipe, flooding a reservoir, or repeatedly hammering a weak joint, but the end result is catastrophe failure of the whole – usually at the worst possible moment.
The elements want to be free. Best not to stand in their way.
Guns
No discussion of technology is complete without a fifty-page argument over guns!
Like combustion engines, guns rely on a small explosion. In Seln’s unstable atmosphere, this explosion becomes an elemental reaction out of anyone’s control. Thus, explosive propulsion like guns or cannons have never managed to take root.
Lately, there has been a surprising exception: the Aufslander pirates. These mysterious pirates wield firesand pistols. Through unknown alchemy, the firesands shape the elemental reaction into deadly force where other projectiles simply explode.
When the Aufslanders first began to raid and saw their victims had no knowledge of firesand, they assumed easy pickings! Unfortunately for them, however, they soon learned that cultivators are capable of blocking bullets!
Thus, today, guns in Seln Alora are a mystery held only by a small faction of pirates and considered more of a novelty weapon than the future of the art.
Playing along
The prospect of a new Renaissance may be exciting, but please remember that the focus of this game is on cultivation and martial arts. As an English-speaking adult, you can research the history of our technology and see a straight line from past to present. It is always tempting to replicate that in your tabletop games.
If you want to bring new technology to Seln, consider how it integrates into Harmony and cultivation. The challenge before you in Seln Alora is not to replicate the steam engine in a different physics engine; the challenge is to extrapolate how Air, Water, and Fire might merge under a guiding, cultivated mind to create a wonder!