5 Obstacles to Technological Development in Fantasy Worlds

What is it—in terms of an in-world explanation, as opposed to a constraints-of-the-medium explanation—that prevents the people in fantasy worlds from developing a sophisticated level of technology?

The out-of-world explanation is simple: the moment you introduce an industrial or technological world, you end up telling a different kind of story than you would in a pre-industrial setting. But if you only have an artificial reason for limiting your world’s technological progress, then you are not only stunting your fictional world’s growth, but your own growth as a writer. A good fictional world has compelling reasons for its history, beyond our mere fiat. As I writer, I do not want to simply fiat that a thousand generations of elves have been unable to progress beyond the forging of steel swords to the building of steel bridges, railways and automobiles. But where do I start?

Actually, a simple look at real-world history reveals a number of reasons that our own technological development didn’t start earlier than it did; so all I really need to do is borrow from that, and then adapt it to my fictional setting. (Note: the statements below are all admittedly simplified, in order to accommodate a blog entry; the full case of history involves many other factors and complications as well.)

1. View of Nature. Many ancient peoples viewed the world around them as inhabited by spirits, or controlled by agents (in same cases gods, in other cases some agency within the things themselves). One of the consequences of this belief system was that the world was largely beyond our ability to understand and predict. In order for systematic investigation of the natural world to be even considered as profitable, it required an alternative belief system. One example of such a system is the natural philosophy developed by the Greeks; another example is the Judeo-Christian worldview that a single God created everything with an order that would be understandable to the rational human minds He also created.

Now since a fantasy setting can be inhabited by many gods, spirits, or other agents which direct or interfere with the activities of nature, it is entirely conceivable that science is much more difficult and less reliable—these other agents may perpetually get in the way. In such a world, understanding nature may be more like anthropology and civics than about chemistry and physics.

2. Slave Labor. Throughout most of earth’s history, the presence of slave labor has been the norm—despite the fact that free labor is more productive economically. And in addition to the moral evils of slavery, it has a deleterious impact upon technological growth and industrial innovation: for so long as slave labor is apparently less costly than innovation, innovation will not be pursued. This is one of the reasons why the Greeks, despite their philosophy, did not advance as far as they might have in terms of technological development: machines were more like expensive toys than labor-saving devices.

Now a fantasy setting may or may not have slavery (a good example of one that does, and that considers such negative effects, is Joel Rosenberg’s Guardians of the Flame series); but most of them have magic, and this could have a similar impact upon the cost of technological innovation. If magic is common enough—that is, if its economic cost is low—it may very well out-compete technology. In fact, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books suggest this very point: most wizards are baffled by muggle technology; for after all, who needs to develop an internal combustion engine when you can teleport or fly? Who needs to develop medical and dental knowledge when you can just cast a spell or drink a potion to restore your health? So long as a magic solution is readily available, or even known to exist, then character in that world will be more likely to pursue that solution than to divine an alternative one through technological invention and innovation.

3. Custom and values system. In some cultures, doing things in a traditional way is more valued than doing things in a novel way; in some cultures, it is more valuable to be equally as capable as your peers than it is to be better than them. Technological innovation puts a person (or group of people) at an advantage over others, and in some value systems, that is itself a kind of evil to be avoided. This, and other cultural reasons may account for slowness in technological development. In China, for example, the dominance of Confucian philosophy in the government bureaucracy and among the elite seems to be one of the reasons why the industrial revolution did not spring from the far east, despite the advantages that China had over Europe in the Middle Ages. For another example of culture, in Japanese leaders purposely turned their back on some technological advances (such as gunpowder weapons) in order to maintain their existing cultural system for another hundred years or so.

People groups in a fantasy world might have their own cultural rules or value systems than prohibit or slow technological development. Perhaps they view machines as dehumanizing (de-elfanizing?); perhaps they believe that technology is injurious to the community (as the real-life Amish do); perhaps they simply have different ambitions. My elves, for example, use their long lives to learn everything there is to learn about everything that interests them, and so they almost never specialize in any one particular field.

4. Lack of trade. Throughout history, isolated communities have developed much more slowly than trading communities. Trade gives access not only to ideas, but also to resources, and both are needed for technological development. Historically, Europe had both an international system of colleges that promoted the trade of ideas, and a thriving network of trading that included international banking (banking, by the way, goes a long way toward making investment in new enterprises possible).

In a fictional world, there are a great many economic and trade obstacles a writer can include in his world. Constant warfare, lack of safety traveling between cities/states, lack of agreeable exchange currencies, increased suspicion of foreigners (which, remember, may really be of a different race), cultural isolationism, constant environmental upheaval, or a lack of free markets and the rule of law may all make trade much less common. (I must emphasize the importance of the Rule of Law here: the Rule of Law, as opposed to the Rule of Rulers, is one of the single biggest reasons that the United States prospered so much more than the many other New World states that never committed to the Rule of Law. The Rule of Law makes futures speculation and investment possible in ways that are impossible under the diktats of arbitrary governing officials.)

5. Lack of free markets. I am not going to elaborate on this obstacle to technological growth, since you came here to read about writing fantasy, and not about free market economics. Entire blogs are devoted to discussing free markets and their various effects. But for the purpose at hand (creating a fantasy world, and ensuring that is remains in a pre-industrial state despite thousands of years of history), I suggest tyrannical rulers help you quite a bit. Not many people invest where the fruits of their work will certainly be stolen by the government (as in Zimbabwe). Of course, this approach will have other impacts upon your fictional world—you may not want your world to be so bleak, or perhaps you at least don’t want your elves or dwarves to be so bleak; but this approach can be combined with number 4: maybe not all governments are tyrannical kleptocracies, but enough are that it provides a significant disincentive to trade…

Anyway, this is just a starter list of options—probably already too long for a single blog post. But if you’ve read this far, maybe you have some ideas of your own. Share them in the comments below!

Kinds of Goblins

In most stories, goblins are foul sub-human (or sub-elf, if you are a fan of the Silmarilion) beings, corrupted, contentious, conniving, contemptible creatures. They are warlike without being courageous, cunning and crafty without being particularly intelligent, and wretched without ever being tragic. Yet in some stories, they are also comic—and while being comic, may yet retain many of the features that made them cretins. Perhaps this results from the fact that madness is often funny (in fiction—the same madness in real life is almost never amusing), or that we simply like to laugh at own human folly, which has been projected onto the goblins as from a funhouse mirror.

How evil or comic a writer makes their goblins will depend upon what kind of story they want to tell—what kind of environment they want to establish, what kind of challenges they want to create for their main characters (comic goblins tend not to be very threatening), etc. Here are some of the ranges one might consider:

                                               

Blatantly comic: these are the most harmless kinds of goblins (although in the card game Magic, they might still form a competitive deck), as they tend to fail in spectacular ways. They are often the embodiment of folly, including unexamined selfishness, lack of foresight or self-control, and general absence of manners.

(Thanks to Rose Tursi for the above drawings; you can check out more of her art at http://www.tursiart.com/)

Faerie: these goblins may be almost childish in their trickery and ambitions. They may cause harm, but typically on no great scale, and may not even purpose it. They may exist as an incomprehensible band of creatures that delights in things odious to humans, including rotten smells, unpalatable foods, discarded trinkets, and general mischief. They are often pranksters, and may even resort to abductions; but often their schemes are in pursuit of some notion of fun rather than evil ambition.

Monstrous: these goblins are natural creatures rather than the spawn of evil; but they still tend toward evil (in D&D, chaotic evil) ways. They still represent a less-than-human society, and a set of values that would be perverse among humans. They might be clever with animals—but they train wolves and giant spiders instead of dogs and horses. They might even be clever with machines—but in a mad engineer kind of way. They are often good with traps, and prefer deceitful tactics in battle. They have a propensity toward thieving, scavenging, and pillaging. Since they are natural creatures, it is even possible that individual goblins may have some bent toward goodness—but their society does not favor it. These goblins are useful in both stories and games as a kind of mildly-threatening enemy, but that might still offer many possibilities for individualization of goblin characters.

Unmitigated evil: these goblins are authored by an evil person or power, and often under its direct governance. They were created (or corrupted) with an evil purpose, and are perpetually subjugated to that purpose. In this sense, they are like unto demons. These goblins tend to be the most fierce and most warlike. Individuals may even exhibit great strength and even fearlessness in battle—but even this fearlessness is more a function of madness than it is of virtue. In their society, goodness is regarded as weakness, and weeded out. These goblins are useful in stories that feature a supernatural struggle between good and evil, and also for establishing a recognizable and morally unambiguous threat for protagonists.

Hm, I skipped a section in the middle, where goblins might have all the dimension of real human beings. Actually, I did that on purpose, as it seems to me that such a course is too likely to result in creatures that might as well be human beings instead of goblins. But even if that were the tendency, I must admit an exception: for after reading the Goblins webcomic, I must say that I have been quite impressed with that writer’s take on it. His goblins are fully engaging on both a dramatic and a comic level. But they’re human, really—that is, it seems that in that world, there is no substantive difference in the natures of different species (only their cultures). Great writing though. Rather disrupts my goblins-as-less-than-human theory. Such is the advance of contemporary literature, I suppose.

For my own preference, I like writing goblins at the extremes: either unmitigated evil, or blatantly comic—both of which, I think, work well for children’s stories, for children want to know that good shall triumph over evil, and they also want to have other stories that are simply funny.

The Pig-Pincher and Nosy Goblin pictures you saw above actually represent some comic goblins in a card game I created (I’ll post about that some time in the future). In terms of story, my best goblin story goes with the goblins-as-corrupted-humans take (somewhere between the Monstrous and Unmitigated Evil end of the spectrum). Even did a poetic take on that, which you can check out if you like poetry.

What kinds of goblins do you like reading and writing? Let us know in the comments below, and recommend a favorite goblin story if you like!

Consequences of Being Giant

Some miscellaneous notes on giants:

 

Weapons

The reason why giants use clubs instead of swords is simply that giant-sized clubs are more readily available (any great limb of a tree will do) than giant-sized swords. Forging a sword for their size is extraordinarily difficult—most swords will break too easily at such a length. And certainly no non-giant has a great interest in mastering the metal-craft necessary to make such weapons.

After clubs, rocks are popular as throwing weapons: a giant on the battlefield is like a very mobile siege engine. Bows, on the other hand, are virtually never seen: for it is harder to make a bow to their size and strength specifications than it is a sword.

 

Armor

Giants do not wear armor, since it is too costly and difficult to create armor to fit them. Again, other races are not in any hurry to furnish the giants with adequate armor, even if it were within their means.

 

Food

Most giants are herders, and consequently live primarily off of animal meat and milk. Their recipes are fairly simple, and most cooking is done over open fire. They eat a great deal more of their animals than do humans, even grinding bones in mortar and pestle and consuming that.

 

Wealth

As pastoralists and nomads, giants tend not to accumulate any more personal belongings than they can carry on their person. Even when they settle they tend not to amass wealth—to giants, wealth is primarily measured in food and fun, not in things. Since few will deal with giants, they do not benefit from trade; and gold is nearly useless to them. They do like to build, however; and will invest great time and energy in constructing grate abodes—towers and castles and domes far beyond the capabilities of men.

 

Literature

Giants do not manufacture or read books; but they have a vibrant oral tradition, enjoying both epic poetry and comic verse. Most tales feature only one or two characters (when two, it usually features two rivals); and a whole genre of giant poetry features no characters at all, but is devoted to stone and constructions. Humans tend to find these stories entirely boring: they do not share the giants’ interest in the minute details of rock and stonecraft; and neither have they any interest in stories which features a big, strong giant as a protagonist (unless the antagonist is a dragon—but then the humans tend to replace the giant in the story with one of their own heroes, altering details as necessary).

 

Your turn–

Think of an aspect of giant life and culture, and talk about it in the comments section.

On the Blessedness of the Elves

In faerie stories, the fair folk enjoy a number of blessings longed for by the mortal world. These include long (or immortal) life, perpetual health, magical powers, and a continuous joy. Now when the land of faerie is separated from that of mortals, these qualities do not require explanation (as the whole point is that faerie is a magical and blessed realm outside of human ken), but when creating a fantasy world shared by both mortal men and a kind of elves, they need to be investigated—at least insofar as the mortals of that world would be able to understand in their interactions with the elves. In other words, if interaction between humans and elves is wondrous, then let these matters also be wondrous; but if it is mundane (for example, a human merchant regularly deals with elves, or a elven wizard is in the employ of every king of renown), then the reader must understand at least enough for them to accept and participate in that author’s world.

Of course, an author might simply make the race of elves as “normal” as the races of humans, dwarves, etc., giving them states and kings and normal political relations—and exchange their exceptional joy and blessedness for the same social ills and struggles that plague the world of men. But usually, even when an author places elves alongside men, they leave them as long-lived (or immortal), healthy, and magical. But it feels to me that blessedness/joy is just as much a quality of the elf archetype as those other things; so I for one would not like to wholly deprive them of that. So here is my own account of the elves’ happy estate:

1. Elves’ require less labor for their food than humans. We already know that their bodies are different, and filled with vitality far exceeding a mortal man’s; consider also then that they have entirely different dietary requirements. Now men must devote substantial labor to raising food from the ground, processing it, and cooking it; so much of our history and society has been shaped by our food supply. But elves (who already live in smaller groups) can obtain nutrition from leaves, stems, bark, etc., meaning that they never have to struggle with food supply the way humans do. Of course they may prefer the tastes of cultivated fruits and wines to eating leaves and whatnot; but they are never driven to starvation for the want of it. This means that elves, as a society, are freed from a great amount of necessary labor; and they use this free time for the recreations of music, dance, and optional labor (including the hunting and cooking of delicacies). Moreover, they are also freed from the strife that occurs as a result of scarcity: elvish clans never have to go to war over a stretch of fertile land.

2. Elves’ family relationships are more present and significant. Human generations are brief two decades or so, and human societies quickly become large groups of myriads of family units. In contrast, the long-lived (and slowly-reproducing) elves live in smaller bands, in which everyone is in closer genetic relationship. Furthermore, these family relationships have been stable over centuries. Additionally, these relationships extend beyond the “nuclear” family unit: first cousins among elves are often closer than brothers (who may be a century or more apart in age). Thus while human neighbors are from competing family units, elf neighbors are more often part of the same cooperating extended family unit, with all the bonds of loyalty, service, and commitment that entails. Every member of an elvish clan will be able to identify their exact relationship to every other. And while even elvish families have troubles, they nevertheless share weal and woe at a much deeper level than the non-related humans. When a new elf is born to the clan, everyone is close enough to rejoice.

3. Elves are not burdened with human ambition. To them, short-lived humans are in desperate rush to “make something” of themselves before they die—and do so as if death were the end. But the whole pace of an elf’s centuries-long life is slower; and they recognize that their spirits outlive their bodies. Their sense of self-worth is not connected to their worldly achievements; they know they are valuable simply because they are elves. And they are grateful for this too; indeed, elven folklore has it that the elf who loses either their gratitude or their wonder at life will at the same time lose their youth, and begin to age even as the poor humans do.

But this is all just one author’s conception of elves. So weigh in, and add to the conversation: are the elves blessed or not? and if so, how?