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So khriss mentions in AU that in 300 yrs , Scadrial has made immense progress . We have seen it first hand in BoM. She also posits that without Tlr , the technology would already be space age or post scarcity. But on Roshar , it has been 4500 yrs since the last desolation and it's still in the middle age. Now I understand that Roshar and Scadrial are quite different. Scadrial doesn't have to deal with Highstorms destroying railways and other such inventions. The shardblades also serve to deincentivize guns and explosives. But even considering those factors, Roshar is extremely backward in scientific progress and technology. On Scadrial we have seen the magic system used in novel ways to fuel technology. Yet , Roshar which has Fabriel-istics, an entire magic/science system which requires only scientific research to perfect it is still so backward !!!! Anyone could do it at any time and yet , Even among spanreeds and heating fabriels ,it's only in the past 5-6 yrs that any great progress has been made in them. This progress, however , has been extremely rapid. Spanreeds, halfshards, painriels, heating fabriels , Greatbows , alarmers , emotion sensors , stormclocks ,attractors have all been devised or perfected only in the last half decade. The information based economy of Tashikk also seems recent. Then you have the hints at other Fabriels such as Navani's drawings of an inverse ship and the floating platforms which imply heavier than air flight or maybe even spacecraft. The discovery about the flamespren obeying an Heisenberg uncertainty principle analog by the ardents in the isles in WoK is also extremely recent and a breakthrough as well. Isn't it strange that these the requirements for these discoveries/improvements have been in place for millenia and yet it is only now that the potential is crystallizing ? The Vorin kingdoms have had extremely literate women and ardents studying natural sciences for millenia. The Spren have been there even longer. The Soulcasters and Regrowth fabriels were present and endured even during the desolations. The knights radiant have been gone for 2 millenia or so , allowing for fabriels to fill in the gaps. Indeed Roshar seems to have gone through technological regression since the last desolation losing every Regrowth fabriel. And now all of a sudden , just a few years before the Resurgent desolation, large strides have been made in technology . There is another curiosity , this growth has occured only in Alethkar and Jah keved . The other regions have simply imbibed them without making any original contributions. Why has real growth not occured in the Makabaki region which seems just as suitable for creativity and innovation to flourish ? It's more suitable actually , since they don't have gender or eye colour barriers to literacy , they generally have experienced greater peace than alethkar and instead have had to face a greater range of difficulties like famines for example ( Baxil's friend mentions one in living memory ), all of which foster innovation I think the answer is that there is an Unmade whose power is analogous to Nergaoul who caused the Thrill While Nergaoul enrages one's emotions , , I believe this Unmade smothers one's intellect or more likely , perhaps the positive emotions scientific curiosity arouses . Making them incapable or atleast less likely to exhibit innovation. This is similar to how soothing and rioting form a pair in allomancy. . This would explain why Roshar has been so backward in technology , even tho it had lots of time and potential. It's possible Odium used futuresight to see that technological growth would severely harm his cause Or perhaps he saw how much stronger humans became once Soulcasters and Regrowth fabriels were granted to them. So perhaps when Odium went hibernating , he realized the peacetime would allow technology to flourish and hence , he tasked one of the Unmade with strangling innovation. I think this Unmade would not have been mindless like Nergaoul , since it's task required much more precision. Also note that Soothing generally requires greater precision than Rioting. This seems to be true on Roshar as well. I also believe that this Unmade had a greater geographic range than Nergaoul or Moelech. Nergaoul settled in Alethkar until the thrill became an important part of Alethi culture and war drive , whereas Moelach moved adopted a more nomadic lifestyle , moving from one region to another dragging death rattles along with it. Our Unmade however had to cover all of Roshar. Technology has a way of spreading from one region to another , leave one small region and any tech they invent would soon spread across the continent, hence this was an absolute requirement. No region could be spared. It makes sense. Odium left Nergaoul loose to prevent political unity in roshar and Nergaoul has succeded. The 10 highly interconnected Silver kingdoms have all gotten smaller or fragmented or gone extinct and got more isolated as well. Many regions in central roshar are either unpopulated or at tribal levels of political organization. I think Nergaoul is atleast partially responsible for this situation. The Alethi unification was a freak occurrence , a deviation. Indeed , it would have been short lived too if not for the events that occured , mainly Gavilar's assassination, as we know Sadeas was planning on seizing power , Elkohar was weak ,Dalinar would have remained a drunk. Alethkar would have broken down again as it did after Sadees the Sunmaker died. So Nergaoul inhibited political unity , whereas our Unmade inhibited technological growth. As for why this smothering effects have ceased , atleast in Eastern Roshar , I believe the Sons of Honor were responsible. We know about the blacklighted gems Gavilar had and Navani says that gavilar thought he had created them. Could it be that Gavilar and the SoH , had imprisoned the part of the Unmade over Eastern Roshar ? Maybe they thought this would lead to technological growth ( a proven assumption ) which would force Odium into coming back soon , which in turn would force the heralds to return. Maybe this was one of the reasons Odium manipulated Gavilar's assassination, except Rayse didn't plan on Szeth fulfilling Gavilar's dying wish and hiding the gemstone. I think it's imprisonment is somewhat akin to Ruin's imprisonment. Like Ruin's mind was imprisoned. Similarly maybe the Unmade's mind along with part of it's body is imprisoned. The rest of it is now covering most of Roshar and smothering growth by instinct. And I admit , this following point is really teneous, but jasnah and I believe Navani too , saw a marked shift in Gavilar's personality towards the end right . Could that also be linked to the Unmade ? Maybe Gavilar was always smart , but the Unmade had suppressed that aspect of him ? Navani too seemingly went through a similar if less striking change in personality. It is only in recent years that she has immersed herself in fabriel science and while Gavilar's death and her exclusion from her usual social circles could be most of the reason. I don't think that's all. After all she could contributed more as an artifabrian even when Gavilar was alive . From what I know she was active in the community before but only later ,after becoming a widow does she show great creativity and innovation. Similarly , Maybe it was also a factor in turning Dalinar from a simpleminded brute to a philosopher. Of course , Cultivation and Honor's visions and Gavilar's death all effected him but still him going all philosophical to such an extent is a marked difference from his earlier personality in such a short term. So what do y'all think ?