What has happened to the people of Taldain and Sel?

[+Oltux72]

We know that White Sands and Elantris predate The Final Empire. That means that there are centuries between the Wax and Wayne era and White Sands. On Taldain even then gun powder and microscopes were known. That is 16th century level technology at the very least. That means if Taldain developed at our pace, they should roughly match us technologically even in the tightest possible chronology. Yet canned food has to come from Scadrial.

It looks like most peoples in the Cosmere are slow to progress technologically. Harmony states it explicitely but he limits himself to Scadrial. He may have hit a common principle. Why is that? I would blame magic except that the dark side of Taldain has little to no magic. Geography? Lack of overseas trade? Was Europe in some strange sweet spot and most of mankind is just average in the Cosmere?

[Karger]

The dark side of Taldain is mostly ruled by a warlord who keeps people from using any kind of tech and restricts travel and the free flow of information.  People on Sel have access to a truly frightening amount of investiture that can do whatever they require it to.  Also who says they are progressing slowly?  It took earth more then a few years to get from gunpowder to automobiles. 

[RShara]

So Taldain was the most advanced, but then something happened to short circuit that, so they might not be the most advanced any more.

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DrogaKrolow

Technological progress. So Scadrial is going all the way to cyberpunk.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

DrogaKrolow

But do you plan to do it anywhere else?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, with an asterisk, right? Roshar has a very different technological path but they have access to so much more Investiture in an easy to use format. Roshar is really heading toward what we call magicpunk, or things like this, magepunk, where you are using a magical power source and things like this. So their technology is going to go weird but it's going to go fast once they start figuring things out because they have easy access to Investiture resources.

Scadrial: slower for various reasons and things like that, but it's ahead.

And then there was Taldain, which was really far ahead but then froze when it got-- Offworld travel was stopped and it became isolationist.

So most everybody is kind of heading that direction but, yeah.

DrogaKrolow.pl interview (March 17, 2017)

 

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yafeshan

I am space nerd with a love of fantasy, so; Why is Scadrial prime example planet to invent space travel. Is its allomancy/ferruchemy/hemalurgy combination more suitable for that kind of technology or do they have other incentives to invent space travel other than regular technology development? Is it related to the intervention of unknown metal/shard/beings we saw?

Brandon Sanderson

There are a bunch of reasons.

The most technologically advanced of the planets (Taldain) is extremely isolationist because of its Shard, while Harmony is very interested in the progress of his people.

Scadrial has an advanced understanding of metallurgy, and for many years was quietly open to visitors from across the cosmere. In the modern era, that has enhanced. It's a much safer place to visit than, say, Sel, Threnody, or First of the Sun.

There are other reasons, too, which we'll get into as the world progresses. Having some prominent cosmere-aware people pulling strings behind the scenes is a big help. If you know other worlds are out there, and are populated, then you're more likely to push toward space travel.

Stormlight Three Update #6 (Feb. 8, 2017)

Sel hasn't been asked about much, but there is this one:

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ROSHtafARian

There's been enough speculation that an Elantrian world hopper appears in Way of Kings and that an Elantrian world hopper wrote the Ars Arcanum in Alloy of Law to make it likely that by the time of both books, at least some Elantrians can world hop. So my question is, at the time of Way of Kings, does Sel have the most cosmere-awareness out of any of your Shardworlds (including ones we have not seen yet), or is there another Shardworld that's more aware of the greater cosmere at this time?

Brandon Sanderson

Sel is very cosmere aware at this point, but getting to and through Shadesmar (that's not the local term, by the way) is very difficult on Sel. That stunted them for a long while. They're still fairly far ahead.

17th Shard Forum Q&A (Sept. 27, 2012)

 

[Weltall]

Taldain has been interdicted by Autonomy for reasons unknown, meaning that nobody can visit the world and more imporantly, nobody can leave. They might well become the first society to develop non-Cognitive interstellar travel simply to get out of the system, even with a Shard actively making it harder for them to learn about the wider Cosmere. We know their local Investiture could be used to power a solar sail (which would probably be really effective since you get the normal propulsion from the photons plus whatever you can do with that Investiture that accompanies them) so they've got at least one avenue to explore there.

People from Sel can do amazing things with their different magic systems but they're very limited in their ability to spread any developments based on them because they stop working once you get far enough away from the Physical/Cognitive area each system is associated with. Forgery and AonDor for example simply won't work in each others' territories and none of the magics can be used offworld. That's a factor that's going to slow any kind of interstellar exploration. Plus, while Sel isn't actively interdicted in the way Taldain is, there's the big honking plasma-esque storm that is the Dor sitting in the Cognitive Realm. It's very hard to traverse, meaning that getting to or from Sel requires knowledge and preparation. Even Hoid finds it hard and he's one of the best-equipped people in the Cosmere to handle something like that. Worldhoppers from Sel do exist and at least two characters from Elantris have made it offworld (Galladon and Riino) but Sel as a whole isn't going to be a major presence in the Cosmere as long as the Dor is such an impediment to travel and the magic is so restricted.