Question on the Technology Level of South Scadrial

[scudalarm]

Is there a Wob that would indicate the Tech Level of South Scadrial during the time when the Five Scholars roamed the Cosmere?

[Karger]

Arcanum Unbounded release party (Nov. 22, 2016)
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Questioner

Hoid worldhops between places. How did he do it on Scadrial? With Ati's body?

Brandon Sanderson

So, there were two perpendicularities on Scadrial.

Questioner

I know he uses the pools, but how did he do it with Pits of Hathsin? There was no pool? The body was there...

Brandon Sanderson

So, it doesn't have to be going through the pool. What happens with a perpendicularity is, where there is a massive collection of Investiture, it pulls a conduit through. So, if you know what you're doing and where you are, you can get through that.

Questioner

So you don't have to use the pools, just where there's a huge concentration...

Brandon Sanderson

A huge concentration of Investiture will warp the realms.

Questioner

So can anyone worldhop that way, then? If they know what to do?

Brandon Sanderson

If they know what to do, in a perpendicularity, anyone should be able to get through there. But as proven with Raoden, if you don't know what it's supposed to do, nothing happens. He gets dumped int he pool, he thinks he's gonna die... nothing. So, it's more than just being there.

Questioner

That's how he went from the Physical to the Cognitive, so I was wondering how did he do that at the Pits of Hathsin, when there shouldn't be a pool there

Brandon Sanderson

Well, that is the equivalent.

This would have been around the time of the war of ash.  So they had very few metalborn and no devices like they have now.  I also don't think that there was a perpendicularity their as we have confirmation that their were only two on scadrial at the time and both are accounted for.

 

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[Wandering Investor]

As Karger pointed out, it would have been very difficult for the Scholars to access southern Scadrial when they were adventuring. No local perpendicularities to cross, so they'd have to cross the oceans, which boiled at the equator.

I'm not aware of any specific WoBs about the tech level, but I could guess. They wouldn't have had any of the medallions or ettmetal at the time. One of their stories believed that their kings had offended god in order to cause the Ice Death, so they had kings. I would guess around medieval tech, very similar to final empire minus the metalborn. Nothern Scadrial actually had gun technology at firest, but the Lord Ruler stamped down on that till it disappeared. I'm going to guess they didn't have gun technology, otherwise they'd have a thousand years progress on gun tech and the Set capturing them would have gone very differently. Harmony implies that the Southerns were more innovative then those that lived in the Elendel basin, although I'm not sure if that was just about the technology they produced from the medallions, or if they have more in store.

[Karger]

3 hours ago, Wandering Investor said:

otherwise they'd have a thousand years progress on gun tech

300 actually.  That is 300-the effect that the ice death had on them.

 

3 hours ago, Wandering Investor said:

otherwise they'd have a thousand years progress on gun tech and the Set capturing them would have gone very differently

Meh.  If a US aircraft carrier fell out of the sky on scadrial it would probably end about the same.  Advanced weapon systems are not that useful when they are broken and small arms are small arms more or less.

[Wandering Investor]

On 9/2/2019 at 11:32 AM, Karger said:

300 actually.  That is 300-the effect that the ice death had on them.

 

Meh.  If a US aircraft carrier fell out of the sky on scadrial it would probably end about the same.  Advanced weapon systems are not that useful when they are broken and small arms are small arms more or less.

I was counting the thousand years the Lord Ruler was around, but actually you're right about the 300, so that'd be 1300 years advantage.

 

And sure the airship would be disabled, but if they did have 1300 years advantage on guns, handguns would go a long way.

[Karger]

47 minutes ago, Wandering Investor said:

I was counting the thousand years the Lord Ruler was around, but actually you're right about the 300, so that'd be 1300 years advantage.

The probably lost most of their tec during the ice death.

47 minutes ago, Wandering Investor said:

And sure the airship would be disabled, but if they did have 1300 years advantage on guns, handguns would go a long way.

Not realy.  If you drop a team of highly trained marines into the Japan of several thousand years ago.  My money is still on them dying due to numerical disadvantage.  Even the best gun runs out of ammo eventually.

[Quantus]

Ice Death aside, I dont think the Southern Scadrials would have regressed too far below what the Final Empire had, and they were a budding Industrial society who's most recent milestone innovation was Canning, which would put their overall development at the Napoleonic War's equivalent.  Sure they didnt have Guns, but since they had things like  coinshots, atium, Inquisitors, and Koloss, etc. the whole shape of war was wildly different and their weapons development would have followed different paths, so that's not the best yardstick in my opinion.