Some thoughts on technology.

Halstein

Active Member
Hi.
Probably shouldn't do this, when I will be away on vacation until next Thursday, with only irregular net-access, but here I go anyway.

The elves are taught crafts by the Valar, so they should quickly get to a high level. After that, there probably will be only slow improvements. When they meet the first men, the elves should probably be on a higher technological level. How large the gap should be, is something the designers aught to think about. Also how quick, and how much the gap is closed by interaction with the elves.

I do not get the impression that there are much technological improvement in the Silmarillion, as least after the elves have got a knack of things. Individual masterpieces more than real innovation. Thing will not be static, but change might be more to new tastes, than to technological breakthrough.

Men improve somewhat more it seems, as they reach a high point in the Second Age. In LOTR the characters look back on a Golden Age in the past, in a diminished world. This view was common in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, so they might have influenced Tolkien's writings. But then the Silmarillion is about that past age.

So the designers probably should bear in mind, that early stuff might not necessarily mean more primitive.
 
I have also been thinking about this, only, from a costuming point of view. I think that this is a really important point to consider and to collaborate on, since technology levels touch on all aspects of world building.
I have started a technical costuming forum in the costuming section, (it has gone a tiny bit off topic, but I think that until we get past the Valaquenta there won't be much to discuss) and I would love to hear your thoughts on what I have written.
 
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