All Mostali armor and weapons are of exceptionally high quality. Mostali armor is the best in the world, but it is not mass produced. I would assume that the armor and personal weapons of a 700 year old iron dwarf are probably pretty good, as he built them himself and has probably developed some skill in this area over time.
> 2) an elven army with superior quality bows and arrows
>
All elven bows and arrows are superior to those available to humans. But they primarily grow them, not craft them. So I would expect that they would tend to be fairly similar across a given forest.
> 3) mass produced elven rope
Huh?
>
> 4) a Chalan Arroy temple choc-a-block with something resembling Savlon
> antisceptic cream.
Maybe. But infection and such doesn't really work the same. Even so, I would expect that some areas might have someone who was really good at making some sort of stuff like this.
>
> This question could be translated into one of the relative distribution
> of superior craftsmen, and whether they are employed by rulers and
> noblemen and forced to churn out stuff for their armies, friends, what
> have you.
>
I would expect that, in a human society, they best craftsmen are "forced" to sell their wares only to the people who can afford it. These happen to be the rulers, and other rich people.
> If such a thing happens now, or has happened in the past and the stuff
> that was made was/is dureable (important point), then it's quite likely
> that anybody who's anybody now will have items which are at least the
> equivalent of +5 (RQ terms) or better.
Yes. Really spiffy weapons and such tend to be very well cared for by people who have them. Who are generally people that can protect them. But they are not common, even over 16+ centuries.
Kevin
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