Loskalmi technology

From: Jeff Richard <richaje_at_gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 14 May 2005 09:49:50 -0700

>>*Although I'm

*>>*uncertain how the Loskalmi acquired such technological proficiency (although
*>>*perhaps Sir Meriatan's heroquests had something to do with it), *>That's a bit too recent. Meriatan only discovered the methods of heroquesting
>recently while the foundations of modern Loskalm started with the ascension
>of King Siglat.

 True - I'm just pondering how the Loskalmi learned how to make articulate plate armor. Certainly a technique they could have learned during the Ban - as they approached the ideal of what a knight should be.

>I disagree. To look at Loskalm's advancement in terms of technological
>progress is the wrong way of looking at it. Rather one should look to
>literary parallels such as the Enchantment of Britian under King Arthur.
 Sure, like the Enchantment of Britain, Loskalm is an ideal realized. All I'm saying is that ideal does not need across the board technological advancement. Things that realize the Hrestoli ideal should be present, things not necessary for that realization do not need to be present.

>But if the Loskalmi had advanced agriculture then they could support
>more people in towns and the like rather than the 10% figure that
>we've all been quoting since whenever. This would give Loskalm
>more towns, cities and the like as well as a prowess far beyond
>its 2.2 million population base.

 But why have such a high urban population? Although there are urban farmer occupations, they are a deviation from the ideal. I mean what kind of a knight does a tinkerer make?

>>* The point is that the Loskalmi have very advanced military technology.
They
*>>*might not have equally advanced non-military technology. *>Again I disagree. Their entire society is advanced because of the
>transformations that Siglat wrought during the Ban. Part and
>parcel of their meritocratic ideology is their concern for farmers
>because all Loskalmi overmen were once farmers. Now if they
>didn't use their knowledge to benefit the farmers but shoved it all
>into military research and development (during the Ban!), that
>wouldn't look very good in their own eyes.
 Why? Is material comfort and higher production the goal of the Hrestoli Ideal?

>>* * BTW, has anybody ever thought that Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast could
*>>*easily be set in a great castle under the Ban? *>Already done. The Beyond the Building Wall Scenario in Tales #13
>contains a character called Titus of Gorgonpaste which is taken
>from Titus Alone.

 I don't mean the name of an NPC - I mean having a campaign based on Gormengast set in a land under the Ban.  Jeff

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