12/15/2023 0 Comments Eternal lands mixing calculatorAnd this is in a culture where the illiterate generally outnumber the literate by a hundred fold and there is still no mass production of written records, thus very little transmittance of lore and history outside of word of mouth. In many epic fantasies (including the Ur-Example), there is a character who must claim (or reclaim) that which is their right by heritage despite the fact that it is based on an cultural relic of the past that no one in the present should even recognize, let alone care anything about. Otherwise, expect the landmarks and geography to remain identical across the eons.Ī common resulting trope is the unbroken bloodline lineage that remains as straight as an arrow for millennia. If the landscape changes at all, even in the course of 100,000 years, it won't be due to geological processes, but due to magic. Despite the apparent age of uninterrupted peace, there will still be a professional warrior caste standing - with undiminished wealth and status despite their redundancy - for the entire period. Then, sooner or later, the cycle starts all over again have caused major changes), no changes of religion or religious observance note Europe's Medieval period saw two - increasingly religious through the late dark ages as Pagan Europe was conquered or converted, increasingly secular until the 14th Century or so, then increasingly religious once more until the end of the 15th century reached the old high of general religiousness, no changes of dynasty unless it's a plot point, no new organizations of political or social significance (such as guilds), no changes in art or music or clothing, no new fashions, and no changes in academic or philosophical studies. All it takes is one bad harvest and a nasty cold going around, and bam. ![]() There have been no demographic changes (both population increase and the subsequent inevitable decrease note The soil can only support so many people. Exceptions to the Rule Of Accumulation abound, such as iron-poor Japan - the islands had so little iron that it was profitable to import it from Korea and China, and every single piece of iron armour was painstakingly coated in lacquer to prevent even the slightest bit of it from being lost to rusting. ![]() Most of it isn't remotely useful, of course, but it's still nice to have. Knowledge and writings (scrolls, books, etc), too, have steadily accumulated over time. In the same vein iron was just too useful not to be well-used and looked-after and salvaged and accumulated. the near-complete salvaging of the stone sections of The Great Wall Of China for use in people's houses (it's had to be rebuilt a few times from scratch for just this reason). Once it's been quarried there's no reason why stone can't be used time and again, e.g. Profit margins dwindled fast after the first 30km (one day's cart-travel) from the nearest shoreline, river, or canal, and it certainly doesn't look like people have been making and accumulating things like brick and iron in the intervening time note The amount of both of these in use has steadily increased over time as well. More cargo, both bulk and containers, is hauled on European big rivers annually than on European roads and railroads combined. Even today there is still no way to cheaply ship bulky items over long distances other than, well, shipping them. Population kept rising with it, of course, no canals have been dug or allowed to silt up and no rivers have changed course or been made (un)navigable note Even today, 90% of the bulk/weight of world-trade entails shipping. No more or less land is under the plough note This is one area in which things most consistently changed over time throughout the last three thousand years of Eurasian (but not so much American or Australian, prior to European settlement) history, though there have been reverses. No new nations have arisen, and none have been subsumed into others or wiped out. Heck, the "castles and knights" period of Medieval Europe didn't even make it to five hundred years, and compare these ◊ three castles to get some idea of how much things changed even then.įurthermore, there have been no wars - between countries or civil wars - and no redrawing of any inter-state boundaries. Medieval Stasis is a situation in which, as far as the technological, cultural, and sociopolitical level are concerned, thousands of years pass as if they were minutes.
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