100 Years of Isolated Technological Advancement in Eberron For WAR

[Jarmen4u]

Hello Playground,

I currently am running a game in Eberron where the overarching plot (which I shamelessly borrowed from this forum) is that the "Mourning" took Cyre to a pocket plane of accelerated time, and that they would spend 100 "years" isolated, preparing for war, and that in a few real-time years, they would return to conquer all of Khorvaire.

What sorts of technological advances could they conceivably make in 100 years? I believe Cannith had some hand in helping develop airships, so that could be part of it. But other than binding elementals to warforged to give them extra powers or making empowered "rifle" type wands, I'm not too sure what kind of direction to go here.

Any thoughts/ideas would be appreciated!

[Troacctid]

I would look at early 20th century levels of tech. Radios, machine guns, bomber planes, tanks...but put a magical twist on 'em, natch.

[Anthrowhale]

100 years is also quite a bit of time to stockpile expendables. Magic items are obvious, but also things like Sacred Item or Fire Shuriken could be stockpiled into nigh-unlimited quantity.

[Silent Alarm]

What it seems like you're asking is "What can a society of Artificers, the highest level of which being 15th, can achieve with 100 years of downtime" and the answer is usually "whatever they want." Honestly, the sky really is the limit here with the tech level that they can achieve if they genuinely wanted to do so.


Airships would largely be outdone by making flying castles, suspended and mobilized through the integration of air and fire elementals.
The former system of telepathic communication, sending stones, etc would largely be replaced by a sort of massive network intelligence. In 40k, the AdMech have a thing called the "Noosphere", which might be replicated by all individuals being given a permanent telepathic bond with one another. Knowledge and information can be gained at the speed at which it is asked.
Natural humanoids would be supplanted by Artificially created Humanoids created through an assembly line of Effigy Humans or Warforged, that are then converted into Incarnate Constructs via a Maximized Incarnate Construct spell. Natural Humanoids would of course have a purpose as diplomats, strategist, etc. But for higher level thinking you would probably use an Artificial Humanoid.
Oberdium constructed buildings, weapons, etc. would be the norm.
Magical augmentation of the "citizens" (loose term) would be nearly mandatory in some fashion. Especially if they are a Warforged descended Incarnate Construct.
The entire Kingdom might very well be protected by a network of sentries that scan and check individuals for a specific Arcane Mark preventing any form of reliable espionage.
At a more basic level, doors would be non-existent as most "citizens" would have an integrated Arcane Mark keyed to Phase Doors, important rooms would have permanent Private Sanctums placed within them, sites with extremely important research would take place in facilities that are nestled within a more erratic bubble of time (possibly created through the Anchor Plane power), turning 1 day of time within the time locked Cyre into 100 years, increasing the time gained 10 fold.

However I think all of these is largely redundant, naive, shortsighted and well? Stupid. This is a society with the technological abilities to construct Dyson Spheres as easily as we construct Potato Clocks. Conquering a single plane, or hedging out a minor grudge match is trivial.

[Jarmen4u]

snip

I appreciate all of this insight, and I think this is a great example of advancement free of ethics. I really like the ideas of floating castles and Arcane Mark related security. I'm not sure what "Oberdium" is, though. Is that a typo or reference to something I don't know?

And though with 100 years of singleminded advancement, things like you described above could be possible, I feel like they would have to bring their society along with it, and that might cause complications. If/when the first generation who are planning this war die of old age, do their children continue their legacy? Maybe a lack of cohesiveness or singlemindedness in government will slow progress or cause problems. Perhaps I should shorten the duration of the lapsed time so it's not quite so ridiculous.

[Silent Alarm]

I appreciate all of this insight, and I think this is a great example of advancement free of ethics. I really like the ideas of floating castles and Arcane Mark related security. I'm not sure what "Oberdium" is, though. Is that a typo or reference to something I don't know?
"Obdurium" I typoed to hell and back.

That said, Floating Castles already exist within Eberron. Aundair has them. The idea would be developing them for war, and as dedicated warmachines capable of moving troops anywhere and everywhere. As far as ethics are concerned? Well... Artificers don't exactly lose their powers for not following a set of ideals. If their goal is to win no matter the cost, then what does it matter? Maybe I am thinking more Urza/Phyrexia than you're looking for?


If/when the first generation who are planning this war die of old age, do their children continue their legacy? Maybe a lack of cohesiveness or singlemindedness in government will slow progress or cause problems. Perhaps I should shorten the duration of the lapsed time so it's not quite so ridiculous.

The older generation simply do not die of old age. They become Liches (Deathless Liches?) or achieve some other variation of immortality, or simply are long-lived through Warforged augmentation. This immortal/perennial leadership would thus keep the government single minded in their cohesion towards one goal. I do believe that maybe you should shorten the time lapse, as with the amount of time they have to work with essentially assures that they have infinite resources when the second great war begins.