On Wed, 31 Dec 2003, Jon Carey wrote: >of course the obvious reply to this is that mario killed them all. Bah. > >that, or, perhaps in a society (even pre-orb-reconfiguration) where >magic is so pervasive, technology isn't really necessary--why do all >that exhaustiv research when one can just wave a hand? Because continuous sorcery is *hard*. It requires intensive effort to learn, and can be exhausting even for experts, and can cause brain damage if you try to keep using it beyond your limits. Those soldiers in Morrolan's army would have been better off with a simple mechanical solution, like ponchos or broad hats. >House Vallista's middle-class economic status may be in part due to >some sort of deal with House Athyra--basically along the lines of, >you spend your creativity along magical lines (how can magic >accomplish x, for instance) and not develop alternative methods of >doing it, and we will pay you handsomely for your efforts. And I >imagine that alternative methods are quashed quite rapidly. Why? There are problems where sorcery is the best answer; there are problems where engineering is the best solution. Building houses (or castles), for example, appears to be mostly an engineering problem. Sorcery might help with the building (although the cost for a good sorceror has to be weighed against the labor of various Teckla), but the house does have to be designed first. I doubt that Vlad's chair with wheels was designed or built by Athyra. And Athyra don't run the mines, or make swords, or plan the cities, and so on.