Deterrents to Technological Advancements

[cfds]

Having a omnipotent being intervening is as good (or rather bad) as just saying: "People just don't event anything." And the powerful mage-priests have to be a global authority, otherwise their would allways be a group of mage-priests who want to beat the other group of mage-priests and in the long run the "inventive" ones will win (or force the others to become inventive).
On the other hand: since technological advancement and the possibility of personal emancipation are somewhat linked it can be said, that a setting that allows/encourages adventurers roaming around also encourages individual thinking and, sooner or later, technological improvements, so forbidding certain technologies has to be hardwired into the world (leading back to the "omnipotent interventor").

[LS-Jebus]

One thing I was thinking of is that a society that does not care for inventions and does not find science importance might not progress technologically past a certain point. (They don't reject science, they just don't care about it)

Some technologies may be seen as perfected to the people, and tradition may make maintaining the current way of life very important.

If they live by a sea or lake, they may have fishing canoes, but nothing more. If the current boat type can help catch all the fish they need and allows them go as far out as seems useful, then no new boat designs are needed. And when they want to go on a boat, they only think of using that canoe, because its a symbol of ability, and making one's own canoe is a path to prestige among fellow tribesmen. If their bows are good for hunting what they need to, then why invent a crossbow? The traditional weapons work just fine for them, and the rite of passage into manhood by using a bow is more important than trying to kill as easily as possible.

War being on a small tribal basis doesn't bring about the need for a decisive weapon, because you can always win by ambush or superior numbers. Large battle tactics like cavalry charges and sieges don't come into play when you have only dozens of men.

When a village gets too big, maybe instead of just growing, a family breaks off to create another village in a different region to avoid competition for food. If the region is large, the people nomadic, and life expectancy very low, the civilization won't reach a critical level that would bring about radical change for millenia.