Last night, during some of my "slow time" at work, I started developing some of the back story and "world history" for one of the maps I've been plugging along at for a while now. It started with a couple hundred years, then a few more hundred years, and several more hundreds of years after that. And then a thought occurred to me. I'm sure I'm not the only one that has done this, in fact, I can think of several well known authors that have done the same thing, particularly in the fantasy genre. And that thing is . . .

Develop hundreds (or thousands) of years of history for a fantasy world (or region), consciously limiting the level of technology.

But why do we do that?

The first and most obvious answer is that "well, it's a fantasy world, duh!" I realized there was more to it than that. While we may play god in the sense of such things, what do the people of these worlds think, and why would they not pursue higher levels of technology? What kind of factors might deter such pursuits? What does society, as a whole, think of those "rogue thinkers" that do pursue such things?

Of course, the existence of magic is one fairly obvious answer. If magic allows for such things as artificial light, long range communications, the healing of wounds (and/or curing of diseases) and other such "great" undertakings, why, then would society need to develop more advanced technologies?

Another possible answer would be religious beliefs. Even in our own world, there was a time where religion treated the sciences as something akin to practicing witchcraft or worshiping the devil. This, or course, has great potential to effect society's views regarding the sciences and those who pursue technological advancements.

A more remote possibility might be the lack of certain "key elements" that would unlock the sciences for the society in question. Or, perhaps, it is simply a matter of society being content with its current quality of life.

More realistically speaking, it might be a combination of these factors (and others, perhaps) that act as a deterrent when it comes to advances in technology. I am, however, curious what the rest of you might think about such things. My thought is, that by exploring these factors, we might better develop the cultures populating our imaginary worlds.

GW