Voyages of discovery? (spoilers for all RotE books)

[Farseer]

Still not having read Soldier Son yet, I must tread very carefully here, but... isn't the point here that the two "worlds" could be seperated by something like a great sea? If that is the case, it would account for the differences in technology: in isolation from each other, they develop differently.

I totally agree with your thoughts on this, Albertosaurus Rex!!! I'm sorry to have to continue this line of thought and respond here, maulkin, but just a quick note re technology and such (and hoping it stretches enough to even be applicable to voyages or lands across the sea?!)...

Not only could two worlds separated by a vast ocean be the cause of such a difference in technology but the RotE has had a HUGE set-back in its history due to natural catastrophes and other disasters. Who is to say that the Elderlings etc were not a ‘technological’ race prior to the cataclysm? Much is still being discovered and there is much still to be understood.

They were certainly advanced in industry and this is evidenced by their very large cities, a number of which were built to accommodate immense dragons. The Elderlings also designed elaborate bridges and constructed the Skill Road, as well as a variety of other structures (including those now under water near The Pirate Isles, such as the arch that was seen by the serpents on their way north).

While we know that much of the Elderlings was destroyed or buried within the realm, we still don’t know the extent of exactly what was destroyed, or at what stage that part of the world truly was 'at' prior to the event. The Rain Wilders etc have still much to learn about the Elderlings despite having plundered Trehaug etc for many years and, yet, in many ways, a lot of what is known is already beyond a mere human’s imagining.

In AQ, Fitz noted machines in the quarry:

“...On the floor of the quarry a number of immense blocks had been abandoned amidst piles of rubble and dust. The huge blocks were bigger than buildings. I could not imagine how they had been cut, let alone how they would have been hauled away. Beside them were the remains of great machines, reminding me somewhat of siege engines. Their wood had rotted, their metal rusted. Their remains hunched together like mouldering bones...”

These machines alone, even with no other evidence such as the cities etc, makes me think that the Elderlings had quite a bit of know-how in the area of technology, industry and design.

While trebuchets etc may seem like a long way off from cannons and guns etc used in SS, it would seem to me that if Fitz knew the use of a siege engine, it would not be long before siege engines became somewhat obsolete and be replaced by cannons as field artillery, and then guns following soon after (after all, ‘cannon' and ‘gun’ seem to pretty much mean the same thing historically for us?).

That Chade has not long discovered gunpowder (as Nuytsia pointed out, and has been discussed somewhere else on thePlenty...if I could find the discussion, I’d probably place this post there instead of here!) also shows us that things are progressing in this area?

Maybe if the cataclysm had not happened, wiping out entire generations of dragons, people etc and progress, technology in the RotE may have surpassed even that in SS. As it is, such weaponry as is seen in SS is still unknown to many inhabitants of thatworld. In this example is proof that one does not even have to be separated by a great sea to be at a different stage of technological development...even simple differences such as politics, finances, culture and beliefs etc can create as great a divide as time, water or land.

This latter point could easily include development in travel and trade etc. Liveships seem to have been around for many years but even ones such as Fitz etc are still shocked to discover that they are real...and he lives relatively close to Bingtown, in the Six Duchies. With the opening up of relationships on the political front, via marriage alliances etc, trade is increasing and also the desire to travel. In this, the world of the RotE seems to be quite new really (with not a lot of voyages of discovery etc) but we know that it isn’t...it has a history that reaches way back into legend...it is just that its current history is quite new and the post-Elderling inhabitants all seem to have simply 'started over' to a certain degree. Only now are they really just learning about their true history and all that it means.

I’m not sure if I’m making sense here or not, or if this has anything to do with anything at all!