Technology and Magic

n a place where you can get from Point A to Point B by saying a few words, having a magical trinket, or hiring someone to teleport you, technology isn't in as high demand as it is on Earth. Science has a hard time explaining magical things, so the 'scientists' who believe the universe follows describable laws are dismissed as quacks.

Humans, being clever as they are, have invented and discovered many a thing - mainly those that can replace magic during times of war. Electricity, gasoline, gunpowder... But they lack the means to mass produce these products on the scale we are familiar with. They compensate for this by using magic and hiring gnomes to build machinery.

Gnomes can build anything, but nothing they build works the way humans want. For example, a gnomish gun might be very accurate and easy to reload, but it might also explode if you don't shake it after every 3 shots. Taking the gun apart to study it reveals that its internal parts make little or no sense. Putting it back together again, once disassembled, is futile for anyone but another gnome who will most likely still be unable to get it back the same way. Gnomes use magic to make technology and the two just don't mix right. Still, their contraptions are popular with humans and can be found in Thar Shaddin.

For more information on magic, see the section on magic located under Rules.