Aquatic Tech Levels

[garrowolf]

I am working on aquatic tech levels for my game. I started with Neolithic Age but I can't figure out how they would progress to the Bronze Age. I am assuming no magic and no land based sentient races to provide them with ideas. Without fire, smelting, or primitive chemistry how does a culture develop technologically?

Any ideas?

 

[Achan hiArusa]

Hot water vents and underwater lava flows come to mind.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

As does biotech.

 

[Aeolius]

Hydrothermal vents have meen mentioned. I went that route with my water dwarves, a red-skinned chemosynthetic race that uses the black smokers to forge calciferous arms and armor. A similarly alien environment can be found with "cold seeps" or brine pools.

You could also go with psionics and make the tech akin to the NTIs in "The Abyss", unless that falls in the "no magic" arena.

How about "eelpunk"? I made Drawmij's undersea fortress powered by captive torpedo rays and an electrical variant of ixitxachitl, all entombed within husk globes.

Otherwise, look to intelligent undersea animals for inspiration. Some animals, like the octopus and jawfish, will build their own shelters from surrounding materials. Some crabs will collect nearby items and use them as a ghillie suit. Imagine how an undersea race with hands could improve upon that.

Undersea crossbows, armor made from woven seaweed (yes, underwater basket-weaving does come in handy, after all), and weapons made from coral, bone, and driftwood would serve for defense. Natural herbalism from algae, seaweeds, soft corals, and the like would serve any healer well.

 

[garrowolf]

I didnt like the idea about the vents at first because that would cook nost species but the idea of using other lifeforms as tools is really cool! I wonder if i should have some sort of aquatic biotech levels.

 

[garrowolf]

Okay but i realized that this doesn't solve my problem. Using natural resources basically as they are is still stone age tech. Even with lava you cant forge metals. You could get basalt blades but it cant be refined easily because it is so brittle. You cant do any of the things needed for industrialization. You cant make metal or glass or even handle any toxins which are needed.
Im starting to think that without someone to mimic any aquatic race would require uplift.

 

[Aeolius]

Aquatic races could always take what they wanted from Drylanders.

Or, you could go with pearltech. Nacre is surprisingly strong. In the same manner that this fish became a natural blister pearl, items can be inserted into oysters, clams, and the like to become coated with nacre:

 

[Umbran]

Even with lava you cant forge metals.

I'm not sure you're correct. Lava can run from 1,292 to 2,192 °F. Copper melts at 1982 °F, and tin much lower. So, heats sufficient to make bronze may be available - they just cannot be produces when and where desired like on land. Done in a salt water environment, you'd have to develop some interesting processes to handle the chemistry of refinement or ores, and in water your annealing processes would be different than in air.

That just means their methods would be different, not that it couldn't be done.

More to the point, though is whether working metals is particularly valuable or useful in an aquatic environment. Most metals fare poorly in extended contact with saltwater, for one thing, so you're going through a lot of effort to create a material that won't last long. On top of that, though, think about what uses we put metals to - plowshares? Not required. Axes to chop trees? Not required. You do run into a need for metal tools to work stone, but why are you working stone? To build a castle? Castles are a response to land warfare, when in an aquatic environment, everyone can effectively fly. Buildings, in general, are a response to the land-dweller's need to be protected from the environment, which is not usually much of a requirement for aquatic creatures.

I suggest you look into the book West of Eden by Harry Harrison. It isn't about an aquatic environment, but includes some interesting ideas about what could be done with biotech instead. It also has intelligent descendents of dinosaurs meeting stone-age humans, which is always a hoot.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Sufficient geothermal heat is available from the vents for metalcrafting, so the problem becomes the salt-water vs air?

That's not a problem: there are enough creatures in the deal that make use of bladders that they would be familiar with and could create pumps in order to vacuum out water. Replacing it with a gas like air then becomes the trick, but again, the same pump system that moves water can move air.

Find a cave near enough (or use the shell/bones of a giant creature, or carve a dome of stone, etc.) to the heat source, seal it's cracks with mollusk glues, pump out the water, pump in the air. You have your forge.

Metal goods created by aquatic craftsmen would still be rare & expensive, though. The biggest source of metal goods would remain that whic comes from the surface world via trade, theft, or simply raining down from above from sinking vessels.

 

[Huw]

Maybe they skip the use of fire altogether, and work out some other reaction, possibly based on pressure. What if they find that a particular oil mixed with a particular crushed shellfish, lowered down a few kilometers and brought back up has become some sort of high density polymer?

Another possibility would be biocrafting. Let coral or some other reef building organism grow for a few decades/centuries into a mould, then harvest the resulting tool.