Hida Bukkorosu said:
Has anyone ever thought about what a future Toril would look like after a couple thousand years of technological advancement?
We think about this, on average, once a month. This seems to be a very oft-asked question, so it seems to be lucky that many people here like themselves so much that they don't mind repeating themselves!
What would be the world superpowers?
Well, that dependes on how the history develops. There can be no answer to this, unless there is an outline of what happens in the history. However, since Toril mirrors Earth in many ways (in that you can find countries and areas very similar to ones in RL), we could guess that the world may progress in a similar way. So, the Faerunian colonies in Maztica might rebel against their rulers, and set up a "United States of Maztica", so to speak. Faerun might rule the world through its colonies, and powerful alliances would develop. Then, something could start up, and the World would be at war. A popular revolution could happen in Thay, although the success of it, and the politics of it could be different (although not too different). At the end, there would be some winners, and some losers, the losers would get angry, and so on for all of Earthian-Torilian history.
So by the end, barring the downfall of superpowers that we have seen, the superpowers would be the United States of Maztica, the United Thayvian (Socialist, or whatever they are instead) Republics, whoever you choose to represent the British and French Empires (Luskan is a possibility for Britain, given its seafaring nature, which would probably mean another Northern city, like Neverwinter or Baldur's Gate is France), and Two countries in Kara-Tur (China and Japan).
how would the races interact?
Well, I can see Wood Elves becoming Isolationist, Wild Elves becoming Eco terrorists, Sun Elves becoming the Nazis in Toril's version of WWII, and the rest of the surface elves integrating into Modern Society, reluctantly or otherwise. I have no idea about the Avariel, though, and Depending on how surface society goes, I believe the Drow will either come to the surface and integrate into a corrupt and degenerate world, become involved in under-the-table trading with the surface to help them destroy the Illithid (who could become a big threat), or being destroyed/fully converted by a crusade/thousands of years of alignmental (I made up a new word!) attrition.
Gnomes would do well, as would Dwarves.
Halflings...well, I can't see anything to send them one way or another.
Humans, of course, would be a-ok, and powering the Engine of Toril.
Humanoids. You'd be better asking Edena or Forrester.
How would magic and technology such as cars and televisions coexist?
Pretty well, I imagine. Technology and Magic would probably be fundamentally fused.
Depending on just
how much training one needs to master magic, I could see many people learning at least 0-level spells as part of compulsory education. Bear in mind, FR is a high-level magic setting.
