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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 7467923" data-attributes="member: 58197">Yes and no.It's true that in the real medieval world, people didn't rely heavily on artificial light. But that was because they couldn't! Artificial light required fuel, which was expensive, and fire, which was dangerous. So their societies evolved in ways that could function without it.Fast-forward to the modern era, where we have had cheap, safe, widely available artificial light for a hundred years. What was a luxury has become a necessity; because it was common enough to rely upon, people started relying on it, and built all kinds of systems that depended on it. Now we live in a society that could hardly function if the lights went out.So what would a world of continual flame be like? Somewhere in between. A continual flame torch is nowhere near as cheap as a light bulb; 50 gp represents 25 days' wages for a skilled worker, or 250 days for an unskilled laborer. If we take the latter as a baseline and assume the U.S. minimum wage, that's $14,500. Then add the wizard's markup to the cost of materials; surely at least 10%, maybe 100% or more. You're paying the price of a good used car to buy a flashlight.On the other hand, a used car will last maybe 10 years for most people. A continual flame will burn for generations. So what we end up with is a world in which continual flame items are relatively common, but most of them are very old, kept with care by families and passed down from parent to child. Being entrusted to carry the family torch is a great honor. A personal continual flame item, allowing one to work at night, is a mark of status as well as an important utility for merchants and artisans. Only the very rich will have enough to light whole houses.As for street lights, that would be a true extravagance for the capital of an empire. The cost of buying them might not be prohibitive, but they would be prime targets for thieves. You would need a first-rate city watch to protect them, and even then the cost of replacing the ones that got stolen would be significant.</blockquote>

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