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Message: <blockquote data-quote="generic" data-source="post: 7876424" data-attributes="member: 6923088">Okay, so, having seen the excellent replies to this thread, I've decided to share some basics about the current state of the IR in my setting:Weaponry: Firearms like the rifle, musket, and other Renaissance arms are common enough to be recognizable, but are currently only available from specialist gunmakers, often conscripted into the service of a lord, guild, or nation.  Swords, glaives, scimitars, daggers, and the such have yet to fall out of use, due to the inaccuracy and tendency to malfunction expressed in many firearms.  Cannons have been improved upon to the extent that they are now fairly reliable, and not likely to explode while being used.  Explosives are still unreliable and volatile.  Phosphorus-based packet bombs are the most common among criminals.Manufacturing: Textiles are manufactured in advanced workhouses, replete with mechanical looms and such. Steel mills are rudimentary, but exist, and produce steel at a steady pace.  Simple, but low-quality weapons like molded daggers with sharpened edges have been produced en masse.  A booming trade in textiles has catapulted one of the four most powerful nations on the continent into market dominance.  Farming: Basic mechanical tills have been invented, but not made ubiquitous.  There is no mass collection of seeds, and planting and harvesting are still largely done by hand.  Tilling has been mechanized, but other methods remain medieval.  However, irrigation has been greatly improved by the introduction of ubiquitous and long-lasting steel irrigation pipes (although steel will rust, the farmers use it because it is an improvement on hand-irrigation).  Sanitation: The mass manufacture of steel pipes, thanks to the aforementioned steel mills, has led to improvements on and additions to ancient stone sewer systems in major cities.  Washbasins, manually-filled tubs, and their like remain common.  Many latrines in major cities are now emptied by pipe, into existing sewer tunnels.  The nobility and merchant class have the luxury of personal water systems, with pipes and valves, in their homes.Locomotion: Remains primarily medieval. Simple steam-based, coal-fired engines have been built and used in wheeled carts and the like, but horses, as well as other beasts of burden, are still the most common form of transport.Electricity: Basic batteries have been built, and electricity has been discharged at high voltage by mortal-made devices.  The most rudimentary types of capacitor, large and impractical, have been invented.  Electricity has not been channeled for any useful purpose (unless you count pseudo-scientific medical quackery as useful) as of yet.  It has merely been stored and channeled. Materials of monstrous origin helped with the early introduction of batteries.Mass Destruction: No weapons of mass destruction, other than magical ones, have been created.Automation: A method of mechanized bookbinding and pressing has become common enough that newspapers have made their way into common society, and pamphlets containing short stories or religious fables are sold.Culture: Nobility retain much of the power in high society, but merchant's guilds and powerful gangs challenge leadership structures.  The monarchic system of one of the main four nations is collapsing due to political unrest, while the theocratic parliamentary-autocratic system of another one of the four nations is undergoing change. Irreligiosity is spreading among some groups, but religion remains a strong factor in the lives of most individuals. Policies based explicitly on bigotry are still rather common.</blockquote>

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