What would a medieval fantasy world (like GH or FR) be like in the far future?

[Templetroll]

One of the homebrews I played in 'way back when' the GM used his Traveller campaign as the ancient history of his D&D campaign. We had roads with nearly indestructable black material, glowing deserts that had odd effects on people (some sickness for failed con rolls, some mutations) and batteries were the best magic item you could get. You could always tell the suits of 'magic armor' needed them because they were difficult to move in and had a big hole in the back. The Machine of Lum the Mad was Windows based...

We concluded that once you stepped outside of towns you were in world that was equivelant of a 3rd level dungeon. He always ran whatever the random rolls come up with. We each would roll up 3 characters to start with in hopes one of them would be able to run away and survive. A dragon chose to belly flopping on the party once.

He ended his world with a ten-headed evil dragon (tenth head was invisible and breathed 'Wish') attackng the forces of good (capitol city called Mordor); the good guys used the 'Mighty Rod of Smiting the Heathen' (Thermo-nuclear weapon, used Vanish to drop it on the evil capital city, called Albumen. he was in microbiology major so it made sense, I guess).

 

[Umbran]

I wonder what the Realms would be like in 10,000 years. Battlemechs and starships alongside space-faring dragons? Or, would folks just be belting out chainmail and swords like they always did?

Over that kind of time period, there'd really be no way to speculate with any confidence. We only have one real example (our own) to use as a basis, and we didn't even have FR-level technology 10,000 years ago.

The problem with trying to predict the future of fantasy worlds is simple - we generally don't have enough detailed history of the world to identify trends. And even then, trends are only useful for short-term prediction. You certainly could not have predicted the world we have today back in the year 1000.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

You certainly could not have predicted the world we have today back in the year 1000.

Heck, Martin Luther didn't even think Christianity would last this long.

One aspect of the DnD verse that I think we get to neglect in more conventional history is that the ecological hierarchy of DnD seems to be in a far greater state of flux and tension then you tend to see in our own history.

I mean, what does it mean for history if the Dragons or Beholders get a new religion that unites them into organized militaristic bands or convinces them to work with humans?

 

[fusangite]

One aspect of the DnD verse that I think we get to neglect in more conventional history is that the ecological hierarchy of DnD seems to be in a far greater state of flux and tension then you tend to see in our own history.

I mean, what does it mean for history if the Dragons or Beholders get a new religion that unites them into organized militaristic bands or convinces them to work with humans?

Like Newtonian physics, I don't think it's possible to import natural selection into D&D. As people who are used to me would expect, I have to prefer Aristotle's ecology to Darwin's for D&D to be believable, self-consistent.

 

[D+1]

10,000 years is hard to answer. In 2,000 years, assuredly the latter.

How about looking at the unthinkable amount of change in only the last 200? Electricity, radio, cars, trains, the extinction of several species such as the passenger pigeon or sperm whale, near-extinction of species like the buffalo, jumbo jets that for all intents and purposes can travel without human intervention, nuclear weapons, open heart surgery, BRAIN surgery, radiation therapy for cancer, x-rays, cloned animals, creation of disease and pest resistant plants, AIDS, influenza pandemic, man on the moon, contemplation and even scientific calculation regarding both the origins of the entirety of existence and its end, satellite communication, satellite radio in your car, two "world" wars, circumnavigation in a matter of days, the Panama canal, Hoover Dam, the Eiffel Tower, the destruction of the World Trade Center, the elimination of slavery as an institution in at least the civilized world, MP3 players that hold days and even WEEKS of music in something you can put in your pocket, the internet, credit and debit cards, electron microscopes, overnight package delivery from thousands of miles away...

And 200 years ago we were still using muskets (if not bow and arrow), bleeding as a common medical treatment for the worst ailments, walking or at best riding horses (carraiges few and far between), reading by oil lamp or candle (if you could read at all much less have access to books) and the first nations were throwing off autocrats for democracy rather than just trading one monarch for another.

NOW think about what could happen in the near future in a world where MAGIC works.