Gez said:
I think they would. Germany and Austria had a good start, but in the end, things were looking grim for them. Their progress in the west were stalled by the Trench War, and it was France, not Germany, that developped the first tanks.
They were so effective that Germany made sure, in the 39-45 war, to have this time the upper technological hand.
Actually, the British developed the first tanks, but it amounts to the same thing.
I disagree that the Central Powers would have lost WW1 without the massive resources the US fielded against them. The Germans quickly developed tanks of their own, and had a significant advantage in strategic air power, so they were hardly a technological backwater. The amount of troops and energy they had to throw against Russia would have been transferred to the Western Front as soon as Russia folded and, IMO, would have been sufficient for them to punch through or at least hold steady.
More likely than not, WW1 would have dragged on several years longer than it did without US intervention, and I doubt either side would have scored a knockout victory. A more probable outcome would be the governments of both sides surviving, with Germany holding more territory than before and Austria somewhat less.
Gez said:
To the contrary, one of the big difference between the real world and Eberron is that Eberron did not experience an industrial revolution, magical or not.
Magic has always existed in Eberron. There have been no sudden magical breakthrough comparable to the invention of steam engines. The only magical revolution Khorvaire underwent was the apparition of dragonmarks, and the funky stuff they allowed. It was not a revolution, but a slow evolution, one that shaped the Dragonmarked houses as the powerful financial and economical forces they are. It was not a sudden invention of telephone and electric light -- not a sudden change. Not a revolution.
Interesting point, and perhaps a valid one. My understanding of Eberron was that the Last War triggered massive amounts of magical development to push the setting from Low (or Rare) Magic to D&D's standard high magic.
Gez said:
You're* from Latin America, aren't you? It could explain your rather unreliable mental picture of what medieval Europe was, and how people were living, looking, and acting at this time.
* Nisarg
Because people in Europe today behave in any way like they did in the middle ages?
How does any experience with modern, almost anti-medieval, Europe give one insight into medieval Europe? This sounds like a total straw-man at best. :\
Whatever Nisarg's views on medieval Europe, Eberron or anything else, I somehow doubt they're shaped much by geography. For that matter, I suspect it's his view of Eberron, not Europe, that is wildly off-base.