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<blockquote data-quote="Nisarg" data-source="post: 1702070" data-attributes="member: 19893">Not being American, I don't share that historical fault.And that's my point. WWI led to a total shattering of what was already a very shaky confidence in the institutional value of western civilization.&nbsp; A confidence that had been eroded over centuries since the time of the renaissance.&nbsp; Each technological innovation led to shifts in society, because the intellectual environment DEMANDED these shifts. It was impossible to retain a medieval society in the face of the printing press, and mercantilism.&nbsp; It was impossible to retain a renaissance society in the face of industrialization, and it was impossible to retain an absolutist intellectual environment in light of WWI. This was what caused the rise of artistic and intellectual movements like dadaism and surrealism, philosophical concepts of relativism, and counter-movements like fascism.I'm not talking about &quot;swords&quot; as in medieval. Swords does not medieval make. A certain intellectual &quot;feeling&quot; is what makes a medieval setting. And what I'm saying is that its intellectually impossible for me to believably buy the idea that people could go through WWI or many of the other events/technologies Eberron proposes and still have that medievalist &quot;intellectual attitude&quot;. (at least in the regions where these developments took place, of course there could be backwards regions still wallowing in medievalism; within credible limits of distance and interaction though, since as long as they were on the same continent inevitably these developments would catch up with all but the most backward societies)It would have been so much better if Breland and the other main nations in Eberron had a kind of deeply cynical, hedonistic Georgian attitude.. so not just Doc Savage and Indiana Jones but the Great Gatsby and Farewell to Arms. If they'd made the setting live up to the real consequences of the events of its timeline, and you had real social chaos as a result of the Last War, instead of this &quot;oh well wasn't that horrible but we're still medieval&quot; business...Nisarg</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Nisarg, post: 1702070, member: 19893"] Not being American, I don't share that historical fault. And that's my point. WWI led to a total shattering of what was already a very shaky confidence in the institutional value of western civilization. A confidence that had been eroded over centuries since the time of the renaissance. Each technological innovation led to shifts in society, because the intellectual environment DEMANDED these shifts. It was impossible to retain a medieval society in the face of the printing press, and mercantilism. It was impossible to retain a renaissance society in the face of industrialization, and it was impossible to retain an absolutist intellectual environment in light of WWI. This was what caused the rise of artistic and intellectual movements like dadaism and surrealism, philosophical concepts of relativism, and counter-movements like fascism. I'm not talking about "swords" as in medieval. Swords does not medieval make. A certain intellectual "feeling" is what makes a medieval setting. And what I'm saying is that its intellectually impossible for me to believably buy the idea that people could go through WWI or many of the other events/technologies Eberron proposes and still have that medievalist "intellectual attitude". (at least in the regions where these developments took place, of course there could be backwards regions still wallowing in medievalism; within credible limits of distance and interaction though, since as long as they were on the same continent inevitably these developments would catch up with all but the most backward societies) It would have been so much better if Breland and the other main nations in Eberron had a kind of deeply cynical, hedonistic Georgian attitude.. so not just Doc Savage and Indiana Jones but the Great Gatsby and Farewell to Arms. If they'd made the setting live up to the real consequences of the events of its timeline, and you had real social chaos as a result of the Last War, instead of this "oh well wasn't that horrible but we're still medieval" business... Nisarg [/QUOTE]

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