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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nisarg" data-source="post: 1702953" data-attributes="member: 19893">The reason to link these things is because the tropes being used; be it "king", "kingdom", "princess", "sword", "knight", "Duke", and even "wizard" and "dragon", are all taken from history or literature.  NOT the history or literature of the planet Neptune, the history or literature of EARTH.So your argument that there is "absolutely no reason" is absurd.The reason is that Eberron posits a society that imitates in many ways a real historical society ON EARTH. If it mimics that society, then you have to posit, if you wish the social element of Eberron to be "realistic", that similar circumstances led to the creation of those tropes on Eberron as they did on Earth (and by "circumstances" i dont mean specific events as much as social, intellectual, economic and technological conditions).   Likewise, similar circumstances would HAVE TO lead to the end of those tropes.Do you understand what I'm saying?Keith Baker said Eberron is "Medieval": he didn't just make up that word or pull it out of his ass, or get it from another planet. He got it from earth. One then must assume one of two things; either Keith used the word "medieval" incorrectly, or Keith intended "medieval" to mean what it really meant here on earth as far as the social, technological, intellectual and economic conditions of Europe in the middle ages.  If we assume the latter, it means that Keith intended Eberron to be socially, technologically, intellectually, and economically similar to Europe in the middle ages, and that Eberron must have got that way because of those conditions arising. If things happen that make those conditions impossible to remain (the social devastation of the Last War, the intellectual environment required for the concepts of democracy, or for the widespread "technological" use of magic, the economic prevalence of the dragonmark houses), it means it would likewise become impossible for the overall "Medieval" condition to persist. So, either Keith was wrong in calling Eberron medieval in the first place, or he is wrong from a social design perspective in trying to make Eberron still "medieval" but add all the other changes.Some people have asked "how is Eberron doing anythign different from FR or other RPG worlds"? Well, the key is I'm not asking for Harn here, I'm asking for a setting where the overall tropes are intact.  Does FR have things that really stretch the limits of what is credibly "medieval"? Yes.. but usually in the areas of the realms where they do, the culture is specifically explained as NOT medieval or not Medieval anymore (places like Amn or Calimsham, or the more fantastic areas away from the FR "heartlands").Also, the mere presence of magic does not disqualify a "medieval" society. Our own historical medieval society believed in magic, remember.  You can certainly argue, of course, that widespread prevalence of magic would seriously disrupt the medieval social fabric.. in fact, I HAVE argued that, and I was DESPERATELY hoping Eberron would address that very issue.  The fact that it (or WoTC or the people on Enworld) promised it would, and then failed miserably to do so is part of what has left me so bitter about it.  Eberron doesn't address the impact of magic on society from a sociological viewpoint AT ALL... their idea of saying it "addresses" it is saying "well now there's lightning rails and magical gazettes but we're still medieval!!", which is even less realistic than what the realms does.So I'm not saying that Eberron does things worse on this note than other fantasy settings, I'm just saying that the hype made it sound like they'd do it better, like they'd address it, and then they didn't, at all.Nisarg</blockquote>

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