Fictional culture and technology

[jfrazierjr]

Bah... you guys are a bunch of "heady" folks. I tend to just make stuff up that interest or amuses me(mostly the later) and rationalize it as in "its my world, and if you don't like it... tough!"

[Karro]

Absolutely.

Oh, and you hit it on the head. I'm not sure why I used Climate when I meant Environment. But thanks for the subtle correction.

Climate is a function of the environment. Didn't mean to be pedantic!

Bah... you guys are a bunch of "heady" folks. I tend to just make stuff up that interest or amuses me(mostly the later) and rationalize it as in "its my world, and if you don't like it... tough!"

Hmm... that could explain a lot about the real world around us.

[Ascension]

Here's an example of climate affecting technology. Take the scimitar. Why is it made curved with a heavy weighted end? It has to cut through many layers of clothes. Why is that? Because the Arabs didn't need or want heavy plate armor since they lived in a hot desert climate. If you want to poke holes in armor you need something different, like a poinard or arrow or narrow thrusting blade. The katana, also, is curved for slicing through clothing and bamboo armor. Battle axes and war hammers are made for smashing shields. Climate is all pervasive. If you wear heavy furs to keep warm then a slashing sword isn't going to do much.

Then you get into tactics and strategy being based on the current technology of offense and defense. If everyone is wearing layers of robes then you can hang back and pelt them with stones and arrows but if everyone is wearing heavy furs then ya gotta get face to face and beat 'em up. A society that wears heavy furs would never be caught dead using arrows because of their pride for hardiness and thus hand-to-hand while a culture that uses bows would consider hand-to-hand as barbaric.

My two bits.

[Steel General]

Boy that just blows "The 13th Warrior" out of the water, they used a bit of everything.

Still a enjoyable movie to watch though...

[Ascension]

I watch it every time it's on...don't know why, it's kinda crap. Something about it mesmerizes me though.

[Steel General]

I bought the DVD, I just enjoy some of the characters.

[Ghostman]

Here's an example of climate affecting technology. Take the scimitar. Why is it made curved with a heavy weighted end? It has to cut through many layers of clothes. Why is that? Because the Arabs didn't need or want heavy plate armor since they lived in a hot desert climate. If you want to poke holes in armor you need something different, like a poinard or arrow or narrow thrusting blade. The katana, also, is curved for slicing through clothing and bamboo armor.

Actually, Arabs did not invent scimitars. The sabre was invented in the steppes of Central Asia. It was brought to the Middle East by invading Turkic nomads, and then slowly replaced the traditional Arabic swords, which were straight cut & thrust weapons. Sabres go by many names and vary a great deal by design, but they all have single-edged curved blades. The reason for this is that it is advantageous when used from horseback. The same quality does lead to powerful draw-cuts against lightly armored targets, which may explain why sabres came to be adopted as infantry weapons also (even though cuts are pretty useless even against chainmail, which wealthier Arab soldiers did use). As for the katana, yes it's good for cutting lightly armored targets. A quality which is kind of wasted given the popularity of metal armor in Japan - but then again, those swords were typically treated as side-arms anyway. Bamboo armor is probably a myth.