Modern vs Medieval, what time is it?

[Enkidoh]

Really, the world hasn't changed from ARR's opening that much as far as growth and use of new technologies goes. There is some expansion in the use of airships, and the Gold Saucer at least apprently has electric light and a rudimentary form of video projection (which are also available for Free Company use when building airships).

But to the smallfolk, the average man and woman in the street, such technologies would not be readily available to them: most people in Eorzea live a fairly primitive lifestyle roughly analogous to the 1700-1800s era of Earth - most people have to either walk or use a chocobo-hauled carriage or cart for land transport, with their homes lit by little more than oil lamps or candles, and most ships are actually still propelled by sails.

The Garlond Ironworks is gradually trickling in newer technologies, but even then it's usually limited by both scope and limitations of manufacturing - Eorzea completely lacks a modern infrastructure necessary for large-scale manufacturing. things like the Regalia Type-G and the Manacutter are exclusive one-offs made as experiments that are not meant to be mass-produced, hence willing suspension of disbelief is needed here when you see multiple players getting around in Regalias for instance, it doesn't mean they're available to everyone in Eorzea to buy. This is after all common in many FF games.

And there exists a stubborn resistance to the implementation of new technologies, especially when it means upsetting the status quo: Lolorito has stonewalled an expansion of the mining railway in Thanalan for passenger use despite Nanamo's best efforts to open it up to the public, as it means competition for his highly lucrative chocobo transport business (East Aldernard Traiding Company). And Teledji famously prevented even having an aetheryte installed in Vesper Bay simply to snub the Scions of the Seventh Dawn for not taking bribes.

Hells, a nameless npc at the Goldsmith's Guild in Ul'dah mentions an "idea he has for a carriage suspended between two wheels that you pedal with your legs" (which is obviously a bicycle) and his companion outright dismisses the idea as ridiculous (because, after all, why use that when "you have chocobos?"). That's not to say Eorzeans are on a whole ignorant of more advanced technologies - they would know what a gun is for instance, and instant mass-communication is available in the form of linkshells that are basically radiophones (Cid outright mentioned they use radio waves to function). A car though is more of a stretch - the Regalia is outright called a 'carriage' and 'magitek transportation device', so to normal Eorzeans they would only be able to draw on their own limited frame of reference when faced with such a vehicle and would not identify it actually as a car like we would. "Chocoboless carriage" alas does not have the same ring to it.

It doesn't help shed the image held by Garlemald of Eorzea as a technological and cultural backwater inhabited by primitive savages.

[Astrid_Stormborn]

And Teledji famously prevented even having an aetheryte installed in Vesper Bay simply to snub the Scions of the Seventh Dawn for not taking bribes.

That's still Lolorito, IIRC.

[Wyssahtyn]

And Teledji famously prevented even having an aetheryte installed in Vesper Bay simply to snub the Scions of the Seventh Dawn for not taking bribes.

Reasonably certain that that was Lord Lolorito, hence the giant statue of him in the main plaza.

instant mass-communication is available in the form of linkshells that are basically radiophones (Cid outright mentioned they use radio waves to function)

Also reasonably certain that he was speaking of the Garlean equivalent to linkpearls and how they could be disrupted by lightning aspected aether.

Okay, found the specific thing. Drowning out the Voices MSQ: "Imperial forces communicate at a distance via electromagnetic waves. Simply put, voices are borne upon aetheric lightning energy that permeates the air." So, it's the Garlean equivalent of linkpearls, likely actual radios.