Modern vs Medieval, what time is it?

[Gula]

So, we do know that the world is essentially in a Simpsons time bubble and the only definite movement is from 1.0 to 2.0. However, recently I've been questioning what exactly are the times.

As in, is Eorzea still primitive or is it safe to assume your average Ul'dah merchant wouldn't balk at a gun, concept of a hot shower and could operate a tomestone of frivolity?

tl;dr incoming

You have job quests that show that formerly exclusive job paths are becoming more and more open to the masses, seasonal events which are very modern and out of the norm (See casually coddling and parading a voidsent for All Saint's Wake) but then snap back to the MSQ. The snazzy leather jackets, jeans and 20th century fashion go poof with turbans, tunics and whatever era you'd call Ala Mhigan fashion.

From mass production of guns back to sticks and rocks.

Interior design is also harder to place since we can't go into every building the way we could in ARR. Sinks are a housing item, toilets are actually coming soon, and other indoor plumbing. Do they have this stuff in Gridania too or are people respecting the elementals with free "fertilizer."

Saying all this to sate my curiosity on the state of the world on the Source. A lot has happened since 2.0, and as the expansions go on, I'd like a more clear understanding on what constitutes as the norm or standard in a world where a chocobo carriage can slowly carry on, and then vroom vroom two Adventurers are doing sick donuts in a Regalia and SDS Fenrir.

[MikkoAkure]

Even in our world, the prevalence of technology is never even. Gun-equipped European soldiers won their colonies by beating natives armed with bows and spears. Brits used calvary charges against machine guns and cannons in WW1. Germans and Soviets moved supplies and artillery around Europe via horse-drawn carriages in WW2.

Right now Eorzea varies between medieval to renaissance to industrial era tech depending on where you are. Limsa Lominsa has rifles and cannons and ships powered with ceruleum engines while Gridania still fights with bows and spears. All cities are interconnected by a network of airships and even Ishgard builds their own and has gunpowder-propelled harpoons.

Since the world is in technological upheaval as advancements and Garlean tech leaking out spreads everywhere, it’s not going to be even and we’ll still see dirty medieval peasants in one place while the next town has electrical lighting and airships.

[Rongway]

In re: seasonal events

You have to take those with a certain level of detachment. Yeah, they're told as an in-universe narrative but they're really just there to give people things to do in parallel with real-world events and can be slightly more [insert any adjective whatsoever the writers want for that event] than a real quest just for the sake of festivity.

[Iscah]

Limsa Lominsa has rifles and cannons and ships powered with ceruleum engines [...]

To be exact, certain perfectly legal privateer traders have ceruleum engines which they presumably acquired from some Garleans at an excellent price.

[Risvertasashi]

Saying all this to sate my curiosity on the state of the world on the Source. A lot has happened since 2.0, and as the expansions go on, I'd like a more clear understanding on what constitutes as the norm or standard in a world where a chocobo carriage can slowly carry on, and then vroom vroom two Adventurers are doing sick donuts in a Regalia and SDS Fenrir.

It's also worth noting that canonically, the ironworks whipped up the Regalia copy just for you. Kind of like how you're the only WoL, canonically. These things aren't being massed produced.

[Gula]

It's also worth noting that canonically, the ironworks whipped up the Regalia copy just for you. Kind of like how you're the only WoL, canonically. These things aren't being massed produced.

SDS Fenrir was manufactured at a time, as it reads, "Manufactured for use by the now-defunct Strife Delivery Service." It does not say how many, but the fact remains, it was something someone could have likely ordered. Meaning there are pieces of outlandish tech accessible by more than just the WoL.

And that's not the point I'm trying to ask, I'm trying to get a grasp on what the world is like as a whole and how it has changed. I spoke to the journalist from Ivalice who's name I forget. Catgirl for one of the city state newspapers. She outright says "moons" when referring to the passage of time. Therefore, there is something and NPCs will acknowledge things.I want to know just how widespread it is overall in regards to technology and the weird stuff Adventurers bring from all over

[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.

[ObsidianFire]

Also keep in mind that Eorzea has magic, and that it is much more prevalent then tech is. Why go through all the bother of designing the equivalent of a refrigerator when a bunch of ice crystals will do the job? Magic also has the advantage of being less complicated to a very large degree. It has less moving parts that need to be developed and maintained and has quite literally been around as long as everyone can remember and has never really stopped working.

It bears saying that the most advanced nation currently on Hydaelyn are the Garleans, in large part because the vast majority of their population can't manipulate magic. I think you could make a good case of magic being "anti-tech development" because in a lot of ways, it is a form of technology itself.

[Zohar_Lahar]

For the most part, Eorzea reflects the early modern period in terms of technology: firearms, plate armor, lensing, large ocean vessels, humoral theory of medicine, etc. There's still some schizo tech thanks to Garleans and Allagans, and of course the fantasy setting has things like crystals, glamours, and enchantments that augment technology, but for the most part the setting reflects 15th-18th century real-world history.

[Edax]

So, we do know that the world is essentially in a Simpsons time bubble and the only definite movement is from 1.0 to 2.0. However, recently I've been questioning what exactly are the times.

As in, is Eorzea still primitive or is it safe to assume your average Ul'dah merchant wouldn't balk at a gun, concept of a hot shower and could operate a tomestone of frivolity?

tl;dr incoming

You have job quests that show that formerly exclusive job paths are becoming more and more open to the masses, seasonal events which are very modern and out of the norm (See casually coddling and parading a voidsent for All Saint's Wake) but then snap back to the MSQ. The snazzy leather jackets, jeans and 20th century fashion go poof with turbans, tunics and whatever era you'd call Ala Mhigan fashion.

From mass production of guns back to sticks and rocks.

Interior design is also harder to place since we can't go into every building the way we could in ARR. Sinks are a housing item, toilets are actually coming soon, and other indoor plumbing. Do they have this stuff in Gridania too or are people respecting the elementals with free "fertilizer."

Saying all this to sate my curiosity on the state of the world on the Source. A lot has happened since 2.0, and as the expansions go on, I'd like a more clear understanding on what constitutes as the norm or standard in a world where a chocobo carriage can slowly carry on, and then vroom vroom two Adventurers are doing sick donuts in a Regalia and SDS Fenrir.

I would term it "post-modern age collapse" as a parallel to the bronze age collapse. There was a modern era Allagan empire but it collapsed in a calamity regressing the people back into an Iron Age. The modern technology of Allag is still around in pieces and can be used but not readily copied so I would say currently the Source is progressed between the Medieval Age and the Industrial Age depending on what civilization we're talking about and how much Allagan technology they've reversed engineered.