Science and Technology on Helca

Steel Realms

Overview: Due to the many calamitous events and happenstance in the history of Helca, technology has not had much of a chance to advance. The Lightbringers have begun to bring about a form of Magitech by imbuing machines and automata with the high concepts of divine Virtues. The Year of the Firewheel in CY 8431 where the warlord Jansh ravages the southern Merchant Cities using a manifestation of technology earned mechanists and machinists a bad reputation. It has caused those who follow the path of The Friendless technologists to go even more underground.


Facts About Technology on Helca

Knowledge is broken down by ease of discovery/accessibility. If nothing is indicated, assume it is Pervasive.

Pervasive Knowledge / Very Easy Difficulty

The rudimentary understanding of “electricity” and “chemistry” is present in several cultures and places – though interpreted in many different ways. A few species and cultures have harnessed its power – usually in combination with some divine or occult augmentation. Umbak has the greatest understanding in all this.

Gun Powder/Explosives: This is known, but unstable and varies in degrees of purity/strength/safety and considered “mysterious” and “magical” by commoners. Fireworks are the provenance of a few of the Merchant Cities, a few occult orders and Umbak has a display off the Queen’s Coast in the north where Halflings from Loamwold and Dunstrandians from the mainland and Tarmysia gather to be amazed. It is in service to the Mother Aerna, a veneration of her beauty and the power to quell and hold at bay the evil spirits that threaten the sacred hearth and family.

Common Knowledge / Easy Difficulty

Steam power is known to the Ducateon and a few of the Merchant Cities. Umbak has the greatest understanding in all this.

Uncommon Knowledge / Average Difficulty

Machinery is also known to the same cultures as steam power is. Umbak has the greatest understanding in all this.

Rare Knowledge / Very Hard Difficulty

There are forces actively at work to inhibit science and its outcomes on Helca.

Obscure Knowledge / Near-Impossible Difficulty is not available in known references; It is not necessarily Forbidden Knowledge.

Realm's Aptitude Powers: Divine, Occult, and Psychic