Science and technology in the Animal Kingdom
As the game begins, the Animal Kingdom is far from its humble animalistic beginnings. It’s a brewing civilisation on the very beginnings of the industrial revolution and (possibly) a social revolution as well.
Science
As for science and the scientific method, it has been steadily advancing since at least King Valent. However, in the Animal Kingdom, there is no difference between science, engineering, history, and other intellectual pursuits – all thinkers are called “Scholars”, whether they are scholars of botany or scholars of machinery or scholars of the Ark myth.
You play the game as Charles, one such scholar of the Kingdom. A botanist by trade and son of the famed scholar Herbert, you have always been in the spotlight which you’d rather avoid. Here’s a peek at Charles’ lab:
As previously considered, the difference between engineers and scholars in the Kingdom is vague so Charles doesn’t only work on the theory of botany but also works on the greenhouse technology that would help preserve plants from the cold conditions on the outside. His wish is to create a stable environment for growing crops even in winter-time, but he is still far off from that goal.
Technology
The industrial revolution made steam engines available in many mines and centers of industry throughout the Kingdom, including Charles’ hometown – the Burrows. The usage of steam engines made coal production skyrocket and made it possible to dig deeper and deeper into mines. Luckily, the rabbit miners didn’t meet any Balrogs down there, but the health hazards of being so deep might be just as deadly!
Other cities use steam machinery for other things, such as connecting the various treetop dwelling animals with their ground-based friends in the small squirrel trade town of the Scurries.
The Kingdom hasn’t (yet) started building railroads or any other steam-powered vehicles, mostly because of the convenience of travel by paw (due to the small scale of the Kingdom’s mainland), and the larger distances are traveled by using the royal Elephant Transportation Company (which has been known to stifle innovation so it could stay in the transportation game).
There are some technological issues we haven’t decided on yet, such as whether the Kingdom has learned to use powder for guns and weapons.
So be sure to drop in on our Discord and let us know whether you think this wolf guard would look better with a rifle or not 😛
Well, we had guns long before the industrial revolution (flintlock pistols and their ilk), so would they?
Yeah in that period they would have guns already (since the middle ages, or in China they had gunpowder even before that), but since a lot of famous fantasy (LOTR, Discworld) mostly skip the use (or mention) of gunpowder (with a few magical exceptions), we think it might ruin the immersion… Tough choice.