1. naruzeldamaster

    naruzeldamaster Senior Member

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    How Would Meiji Era Technology 'evolve' ?

    Discussion in 'Setting Development' started by naruzeldamaster, Sep 6, 2021.

    In my current story there's a continent that floats in the sky, it's been there since the Meiji era and hasn't altered it's 'technology' in a normal way. How would Meiji era technology evolve while still being fitting for that era? I'm thinking stuff along the lines of steam punk, but with an aesthetic and design philosophy for that time period of Japan.
     
  2. Travalgar

    Travalgar Active Member

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    I think it would be affected much more by the fact that it was floating in the sky, rather than what level of technology it started from (Meiji era or otherwise). Does the continent has access to natural bodies of water? Would the denizens harness wind more as an energy source? And is it really isolated from the rest of the world?
     
  3. naruzeldamaster

    naruzeldamaster Senior Member

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    I was thinking they used some form of magic to collect water from the clouds below, they also have some natural hot springs and a few rivers.
    I'd assume they use both wind and water (they do have a few waterfalls big enough to support it)
    They could also manage steam probably, which is what spurred the question to begin with. What would Meiji/Feudal era steampunk actually look like lol I imagine it's a touch different from Victorian London steampunk.
    As for isolation, the rest of the human world doesn't even know it exists. To even locate it you need an innate magical ability which is pretty rare for anyone not born there.
    You not only need a way to locate it (usually with some form of key stone) but you also need potent enough magical energy to pass through a barrier that protects it. Without help from the 'inside' a regular old human couldn't get in.
     
  4. Friedrich Kugelschreiber

    Friedrich Kugelschreiber marshmallow Contributor

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    I’m not saying that you are, but don’t limit yourself by the definition of steampunk.
     
    evild4ve likes this.
  5. ruskaya

    ruskaya Contributor Contributor

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    Is steampunk inspired by Victorian England (only) or why am I thinking this? I am not into steampunk . . . :p
     
  6. Chromewriter

    Chromewriter Contributor Contributor

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    This is a tricky question. Logically, you could create any number of technological advancements and cessation just by the fact they are isolated from the rest of the world. So there are a lot of possibilities because they almost end up being a completely different society.

    Plus the meiji era was more significantly politically (imo) than technologically. Japan rapidly modernised against fears of a western encroachment than adopting those policies willingly. Without those fears in place, Japanese culture would be quite happy to not change/evolve with no outside pressures.

    So let's think about cessation because it's directly impacted by the isolation causing technological free movement to decline. I'd say that the steampunkish portion of the world would actually be at war with the more traditional Japanese feudal system with it not being completely won out by one or the other.

    But to be honest, you can make it reasonably any way you want. There aren't many reasons to doubt technology when a continent is floating in the sky.

    But politics and zeitgeist tends to stay consistent even with turmoil and crazy events. I think it'd be more interesting to explore how a feudal Japan would developed if it was ripped out during the transitionary meiji era.

    Here's an article that may help you with what technology was significant during that period though:
    https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/b06904/japan’s-industrial-revolution.html
     
  7. mascudkoray9

    mascudkoray9 Banned

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    Does the continent has access to natural bodies of water? Would the denizens harness wind more as an energy source? And is it really isolated from the rest of the world?
     
  8. naruzeldamaster

    naruzeldamaster Senior Member

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    It's constantly moving, and thousands of feet into the air, and also pretty well 'hidden' from modern technology. The only way to find it is through a magatama key which lets you locate it and get through the barrier. Even if you find a key, you need at least SOME latent magical ability to even see the place, and if your magic isn't strong enough, it vaporizes you like a fly on one of those electric fly lamps. So yes, fairly isolated.

    That's not to say that Kitsune don't visit tera firma though, mostly the rebellious/curious ones like the female lead who have an otaku like fascination with humans.

    As for natural resources, yeah, they have access to plenty of water/minerals/wood etc, it's basically a natural paradise and since it's charged with magic, resources hardly run out.
     
  9. mascudkoray9

    mascudkoray9 Banned

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    thanks
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 13, 2021
  10. Chromewriter

    Chromewriter Contributor Contributor

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    What are those random Arabic words in your quote?
     
  11. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    they are hidden hyperlinks (now deleted) - and directly related to why our friend is no longer with us... along with the more overt spam posting which got deleted
     
  12. Le Panda Du Mal

    Le Panda Du Mal Contributor Contributor

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    If I recall my college history courses correctly, the Meiji-era elite were obsessed with catching up with the West by borrowing European ideas, technologies, etc. They often thought of their home country as backwards. They didn't despise their own culture necessarily but they thought it needed a big infusion of something else or they would end up colonized like China. So I suspect Meiji steampunk would look kind of like European steampunk.
     
  13. Le Panda Du Mal

    Le Panda Du Mal Contributor Contributor

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    I'm not sure what it's like in Japanese folklore, but in Chinese folklore and at least one Daoist religious text I know about, there are celestial nine-tailed foxes who serve the goddess Queen Mother of the West and descend to earth to observe humans and reward the righteous.
     
  14. naruzeldamaster

    naruzeldamaster Senior Member

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    In this story the Kitsune are responsible for major advancements in human technology, either through external influence (personally being there) or internal influence (Via posing as someone's muse, subliminal messaging etc) some of the greater triumphs and horrors (especially the horrors) in history were because the Kitsune High counsel got involved. These kitsune find humans struggle for survival entertaining (in female lead's words, 'the best thing this side of cable' ) so anything they do to aid in helping/hindering that was done supposedly to entertain the Young Empress. At some point the empress got annoyed that humans were dying too fast (from shit like Hitler, Hiroshima etc) so she enacted a new 'no interference' policy that the Kitsune couldn't directly influence humans in any way. By then though the counsel had found a loophole, they can influence humans so long as the humans themselves believe they were acting on their own will. Even with the young Empresses countermeasures (like turning her nation into an isolationist nation secluded in the sky, cause she saw it in a human movie and thought it was cool lol) mankind's struggles continue to escalate. Roughly half of the current counsel is more or less out and out evil, and the other half are either indifferent to these misdeeds or are morally grey themselves.

    The problem is the young empress can't do much against these counsel members because they're all 3 or more tails. To put it in perspective, a 1 tail can already slow time in a large area, mostly through brute force. And a two tail can STOP time for an even larger area and with far less effort, the power level snowballs a lot. By the time you reach five tails, you would be a potential galaxy buster.
     
  15. Naomasa298

    Naomasa298 HP: 10/190 Status: Confused Contributor

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    The answer to the OP is - it evolves however you want it to evolve.

    Don't work out the details then write the story around that. Make the tech to be what the story needs, then work out the explanation afterwards.
     
  16. QueenOfPlants

    QueenOfPlants Definitely a hominid

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    I would assume more bamboo and wood contraptions. Japan is low in metals, that's why they came up with sophisticated woodworking. Your floating island is maybe even lower in metals, so they would have to continue this path.
    Metals may be reserved for things that they are absolutely needed for (like gun barrels).
    Also, wood and bamboo are renewable things.

    There are already bamboo water wheels. They are either powered by flowing water and turn, so that you can hitch them onto a machine to power that machine, or they are being turned and then haul water.
    Maybe take that concept up to eleven? You can probably make large bamboo or wood windmills too that power all your machinery.
    Inspiration: here and here.

    You may also come up with new buildings in the latticework style of the late 1800s (which there have been done out of iron/steel), but do them in bamboo.
    Inspiration: a, b and c.
     
  17. Friedrich Kugelschreiber

    Friedrich Kugelschreiber marshmallow Contributor

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    yeah for real, there’s a million and one ways that meiji era steampunk technology could evolve, subject only to the imagination; not least because only the OP can come up with what precisely meiji era steampunk on a floating continent would entail in the first place. It’s not like it exists in real life.
     
  18. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    Those could be upside-down, on the bottom of the floating continent, to make the best use of space.
     

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