Technology levels on Takaela in the 65th Century

general tech level. in the area we're going to be in, very mid-19th-century. old west. for the farmers/ranchers/miners anyway. guns, plumbing, small magic items, crop rotation, windmills (actual mills & pumps, not electricity). steam power is having trouble getting accepted, it smacks too much of "Technology" which is still an evil idea, like necromancy. Artonia, further north on the continent, is more tech friendly, having gaslight, pneumatic tubes (like in the Shadow movie), technologified (is that a word?) magic, etc. Delta City, in the south east, is much more into psionics than anyone else, they've got public teleport stations to get across the city (which is pretty humongous), telekinetic construction crews (and window washers, and ...), telepathic salespersons who make sure they offer you only what you need, or leave you alone if you don't want anything, licensed precogs to tell you if your ship will sink or fall to pirates, and so on.

as for the military, most of them, even in the new land, are still bound by treaties and their own superiors into using the old weapons. one of the original ideas in giving up technology in the first place was to make mass destruction exceptionally difficult. for this same reason, battle spells (a la Birthright) are generally forbidden to any but the most impressive and loyal clergy and Psage Guilders. of course, there isn't a general or footman on the whole planet who wouldn't mind having a few gatling guns or megawatt lasers on his side. but not the other guy's. there are a few mid- to high-tech weapons running around, but no one official wants to get caught with them...

as for the Cult... their original name being the Scientific Preservation Society, they keep saying that some techs are cool, and useful, and raise the standard of living, and stuff. of course, villains tend to agree that technology makes their line of work easier, and it gives the rest of them a bad name. some cultists are content to know how things work, and maybe make a few gadgets to practice, but most of them are unscrupulus, megalomaniacal, psychotic, or, if you're lucky, merely misguided. the very fact that they are outlawed tends to attract the wrong element to the Cult, and this lowers the alignment of the group as a whole. (of course, one could say many similarly unkind things about the power-hungry Guild, or the reactionary Church, but why pick nits?)

factories and mass production. the mass production of weapons and tech devices is something the Cult/University is always aiming for, both for the acceptance it would mean they had gained and the money it would net them. unfortunately, the Guild thinks both of these rewards would be bad, so factories are the first things they target. since the equipment necessary and a building big enough to house it are much harder to guard than a small lab or forge, and even harder to keep secret, this isn't difficult. the University has a few places on its grounds that churn out uniform gears and springs, but other than that, most of the manufacturing of watches, guns, adding machines and ultra-cool steam-punk devices is done by small, semi-independent persons or small groups. electronics are a slightly different story. most of the tubes, chips, lcd screens, and small lasers seem to come from the Pirate stronghold, which the Guild has been unable to locate for millenia. more scary do-hickeys are out there; cam-corders, touch screens, cybernetics, flying belts, and more, but no-one seems to know where they come from, or, at least, no-one's talking.