Questions tagged [medieval]
For questions about the medieval era (500-1500AD o.e.) as a whole.
0
votes
4answers
150 views
How would an underground society have wars? [closed]
Two underground dwarven races are fighting a war. Dwarfs usually live in mines, but they can also move on surface. One army of dwarfs also control giants. The upper ground terrain is made of mountains ...
11
votes
4answers
258 views
Could dwarves do without wood?
Wood has, historically, been used, and still is, to make a great variety of things. Indeed, this material has many qualities, the most relevant being:
Commonplace: in most places in your typical ...
8
votes
5answers
3k views
How to get rid of human waste without using bodies of water
A particularly religious people living in a land filled with rivers need to get rid of their excreta. They have disfavoured sewers and dumping waste on water because they venerate oceans and rivers, ...
19
votes
6answers
5k views
How could the elevator at The Wall be powered?
In the show Game of Thrones there is this thing called The Wall. It is a monstrous, 300 mile (≈ 483 km) long bulwark consisting of a fortified ice wall that is 700 feet (≈ 213 meters) high (check the ...
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3answers
144 views
Aeolipile vehicle in the 14-15th century [closed]
If this was ever invented, how effective would it be? And how can it be improved upon to perhaps be the first steam train?
-2
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5answers
167 views
Team of people need to destroy a highly guarded room without hurting anyone [closed]
In my fantasy novel, there is a rebellion that needs to be stopped. They have a weapon in a highly guarded room that is under ground. The team tasked with stopping the rebellion plans to drop several ...
11
votes
4answers
320 views
How might my sea dwelling civilization defend against land-dwellers?
I've searched through a lot of merpeople related questions on this site and didn't see anything that related particularly to me as most questions have to do with underwater combat or dwellings on the ...
5
votes
4answers
248 views
Could the 14-15th century world build a tank/AFV?
Using technology already available to them at the time, could the 14-15th century world create a somewhat effective tank/AFV that could either be used to move artillery quicker around the battlefield ...
1
vote
3answers
187 views
Must Make a Major Modification of Medieval Metallurgy
The scene: Earth, but with a single major modification, the addition of a HUGE quantity of a single element to the Earth's crust (bringing it up to the same abundance as Iron in the crust).
The ...
38
votes
24answers
10k views
How could intelligent animals defend against humans?
Some Context
This story is a fable set in a magic forest full of intelligent animals that live in a huge community. Maleficent depicts a forest that's very close to what I'm thinking.
The magic ...
12
votes
21answers
4k views
Is there a way to keep science from ruining tribute magic?
This magic is done by offering a tribute to god. The tribute is mana, the magical power source. You offer it up in return for a wish granted by god. The benefit of the magic is that the only ...
0
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3answers
230 views
How does modern military equip itself to deal with people using medieval weaponry? [closed]
Imagine something like a 'Stargate scenario'. The modern military has a means to send small squads to other worlds populated by people. The majority of these people will be at medieval or lower ...
3
votes
1answer
125 views
Modern technology in an ancient China-like world
My character has transmigrated to a world that has some magic. She is looking to bring some basic surgery and investigation methods from her earth-like world to this world, which is roughly ...
4
votes
2answers
138 views
Medieval Windmills and Milling
The Millers' Guild needs all aspiring Mathemagicians!
Medieval Damascus has been expanding its crop-growing land because all these European Crusaders are eating too much bread. Unfortunately the ...
3
votes
3answers
174 views
Reasonable maximum iron age/medieval population for small rural area
Question
From around 400 BCE to 1000 CE, what could what would a reasonable greatest achievable population be – under the best of all circumstances – in a rural area of about $\mathrm{900 km^2}$ (In ...
3
votes
3answers
315 views
What's a modern era armor that would be best for a late medieval-style fantasy world?
Armor has changed to meet the needs and demands of a particular time period's training, technology, and combat styles.
If you were sent to a medieval fantasy world- full of monsters, mounted knights,...
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vote
3answers
87 views
War between human/animal shapeshifters and humans
In my story, set in medieval times, shapeshifters exist who have a human form and an animal form (only one, which they are born with). The majority of the population is human, many of whom hate the ...
14
votes
7answers
1k views
How can I prevent the Christian schism of 1054 in order to create a more unified church?
Schism of 1054, also called East-West Schism, event that precipitated the final
separation between the Eastern Christian churches, led by the patriarch of Constantinople, and the Western church. ...
12
votes
10answers
3k views
What kind of equipment would a giant-slayer use?
My character is a giant-slayer living in the far North with his family. He is able to bend and generate magnetic fields. The only technology he could use would be something like Feudal Japan and/or ...
21
votes
8answers
5k views
What sort of armor would a bounty hunter wear in the medieval age?
What sort of armor would a bounty hunter wear in a fantasy based world inspired by the medieval ages (1100 A.D - 1400 A.D) that would allow him to be both protected and agile, while remaining somewhat ...
2
votes
2answers
103 views
How would an exiled ruler take back their throne and re-establish reign? [closed]
In the story I'm plotting, the ruling monarch is overthrown and imprisoned on the basis of colluding with an invading force that's already encroaching the country's boarders. There are letters to ...
29
votes
12answers
7k views
Enforcing a speed limit in medieval times
The Emperor has decreed that the speed limit for horses and horse-drawn vehicles within city limits is to be 5 leagues per hour. As usual he has left the implementation details to his Scientific ...
23
votes
6answers
6k views
How to make a person of color time traveller survive in the middle ages
The story centers around a group of people that get lost during in the woods and -for no apparent reason- suddenly find themselves in 13th century Europe (the Netherlands, to be precise). They don't ...
26
votes
23answers
14k views
How to make female breast armor viable?
It is known that armor with accentuated design for breast is a bad choice in an actual confrontation. What can be changed to make "breast armor" more effective?
Like materials(fictional or not), ...
2
votes
6answers
588 views
How much should a witch charge for her magic? [closed]
I am writing a medieval fantasy novel. In my world, magic exists, but there are not a lot of people with magical powers. If a witch can summon rain and heal people, how much should she charge people ...
26
votes
3answers
2k views
With 12th-15th century technology, is a “vending machine” possible?
Say that I own a business from around the 12th-15th century. My country uses a Silver (or, if you so wish, Gold) currency in the form of coins. I want to make a secure "vending machine" to give out ...
4
votes
6answers
425 views
How win a medieval war with air superiority?
There is a new empire trying to conquer the world and it is populated by an avian species (looks like an early bird-dinosaurs with bigger head) and their first target is a human kingdom
Abilities :
...
27
votes
19answers
7k views
Mutually invisible foes. How can they fight?
For millennia the Arbol and the Byrond clans have engaged in bloody warfare. A benevolent wizard who is passing by and hears of this decides to stop them once and for all.
He casts a powerful spell ...
1
vote
2answers
148 views
How to breed war elephants?
Let's imagine following scenario:
Human society, mostly possessing technology on level of continental Europe, around year 1000 AD ("High Medieval Period").
There are rare, but not unknown, ...
8
votes
7answers
1k views
Medieval airlocks, would they be possible?
In terms of context, this airlock would be used on airships which fly at a height in which oxygen levels are too low for humans to live. Within the hull of the airship, stored oxygen would be pumped ...
13
votes
8answers
1k views
Towers to Low Earth Orbit - How to make them usable for navigation
In a world I'm constructing the sun, the moon, and the stars are not visible but there are tower that stretch from the ground to, roughly, low earth orbit. Each one is around 200 meters in diameter ...
3
votes
3answers
453 views
What alloys and metals can fantasy dwarves refine/create? [closed]
What metals are dwarves capable of refining and producing?
I'm working on a setting where the players have a lot of meta knowledge (Computers and nukes in a pre-industrial world anyone?¹) and need to ...
25
votes
27answers
21k views
A guy asked me to kill 15 trolls, how do I prove that I did it?
In my world there are adventurers who are squeamish about getting blood on them. Trolls are commonly hunted by adventurers. What trophy can my squeamish adventurers collect from these trolls, and not ...
8
votes
6answers
549 views
What can an adventuring group do to protect their items/money while questing? [closed]
I'm starting a new adventuring group with my friends. I live in a fantasy world with predictable levels of danger in certain areas. We're part of an adventuring guild. Everyone in our group has a ...
26
votes
10answers
7k views
What's the role in a medievial society for people who are magically bound not to lie?
In the prosperous capital of the country where my story is set, undesired babies are discreetly abandoned in the darkest hours of the night on the front door of the guild of Truthers.
There, as ...
7
votes
4answers
585 views
Could a hand grenade be effective against a band of medieval knights?
So, a group of people have just been transported back to early 14th century England, and have angered a band of noble knights. Their armor looks like this.
One of my characters, Tim, received a hand ...
13
votes
9answers
7k views
Arrow proof medieval glass
In my world, I have ''classic'' knights but with helmets that have transparent visors which are strong enough to protect from arrows.
So which material available in medieval times could withstand an ...
1
vote
3answers
258 views
where can my protagonist get shot by arrows while in full plate and have them bounce off
my protagonist gets jumped in a cave by Goblins armed with Composite bows from about 30 feet away my protagonist has full plate and a kite shield, the goblins are decent archers but startled and ...
8
votes
1answer
185 views
How effective is a defensive wall without a wall walk?
I see a lot of historical and fictional illustrations of walls that do not have wall walks. My understanding of medieval tactics is largely based on cinema and some wikipedia, so as far as I know a ...
12
votes
3answers
575 views
How do I calculate the number of people who have ever lived in a place over a given span of time assuming a fixed population?
500 years ago, the mountain dwelling Carac clan was cursed with undeath: whenever they or any of their descendants die, their corpses rise as undead creatures, or if burned, as shadowy specters. The ...
9
votes
4answers
465 views
How to not let magic advance the technology too fast?
So lets say that the level of the non-magic wielding species i.e. humans technology is at around the level it was in the early medieval times.
I would then introduce magic to the rest of the world in ...
1
vote
4answers
246 views
How would a medieval army conquer a treetop city?
In my book series, an evil space conqueror named Tate is attacking the planet of Aztlan. However, in order to do so, he must subjugate the Avian tribe and their capital city of Palo Alto. However, ...
3
votes
3answers
348 views
Other metal alloys as armor/weapons
We know of the metal iron, and alloys bronze and steel, used as armor and weaponry in the Medieval ages.
Is there another metal alloy that could be used for armor or weapons in the Medieval era?
5
votes
3answers
430 views
How thick a stone castle wall needs to be to withstand a modern tank?
From In what war would one modern military vehicle make a difference? question I presume a tank could decimate something like an ordinary medieval castle as have survived to this day.
But at some ...
0
votes
0answers
68 views
How fast to become “most wanted” in medieval world? [duplicate]
This is the question every RPG player or D&D player had in mind: "What happens if I kill them all?" So, lets ask the question:
Imagine typical medieval fantasy kingdom. There is some magic and ...
4
votes
0answers
66 views
What are ways to destroy a country's government/monarchy by using the underground/black market/illegal doings? [closed]
I'm creating a story in which the main characters want nothing more than the complete and absolute downfall of an entire country, starting from the top and its royalty all the way to the corruption of ...
5
votes
5answers
187 views
Consequences to the region near single battle front
Scenario
Medieval technology and warfare.
There's a war between two sides of a continent.
Said Continent has a large mountain range crossing the whole land.
At the north, there's and opening to this ...
58
votes
41answers
24k views
Is there such thing as a “one-person” door?
Imagine an evil dictator. He imprisons his enemies in a labor camp, but they never do any work! He doesn't want to torture them, or force them to do that since he is using all of his soldiers to build ...
4
votes
1answer
215 views
How often did trading/traveling ships set sail between port cities in Medieval times?
Say there are two port cities (City A) and (City B). The distance between them is the same as the distance between Greece and England. The world takes place in a medieval setting with normal ...
-1
votes
5answers
392 views
How can medieval-like coalition defeat or force a modern army into submission? [closed]
In my story, there would eventually be a final battle between a modern/high tech army from Earth and a coalition from another world. What are ways that the coalition can gain victory? Given that they ...
