Questions tagged [medieval]
For questions about the medieval era (500-1500AD o.e.) as a whole, regardless of the location.
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Could a merchant city survive not having an military?
Picture a city set in the renaissance times (circa 1350, for example), a city surrounded by vast rich soil at the lip of a large bay. Given the city's close proximity to larger ally kingdoms (kingdoms ...
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What is the timeframe for this abandoned space colony revert to a medieval society?
An outpost on a 2G (gravity) water planet (95% of the world's surface covered by oceans) becomes stranded / abandoned by the Galaxy Government, probably forever. The warp gate in orbit broke, nobody ...
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Can the princess escape using shoddy craftsmanship in a one-sided lock?
In my story, the princess escapes her prison through the window. The window has a lock on it, made by a legendary locksmith, that's said to be unpickable. But either due to the locksmith not being ...
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If people in Iron Age times had access to uranium, would it be used over iron?
Let's say that in 1,200 BC, aliens secretly come to Earth and turn all of the uranium oxides into pure uranium.The aliens then leave and humans discover this new metal.
Uranium has a lower melting ...
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Is there a paternity test method given medieval level technology with low false positive rate?
Determining genetic fatherhood is very important in my worldbuilding experiment for lots of reasons, one being succession, but regardless it's the genetic component that's important But it's possible ...
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Building 3 floor building in medieval days [closed]
In medieval days
How much time it will take to build 3 floors building, with 10 apartment’s each floor?
I don’t have labor problems, so I can use as much as I need.
How many workers do I need for 1 ...
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What factors would contribute to a medieval era mechanical revolution?
In our real world we have been blessed with many mechanical inventions throughout the ages. Wind mills, water driven sawmills, rope and pulley systems, cranes, marvels in clockwork and gearing such as ...
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What conditions would bring a kingdom/country to want a dark lord ruling them (again)?
In my world, because of how difficult the dark lord antagonist is to kill, he was permanently trapped in a weird substance. However, centuries later, he gets out and he is free. He awakens now in my ...
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How could peasants protest against superhuman kings?
In history, there were multiple theories like the Divine Right of Kings or Mandate of Heaven that stated that royalty weren't normal human beings but blessed by the Almighty himself. In my fantasy ...
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Could medieval Native Americans domesticate the bison?
In an alternate universe where Eurasia is less advanced and the native peoples of the Americas and Australia build powerful civilizations, what animals could be domesticated that weren't domesticated ...
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If thrusting is the most practical way of hurting a foe, why wouldn't ancient armies use barbed weapons to inflict even more damage? [closed]
I wonder why no military from history wouldn't make their spears and swords barbed. If the point of thrusting is to damage vital organs and cause massive blood loss, wouldn't it make more sense to ...
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How realistic would it be for the son of the emperor to go to college undercover?
How realistic would it be for the son of an emperor to go to some college town (think something like Oxenfurth from The Witcher) with a false identity? He pretends that he is some kind of lower-rank ...
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Would electric whips be good weapons in a medieval fantasy?
Whips are ancient tools that have been around for millennia. They were originally made to direct livestock and later on they were used to punish soldiers, slaves, and criminals. On the surface, a whip ...
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Would a spear ever out perform a bow when wielded by an insanely powerful person?
I am writing a story where humans are battling monsters (Think orcs, goblins, dire wolves, etc).
I wanted to stay away from the typical ‘go for guns’ and try historical weaponry. I know the bow has ...
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What's the fastest a medieval projectile could go, if it was powered by human muscles?
How fast could a human-powered medieval projectile go?
Rules:
The weapon must be made of materials available in medieval times: wood, steel, catgut, bone, rope, etc. No modern composites or plastics.
...
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How would a medieval army poise itself for invasion at a given moment?
I'm DMing a D&D campaign and I'm creating a story for it. It is set in a Medieval Fantasy setting. Essentially there is suddenly an unclaimed piece of land bordering two nations. They both want to ...
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How fast can technology be brought from 11th century to 21st century?
In my story, there is a man who has an incredible memory. He lives on Earth for the first seventy years of his life, during which time he can recall everything he reads. Through a complicated series ...
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How could I logically place cities and towns on my map?
The setting is a medieval fantasy, think general dnd or LotR. I have already created a map and it’s existed for a while now but I desperately want to know where cities and towns might logically pop up....
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How long would it take an iron key to rust away
I'm writing a fantasy story where an iron key was thrown down a deep well. The key needs to rust away completely in order to reform in another place. So how long would it take for an 8 cm ornate ...
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Medieval Footwear in swamplands
In my world, people live in a swamp where the ground is consistently covered in at least 4-5 in of water and occasionally higher, reaching up to the knees.
My Question is what kinds of medieval style ...
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Empire across the Himalayas
I was bouncing ideas off the wall about empires that could've plausibly existed in Asia if certain things went differently, and I stumbled across the very physical barrier of the Himalayas.
So my ...
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Stagnated renaissance era technology in a fantasy setting?
I am early in this design but am imagining a fictional world in the age of exploration including classic fantasy tropes of monsters and magic, with renaissance era technology, that is cannons, muskets,...
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What are some animals a fifteen year old boy should be able to hunt, easily, in an Early Modern Setting?
Overall I am trying to show the romance between a fifteen year old boy and girl as they both grow and age over the next few years. One of the major points of attraction is his incredible hunting ...
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What are the implications of gorilla anatomy on medieval warfare? [closed]
Let me know if I need to break this into smaller questions...my preference is to keep it as one.
I have a sentient species that has intelligence indistinguishable from humans, but with the body of a ...
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Is a decade-long battle in medieval times with magic possible?
Question:
Is it possible to have one or multiple battles to continue for a decade or more in a fantasy medieval setting? The primary outcome required from the war is to have a constant stream of ...
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How to balance a conflict between animal people when one of them has the advantage of flight?
Setup:
Avians are a humanoid species with bird characteristics, they all posses the ability to fly. Just as other species they can learn to use bows, swords and magic. Their main fighting tactic is ...
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How much food surplus would medieval peasants have? [closed]
So, I am working on a setting. It is medieval fantasy with a focus on realism, and in my pursuits of realism, I am trying to figure out many things. One of them is the rough approximation of how much ...
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Litmus test for discerning worthy counterparty of medieval trade
Medieval Europe tends to be regarded as an example of significant fragmented sovereignty. That is to say multiple entities would stake claim to the same land and/or inhabitants. Of course there were ...
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Is it possible for another European-style medieval society to be on a separate continent?
In my world there are multiple continents with many cultures. In a far away continent, there are kingdoms that exist there. I was wondering how could they be medieval style like the mainland, and if ...
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Why would the devil give someone immortality in exchange for them maintaining a diary? [closed]
So bear with me on this
So I'm working on constructing a world for a DnD game that I am going to be running. I have a general idea of the world that I would like to develop, but am getting stuck on ...
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How would a medieval society clear a jungle?
How would a late medieval to early renaissance society clear a 200,000mi² jungle?
This country is also a version of the Mexico-sized country referenced here, but much younger, and without the moving ...
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What would the government of a medieval city be like if it were transported through time and space? [closed]
I'm working on a story where an advanced civilisation show up near a medieval city (probably the capital) but there's an issue with their ship and through tech-wizard shenanigans the warp system ...
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How could armour be designed to improve unarmed martial arts?
How could armour be designed to improve hand-to-hand martial arts? Reinforced, angular greaves with pads underneath to improve sweeps and kicks? Full plate is always good, but I feel like it could ...
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Medieval visual torture method
In my medieval fantasy world, there is the concept of the Five Pains for interrogation and punishment. Each pain correlated to a specific sense of the human body. Burning is used for touch, and a ...
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Aircraft Carrier or ship with similar functionality for Dragon Riders?
My World has Dragoons, these are Dragon Riders and the riders are expert marksmen. They use magic arrows like explosive/fire/wind/homing arrows for offensive (basically magic archers) along with ...
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How to prevent adventurers from ganging up on dragon?
In the 13th century A.D., the king put up a hefty bounty for anyone who can help defeat the dragon and rescue his daughter. Actually, this was all according to the king's devious plan. The dragon was ...
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Controlling Air Temperature on a Futuristic Spacestation with Iron Age Technology
The Setting
World consists of humans with primitive technology living within an asteroid space station built by their technologically advanced ancestors. A lot of knowledge has been lost, obviously.
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Why does the "combat triangle" work? [closed]
In the medieval MMORPG Runescape, the combat is balanced by a concept called the combat trinagle.
Basically it's like rock-paper-scissors: melee is effective against range, range is effective against ...
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What could be the reasoning behind why Elves go into metamorphosis?
For my setting, I really want to push the non-human aspect of the other typical fantasy races. For Elves, I've been throwing the idea around that they go through a metamorphosis of sorts. I was ...
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How to know you are facing a hive-mind creature?
Setting
We are in a European medieval society.
Magic exists, but to answer this question you cannot use it.
About the creature
This creature could be an "Edge of Tomorrow" kind of monster,...
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How can a massive walled city be viable?
I'm working on a small story, and in it I'm wanting to include a city surrounded by multiple layers of walls. The walls themselves are colossal, but were created/held up by sorcery. I would go into ...
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How many minis would it take to kill a unarmed/lightly armed giant, given the minis have roughly medieval tech? [closed]
Let us say medieval tech level mini people/humanoids trained for combat need to kill an unarmed/lightly armed(stick/rocks), average, untrained human/giant for some reason, maybe it is attacking the ...
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What is the most advanced form of torch?
In a pre-electrical age, anyone who needs a mobile source of illumination must rely on a lantern, lamp, candle or torch. Torches seem to be the cheapest, most primitive option, yet surely they have ...
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Just How Omnipresent Would Cheap Cross Laminated Spider Silk Be?
In this timeline's equivalent of medieval level development, spider silk is dirt cheap, and cross-laminated sheets of spider silk are quite affordable.
Portia jumping spiders were domesticated ...
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How far can a human see a human sized object in detail [closed]
I have a hero looking at a city under siege from a distance. He has some slight height advantage, say standing on a small mound or hill side, so I can ignore Earth curvature at the distances involved, ...
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How would a "computer" be useful in a medieval world? [duplicate]
I am working on a story idea where a character in a medieval world develops a rudimentary computer. It is made of simple building blocks similar to the flip-flop and and/nor gates of digital logic. ...
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How many workers are required for a medieval civilization to have metals?
The setting of my story is a medieval refugee community that has found a protected place to settle. They end up remaining in isolation for a few hundred years. The protection is a boost for life, in ...
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In a supercontinent would ships still be the primary way of transportation before the invention of engines?
introduction
My world is made of a super-continent with very little isles, it has 100 countries, 97 of which are on land. 3 of those are underwater for folk who are able to live confortably in the ...
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How can the Vikings go up against a thunder wyvern?
During the dark ages (early middle ages), the Vikings visited an isle surrounded by strong waves and giant whirlpools that seemingly appears sporadically. The island is populated with many walrus and ...
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How would an industrial revolution affect the Catholic Church's theology in a 1400s setting [closed]
How would the Catholic Church be affected by the industrialization of Europe.
How would this affect the Church's theology?
The start of industrialization starts in the late 1300s also in Western ...
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