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Stone Age Technology

This article lists the technologies available in the Metal Age of Kur. Each entry opens with any technology prerequisites. The bulk of the entry is a description of how that technology came to be.

Following the description of each technology is an enumeration of the skills unlocked by that technology. The final paragraph lists the cultural groups that have discovered that technology in the Stone Age.

Advanced Impulse Theory

Requires Basic Impulse Theory

In chaotic Percoland, more advanced forms of impulse magic were discovered. Some practitioners used their new powers to gain advantages over lesser drakes. More importantly, the widespread use of magic attracted the attention of greater drakes, which adopted the natives like pets.

Skills: Dispelling Ways, Gate Mastery, Invisible Ways, Living Change, Lofty Bridge, Rapid Ways, Shield Mastery, Spell Artistry, Spell Enhancement, Spell Reins, Spell Trickery, Spirit Mastery, Transcend Armor

Cultural Groups: Percoland

Advanced Prayer

Requires Basic Prayer

In the lands with the strongest connections to the spirit world, new forms of prayer developed. In these prayers, the spirits serve as a conduit to primal forces. Forces that turn out, in fact, to be the gods of Kur.

Skills: Blood Law, Bone Law, Calm Spirits, Cleansing Trance, Creations, Locating Ways, Lore, Muscle Law, Nerve Law, Organ Law, Outsider Lore, Sacred Grounds, Symbolic Ways

Cultural Groups: Noctis, Pax, Percoland

Advanced Psychic Theory

Requires Basic Psychic Theory

Advanced psychic abilities allow mages to reach deep inside themselves to create significant magical effects. The psychics of Qod were the first to unlock these secrets by tapping into the Dread to traverse long distances almost instantly.

Skills: Gas Manipulation, Liquid Manipulation, Mental Control (Assault), Mental Control (Defense), Mind Mastery, Mind's Door, Movement, Sense Mastery, Shifting, Solid Manipulation, Spatial Location Awareness, Speed, Spell Concentration, Telekinesis

Cultural Groups: Qod, Sun-Bleached

Animism

Requires Basic Prayer, Pottery

The people of Qod originally invented animism as a way to grow their herbs, drugs, and poisons more effectively. But, the same principles apply to cereal crops and vegetable gardens. So, in some sense, mankind eats well because of drug-adled dreamers.

Skills: Animal Healing, Animal Mastering, Healing Trance, Herb Lore, Herb Mastery, Nature's Lore, Nature's Movement/Senses, Nature's Protection, Plant Mastery, Poison Lore, Poison Perception, Prepare Herbs, Prepare Poisons, Sleep Trance, Using Prepared Herbs, Using/Removing Poison, Ventriloquism

Cultural Groups: Ambitus, Perdu, Qod

Basic Arcanum

Requires Basic Impulse Theory, Basic Prayer, Basic Psychic Theory

When the divine and psychic practitioners from Noctis encountered the impulse mages of Percoland, the result was magical. By combining these independent threads of magic into a coherent whole, technology and magic became nigh-synonymous.

Skills: Arcane Barriers, Arcane Forces, Arcane Senses, Arcane Shield, Arcane Signs, Attunement, Detection Law, Dragon Lore, Power Awareness, Power Manipulations, Realm Law, Spell Inhibitors, Spell Lore, Spell Research, Spell Triggers

Cultural Groups: Aerlos, Noctis, Percoland

Beast Ken

Requires Horseback Riding

The hunters of Venat, plagued by Calm Storms that turn predator into prey, developed magical means of bonding animals to themselves. The bestial half of the pair remains immune to the sedative power of the storm.

Skills: Animal Bonding, Animal Mastery, Arachnemancy

Cultural Groups: Venat

Bronze Working

Requires Copper Working

Bronze tools further consolidated power in Noctis and Qod. Valuable tin deposits in Ambitus were the cause of numerous skirmishes and raids.

Skills: Banded Armor, Long Straight Sword, Machete, Metal Lore, Plate Armor, Scale Armor, Shield Bash

Cultural Groups: Noctis, Qod

Ceramic Mastery

Requires Pottery

The undead followers of Celsior were the first to perfect magical glass and ceramics. These containers served as the basis for undead trade for centuries: their most popular export by far.

Skills: Glass/Ceramic Crafting

Cultural Groups: Sun-Bleached

Code of Laws

Requires Writing

The true origins of laws remain shrouded in mystery. Our best guess is that a nomadic cult spent decades traversing Aerlos, Noctis, and Ambitus, enumerating cultural traditions. This cult then began a whisper campaign to insert common norms into the local cultures (their motivations are unclear).

Skills: Athletic Games (Brawn), Athletic Games (Endurance), Athletic Games (Gymnastic), Law

Cultural Groups: Aerlos, Ambitus

Code of Magistry

Requires Basic Arcanum, Code of Laws

For every beneficial use of magic, there is an opposing baleful use. The code of magistry spells out which uses fall into each category. The mage hunters of Aerlos mete out punishment for anyone foolish enough to misuse their powers.

Skills: Amplifications, Containing Ways, Hunter's Call, Power Lore, Spell Protection, Spell Tracker

Cultural Groups: Aerlos

Copper Working

Requires Mining

The ability to work copper into tools helped the humans of Noctis, orcs of Aerlos, and people of Qod to create stratified societies ruled by priests, warlords, and psychics, respectively.

Skills: Mace, Metal-crafts, Play Instrument: Brass, Short Blade, Subdual, Weapon Brawling

Cultural Groups: Ambitus, Kurian, Noctis, Qod, Sun-Bleached

Elemental Theory

Requires Basic Impulse Theory, Mathematics

The wild coasts of the Wetwoods are the perfect elemental crucible. Loamy earth meets foamy sea. Ice-capped mountains are swept by blustery winds. Fire and lightning threaten those who are careless. Shamans here categorized these forces into the six that we know today.

Skills: Earth Law, Elemental Lore, Fire Law, Ice Law, Light Law, Water Law, Wind Law

Cultural Groups: Wetwoods

Healing

Requires Advanced Prayer, Basic Psychic Theory

Through sheer bad luck, the people of Percoland learned how to empathically transfer another's wounds to one's own body. Then, through a combination of devotion and determination, these wounds could be magically healed.

Skills: Blood Ways, Bone Ways, Cleansing, Muscle Ways, Organ Ways, Surface Ways

Cultural Groups: Percoland

Mariners

Requires Map Making

Mariners are an egalitarian, independent lot. The original Wetwood tribes took on animal totems; the mariners adopt the sea (and her creatures) as their totem. Despite limited evidence, mariners know that anyone can master psychic powers, given enough effort and self-discipline.

Skills: Sailing Mastery, Sea Mastery

Cultural Groups: Wetwoods

Mathematics

Requires Masonry, Writing

Mathematics arose in the Wetwoods as a tool for technical communication. These tribes were early innovators found of elaborate boats and intricate machines of war.

Skills: Ballista, Basic Math, Catapult, Siege Engineering

Cultural Groups: Aerlos, Wetwoods

Mysticism

Requires Rites of Passage

Mysticism is the belief that truth can be drawn from the inner world as easily as the external, natural world. The mystic enters a meditative state, which is the only true way to learn about ones' own self. The first mystics were probably Perdu, but the practice quickly spread to Aerlos, where it was perfected.

Skills: Divination Lore, Dowsing, Hypnosis, Tactical Games

Cultural Groups: Aerlos, Perdu

Polytheism

Requires Horseback Riding, Rites of Passage

The peaceful settlers were the first to discover the existence of the gods. Olive Branch would commonly visit her chosen people, impressing on them the nature of her divinity. In time, the people of Pax learned of Olive's siblings, growing to worship the other gods as lesser reflections of Olive.

Skills: Religion

Cultural Groups: Pax

Road Building

Requires Masonry, Mining

The orcs developed roads as a way to move their armies around more efficiently. In many cultures, soldiers were expected to carry both axes and shovels, the latter to help build (or repair) roads as the army moved. The initial deployment was obviously slower, but reinforcements good much more easily join the fray.

Skills: n/a

Cultural Groups: Kurian

Sacrifice

Requires Basic Arcanum, Rites of Passage

The basic tenet of druidism is that life is a powerful source of magic. The death priests of Noctis developed this theory as a natural outgrowth of their brutal experiments with hybrid (arcane) forms of magic. In many lands, druids are still mistrusted because the old stories linger.

Skills: Druid's Circle, Druid's Staff, Earth's Forms, Earth's Master, Nature's Master, Sacrificial Rites

Cultural Groups: Noctis

Seafaring

Requires Map Making, Pottery

Early vessels were almost certainly doomed if their sailors lost sight of land. With seafaring, explorers from the Wetwoods were able to maintain basic courses based on landmarks and bearing. While not true navigation, the efficiency of trade over the sea jumped considerably in the metal age Wetwoods.

Skills: Cartography, Sailing

Cultural Groups: Wetwoods

Stone Mastery

Requires Mining

Not content with their ability to kill and maim, the orcs developed new ways of fashioning stone into cruel weapons and tools.

Skills: Stone Crafting

Cultural Groups: Ambitus, Kurian

Unified Psychic Theory

Requires Advanced Psychic Theory

The ultimate psychics of Qod were the Mentalists. These masters of psychic magic accumulated considerable power for who can oppose a ruler capable of striking down their enemies with a single thought.

Skills: Mind Attack, Mind Control, Mind Merge, Mind Speech, Presence, Sense Control

Cultural Groups: Qod

Vile Prayer

Requires Advanced Prayer

Beyond the realm of the gods of Kur are dark planes of existence devoted to terrible ideologies. Vile prayer provides a connection to these horrible places. Some arrangement for the supplicants' souls must be in place, for most pass into Nyx's dank demense.

Skills: Curses, Dark Channels, Dark Lore, Disease, Necromancy, Wounding

Cultural Groups: Noctis

Vile Psychic Theory

Requires Advanced Psychic Theory

As if psychic powers weren't enough, the undead followers of Celsior found a way to unleash the id. The vile psychic powers allow mental domination and destruction. They originated with the vampires, and have been shared with their sentient undead allies.

Skills: Mind Death, Mind Disease, Mind Domination, Mind Erosion, Mind Illusions, Mind Subversion

Cultural Groups: Sun-Bleached

Warrior Abandon

Requires Basic Arcanum, Warrior Code

It is no surprise that Percoland is the birthplace of both frenzied berserkers and chaotics. The ferocity of these unpredictable warriors and mages discourage invasion from the more "civilized" lands.

Skills: Arcane (Chaotic) Senses, Arcane Motions, Changes, Frenzy, Hand of Chaos, Stun Removal

Cultural Groups: Percoland

Worship

Requires Basic Prayer, Polytheism

Once the gods are known and named, it is a small step to worship these grand beings. In that Olive Branch first revealed her divinity in Pax, it is not unexpected that these people were the first to offer praise to her and her siblings.

Skills: Channels, Communal Ways, Life Mastery, Protections, Repulsions, Summons

Cultural Groups: Pax