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Stone Age Technology

This article lists the technologies available in the Stone 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.

Alphabet

Requires Writing

The alphabet was originally invented as a joke. Instead of representing a word with a corresponding symbol, tricksters in Percoland created complex rebuses in which the first sound of each word could be chained together to form a different word. It took several centuries for the efficiency of this brilliant madness to be appreciated.

Skills: Music, Paper-crafts, Teaching, Research, Signaling

Cultural Groups: Percoland

Basic Impulse Theory

The so-called savages of the Wetwoods first discovered how to use pure emotion to control magical and elemental forces. The basic theory governing Impulse allows reliable access to many magical effects.

Skills:Faerie Lore, Read Runes, Spell Mastery, Targeting, Impulse Resistance, Delving Ways, Detecting Ways, Elemental Shields, Essence Hand, Essence's Perceptions, Lesser Illusions, Physical Enhancement, Rune Mastery, Spell Wall, Unbarring Ways

Cultural Groups: Aerlos, Percoland, Perdu, and Wetwoods

Basic Prayer

Long before the discovery of the specific deities, people knew that certain prayers offered to the spirits would be answered. These prayers became codified as a collection of prayer lists. Given the miasma of souls trapped in the jungle bridge, nearby cultures were the first to adopt prayer.

Skills: Symbol Lore, Undead Lore, Channeling, Divine Resistance, Barrier Law, Concussion's Ways, Detection Mastery, Light's Way, Lofty Movements, Nature's Law, Purifications, Sound's Way, Spell Defense, Weather Ways

Cultural Groups: Aerlos, Noctis, Pax, and Venat

Basic Psychic Theory

Basic psychic theory establishes the groundwork for a school of magic whose effects are difficult to observe. Priests in Noctis responsible for funereal rites cemented their social positions by discovering how to tap into psychic powers. Similarly, dreamers in Qod manifested psychic abilities.

Skills: Divination, Psychic Resistance, Anticipations, Attack Avoidance, Brilliance, Cloaking, Damage Resistance, Delving, Detections, Illusions, Self Healing, Spell Resistance,

Cultural Groups: Aerlos, Noctis, Qod, and Sun-Bleached

Forestry

Requires Horseback Riding & Basic Prayer

Forestry represents an implicit pact between man and nature. Man will care for and tend natural resources, and nature will, in turn, provide for man. This mutualism developed in Venat stands in stark contrast to the warrior code.

Skills: Quickdraw, Inner Walls, Moving Ways, Nature's Guises, Nature's Summons, Nature's Way, Path Mastery

Cultural Groups: Venat

Horseback Riding

The first to tame the horse were the Duwa-Pon. Mounted combat provided an early advantage to the Duwa cultures, but nearby cultures quickly caught on. The Lost people domesticated the giant ground sloths of Perdu.

Skills: Mimicry, Reading Tracks, Tracking, Mounted Combat, Riding

Cultural Groups: Perdu and Venat

Irrigation

Requires Pottery & Mining

Many of the inland plains have insufficient rainfall for reliable crops. Irrigation solved these limitations, allowing a limited number of specialists to feed entire armies. While humans tend to deny it, this technology was invented by highland Vulfen.

Skills: Textile Armor, Rope-crafts, Textile-crafts, Whip Grapple, Rope Mastery, Whip

Cultural Groups: Kurian

Map Making

Requires Writing

The humans and dwarves of the Wetwoods were passionate explorers. With the invention of maps, the risk of getting lost was greatly reduced. Indeed, early map notation still exists in western alphabets.

Skills: Rowing, Seaborne Combat, Mapping, Boat Pilot

Cultural Groups: Wetwoods

Masonry

The ability to piece together rocks or bricks into permanent walls improved the security of cities immensely. A small group of trained soldiers could easily defend against a multitude of marauders. The people of Pax are widely credited as creating the first walled settlements (somewhat to the dismay of Ambitus' scholars).

Skills: Pole-vaulting, Rappelling, Architecture

Cultural Groups: Ambitus, Kurian, Pax, and Percoland

Mining

Without stone, early tools (bone or antler) required constant repair and replacement. The invention of mining and associated stone lore facilitated the specialization of many tools: obsidian blades, flint arrowheads, greenstone axes, etc. This technology, more than any other, exemplifies the stone age.

Skills: Restricted Area Combat, Stone-crafts, Stone Lore, Mining, Axe, Hammer

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

Pottery

Pottery was invented in three distinct locations (Pax, Qod, and Wetwoods) during the stone age. Prior to the invention of pottery, woven baskets were the only means of storage. Pottery is significantly more resilient to weather and infestation. This makes the construction of granaries feasible.

Skills: Sculpting, Contortions, Tightrope-walking, Earth-crafts, Food-crafts, Animal Handling, Herding, Camouflage

Cultural Groups: Ambitus, Kurian, Pax, Qod, Sun-Bleached, and Wetwoods

Rites of Passage

Sophisticated rites of passage originated in the deserts of Noctis, primarily embalming, cremation and burial. From there the practice spread throughout the world. Development of these rites coincides with a belief in spirits and other religious practices. (The Lost people independently developed rites of passage involving sending their dead off to sea.)

Skills: Soft Leather Armor, Mimery, Painting, Animal-crafts

Cultural Groups: Aerlos, Noctis, and Perdu

Warrior Code

The first warrior culture originated in the highlands of Venat in response to the Vulfen threat. The code of warriors demands that one treat a fellow warrior based on his prowess, rather than on cultural or racial biases.

Skills: Power-striking, Power-throwing, Weight-lifting, Fletching, Leadership, Recruitment, Stunned Maneuvering, Bow

Cultural Groups: Venat

Writing

Writing developed simultaneously in the east, west, and north. In the east, marks were made on pots to indicate their contents; in time, the mark stood for the object in other contexts. In the west, symbols were used to describe locations and directions. In the north, stylized pictures representing words were quickly replaced by an alphabet.

Skills: Acting, Drawing, Poetry

Cultural Groups: Ambitus, Percoland, Perdu, Qod, Sun-Bleached, and Wetwoods