Tech Lock

[Baron]

To clarify the tech lock as last I was aware of its function:

The tech lock is a mental barrier, not a physical one. It functions by preventing people from having the idea of an invention that leads to industrial revolution.

We've traditionally prevented the printing press for instance, but by mental barrier logic, a more educated world would still not have the ideas of, say, steam power. Steam power already exists in human antiquity, but nobody had the idea to make it on large scale machinery for thousands of years.

Clocks use gearing and spring power, both of which exist, but nobody would ever think of making larger machines with the same technology because of the mental barrier. Clocks are harmless, after all, especially pre-quartz ones that lose seconds per day.

Meanwhile, the mental barrier also prevents widescale adoption of things like the furnace minecart, which is a /coal powered train/. It's used to push carts around but nobody will ever apply the principle to making proper trains.

 

[Naelwyn]

As originally written:

The Interdict of Kings prevents communication of ideas and concepts too advanced.

Try to write it down in a book? Anyone that didn't independently take all the same steps of knowledge and it reads like word salad gibberish.

Try to give a lecture? Everybody seems to mentally tune out and what you say doesn't really register.

It also conveniently edited out the idea whenever the sisterhood would rejuvenate or revive somebody. They come back and remember they had a great idea but not how to get to it.

 

[CloakedReaper]

As originally written:

The Interdict of Kings prevents communication of ideas and concepts too advanced.

Try to write it down in a book? Anyone that didn't independently take all the same steps of knowledge and it reads like word salad gibberish.

Try to give a lecture? Everybody seems to mentally tune out and what you say doesn't really register.

It also conveniently edited out the idea whenever the sisterhood would rejuvenate or revive somebody. They come back and remember they had a great idea but not how to get to it.

Does it only cover the communication of such things? If that's the case, what's to stop someone from going ahead and creating these advanced machines/objects themselves?

 

[Sankera]

Does it only cover the communication of such things? If that's the case, what's to stop someone from going ahead and creating these advanced machines/objects themselves?

These hands

 

[Naelwyn]

The fact that they have to actually legitimately invent them, enough so to convince us they are not benefiting from hindsight bias. (This is harder than you might think, because your character has to both earn a good chunk of knowledge, as well as make several insightful breakthroughs in a convincing way.) They cannot successfully teach anyone else how to build, maintain, upkeep, etc, the thing even if they successfully build it.

(There is finite amounts of things an inventor can make before all their time is spent maintaining the things they built.)

Edit/Addon 1:

Tis a compromise between rewarding people with something if they manage to successfully invent something (A process I did /not/ make easy) while not allowing the accumulation of said things to drastically alter the setting.