This is the highest technology level campaign I've ran, with a few notable inventions that put the setting tech level at around 1805. This puts it right at the cusp of modern technology, but still somewhat medieval.
If society continues to decline, it's likely to fall into a dark age.
Here's what's out there:
- Printing press. Broadsheets (Weekly News From Many Places) are common. Pamphlets are handed out on street corners related to politics and religion. Books are printed, especially religious texts which threatens the primacy of the clergy.Post Office. The post office in the US was created to distribute a newspaper, and the same is true for Seregon. Read about them on the entry for the Government Building.
- Telescope - Glasses - Microscope. Optics are common and telescopes have gone through 100 years of lens development.
- Firearms. Although adventuresome city folk still wear rapiers, a smooth bore pistol is available for duels. Ships have canons (airships using crystal based canons) and canons have been around long enough to greatly reduce the usefulness of stone fortifications. Guns for personal use are a novelty.
- Locomotive Trains. The train in Seregon has been around for over 100 years, before the usual timeline thanks to the use of crystals. They were abandoned after Amber Fever made it unfeasible to maintain stations outside the city. See Kerkhof Station.
- Vaccines. The Seregon Serum was a major technological leap, although not a vaccine. A vaccine for Amber Fever remains elusive.
- Street Lights. Imperfect crystals are used in street lamps throughout the city. Some districts are not fond of the lights, with upper classes claiming they are "unsightly" and obtrusive, while Old Knot District residents simply dismantled them on their own and stealing the crystals, which can be used as explosives. Street lights are not a reliable source of illumination in Seregon.
- Thermometers exist.
- Town clocks exist, striking on the hour in each district from the government building. Personal clocks exist for the wealthy, military commanders and ship captains (no watches yet).
- Hospitals. With formal doctors, nurses, medicine. Each Government Building has a small hospital.
- Census. The city has had their second census recently. See Demographics. If things can be counted, this is the period in history where that begins.
Most importantly, we have the emergence of the Scientific Revolution, at least amongst elites. It would take another 250 years before regular folk were taught this.
The Scientific Revolution was characterized by an emphasis on abstract reasoning, quantitative thought, an understanding of how nature works, the view of nature as a machine, and the development of an experimental scientific method.