True, but it would likely take centuries of developement before they had a viable weapon - that's a considerable amount of time for a group to spend on a technology like this, when it largely proves to be unweildly and underwhelming. A lot of things are done "for the hell of it," but these are often dropped when they prove to be fruitless (or pursues in a non-serious manner).

The developement of real-world firearms started quite slow, but once it started to prove itself it became widespread and considerable efforts were put into pursuing this. However firearms had no real competition. In Tamriel magic is overpowering competition, so firearms would need to be extremely advanced before they were considered a viable alternative (in fact, it would likely require the developement of smokeless powder, something that showed up nearly a thousand years after the discovery of blackpowder). Since firearms presumably wouldn't be so widespread, due to competition from magic, I suspect this would slow their developement even more.

Because the Dwemer may have become so powerful, they'd want to take over all of Skyrim, enslaving/causing mass genocide to the other races. You need a balance in the force = disorder and dynamic society.

"Replaced" technology? Magic IS a form of technology in Mundus. And like all the other mundane technology, its innovation is stifled by socio-political (and religious) issues.

not to mention the dwemer satchel charges in morrowind.

i also distinctly remember using an AK-47 in oblivion........although that might have been a mod.

I love how everyone assumes that every person is magically inclined. Just because the player can learn magic does not mean that the majority of NPCs have such an ability. Given the power that the Mages have established you would think that sooner or later a rival group would seek to create a non-magical means to upset the balance of power.

Not likely true, we just don't play during an era, we play in our characters life which is for the game a few years maybe, it's possible many advanced weapons are being made, but if you recall from our own past, usually people are very slow to accept anything other than the norm. Give TES a couple more games and we will see weapons develop further.

Oh and the Dwarves were an very advanced race that sought to be rejoined with their God (their decision as a race similar to the Thalmar) and they succeeded, this is why schollars in TES are very cautious regarding following their work, they don't want history to repeat itself.

It's the same as Tolkien's universe really. Between the Silmarillion and LOTR tons of years passed (on our Earth mind you), yet technology remained exactly the same. If Elder Scrolls suddenly advanced to the Industrial Age it would svck, so I'm glad it doesn't.

There are so many ways around this that it would be silly to use it as a sticking point. I mean the limitation of specific raw materials alone could be made regional and only available in Skyrim in very limited quantities or by trading with vendors who only recieve monthly shipments, etc. Also, just because certain advancements are discovered does not mean that every other technology would advance as well. I mean would we consider ourselves to be in a nuclear age currently despite having the technology? It's not like every person has access to such technology. A single incident such as Chernobyl could also slow the development of such a technology simply due to the fear of repeating such a mistake. Again, there are so many ways to make technology work without ruining the setting of TES.

Ya but the difference is in TES people know of magic, where as in HP the muggles don't. They can't just contract out jobs to wizards and such, but in TES they can.

Someone is new to the Fantasy genre.

Just wait until later eras.

Still everyone does not go to magic for everything, if so there wouldn't be any sort of weapon/armor/alchemy/etc because magic has all the benefits that such gives. So yes technology needs to improve either that be weaponry or armor or anything else. BGS however has actually went in terms of technology hell even magic itself because they are either too lazy or just not needed in their game lore wise technology grows game wise it doesn't and stuck due to Beth not anything else.

What I find most curious is that every time this topic about stagnant technology in fantasy settings comes up, it always centers around firearms? Why is it always down to fantasy gun control, and not any other modern tech like telecommunications and computer networking? The Lore even implies the Edler Council (and other certain groups) has some form of fantasy Twitter network they use to communicate through the dreamsleeve....but no, the discussion always comes down to why there's no guns.

didnt the dwarves use the elder scroll and that made them disappear you know because isnt that what parthanax says happens when u look at it. well if not blinded fist but you know what i mean.i dont really remeber but they never did give the reason why they disappeared did they.

No, it was explained in Morrowind (more or less), that they transcended into the divine mecha Numidium.

It seems like the Dwemer destroyed themselves with technology rather than the gods prevented them.

In Oblivion, everyone knew that basic healing spell. Even in Skyrim there are more mages running around than you can shake a stick at. Even most bandit groups have a spellcaster or two. And all these mages are in a land where people view magic with suspicion. I'd say that pretty much everyone IS probably magically inclined to some degree.

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Unfortunately.

True, also early firearms that is before 1830 was very inaccurate and slow to load, it's estimated that if you took 200 trained archers with longbows against 200 with napoleon war muskets the archers would beat the crap out of the musketeers.

Why did muskets replace bows, muskets had better armor penetration however the main benefit is that it took years to train somebody to be good with an longbow but just weeks to use an musket well enough. So if you was able to make a lot of metal pipes it was simpler to raise large armies with musketeers, if they died you could conscript peasants and have more next month.

None of this apply in elder scroll, an large poorly trained army would have problem with area effect magic. real world example, nobody fight tight together anymore as bombs and artillery make it to easy to kill them all.

Now cannons was invented before muskets and would be useful in sieges, if you don't have magic to break down stone walls cannons might be useful, however it's not something the player would run into much, the canons would be to large and cumbersome to use against monsters like dragons.

The day guns are introduced into TES is the day it stops being TES... I hope they never add them in.

Well if they have gunpowder and yet don't have guns then there's no excuse. It's handwaving by Beth.

So does that mean computers (or its fantasy equivalent) are okay?

True, Skyrim is not medieval far more like year 1600-1700, the sawmills are pretty advanced, looks pretty much like a replica 1700 sawmill close to where I live, yes the saddle who push the log goes back to start then reaching the end but you has to push an lever for it to happens.

For communication magic would be easier, rather use more technology for manufacturing, why not stamp arrowheads, they would be pretty perfect for mass production as people use lots of them. Something like this might be done but we don't see it in game.

I remember those mods, they were quite lame lol. Basically staves as far as animations go. Then some kind of destruction magic would "shoot" out. The charge would be very long lasting, like 60+ thousand charge.