Legion made a similar thread to the direction this has taken in his Mages are (maybe) Ruining the World. In that thread the topic headed towards the societal factors of why, if  magic = tech, has it not been used for the good of all. Looking at the exchanges here, I wonder how much of that has to do with power not being equal to the monetary returns. Like, earlier Sarah raised the point about there being a killing to be made by creating a teleportation network. That's a good point, difficult to counter. Only thing I can think of with any confidence is the tendency for the magickally inclined to become elite organisations and institutions. Power tends to be hoarded in this world, with very few with the (possibly) more socially minded Vanus Galerion mindset.

Goldie also mentioned the Hero factor which I'm inclined to agree with. The Heroes are gifted over and above others.

So those two factors raise something which has been nagging at me since that similar topic and loops this back to Axius' OP: Is there another element we need to take into account in order to explain this stagnation? It would only take a Hero or gifted individual to make that teleportation system or set up hospitals as we know them, yet such atruism is rare.

If we look at the Lunar Lorkhan which says...

...his divine spark fell to Nirn as a shooting star "to impregnate it with the measure of its existence and a reasonable amount of selfishness.

I wonder just how much of that selfishnes do the ones most gifted and closest to that spirit - the powerful mages who could change the world - pick up on and get corrupted by? Is it a case of absolute power corrupts absolutely taken to a TES level of metaphor in which the very powerful have to withdraw because they are fated by Lorkhan's spirit to do so?

Man, this feed is lit. I didn't expect this much reception when I originally started this discussion. At first I wanted to reply to each individual comment, but seeing as that's too late, I'll just add more of my own thoughts about it.

As many people already said, the presence of magic in TES makes technology unnecessary. Healing spells work like medicine, frost spells work like fire extinguishers... etc. However, I guess the reason why magic hasn't been used in mainstream in Tamriel is because people are just generally afraid of magic. The Great War, The Oblivion Crisis, The Dwemer and the Heart of Lorkhan... They all led to many people being afraid of magic. 

However that doesn't mean all of Tamriel is afraid of magic. The people who do magic, they prefer to do it alone in seclusion and away from the prying eyes of the public. And the people who try to do something that most people wouldn't? They either end up dead or insane. (Morian Zenas, Arniel Gane, Septimus Signus)

Personally, the other reason why I think Tamriel is stuck in stasis (or a state of change and un-change as Karves would put it) is because magic makes technology sorta obselete, but at the same time, not many choose to use magic because of the cautionary tales they have heard throughout history. 

Also, I want to put out that I think Tamriel is going backwards rather than forwards. The early Second Era was as close to technologically advance Tamriel could get with expeditions to Aetherius made by the Imperial Mananauts and the Sun Birds of Alinor.

The expeditions of the Reman Dynasty and the Sun Birds of Alinor are the most famous attempts in our histories, and it is a cosmic irony that both of them were eventually dissolved for the same reason: the untenable expenditures required to reach magic by magicka. Their only legacy is the Royal Imperial Mananauts of the Elder Council and the great Orrery at Firsthold, whose spheres are made up of genuine celestial mineral gathered by travelers during the Merethic Era. 

- Pocket Guide to The Empire: Third Edition (The Magic of Aetherius)

The Third Era was similar to the Fall of Rome period, but it also had its fair share of "Space Age" glory, if you believe in MK's work to be canon. After that was the Fourth Era which is pretty much the Dark Age in Tamriel.

The Fifth Era remains uncertain, but if you believe the Loveletter From the Fifth Era (again, MK's work), then Tamriel might just develop magitek, with a pinch of C0DA.

Tamriel for me will never stagnate, it is, what I wish it to be in my mind's eye, I can be anyone, do just about anything, some things in real life are no longer an option for me, but although it saddens me to be less of what I once was, in Tamriel I am a Mage perhaps, a vicious Orc with a bad attitude and Lycanthropy (Whoa, now that's scary) I know some of you will see that I have missed the real point here surrounding the Tecgh issues of Tamriel, but that is what the world is for me, and why I love this site so much.

The ties that bind, like-minded people from many countries, races, colours, creeds, have joined together here and are maintaining a wonderful place, for the love of a video game, wonderful

[blockquote][b][url=/profile/Tysoyaha]Tysoyaha[/url] said:[/b]

Yea, we must be losing something in translation. I don't think anyone is being stubborn, I just think we've miscommunicated. I get the impression that you're still working under the assumption that there is a viable scientific alternative to Magic in TES, while most of us are proposing that things like tonal architecture prove there is not. There is no way of developing modern medicine in TES because the things that we used to do so in our world don't exist in theirs. They don't have penicillin, they have Nirnroot. There's no way of creating airplanes because their atmosphere isn't filled with oxygen with aerodynamic properties, is full of Magicka that's leaked from Aetherius with levitational properties.

 [/blockquote]

Oh I don't dispute that the world in TES operates under different rules than ours. Even divine intervention is a plausible explanation in that universe lol 

But my point actually was not about science being an alternative to magic for the common folk, but about mages, alchemists and scholars not taking the opportunity to use that magic to make life easier for the common folk (for a price, of course). For example, by the 4th era a hold in Skyrim has a Jarl, a court Wizard and a Steward, now, why haven't these guys ever developed a heating system to keep all homes warm without burning firewood and oil? Those fumes are nasty, charcoal and oil are very dirty and dangerous, so if a hold could just have some sort of clean, reliable pyromatic heating system provided by the Jarl, things would be much better for everyone (well, except for the lumberjacks lol), and the Jarl could probably raise taxes for providing that system. Commoners would probably be afraid at first, I agree, but once they realise how much cleaner and safer the new system is, they would love it (btw, Markarth seem to have a steam heating system doesn't it? I'm not too sure... either way, they still use a lot of firewood).

A water supply and sewage system is another example of something they could easily do and would make life much better, cleaner and safer for everyone (and let's not forget that plumbing has been invented by the Dwemer already), so it's ludicrous that in Tamriel people are still shitting in a bucket (it's always funny when you spot the shit bucket tho)

And medicine for example, a mage and an alchemist working together could easily produce potions in large scale, making production much cheaper, and then distribute it with teleportation magic, completely eliminating distribution costs. They could make medicine much more accessible to everyone and make millions in the process. What is silly imo is that in thousands of years not one single person thought of that. And it's not like entrepreneurship is not a thing in Tamriel lol