Galaxy Palaxy

We can start off with that we know how the baths are heated and it's neither technological nor magical! Caldarus explains that there is underwater volcanic activity in the area that has provided Mistria with natural hot springs that are utilized by the bathhouse - although Juniper has dialogue about bringing the baths to a higher temperature at Terithia's request, so it may not be only natural heating. The building also has a waterwheel, but it's unclear what its purpose is... It may have to do with pumping water from the springs or the aforementioned additional heating? (Maybe worth noting that the bathhouse was not retrofitted from some other purpose by Juniper - It was always one, she just fixed it up!)

We actually don't get a lot of information on the plumbing situation believe it or not! Yes, I'm disappointed too. There are no accessible bathrooms in the game; you can, however, purchase a bathroom set that implies full plumbing, with a toilet, sink, and bathtub. There are also sinks with faucets in Celine's cottage and in the living area of the general store. We would assume that there are bathrooms that the game does not show us that hold the usual amenities, but we do not know if the water is heated or how many locations have full plumbing (some further out houses, such as Terithia's shop and Errol's cabin, may not be hooked up to water at all). My bit of research says water heating in private homes came about before the modern style of toilet seen here, but I could not say for sure how it works in Mistria! Toilets are likely to be modern and easily accessible because the game does not want you to think about waste disposal. *

It's worth remembering that the sprinklers you can use in-game are magic tools, so those may not exist in mechanical form in Aldaria. Regarding farming, both the player's and Hayden's farms are pretty low-scale, being entirely operated by a single person each, so we do not know how larger scale farms operate technologically. **

I am pretty sure there's no electricity but the game skims over things where it wants to - there's an icebox item rather than a fridge but you don't have to worry about keeping it stocked with ice (the game doesn't worry about preserving the items you store anyway, fish won't spoil and ice won't melt), and lights seem to be candles or potentially gas lights, but we don't have to worry about how these are lit and maintained. Stoves are powered by wood fire - except, potentially, the champion's kitchen set (obtained by completing all of Taliferro's cooking challenges) which looks more like a gas powered one to my eyes. The streetlamps in town may be gas lamps, and the lights further out seem more likely to be candle-lit. The lamp furniture items are candles, oil lamps, or, in the case of items gained from the mines, may run on magic.

Transportation-wise, we don't have any mention of trains or motorized vehicles, and the only boats mentioned are propelled by wind as far as I can remember. People get around on land by foot or by horse - we know that Baron Wiscar had a horse according to a childhood story from Eiland, and Merri has one that she brings to the animal competition in Mistria in the winter, although as far as we know Balor does not have an animal to pull his cart. The game does acknowledge some of the difficulty of travelling this way: Balor frequently requires repairs to his wagon due to trouble on the road, and bad weather has been mentioned as an issue to travel.

News spreads by letter or word of mouth. We do not hear of any dedicated letter-delivery service so that may be dependent on finding people going the way you want to send your message or hiring a messenger, but we know that it isn't difficult for the townspeople of Mistria to send and receive messages in a timely manner. Likely at least in part due to how close Mistria is to the Capital we hear news of things like current trends circulating as gossip. I do not recall any mentions of newspapers, fliers, or magazines, and there are no phones obviously.

We only see people writing by hand (with quill pens mostly, although there seem to be dip pens of other sorts in people's rooms) so there likely aren't typewriters, in Mistria at least. There do seem to be printing presses given the proliferation of books in town. There are even comic books in the bookcase in the general store's living area! ***

Everyone in town is literate as proven by the request board - notes are all written and posted personally and I believe every villager and Saturday Market NPC makes at least one request. There is relatively open access to higher education: money is mentioned as being set aside for Dell's schooling and much of the town is invested in Luc's future education as an entomologist, so education seems not to be socially stratified but it does cost money.

They seem to be operating on a modern understanding of health; they know about germ theory and understand, for example, protein's role in nutrition and what foods it can be found in. Valen has a medical degree, having studied at the same college as the royal physician. Interestingly, her clinic stocks "syrups" (a non-magical equivalent to potions for gameplay convenience) and her story revolves around recreating what seems to be a magic cure-all, but we would assume most of her work is actually closer to that of a real-life modern doctor!

Furniture is not mass produced - you can get stuff secondhand and refurbished, and you can commission a craftsperson to make things for you (such as in the crown request for furniture for an orphanage). Clothing, similarly, seems like it might often be commissioned or at least tailored somewhat to fit on purchase given people's comments in regards to Louis's market booth. Ryis mentions thrifting in the Capital so there is a strong secondhand market it would seem. Fashion is a mix of medieval-fantasy and modern. Women aren't confined to skirts in this society, and fashion is not conservative (you've seen those swimsuits). I will not make any guesses to material production or the potential for artificial materials - some things look plastic-y, but who can say for sure! ***

We do technically have photos from the dates you can take people on, but there is no camera shown and they are not acknowledged directly, and all other pictures we see are paintings, so these photos probably only exist for the player. I would hazard that camera technology, if it exists at all, would not reasonably be instant, full-color, and high-quality like the date pictures are. ****

The mines utilize a rope-and-pulley elevator and there are minecarts and tracks scattered around the upper levels. There are buttons on the mine elevator, but it wouldn't make sense for it to be electronic, right...?

Not necessarily technological, but you can get a magic circle house teleporter from Wheedle. This could have some implications, especially in conjunction with sealing scrolls apparently circulating in this world. There are ancient magic items in the world, but it is likely that they are few and quite hard to get your hands on... But also, sorceresses are out there, even if not known to the general populace. Could they also be creating modern magic items and those are making their way to the public in small amounts? Might the magic circle in Wheedle's shop be a modern spell..? I would assume that magic is not a significant part of the technological underpinnings of society, but it is out there to some extent, and seems to put sorceresses at a somewhat different place than the general population - there are short range teleporters and phone equivalents available to them!

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Slightly off topic notes:

*Shout out to the ancient Indus Valley civilization in India for the cities that got uncovered and had fully planned out sanitation! The rest of the world did not do that for a long time - Galena https://www.safeplumbing.org/about-pmi/timeline here's my lil bit of research about plumbing in case you want to look too! - Petra

**I want to say nobility implies fiefdom/territories within a kingdom where there is some Overseer Figure over multiple farms in an area or larger organized farms, but we don't know that the historical western system transfers to this. either way, individual farms would def be a thing. - Galena

***Speaking of plastic: this world does not trend toward disposability in the way that the modern day does! Takeout from the inn would maybe count on dishes being returned? There won't be single-use plastic packaging here. - Petra

****After doing a quick Wikipedia refresh on camera history, I would guess potentially camera obscura projection techniques as a drawing/painting aid could be in use? - Petra

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"Technology" is actually a very wide subject, so we tried to cover a number of bases. If anyone has notes feel free to correct us or add your own additions! I hope that at least some of this was useful. Some of what we say here may feel redundant or obvious, but we have both missed obvious things before, so we'd rather go a little overboard for the sake of clarity.

Thanks for the question!!

- ⯌Petra (with notes and help from Galena⯎)