History Main / MedievalStasis

** [[EnforcedTrope Enforced]] in ''TabletopGame/Planegea''; a mysterious force known as the Hounds of Blind Heaven attack and kill anyone who might advance the world beyond the stone-age setting it currently is, which includes inventing wheels, money, writing, or numbers higher than 9. These are referred to as the Black Taboos and have kept the world in neolithic stasis.

* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': In the two-part episode "Demon World", [[BigBad Shendu]] rewrites history so that he and his demon siblings rule the Earth and ensures that human technology never advanced past ancient/medieval levels. He also forbids humans from learning magic or martial arts.

** The other main human faction, Bretonnia ("France") has an in-universe 900 year old history, during which it has stayed a feudal monarchy ruled by a king. It was originally portrayed as on a similar technological level to the Empire, but with a social situation more akin to the 18th century with powdered and bewigged nobles mincing about effetely and ignoring the plight of the massed poor. Subsequent editions have actually ''regressed'' Bretonnian technology to a High Middle Ages level and given them a more "heroic" slant, with a culture of bold knights and doughty peasants straight out of Malory's ''La Morte d'Arthur'' [[DecadeDissonance despite sharing borders with the much more advanced Empire and Tilea for its entire history]]. It has been implied that this is due, at least in part, to manipulation by the [[TheFairFolk immortal rulers]] of the [[OurElvesAreDifferent Asrai (Wood Elves)]]. For game balance, their most elite troops apparently have blessings from their goddess to give bullets a 50% chance to magically miss (though this doesn't always save them, as Kurt Helborg's massacre of a Bretonnian army with cannon fire in "Duty and Honour" can attest to). In-universe they get away with their stasis mostly because of geography -- the Empire, Kislev, Estalia, Tilea, and Karaz Ankor each border at least one homeland of a major villainous faction: the Badlands/Dark Lands (Greenskins), Norsca/the Chaos Wastes (Chaos), Sylvania (Vampire Counts), the Drakwald (independent Beastmen), and Skavenblight (Skaven). Bretonnia does fight all those same foes, but since it's far from their homes it does so in far reduced numbers due to distance, and the threats originating ''inside'' Bretonnian borders (e.g. Masif Orcal, the Beastmen inhabiting the forests of Arden and Chalons, the undead at Mousillon) are simply of a much smaller scale than the other major factions deal with. Their own land borders are taken up by ostensibly allied elven, human, and dwarf kingdoms (occasional skirmishes with the Empire notwithstanding), while the ocean to their west is in turn dominated by the friendly High Elves. And when Bretonnia does send out expeditionary forces to help said allies, they tend to consist mostly of knights (heavy lancers still being a relevant though not cost-effective combat force well past the era the Empire is aping) supplemented by magic elites, or else are from their navy (which, due to LoopholeAbuse, makes use of gunpowder weapons unlike their land forces). Magic is also more common among their troops than other human nations in the form of enchanted knight gear, but most of said magic is very subtle and its effects aren't that significant.[[note]]For example, the Bretonnia 6e army book has a list of "Common" magical equipment they use, the most expensive of which are the Sword of Striking, Sword of Might, Sword of Battle, and War Banner, which give +1 to To Hit, Strength, Attack, and Leadership respectively for the units equipping them. For reference, a unit gets +2 to Strength over the human baseline (said baseline representing the damage an average soldier can inflict with a basic one-handed melee weapon) just from being equipped with a two-handed weapon like a greatsword or halberd, and a +1 difference in Leadership (representing a unit's morale/bravery) is less than the difference between a well-trained soldier (e.g. Imperial State Troops at Leadership 7) and a badly-trained one (e.g. Bretonnian fuedal levies all at Leadership 5), or between an average and an elite (which are either 8 or 9). Ditto for the Attack difference, representing the number of times a unit attacks per round (e.g. an average State Troop at Attack 1 vs a State Troop Sergeant at Attack 2). Very subtle indeed.[[/note]]

** All the variants of elves are similarly stuck in stasis. The three kinds of elves -- High, Wood and Dark -- split apart during The Sundering and the War of Vengeance, roughly 4,500 year ago. Nearly five millennia later, the Wood Elves are isolationist semi-barbarians, the High Elves refuse to industrialize for aesthetic reasons, and the Dark Elves arrogantly insist that their {{Automatic Crossbow}}s, both hand-held and siege engine-sized, are just as good as gunpowder weapons despite their game stats telling very different stories. Interestingly, High Elven magic has given them a standard of living handily outdoing that of every other culture (the two big reasons being that they're naturally healthy/disease-resistant and that their mages can cast botanical spells that render large-scaling farming more or less unnecessary), but their military remains mostly composed of guys with spears and bows. Elven culture as a rule DoesNotLikeGuns, despite how demonstrably effective they are (mages and magical beasts can compensate for this disadvantage in naval combat, less so in ground combat).
** The Dwarfs are a mixed bag. They were the first culture to invent gunpowder, and have been writing grudges about clans not returning another's steam engines in good repair for centuries. One coastal Hold has constructed ironclad steamboats and simple submarines, and the dwarfs can even field primitive steam-powered aircraft, gyrocopters, and, in the ''Literature/GotrekAndFelix'' stories, a zeppelin capable of traversing the Chaos Wastes. The dwarfs have two major obstacles, though: first, their old empire was fractured roughly 4,000 years ago, and their constant warring with Greenskins and Skaven for the last 4 milennia means that they're more focused on producing and improving their old weapons than inventing new ones. Second, dwarfs are intensely conservative and distrustful of any technology that hasn't proven its worth over a couple of centuries. As a result, many young dwarf engineers with new ideas end up running off to join the Empire's engineering schools, adding brain drain to the dwarf's troubles. While Dwarf armies do make use of muskets and cannons, as well as advanced gear like flamethrowers and repeaters in more limited numbers, the bulk of their troops still consist of dwarfs in steel mail equipped with axes, mattocks, hammers, and crossbows. They even still use ballistae and catapults that are literally thousands of years old.

* The ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' game setting is another sci-fi example of this trope:

** The largest exception in the series to date, at least when it comes to the political climate change, occurs during the 200 year TimeSkip between ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]''. With no Septim on the throne for the first time in nearly 500 years, the Empire begins to crumble as provinces secede while its ancient ArchEnemy, the Aldmeri Dominion, reforms and grows in power under the leadership of the extremist [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Thalmor]]. On top of this were multiple destructive cataclysms, such as the [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion Crisis]], the Umbriel Crisis (in which a massive continent from Clavicus Vile's Realm invaded Tamriel), the Red Year (in which the massive volcano at the heart of Morrowind detonated when an asteroid struck it, devastating one of the most prosperous provinces in Tamriel), and the Great War between the Empire and the Dominion. For those used to the climate in the first four games in the main series, seeing the Empire in such dire straights in ''Skyrim'' is quite the shock.

* Mostly subverted in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech''. While two devastating interstellar wars lead to technology for [[HumongousMecha BattleMechs]], spaceships and other equipment remaining stagnant or declining -- a factory-fresh [=BattleMech=] built in 2750 is vastly superior to its jury-rigged 3025 counterpart -- this situation only endures for two and a half centuries (about the same length of stagnation for 'Dark Age' Europe). Also [[ImpartialPurposeDrivenFaction ComStar]] still hoards the advanced [[LostTechnology LosTech]] and plans to rebuild society with it once the Great Houses have destroyed each other. By 3039, the Great Houses have began to rediscover and rebuild formerly lost technology in small quantities, and by the time of the [=FedCom=] Civil War (3062-3067) and Word of Blake Jihad (3068-3080), the Inner Sphere powers have rediscovered and even improved upon Star League technology, or invented entirely new equipment.
** Also subverted with the political and historical side of the setting. Unlike Star Wars, Dune, or Warhammer 40,000, history does not remain static -- several factions rise and fall over the 1100-odd years of ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' history, with the longest-lived only 7-8 centuries old and all of them changed from their original incarnations.

** The Empire (a FantasyCounterpartCulture of the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire), broadly speaking, has been in cultural and political stasis for a millennia, but has seen more rapid technological and scientific developement in the setting's recent history:

* The Eastern Kingdom of Mikado in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV''. [[spoiler:The Law Faction's goal is to permanently seal it in this trope by putting the Four Archangels in charge (Gabriel's been hard at work keeping it that way for almost a millennia and a half) and detonating a MagicalParticleAccelerator in the middle of Tokyo, wiping out what seems to be Humankind's last bastion of wisdom and knowledge in the world. Conversely, the Chaos side wants to blow open the doors to Naraku and allow demons to march straight into the capital, forcing the locals to either fight them and learn more about war and evolution, or just die, leaving the Tokyo natives to reconquer their world]].

** The Empire (a FantasyCounterpartCulture of the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire) has a 2,500 year old history as a coherent political entity. By way of an example, that's the equivalent of something like UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat's Empire surviving into the modern day still controlling Greece, Turkey the Levant, Egypt and Iran and still referred to as 'Alexander's Empire'. During this time it has evolved from barbarian tribes through medieval feudalism, and by the game's present day is essentially Early Modern Europe, roughly the era UsefulNotes/TheProtestantReformation, still keeping its same religion, most of its geographic borders and the same government (if not ruling dynasty, the first Emperor Sigmar had no descendants and set up an elective monarchy before disappearing and coming to be worshipped as a god, and nobles both electoral and lesser saw a lot of dynasty changes on specific titles). The closes the Empire came to falling apart was the Age of Three Emperors (starting with Two Emperors and at some point having four before one of two of the claims were reunified), but the Great War Against Chaos and it's hero, Magnus the Pious, reinforced unity about two hundred years before the default present day of the setting in 2522. Magnus is considered the greatest Emperor after Sigmar. Firearms are widespread, as are more experimental and dangerous black powder weapons like [[GatlingGood volley-guns]] and rocket launchers, and even cantankerous Steam Tanks. The city of Nuln boasts technological innovations like clockwork horses, electricity, indoor plumbing, and drawbridges, and is so shrouded in smog from its many factories that it could be mistaken for Victorian London. The printing press is in wide use, while the free city of Marienburg is experimenting with a stock market and democracy. At the same time, magic has been "unionized" into a number of colleges focusing on styles of spellcasting, developed with the assistance of the High Elven mage Teclis. The minor states of Estalia and Tilea (fantasy Italy) are more or less on par with those of the richer southern parts of the Empire.
** The other main human faction, Bretonnia ("France") has an in-universe 900 year old history, during which it has stayed a feudal monarchy ruled by a king. It was originally portrayed as on a similar technological level to the Empire, but with a social situation more akin to the 18th century with powdered and bewigged nobles mincing about effetely and ignoring the plight of the massed poor. Subsequent editions have actually ''regressed'' Bretonnian technology to a High Middle Ages level and given them a more "heroic" slant, with a culture of bold knights and doughty peasants straight out of Malory's ''La Morte d'Arthur'' [[DecadeDissonance despite sharing a border with the much more advanced Empire for its entire history]]. It has been implied that this is due, at least in part, to manipulation by the [[TheFairFolk immortal rulers]] of the [[OurElvesAreDifferent Asrai (Wood Elves)]]. For game balance, their most elite troops apparently have blessings from their goddess to give bullets a 50% chance to magically miss (though this doesn't always save them, as Kurt Helborg's massacre of a Bretonnian army with cannon fire in "Duty and Honour" can attest to). In-universe they get away with their stasis mostly because of geography - the Empire, Kislev, Estalia, Tilea, and Karaz Ankor each border at least one homeland of a major villainous faction: the Badlands/Dark Lands (Greenskins), Norsca/the Chaos Wastes (Chaos), Sylvania (Vampire Counts), the Drakwald (independent Beastmen), and Skavenblight (Skaven). Bretonnia does fight all those same foes, but since it's far from their homes it does so in far reduced numbers due to distance, and the threats originating ''inside'' Bretonnian borders (e.g. Masif Orcal, the Beastmen inhabiting the forests of Arden and Chalons, the undead at Mousillon) are simply of a much smaller scale than the other major factions deal with. Their own land borders are taken up by ostensibly allied elven, human, and dwarf kingdoms (occasional skirmishes with the Empire notwithstanding), while the ocean to their west is in turn dominated by the friendly High Elves. And when Bretonnia does send out expeditionary forces to help said allies, they tend to consist mostly of knights (heavy lancers still being a relevant though not cost-effective combat force well past the era the Empire is aping) supplemented by magic elites, or else are from their navy (which, due to LoopholeAbuse, makes use of gunpowder weapons unlike their land forces). Magic is also more common among their troops than other human nations in the form of enchanted knight gear, but most of said magic is very subtle and its effects aren't that significant.[[note]]For example, the Bretonnia 6e army book has a list of "Common" magical equipment they use, the most expensive of which are the Sword of Striking, Sword of Might, Sword of Battle, and War Banner, which give +1 to To Hit, Strength, Attack, and Leadership respectively for the units equipping them. For reference, a unit gets +2 to Strength over the human baseline (said baseline representing the damage an average soldier can inflict with a basic one-handed melee weapon) just from being equipped with a two-handed weapon like a greatsword or halberd, and a +1 difference in Leadership (representing a unit's morale/bravery) is less than the difference between a well-trained soldier (e.g. Imperial State Troops at Leadership 7) and a badly-trained one (e.g. Bretonnian fuedal levies all at Leadership 5), or between an average and an elite (which are either 8 or 9). Ditto for the Attack difference, representing the number of times a unit attacks per round (e.g. an average State Troop at Attack 1 vs a State Troop Sergeant at Attack 2). Very subtle indeed.[[/note]]

Furthermore, there have been no wars -- between countries or civil wars -- and no redrawing of any inter-state boundaries. No new nations have arisen, and none have been subsumed into others or wiped out. No more or less land is under the plough[[note]] This is one area in which things most consistently changed over time throughout the last three thousand years of Eurasian (but not so much American or Australian, prior to European settlement) history, though there have been reverses. Population kept rising with it, of course[[/note]], no canals have been dug or allowed to silt up and no rivers have changed course or been made (un)navigable[[note]] Even today, 90% of the bulk/weight of world-trade entails shipping. Even today there is still no way to cheaply ship bulky items over long distances other than, well, ''shipping'' them. More cargo, both bulk and containers, is hauled on European big rivers annually than on European roads and railroads combined. Profit margins dwindled fast after the first 30km (one day's cart-travel) from the nearest shoreline, river, or canal[[/note]], and it certainly doesn't ''look'' like people have been making and accumulating things like brick and iron in the intervening time[[note]] The amount of both of these in use has steadily increased over time as well. Once it's been quarried there's no reason why stone can't be used time and again, e.g. the near-complete salvaging of the stone sections of The Great Wall Of China for use in people's houses (it's had to be rebuilt a few times from scratch for just this reason). In the same vein iron was just too useful not to be well-used and looked-after and salvaged and accumulated. Knowledge and writings (scrolls, books, etc), too, have steadily accumulated over time. Most of it isn't remotely useful, of course, but it's still nice to have. Exceptions to the Rule Of Accumulation abound, such as iron-poor Japan -- the islands had so little iron that it was profitable to import it from Korea and China, and every single piece of iron armour was painstakingly coated in lacquer to prevent even the slightest bit of it from being lost to rusting [[/note]]. There have been no demographic changes (both population increase and the subsequent inevitable decrease[[note]] The soil can only support so many people. All it takes is one bad harvest and a nasty cold going around, and ''bam''. Demographic decline. Then, sooner or later, the cycle starts all over again... [[/note]] have caused major changes), no changes of religion or religious observance[[note]] Europe's Medieval period saw two -- increasingly religious through the late dark ages as Pagan Europe was conquered or converted, increasingly secular until the 14th Century or so, then increasingly religious once more until the end of the 15th century reached the old high of general religiousness [[/note]], no changes of dynasty unless it's a plot point, no new organizations of political or social significance (such as guilds), no changes in art or music or clothing, no new fashions, and no changes in academic or philosophical studies. Despite the apparent age of uninterrupted peace, there will still be a professional warrior caste standing -- with undiminished wealth and status despite their redundancy -- for the entire period. If the landscape changes at all, even in the course of 100,000 years, it won't be due to geological processes, but due to [[WorldSundering magic]]. Otherwise, expect the landmarks and geography to remain identical across the eons.

* Justified in-universe in ''ComicBook/TheAdventuresOfBarryWeenBoyGenius''. Barry travels through a dimensional wormhole to the world of Ramaat, which is locked in a MedievalStasis due to "The Drain"; a natural phenomenon that causes all power to dissipate rapidly. Even ordinary fire is not possible. Being that Ramaat is a world with three suns, [[ShownTheirWork this actually makes sense]], as it would keep the world from being cooked by solar radiation.

** Partially averted in ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'', where the northwestern Core has undergone significant (Clockpunk-level) technical and scientific progress in recent decades. The fact that most domains in the Land of Mists are less than 200 years old also helps spare it from accusations of MedievalStasis; Barovia is over twice that old but is openly derided as an archaic backwater by its neighbors. However, the Dark Powers do interfere to maintain some cultural stasis, often by mucking about with people's minds, especially those of the darklords. For example, the proximity of Falkovnia (solidly Medieval) to other domains with Renaissance-era technology does nothing to change its culture, largely because the resident darklord is averse to both magic and technology.

* Played straight in ''VideoGame/BattleForWesnoth'', whose timeline crosses nearly 1,000 years without any tech level change, then an unspecified time passes during which technology advances far enough to put another star in the sky (well, technically a big nuclear moon) to improve the climate, which then [[ColonyDrop crashes back down]] enforcing MedievalStasis just in time for us to pick up the story again.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI''. [[AfterTheEnd After 1,000 years after the War of the Magi]], civilization has rediscovered steam engines and "...high technology reigns." However, 80% of the world is locked in MedievalStasis with a Victorian skin, as the only signs of any sort of technology are Narshe (steam and coal), Figaro Castle (but not South Figaro), and the Empire's {{Magitek}}. Although there are also gramophones in most houses.

** For that matter, ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' had some pretty heavy MedievalStasis going on, with 4000 years of stagnation caused by the constant waxing and waning of mana and repeated predations on all the world's nations by the Desians. [[spoiler:It eventually turns out that this is due to a system intentionally set in place by the KnightTemplar BigBad to prevent the humans from inventing {{magitek}} devices again and setting off another great war. The hero's defeat of the BigBad is, then, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero responsible for the later war which almost wiped out mankind and pushed the survivors back to a medieval level]].]]

** In the course of the series, the Gummis are known more for their magical prowess and general cleverness, but two standout examples of their technology would be a human-sized, combat-capable MiniMecha, and the Gummiscope, which could be used as either a long-distance communication device (complete with an animatronic hand for transcribing the message on the receiving end!), or a colossal DeathRay. In addition, they also had access to heavy ground vehicles, aircraft, and chemical weapons. In a world otherwise trapped in MedievalStasis, the Great Gummis seem to have mastered ClockPunk.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/Thundercats2011''. While the Thundercats' society has remained in MedievalStasis at a level around that of the dark ages or ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', the opening has the Lizards suddenly attack with [[HumongousMecha Giant Robots,]] [[StuffBlowingUp Missiles,]] and laser guns. It's a massive CurbStompBattle for the heroes, and Thundera (the homeland of the Thundercats) is wiped out in less than a day.

* In ''VideoGame/ForHonor'', technology doesn't appear to have changed since the start of the 1000 year war that ended just prior to the game. {{Justified|Trope}} in that the war occurred due to a planet-wide cataclysm that reshaped the continents from (per WordOfGod) ''our Earth'' circa 1000 A.D. into the world of ''For Honor'', which would be more than enough to cause the collapse of civilization and slow new advances. Additionally, the introduction of the Wu-Lin in the ''Marching Fire'' update (who have access to early gunpowder weapons) shows that technology is still advancing, just very slowly.

Heck, the "castles and knights" period of Medieval Europe didn't even make it to ''five hundred'' years, and compare [[http://de.academic.ru/pictures/dewiki/84/Tapisserie_motte_maquette.jpg these]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krak_des_Chevaliers three]] [[http://www.herstmonceux-castle.com/ castles]] to get some idea of how much things changed even then.

There is an Enlightenment idea that the Middle Ages were a "dark age", in which the brilliance of the Romans declined. However, this only really applies to TheDarkAges, prior to the 9th century or so, when stone buildings weren't even that common. See also [[Analysis/MedievalStasis Analysis]] for additional facts about the Middle Ages.

** On the one extreme, the [[OurElvesAreDifferent Night Elves]] have existed in what seems to be a state of technological and societal stasis for ''ten thousand years''. However, this is explicitly shown to be part of the (very conservative) race's way of life; a large segment of their population goes into otherworldly trances, sometimes for centuries at a time, and the remainder are so devoted to their sylvan ways that until recently they tended to disparage all technology or arcane magic. The fact that they were immortal at the time and this represented a single generation also contributed.