Gnomish technology seems to be portrayed as based on some combination of magic and clockwork/gear-based mechanisms, the physical part of which (gears/etc) existed VERY far back. Check out the "Antikythera mechanism" for some interesting reading if you find that sort of thing interesting.
Plate armor in the conventional sense of the term differs from individual solid metal armor sections such as cuirasses, which also existed very far back. The full plate harness is articulated and largely self-supporting. As with numerous other technologies (including, say, steam engines), the physical materials needed to craft it were available for many centuries before it was finally developed.
Rather than being truly medieval, our fantasy games are based more on later-era sources (renaissance era, often enough) that had a tendency to portray medieval characters wearing anachronistic plate armor, like Arthurian legend or the stories of Charlemagne's Paladins (Roland, etc).
Danth
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11-14-2019, 01:38 PM
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