Science (Shade)

The science on modern Shade is some way off 2005CE Earth's in terms of what you might call landmark inventions. However, importantly, magical processes or procedures are used in many places where science is not developed. Additionally, in some ways, Shade has just developed in different directions.

Thus, there are no recording methods or long-distance communications methods. This means: no internet. No telephones. No recording industry (which by implication means that music is learned and performed live, resulting in a lot of variance and improvisation and less archiving and preservation).

There are fast long-distance forms of transport (working on a mixture of magical manipulation and mechanics), such that physically visiting someone or sending a letter can be done in convenient timeframes.

Electricity has been experimented with but isn't in widespread use. People still use things like candles, but 'mage lights' are cheaply available too.

There has been development in other scientific areas - for example, they're some way ahead of us in genetic manipulation, but that's still theoretical: they haven't done much of it in society as a whole.

It's likely they'll develop communications technology soon, likely basing it on the processes that allow telepaths to communicate over much shorter ranges (for discussion of which see their article). Space travel probably isn't far off.