Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-83.70.203.112-20150923133208/@comment-25555436-20150923140336

83.70.203.112 wrote: because as lore and world building goes, RWBY is kind of lacking on the technical explinations front of things. At least you noticed it.

We don't know the exact moment in time, compared to ours, that RWBY takes place in. And we don't know if they use other resources that are not Dust, and if they do, how common they are. Lack of Oil is not an issue, especially since in fiction most "more advanced than us" societies do not need it for they found a more effective replacement.

Do also note that the Kingdoms are not as big as you'd think. And in the case of Vale, excluding Forever Fall, Emerald Forest and the water under their territory, there's nothing but a city in there. At least Vale may not be as resourceful as it should.

We could make a few suppositions: You could say that, since they use Dust for everything, and Dust already provides almost all elemental energies like lightning and fire, other resources are not necesary.

You could also say that they used those resources once, but now they are so advanced they don't need them anymore. You mention how plastics are used for electronics today. Maybe they reached a tech level high enough to make plastics not as necesary? Or they found an alternative resource?

In RWBY many, many things seem much more...holographic. At least in Vale. Physical resources like aluminium may not get as much wide use as here on Earth. On the other hand, when you look at the characters's clothes, and the buildings, it doesn't seem too much more advanced than in current days.