Local history. Generations ago, the people of the city, the kedan, were brought to this world by a woman named Eshai to fight for her. Something about the spell made them unusually passive and incurious. Eshai claimed it was an unintended side effect.

[Zel didn't trust Eshai, and about the only thing that supports her statement was the fact she had to bring them in because the kedan couldn't fight]

About... a bit more than a year ago, the spell was changed, or that part stopped working. While the kedan were under the spell, there wasn't much work on technology. Or much change of any sort.