Just to throw my two cents in with uplift/long term goals...
We are sitting on a very transformative tech which which has certainly not been utilized to it's full potential and could have profound effects on society.
I speak, of course, of the humble storage seal. Transport is one of the foundational services of society. So is storage. The storage seal trivializes both (particularly if we could make ones that store more, see Dreaming of Sunshine for example). Given sufficient storage seals, one man can carry more than a freight train (large scroll). Bulk goods could be moved at Ninja speeds. All food can be preserved. All evidence of murder can be wiped away. With Skywalkers, really heavy things can be be dropped from really high.
This could be an insanely transformative technology, given sufficient supply. So let's look at the supply side. Hazou can pop out a storage seal at about 1 per 5 minutes. Let's say he can work productively for 7 hours in a day (30 min for lunch, 2 15 min breaks and 8 hour working day, standard for USA). That's 84 seals per day.
To put that in perspective, a 53' semi truck trailer can haul 3800 cubic ft (107.604 m^3) and 15,000 lb (6803.8855 kg) (
Equipment, Truck Trailer Van Specifications). All of these storage seals can probably fit in a single scroll and be used/transported by a single ninja. Since storage seals can hold 1 m^3/100 kg, Hazou can turn a single ninja into the logistical equivalent of a semi-truck in about 1.3 days (30+ mph? -> 13.4 m/s).
Let's compare this to the current state of the art. I'm having remarkable trouble finding the exact specs on what medieval carts can carry but I'm going to guess it isn't much more than a Subaru with the seat folded down since it is being drawn by horses on crappy roads (
https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/subaru/outback/interior). That's 73.3 cubic feet (2.07 m^3) moving at something like a human walking pace on a good day (1.4 m/s,
Walking - Wikipedia).
So logistically, a modestly applied Hazou equipped ninja is semi-equivalent to 497 wagons hauling stuff around (not counting the advantages of reduced capital investment, quicker deliveries and much better security). And capacity could be improved just by adding more seals to the scroll (or making a better storage seal). These calculations have some estimation, but indicate that we could SIGNIFICANTLY improve one of the pillars of society right now.
Likewise, how much would the performance of the Leaf rank and file improve if every squad had a storage seal? How much more essential equipment could each squad carry. I don't remember the exact numbers on how many squads there were in Leaf, but how much political capital could be gathered by gifting squads with a storage seal? There have been many references to how they are too expensive for most to afford. That just makes them that much better of a gift (and whets the appetite for further use of them).
Furthermore, we could extend the economic lead of our clan by simply selling them. The whole merchant council debate got kicked off with the simple observation that Hazou should be able to make bank by selling storage scrolls. Presumably with time to process and our clan in a favorable political position, we should be able to sell storage seals to our fellow ninja (civilians can't make them almost by definition).
This could be turned into a second revolution by making a civilian usable version. This would be incredibly useful for them and for the first time give civilians access to "ninja magic" which would be a transformative change for this society as well.
Lastly, the storage seal is suppose to be one of the easier ones to create (hence being widely used). It would support the aforementioned revolutions if the clan started training more ninja to be able to produce storage seals (and just storage seals) and make the price come down by having more sellers (so things don't stop if the clan dies or gets busy).
What do you guys think?
