|
Post by EDM Neo on Apr 15, 2009 14:10:39 GMT -5
So, this is going to seem pretty random, and it's really not at all important... but, I was thinking about it earlier, and now I'm curious: is indoor plumbing regularly utilized in Cormyr/Faerun, if at all? How about plumbing in general, for that matter? Redmist and Suzail both have Absurdly Spacious Sewers, but it's hard to guess just what that means.
|
|
Manshin
Old School
FRC2 Build Team
Posts: 703
|
Post by Manshin on Apr 15, 2009 16:00:02 GMT -5
I can't speak for Cormyr directly, however in Waterdeep (In the wealthier districts) many people have chamber pots which teleport non-living matter directly to the sewer. They are far from cheap and are a thing which my rogues tend to overlook when clearing out a house. I even tried to clue them in when they were going through the sewer one time by telling them they heard strange popping noises followed by splashing here and there.
There is no reason to think the wealthy families in Cormyr wouldn't also be able to afford such luxuries.
|
|
|
Post by Rook on Apr 15, 2009 16:21:32 GMT -5
The following is just my conjecture and not based on source material or such.
I don't think the presence of sewers means there is running water anywhere. In a city as large as Suzail without a sewer you either have many people walking long distances to dump their chambers pots (with the chance to spill them along the way) or people dump them in the city streets or in the river. Sewers make it much easier (and cleaner for the city) to empty chamber pots. Some people may have toilets/outhouses that have an opening that leads directly to the sewer. And if sewers were dug out by hand (which I would expect) then it makes sense they would be big enough for a man to walk in.
|
|
|
Post by Grozer on Apr 15, 2009 16:48:05 GMT -5
....besides they good escape tunnels for getting out of jail!
|
|
ritefoot
Old School
Daisy Elf Bard
Posts: 494
|
Post by ritefoot on Apr 15, 2009 17:41:53 GMT -5
Other than the magic side of things, the existence of a sewer does not mean plumbing. That however does not negate flowing water though. Fountains were about in many very rich places. Temples might pulls one off and you do see that some temples have something coming out the back. Sewers were just a way to move the street mess underground and allow water to flow out of the city as they were a rain system too. The people that did not have magic pots would be sending it out the windows. Streets were not nice. (Night soil) Sewers for the most part (Not including places like Rome) were not started until long after the black death. (If I remember right) Now any place that could be solidly locked down (castle) would need a place to drop mess beyond the range of their environment. They could be locked down for months. So there would be a toilet. The Romans did have a liking for food and did do some scary things to remove what was taken so they could take more. The Spas had some strange extra services and some spas in Rome served 100s of people as the same time all day. Now the Roman spas were no less advanced than most plumbing today. They had working taps and flowing flavored water (Roman tap water today is clean and sweet, not even near a joke, try it) The invention of the flushing toilet was not until the Victorian times though. (Thomas Crapper! No good deed goes unpunished; the guy saved more lives than Dr House.) Plumbing comes from the Latin word for Lead, and the pipes were made from that. Questions is what would you call Plumbing? Rite.
|
|
|
Post by Munroe on Apr 15, 2009 19:09:27 GMT -5
In Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave (a 3.5e adventure I'm currently running in my tabletop game), the first "dungeon" is a temple that does NOT have running water. However, the lavatories are built with steep chutes that run to a branch of the river that runs underground beneath the temple. (Yes, characters CAN go down the chutes. It's an option in the adventure.)
If a city has a sewer system, it's a safe bet to assume that many of the buildings may have indoor facilities that feed directly into that sewer, but they probably stink ferociously because there's no indication of running water or the traps used in modern plumbing to stop the sewage smell from coming up.
While most of the rooms in inns probably have chamber pots, the inn itself may have a waste room where these chamberpots can be directly emptied to the sewer.
Of course all of this is exposition taken from the way it is done at one temple in one adventure set in Wheloon in Cormyr, and that location is over an underground branch of the Wyvernflow, not over a sewer.
|
|
|
Post by terek on Aug 18, 2009 17:33:16 GMT -5
um....
*raises hand diffidently*
In real life history, the people of Mohenjo Daro had public sewers with direct drains from their homes/apartments thousands of years ago. The rich folks in Egypt had them also. The Romans had running water toilets if I remember correctly, but their's didn't flush. The water ran continuously. At least in the royal palace toilets and vomitoriums.
Just saying...
|
|
|
Post by brian333 on Aug 21, 2009 22:20:17 GMT -5
Any culture capable of irrigation already knows everything they need to create efficient sewers, but because of the expense they are only created when they are absolutely needed.
Rome didn't build sewers because they were a big city, they became a big city because they had sewers. They needed them to handle the flow of water they had constantly arriving in the city by the various aquaducts that fed, (and still do feed,) the city. Since water has to go downhill, eventually the flow of water forced them underground.
Some places, Dublin for example, simply built over existing streams for instant sewers which were later expanded as the city developed, but even where the rivers weren't covered they were often the sewer of the early settlements. Few large cities were ever built where there is no natural river.
|
|
|
Post by Munroe on Aug 22, 2009 6:25:15 GMT -5
Few large cities were ever built where there is no natural river. Then some idiot decided to build Las Vegas in the middle of a desert. Seriously, last I heard it's the fastest growing city in the US.
|
|
|
Post by brian333 on Aug 22, 2009 10:58:55 GMT -5
A fine example. Unfortunately, 100% of the Las Vegas River now goes to feed the city's demand for water, along with aquaducts from the Colorado River, but Las Vegas exists where it is because it was built on the site of a spring in the middle of the desert.
The Mayan cities of Yucatan also seem to be built far from any flowing river, but they depended upon cenotes, or collapsed portions of the limestone caverns which grant access to the many rivers which flow underground through the Yucatan Peninsula. Another example of instant plumbing!
|
|