marc Posted August 21, 2010 Report Share Posted August 21, 2010 Re: Sewage disposal in a fantasy world The scale could be increased to suit a higher population Enzymes help and are needed to aid the process water could be diverted to allow for toilets that run all the time .. to keep things flowing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawnmower Boy Posted August 21, 2010 Report Share Posted August 21, 2010 Re: Sewage disposal in a fantasy world Or you could just go with an outhouse, as most people did, even in ancient Rome, aqueducts and sewers notwithstanding. It's surprisingly sanitary, until population densities get too high, which is why septic field systems are still widely used today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drhoz Posted August 22, 2010 Report Share Posted August 22, 2010 Re: Sewage disposal in a fantasy world Back in the suburbs of Sydney, until surprisingly recently, there were still night soil collectors. Usually collecting for the Chinese Market Gardens. Googling "night soil collectors sydney" gives you plenty of hits. Introducing sewer connections to most houses even affected the street layout - rear alleyways vanished, since the they didn't need to get nightsoil carts in and out anymore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drhoz Posted August 22, 2010 Report Share Posted August 22, 2010 Re: Sewage disposal in a fantasy world See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_soil for more on gong farming, honey buckets, etc too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christougher Posted August 23, 2010 Report Share Posted August 23, 2010 Re: Sewage disposal in a fantasy world From a computer game, (Albion, IIRC) they had a species of plant that doubled as the toilet. Flowers to cover the smell, and lots of leaves. Only worry was it growing too fast from overuse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnotherSkip Posted August 28, 2010 Report Share Posted August 28, 2010 Re: Sewage disposal in a fantasy world wasn't/couldn't adobe be built out of dung and straw? "We built this city on...." erm yeah not going to be the anthem we are looking for.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RexMundi Posted August 28, 2010 Report Share Posted August 28, 2010 Re: Sewage disposal in a fantasy world You can make anything out of Poo.....It comes in all consistancies from concrete to glue...... ~Rex....says You wouldn't want your fantasy city designed by Etrigan.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnotherSkip Posted August 29, 2010 Report Share Posted August 29, 2010 Re: Sewage disposal in a fantasy world Basically to sum up you have three choices 1. put it somewhere else:from a standard sewer transportation system all the way to paying beings to cart it away and get it to a usable compost location. 2. have a crittter deal with it. from moss/plants/whatever that thrive on the stuff to draconic incinerators. (hmm perhaps the moss could have magical spell enhancing properties that mages would want to add to their spell components, thus the reason why there are so many dungeons and the mages stock them....) 3. convert it to something useful. perhaps a magic spell of s**t into gold? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drhoz Posted August 29, 2010 Report Share Posted August 29, 2010 Re: Sewage disposal in a fantasy world 3. convert it to something useful. perhaps a magic spell of s**t into gold? No need to convert it magically - saltpeter deposits were so valuable in the 1600s that gong farmers had a royal warrant to enter any property at any time of the day or night in order to scrape the cesspits clean. Of course that does assume that your setting has alchemists who know about gunpowder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted August 30, 2010 Report Share Posted August 30, 2010 Re: Sewage disposal in a fantasy world What about an early gas works to extract methane? If you're being liberal-minded about it, even a late western empire or byzantine milieu *could* support it. We talked about this in my antarctic civilization thread. It didn't fit the feel for my fake society, but for a more imperial or high medieval feel it could work. Also, a city that size requires a good deal of farm land to support it. While the farmers would probably have plenty of animal dung, perhaps humanure is in use. Its less useful than animal manure in some ways as human manure has to sit longer to let pathogens die (and has more pathogens to start with) Also, while bovine and equine dung would probably be better, dried feces is used as fuel for fires in some parts of the work. Another option is to create some sort of fantastical bacteria or fungus that breaks down or outright consumes human waste. Perhaps said fungus or bacteria, in turn, has some use, allowing excess bacteria / fungus to be harvested. For instance, maybe it has strong phosphorescent properties allowing it to be use as night-markers, or even weak lights. Or perhaps it can be distilled into dye. Urine is more readily useful as fetilizer, and can be a source of some chemicals. Also, if you have gray water needs, its simple enough to let it separate and use the water for gardens and the like, though its less problematic to pee in the river than put solid waste into it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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