If you do find something (reasonably conveniently), that would be cool -- definitely sounds interesting. Either way, thanks!
As for sewage, I've mostly only heard of chamber pots that get dumped out windows, but I know that's not so much "universal" as "what I've seen/read in media based on England". City size is a puzzle; my instinct is to make it pretty small on our scale, even though it's one of the biggest cities of the fictional region. I don't really have a good reason for that beyond an odd feeling that greater size correlates to greater wealth disparity, which is not a given!
It's an early-capitalist society, in that people do work in exchange for coins and then spend those coins on goods and services. But there's also a strong public-service ethos (general) and a moderately strong resource-conservation ethos (primarily driven by the currently dominant model of magical practice). I'm loosely thinking that this city (if not, perhaps, the larger region) practices early-capitalism-plus-safety-net.
The magical system does not allow for free energy -- that's actually a key plot point, because my second main character is trying to find a way to create the magical equivalent of a battery -- but it does allow for construction projects that might not otherwise be feasible for the era. That character would have been an engineer if she hadn't become a mage, and she leans toward magical engineering, so it would make sense for that to be an existing specialty that previously provided at least a rudimentary water supply / sewage system. (I'd worried that might seem too unrealistic, but the Romans had aqueducts and central heating, so I think I do have some room there!)
There were Bad Old Days in which mages drained energy from unwilling people (and presumably animals); that's considered assault at the time of plot. "Modern" mages have reformed their field so thoroughly that most are varying degrees of vegetarian / vegan, and pretty much all of them would react with varying degrees of horror, revulsion, or condemnation towards a mage who drained energy from someone without clear and enthusiastic consent. What I don't know is whether those Bad Old Days involved wars / general medieval societal imbalances, nor whether they culminated in some sort of widespread depopulation from which "modern society" has emerged. And it may not even matter! I just get so bogged down in worldbuilding.
(Except, well, if this used to be a hugely populated city and now isn't, that would definitely affect the layout/scale, and it would affect the population density of existing structures, and some structures would either be decaying or would need active management to prevent that. So I do need to know, and I'm leaning against something that drastic ... though fascinating to contemplate ....)
Sorry for the infodump. Apparently it's easier for me to talk about the story than actually, you know, write it!
no subject
As for sewage, I've mostly only heard of chamber pots that get dumped out windows, but I know that's not so much "universal" as "what I've seen/read in media based on England". City size is a puzzle; my instinct is to make it pretty small on our scale, even though it's one of the biggest cities of the fictional region. I don't really have a good reason for that beyond an odd feeling that greater size correlates to greater wealth disparity, which is not a given!
It's an early-capitalist society, in that people do work in exchange for coins and then spend those coins on goods and services. But there's also a strong public-service ethos (general) and a moderately strong resource-conservation ethos (primarily driven by the currently dominant model of magical practice). I'm loosely thinking that this city (if not, perhaps, the larger region) practices early-capitalism-plus-safety-net.
The magical system does not allow for free energy -- that's actually a key plot point, because my second main character is trying to find a way to create the magical equivalent of a battery -- but it does allow for construction projects that might not otherwise be feasible for the era. That character would have been an engineer if she hadn't become a mage, and she leans toward magical engineering, so it would make sense for that to be an existing specialty that previously provided at least a rudimentary water supply / sewage system. (I'd worried that might seem too unrealistic, but the Romans had aqueducts and central heating, so I think I do have some room there!)
There were Bad Old Days in which mages drained energy from unwilling people (and presumably animals); that's considered assault at the time of plot. "Modern" mages have reformed their field so thoroughly that most are varying degrees of vegetarian / vegan, and pretty much all of them would react with varying degrees of horror, revulsion, or condemnation towards a mage who drained energy from someone without clear and enthusiastic consent. What I don't know is whether those Bad Old Days involved wars / general medieval societal imbalances, nor whether they culminated in some sort of widespread depopulation from which "modern society" has emerged. And it may not even matter! I just get so bogged down in worldbuilding.
(Except, well, if this used to be a hugely populated city and now isn't, that would definitely affect the layout/scale, and it would affect the population density of existing structures, and some structures would either be decaying or would need active management to prevent that. So I do need to know, and I'm leaning against something that drastic ... though fascinating to contemplate ....)
Sorry for the infodump. Apparently it's easier for me to talk about the story than actually, you know, write it!