| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Kentinal |
Posted - 22 Jul 2013 : 03:01:34
Yes I know there are musical instruments that are pipes, that some magical items have short pipes as part of their construction.
What I have not seen are infrastructure piping every mentioned as something used in the Realms. The type of pipe I am talking about is well casing, city water supply or even use of pipe to draw water off a cistern.
Pipe on earth has been made of wood, clay, copper, iron and steel of which exist in the Realms, so the material is there. The question is if the Realms actual makes pipe to fit house, castles or communities, if so to what extend pipe is deployed? Driving a well casing clearly harder to achieve then a drain pipe from a cistern. |
| 4 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Ayrik |
Posted - 22 Jul 2013 : 20:17:18
Certainly there must be pipes; sewer pipes, sewer tunnels, cisterns, canals, locks, and even aquaducts are oft mentioned through Realmslore (and adventures) which span many cities. Outside of places such as the Anauroch, permanent manmade wells are almost always lined with some sort of stonework, lime, brick, or mortar. Larger cities must constantly pipe large volumes of clean water in and unclean water out.
Stonework aquaducts, sewers, and canals were used extensively in ancient Rome, Athens, Petra, Cairo, Babylon. Almost every city and population center in Europe had waterworks installed during late medieval and early renaissance, although some (such as London) were notorious for delaying until too many people died during the hot seasons when open sewage ran through the streets and rivers.
It basically boils down to costs and materials. A major city requires major infrastructure and costs and engineering (sorta like building a stone castle), a little village requires one or two wells which can be dug up in a few days. I think clay and brick (fired clay) would be the first and cheapest choice, then lead (if available), then stonework, then other metals. Most human cities make use of natural (or redirected) streams and rivers, natural springs, and ocean tides/currents to move clean water in and filth out, most will build as much pipe as they need to ensure everybody (who can afford it) gets clean water and that their nasty garbage is carried an acceptable distance away (out of sight and smell, usually) ... and few would ever spend more than absolutely necessary when installing such waterworks. Many feudal towns also need to function as military outposts in desperate times, so they'll usually contain a secure source of clean water, plus more stored in cisterns and towers for fighting fires and plagues and droughts. Farms tend to maintain their own wells and pumps and have plenty of water irrigation around their fields. Rich people like to install fountains and monuments which feature moving water. Public baths and pools require complex piping chambers to continually heat and cool and move water.
Dwarves undoubtedly use complex stoneworks and metal pipes, as do gnomes - after all, they obviously have access to some sort of steam-engine technology which requires lots of brass pipes and glass valves and such stuff. Elves might go for some sort of living/plant conduits or other organic sylvan nonsense. Orcs might be satisfied with dirt-lined troughs and tunnels. |
| Markustay |
Posted - 22 Jul 2013 : 19:45:19
We SO need a 'rimshot' smiley.  |
| George Krashos |
Posted - 22 Jul 2013 : 14:03:00
Elminster has been known to lay a lot of pipe too.
-- George Krashos
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| Markustay |
Posted - 22 Jul 2013 : 13:57:28
Dwarves are aware of pipe - they have very elaborate (and insanely huge) water-pump systems (I believe there is one documented in Dwarves Deep that runs under a good portion of The Shaar, IIRC).
And then there is the 'gas pipe' that they laid when Mithral Hall was at war with Menzoberranzan (I believe a gnome may have also been involved in that); primitive, but effective. There is quite a bit of descriptive text that went with those chapters, IIRC. |
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