This thought came to my mind with no inspiration. Then again, I simply might have been thirsty and lacking water. It made me think about how characters drink water in fantasy worlds with no treatment plants. We’re told that we can’t drink water from rivers and lakes because we could get sick. So, how do fantasy characters avoid this?
Ignoring the fact that such an issue would be a detriment to the overall story, there are probably a few explanations:
- The denizens of the fantasy world have been drinking the local water for so long that they have immunity or resistance to the diseases. They can still get sick, but nowhere near as bad as someone who just arrived. Even then, a local might not be hindered enough to stay in bed.
- The lack of industrialization means the water is cleaner and safer. Natural diseases and parasites can still be in there, but you don’t have toxins.
- Local holy magic users repeatedly purify the water through spells or enchanted wells. It isn’t something that has to be brought up, but it can be mentioned if a reader gets curious. This sounds like something a holy group who cares about other people or want to gain followers would do. Doesn’t help adventurers when they’re in the wild, but you can add affordable medicines for any of the common ailments. Kind of like how we have Pepto Bismal and Tylenol in our bathrooms.
- People may have something they add to the water to cleanse it after bottling. It isn’t shown because it’s minor. Maybe it’s also a pill adventurers take every day to allow them to safely drink water. Again, it doesn’t have to shown more than once if at all since the majority of readers aren’t waiting for characters to get diarrhea.
There are probably more, but I’m going to stop there. I think this shows how very basic activities are taken for granted, which isn’t wrong when writing a book. If we tackled every potential issue then our heroes will never get out of the first chapter. Works if the story involves a hero who is scared of everything and their entire quest is to leave their home or town. Actually, that sounds like a pretty good short story, but I don’t think I’d be able to pull it off.
As someone who writes about quests, it would be a nightmare to have my heroes struggle to get drinkable water. They can’t carry gallons with them, so they need to depend on rivers and rain. Lakes can be a little iffy, but it doesn’t sound like a good story if a hero is stopped for a chapter because they can’t leave the toilet. Not to mention they are going to be bathing in the water as well, which I always do because I can’t get my mind off them smelling bad. Hygiene is important even on the road. I would assume some water would be swallowed, so they could still get sick. They would get sick without bathing too, which hamstrings the whole story if you kept thinking about that.
Part of the issue could be that we always think of fantasy as being medieval settings right down to the hygiene. We assume they have the same diseases and parasites one would find in that time period. Many authors don’t do anything to pull away from this stereotype, so the genre gets stuck there. Doesn’t matter if parts of the world look advanced due to the technology. Castles, horses, taverns, swords, and the rest of the medieval Europe set pieces continue to make some people imagine there being a level of societal grossness. Thankfully, it’s not a lot.
Anybody else ever think about these kinds of things when reading or writing a story? I’m going to touch on food preservation in fantasy on Wednesday.
Legends of Windemere 