#seranath

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Where does the water come from and how is it distributed?

There's a river fed via trickle-down from the mountains and an underground spring that comes above ground just past the thickest rockiest forests. The gardens are located where the soil is richest (from mountain minerals); the widest part of the river runs through The Heart of Seranath [the temples/libraries]; and from there it tapers a bit across the other half of their settlement, and dips back underground and diffuses upon the altitude change in the outer fourth.

Where Alerina and Dove lived, on the outskirts, the fringes of society: Most of it is irrigated. They don't have much water there naturally compared to other regions, or use much to be honest. (Cooking and drinking, that's about it.) They mainly travel to the Heart for socializing and bathing. (Though due to their secret keeping, Alerina bathed Dove in a small tub used for washing clothes.)

Water can be tapped with a well there, too; it's very dangerous though, so Seranatheans only have three wells, and shallow ones at that.

Their society is essentially built around this river, albeit mostly by accident and Cira's wisdom.

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Who makes the food?

Funny thing about Seranath is that everyone contributes in their own way. They don't care about gender, only skillset. Certain people work in the gardens; certain people bring the food to the kitchen, and sometimes help prepare it; certain people cook for everyone living in the central Temple who have very integral, almost political positions and no time to cook for themselves.

The majority of the population makes their own food, though.

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Who transports and distributes the food?

They have designated people in charge of that, too. There's a networked system where big groups of people bring harvests from the Gardens to the Temple (often in carts or reed sacks), dropping off food for the scattered families along the way. The bulk of their food goes to the Temple, which functions a lot like a homestead and a city, with most of Seranath's population living in or around the Temple.

From there, they have one person from each area who transports food from the Temple to the Outskirts, usually in very large handwoven baskets or carts, again. This food is placed in a cool, dark, dry, typically almost underground storehouse for anyone who needs it. (Sometimes it's a stone structure they built; sometimes it's attached to a central house or forum gathering place; sometimes it's built right into a cave, depending on where in Seranath it is.) Fresh foods are delivered almost daily, with each storehouse being sorted and checked for signs of rot and decay on a daily basis.

And this storehouse acts as a communal resource. Anyone and everyone in Seranath is welcome to partake in this. Alerina, for example, would go to this "store house" and take what food she needed every week or so back to her home. Some Seranatheans prefer to browse the storehouses daily, in search of the perfect bundle of herbs, or the perfect ripeness of vegetables, or just the right flower to decorate their daughter's bed with.

(These communal storehouses are for far more than just food, by the way. Medicinal herbs and floral decorations, as well as natural resources like raw reeds, and common spell items, are available for all to have.)

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If your world has modern utilities, are they widespread or only for the rich? For that matter, do utilities have to be modified to work in your world (for example, electric lines with anti-magic coating)?

Ah, but they don't.~ Irrigation technology, but closer to the Roman architecture than medieval, by far.

Believe it or not, they CAN get stay alive and happy with some candles, a fire pit, and a few stone ovens.

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What happens to trash?

They don't have plastic or packaging. Most organic refuse is either used in spells or composting, tossed to either the gardens or the "graveyards" (they don't actually use designated graveyards, but "catacombs" isn't right either, and it's not like  a city of mausoleums?)...

They're a very simple society; basically everything they create is biodegradable.

Old rags are re-used when possible; they do hold birds in high esteem, after all, and what makes a better bird-bomb cover for your altar, than a robe that's too holey to be comfortable wearing anyways? They sometimes shade the more delicate garden herbs with old fabrics (if, for instance, the trees' shade is overtaken by another plant that their herb won't grow well next to).

After they've absolutely expended their use, they're either buried or composted. Or given to the birds in tiny scraps for nesting material. It really depends on whose it is, and how create they are at recycling.

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What happens to sewage?

They basically use outhouses dug into the ground. But more easily buried.

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What building materials are available?

Now, what they have available, and what they USE, are two very different categories. They HAVE many grasses, woods, and mineral-rich clays and muds available, but they build out of metal and stone. (Mostly stone, with metal accents.)

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What do people do when they get sick?

They have designated medics. Typically, an ill or injured person makes the trip to the Temple directly, but the medics are also capable of making the trip to someone’s home. Everyone picks up a little herbal lore here and there, but the medics are trained very thoroughly in herbal and energy healing. Most often they heal through herbal medicine alone, but especially in extreme cases, they implement magic and mysticism. (It is, after all: a highly integral part of their life, Magic. Every bit as much a part of their world as Matter.)

Their society is very centralized and community-minded, and so if one person is sick, although there are several hundred people living there by the seventh century: They treat the sickness with grave importance, like all of England would treat a queen. Even if it's a simple cold, or a rash, or bad sunburn. Everyone receives the same level of attention and care and whatever they need to heal.

Now, that's not to say their healers are infallible... They have, in the past, lost a few lives to congenital disorders or birthing complications, like Srentha's own mother. But by Cira's orders, Seranath is kept as clean and disease-free as possible. (There are people designated to clean common bathing and eating and living areas, yes.)

Such a pure environment combined with Cira's magic working to shed genetic corruption from the original seven progenitors of Seranath's population led to a very clean, generally disease-free land. It allows for a gentler life there, where they can focus on what they deem most important.

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What do people do in the case of a natural disaster?

What do they do? Oh, absolutely freaking NOTHING. Perhaps gather and prepare if the Scryers foresee it, but they don't really have to worry about natural disasters:

You see: This is a world that only HAL exists in the realm of Physics. They exist halfway in the Astral realm as well, with only the mildest of limitations by Time and Space to disrupt their "perfect" reality. Seranath has an incredibly mild climate with no warm and cold fronts to cause thunderstorms; no large bodies of water to flood them; no

The closest thing they ever had was probably the day Turen showed up, absolutely destroying their world in a fit of rage because Zira refused to meet him.

The world was razed to the ground and these people are hard core pacifists, my friends... the Seranatheans knew it was coming and swallowed this fate without an ounce of resistance.

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What do people do in the case of a fire?

This is funny because it was literally one of the FIRST things Cira EVER told them: Build their world out of stone and metal, so it can't be destroyed by fire.

So yeah, fire's not a big deal. They have easily accessible windows (for contemplation and views of the spiritually-important moons, which indicate time to them and are entwined with their myths and prophecies). Their houses often have two doors (except on the outskirts), because their community is so open-armed to each and every member that they generally access each other from all sides. In the Temple. Some homes are even connected, or shared between families and friends

If something DOES catch fire, many people would probably panic. They do quite a lot with fire in their daily lives, but CATCHING fire is a rare occurrence. Generally SOMEBODY on guard would know what to do about it. They would try to put it out, of course. Perhaps, toss the item in the river? Toss dirt on it? Smother it in stones? 

And if not, the panicked response of “OH GREAT CIRA, I’m ON FIRE” and running to one’s neighbors for help would usually eventually alert somebody who knows what to do, soon enough.

Nobody has ever died in a fire on Seranath, and it had never met the forests - not until Turen’s rampage, that is.

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How are large objects moved?

A combination of leverage technology, and magic, and the fact that in their half-matter half-magic world, they can simply WILL a heavy object to weigh less, and it will, until their energies are expended and the weight returns.

The thing I'm seeing involves ropes and seems to work kind of like a catapult.....??? (Without, you know... CATAPULTING things. Like a fulcrum, with reed ropes.)

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How are items that take skilled labor to make created and distributed?

Well, they're often created by hand, although they do have stonework and metal smithing technologies. (Nothing big; usually just making bowls, useful items like door hinges, and metal or stonework bowls.)

They're distributed in much the same way as food, although it's more of an on-demand basis, than a weekly routine. Someone needing a new scrying bowl would tell their area's messenger. They would then carry the message to the Temple, let the Keepers know, and the Keepers would pass the message along to the right crafter. (The Keepers keep track of relationships between individual crafters and people, and they often match the same families to the same crafters across multiple generations.)

From there, the crafters will create the item, and return it to the Keepers, who return it to the messenger, who passes it back to the individual. Often they will send some tea blends, dried/prepared/spiced fruit, herbs, crystals, spells, clothing, or some other token of thanks in return. And this item will travel the same paths, and so this bartering cycle of return goes on.

Seranath is small enough that it only takes a day for the request to reach the Temple and then to the crafters. And once the object is finished and ready, it usually only takes another day to deliver.

(In the meantime, everyone is willing to share with everyone else if needed.)

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Remember, the answers might be different for people at different economic levels.

Actually? In Seranath, there really isn't a defined "economy". They don't have money; they work on a bartering system. They have few enough people that everything can be distributed to everyone they need. They're very attentive of each other, and the place functions like one gigantic spiritual family.

It's a little bit like a nunnery, actually? Some people have PRIVILEGES others don't, but everyone is clothed and fed and doing their part by the people running the Temple.

I’m getting some kind of feeling that wherever the Seranathean ancestors came from, salt wasn’t one of their big commodities. They never used salt for FLAVOR. And since Seranatheans don’t eat meat, they never needed salt to cure or preserve either. So salt wasn’t one of the things the first seven imported, nor was it found naturally, NOR was it essential.

(I think there HAS to be sodium in the ground and there have to be plants they derive it from, because sodium is a pretty essential electrolyte. Seranatheans have slightly altered physical forms and consider themselves a separate subspecies of human - but they’re still definitely HUMAN. It’s only been like a millennia or so, guys, you’re not gonna evolve out of the need for a basic elemental building block of the human body. {lD;;; )

....now I’m just downright confused, because while the Seranathean body is fairly delicate, they don’t show signs of sodium deficiency... (And their climate is pretty warm. Mostly mild, think 70-80 degrees F and probably averaging 40% humidity, but that’s fine for them. Those temperatures don’t make them sweat, and they don’t sweat much from physical exertion if they can help it...)

...I wonder if maybe they get their electrolytes from the water, now that I’m thinking about it? Their river doesn’t come from rainfall; it comes from underground. (They never mined to figure out its exact source, so I have no idea where it comes from exactly. Seranatheans accept and almost TREASURE their mysteries like that.) But when the river emerges, it trickles down the mountains a bit... So more than likely, the water picks up sodium, magnesium, and bicarbonates from the earth itself!

(I can’t help but envy them now... /XD;; Fiji water is my favorite kind; I’m kind of a water connoisseur, and water with natural electrolytes AND bicarbonates is my favorite. [Technically bicarbonates act an electrolyte too, but potassium, sodium, and magnesium are the ones artificially electrolyte-enhanced waters add.] )

...well their river probably picks up potassium too, but I know they get lots of potassium from their plants. (And magnesium can definitely come from leaves and seeds and mushrooms, now that I think about it...)