D&D General A Question about Waterdeep - Where does the Drinking Water come from?

[doctorbadwolf]

Goldenfields is the Druid operation. They are using magic enhancements to the agriculture already there.

It’s hard for me to believe that it’s needed, is my whole point.

Coastal cities eat from farmland and fishing, and one as old as Waterdeep would have used weirs and artificial inlets and such to farm fish and other oceanic food sources.

 

[Parmandur]

It’s hard for me to believe that it’s needed, is my whole point.

Coastal cities eat from farmland and fishing, and one as old as Waterdeep would have used weirs and artificial inlets and such to farm fish and other oceanic food sources.

Yea, but Greenwood also wanted to play with the idea of Druids turbocharging agriculture by focusing on improving what's already there.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Yea, but Greenwood also wanted to play with the idea of Druids turbocharging agriculture by focusing on improving what's already there.

I mean doing it because they can and it helps keep the city folk from encroaching more on the wild I am all for. IIRC it was presented as a necessity in 5e.

 

[Parmandur]

I mean doing it because they can and it helps keep the city folk from encroaching more on the wild I am all for. IIRC it was presented as a necessity in 5e.

At the population threshold of Waterdeep, necessary for maintaining the population well (and Waterdeep is a place where notably people are well-fed across the spectrum)

 

[doctorbadwolf]

At the population threshold of Waterdeep, necessary for maintaining the population well (and Waterdeep is a place where notably people are well-fed across the spectrum)

But it isn’t necessary. Just late medieval/Renaissance farming and fishing and food storage tech.

Like Waterdeep isn’t even outside the bounds of real life cities.

It’s there because Ed felt like there should be something, which is valid, but it isn’t actually necessary. Constantinople had a larger population when it was thriving, in a more aris landscape.

Like it’s fun to use magic food production and storage to create incredible excess food so that the whole region can be supplied through drought and such, but let’s not pretend that a richly fertile temperate land adjacent to the coastline and dotted and crossed with lakes and rivers, constantly being rained on, etc, would have trouble supporting half a million people without those fun little magical solutions.

 

[Hussar]

You mean that Constantinople that had a huge series of quite famous aqueducts for its water?

Pretty much the only reason Waterdeep is where it is is because it makes the map look better. It’s a “hub of trade” but isn’t actually located between two trading partners.

It’s a really fun setting and I’m enjoying it immensely. And the point that players couldn’t care less is well made. It’s more that I just wanted a darn bridge and then realized that the entire city has none.

So, for Brightsword Day, they have constructed a massive wooden bridge in the Field of Triumph and the various guilds and neighborhoods are going to have their battagliola after the aerial display by the Griffon Cavalry

 

[Maxperson]

You mean that Constantinople that had a huge series of quite famous aqueducts for its water?

Pretty much the only reason Waterdeep is where it is is because it makes the map look better. It’s a “hub of trade” but isn’t actually located between two trading partners.

It kinda is, though. It's right between the north and all of its resources and the south(Amn, etc) with it's riches. There's also the heartlands to the east so it's located in the middle of three wealthy sections of the Realms AND has a port.

It’s a really fun setting and I’m enjoying it immensely. And the point that players couldn’t care less is well made. It’s more that I just wanted a darn bridge and then realized that the entire city has none.

Make one! Snap your fingers and create a bridge.

It's really a great setting. I've been running 95% of my games in it since 1e.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yep, there are also freshwater wells on islands. I doubt they’re staying fresh out of hydraulic pressure. They just don’t have any sea water coming in through the earth around them.

They absolutely are. Why do you think the sea water isn't coming in? When you have water on both sides of a physical barrier, the pressure on both sides is equal* so there is no net force. Even without a physical barrier it is possible for a situation to arise where you have salt and fresh water in contact with each other with minimal mixing.

But if the material on the other side of the barrier has a different density (e.g. air) there will be a difference in pressure. Thus, there is a net force on the barrier. The deeper you go, the greater the pressure difference becomes, so the greater the force gets, until it exceeds the strength of the barrier. This is why submarines have a crush depth, and it's easier to build tunnels under rivers than oceans.



*Approximately. The density of water varies a little with salinity and temperature.

 

[pukunui]

Here in Auckland, we have old stream beds that got covered by lava from some of our 50+ volcanoes.

When it rains, the water drains through the porous basalt and finds some of these old buried stream beds. When it gets near the coast, where the seawater has penetrated the groundwater, the rainwater gets pushed up and and forms freshwater springs.

One such spring was partially dammed to create a lake surrounded by a public park (see Western Springs).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Here in Auckland, we have old stream beds that got covered by lava from some of our 50+ volcanoes.

When it rains, the water drains through the porous basalt and finds some of these old buried stream beds. When it gets near the coast, where the seawater has penetrated the groundwater, the rainwater gets pushed up and and forms freshwater springs.

One such spring was partially dammed to create a lake surrounded by a public park (see Western Springs).

Mentioning density, sea water is slightly denser than fresh water, so it is quite natural for fresh water to float on top of sea water.