Hygiene and fashion (Richemulot / Dementlieu), food for thought

[Mephisto of the FoS]

[tomokaicho]

Hygiene might be the scariest thing for me if I were transported to Ravenloft. I need my showers.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

The locals would probably think anyone who bathes regularly is crazy and likely to die soon.

[Mistmaster]

In Richemulot maybe, probably because wererats are naturally resistent to disease. Being set after the revolution Dementlieu is probably more advanced on hygiene. Expecialky after Port- a -Lucine Università pubblished Dr von Mordenheim Germ Theory.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

How many medieval-era people would have believed you if you told them about things too small to see making them sick, when everyone knew sickness was the work of evil spirits?

[Mistmaster]

Dementlieu is not Middleage, thought. And everybody if the Church was to preach it massively.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Even in a relatively advanced era, it was once difficult to convince doctors to wash their hands before and after surgery. They thought that was insulting 'because a gentleman is never dirty'.

[Mistmaster]

Then after yet another patient died of sepsi they realized that maybe it was the case.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

You'd be amazed how many of them refused to accept it as simple truth.
"A gentleman is never dirty! How can I, a learned gentleman, be a danger to the patients whose lives I am trying to save?! Absurd!!!"

[tomokaicho]

Resistance to handwashing continued well into the 19th century. Also, you can't turn back the clock and take for granted what is accepted today as accepted in the past.

[Mistmaster]

Its a fantasy world, we have some margins. I'm not saying everyone everywhere would know, I'm saying that, at least in my game, more advanced domain would know about germ theory. In my Lamordia, Dementlieu, Markovia and Zherisia, they surely know.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Lamordia, I'll grant you. Even if the scientific community there hates Mordenheim, I could see them reading his books if only in hopes of discrediting him, then adopting what he has discovered and developed that is actually a boon for humanity.
Zherisia is a scientifically advanced country, though it appears to be more focused on High Alchemy and the creation of automatons. Still, alchemy requires you keep your reagents pure, so it is perfectly possible that the nation might have hit on the notion that keeping your hands clean for all sorts of delicate operations is beneficial.

Generally speaking (as opposed to in the Mistworld), Frantisek Markov is a butcher with the supernatural power to stitch things back together after he's cut them up and somehow make it work. While I'm sure he knows a LOT about anatomy, I doubt he has the interest of the equipment to make a study of microbiology. If he did get his hands on some of Mordenheim's books on the subject, he might take to washing his hands, I'll give you that - if only so as not to pollute the 'art' of his work and have more surviving patients.

Dementlieu is culturally advanced, and is not as wracked with plague and pestilence as Falkovnia, but I still don't see it as superior when it comes to hygiene. When I think about the culture capitol of the Core, I always envision the Palace of Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV... and the horrors of the commode... and how people would just spray themselves with more perfume, rather than take one bath, out of fear that it would weaken and kill them.

[Mistmaster]

Well, my Falkovnia have highter Hygene too, to keep the army healthy; in my Dementlieu, they have got a Falkovnian occupation, they now are wary of epidemics.

[DustBunny]

Well, my Falkovnia have highter Hygene too, to keep the army healthy; in my Dementlieu, they have got a Falkovnian occupation, they now are wary of epidemics.

That is an interesting idea for Falknovia and I can see it for their armies - even without occupied territories involved.

Armies are terrified of disease, as they usually kill more people than actual fighting - see WW1. Though they may not understand the connection between disease and its causes, they did understand some things through simple cause and effect. An interesting example is see the whole idea of miasma theory which resulted in the British sewer system being built in the 1800's despite the whole miasma theory being rubbish.

Conscript/prisioner squads may be expendable thus who cares if they live in squalor, but the professional soldiers would be carefully cared for and the camps organised as such to prevent outbreaks as they are a lot harder to replace. While they may think disease is caused by invisible demons poking you with a pitchfork and not germs, they can still have leared not the put the camp toilet next to the water supply and thus end up with a healther army.

[Seven]

I am always a little leery of "exposes" on the filthiness of people of the past.

There is a lot of myths about the past that are, by and large, not true, or so exaggerated that they might as well be false.

For example: How many people here think that "people didn't drink water and drank alcohol instead, because the water was unsafe?"

I can read first-hand accounts of New England farmers in the 1700s washing their hands and faces multiple times a day, laundering their clothing and taking a tub-bath at least once a week. Maybe the Yankee dirt-farmers were more concerned with cleanliness than the French aristocracy? -shrug-

Although to be fair, I reenact the 1600s and 1700s: keeping clean using period techniques/methods is a PITA. Heating up enough water for a bath or some laundry is hard labor that takes quite some time.

Regardless, Ravenloft isn't the real world, and anachronisms are common.

Personally, I run Ravenloft as "cleaner than the real-world place and period it draws from, but not as clean as the modern day". People wash their hands, even if they aren't entirely sure why