Reading about medieval sanitation made me double-check every historical novel I've ever read

I fell down a Wikipedia rabbit hole last night and found out that in 14th century London, they passed a law saying you could only throw chamber pots out the window after 9pm. And even then you had to shout 'gardyloo' first, which is basically French for 'watch out for the water'. I've been writing a historical fantasy set in 1380 and now I have to rework like 4 chapters because I had people just casually walking in streets that would've been covered in literal human waste. Has anyone else had a random fact completely derail their worldbuilding planning?

2 comments

2 Comments

wren_jackson27d ago

Sounds like your plot just got flushed down the toilet, literally.

-2

sean_perry24d ago

At least now they know where the story's really going.