So, we synthesize vitamin D from exposure to sunlight, right?
But if the Neath is sunless, then what happens? Are all the people of the Fallen cities just extremely vitamin-deficient?
Relatedly, would exposure to the Dawn machine help treat this?
There are food sources for vitamin D. The sun is the best way, but not the only way. That said, people of the Neath probably are vitamin deficient. Eating surface food helps you heal faster, so there’s some holes in the diet that just aren’t being filled very well. We can get vitamin D through food, but it’s not really optimal.
edited by Sara Hysaro on 7/2/2015
Plus they are close to immortal. Probably helps with all the side effects.
(Since your wounds seem to heal when you come back from death, would this also fix vitamin D deficiency?)
My take on the vitality of the Neath - we’re not healthier than Surfacers; we’re less healthy, but all the extra life energy going spare lets us keep staggering around, and helps our wounds seal over enough that it’s kinda almost like being healthy. Unless we’ve been very careful and very lucky, we’re all likely messed up on the inside from malnourishment, constant roughhousing, and exposure to various weird toxins and pathogens - the difference between a Tomb-Colonist and a regular Fallen Londoner is simply a matter of how much we show it.
What about the Mountain of Light, Stone? She’s considered one of the main reasons why Death isn’t a normal factor for daily Neath life. Sir Frederick mentioned on the “extra life energy going spare” in his post, and while it is true that our underground vitality can be heavily credited to her presence I feel we are forgetting one crucial factor about her. Her parents. More specifically her father, the Sun. Considering that Stone is half Judgement and constantly radiates the Neath in her starry glow, is it too far out to suggest that her sunny rays bathe Londoners in their main source of Vitamin D? Granted, judging on how Stone’s healing aura strengthens closer to her it’s also just as likely that any source of Vitamin D found in her is somewhat lacking. I feel it’s a mix of The Mountain’s sunlight and the living energy of the Neath that keeps Londoners going about in health conditions seemingly similar to that of Surface dwellers.
What do we, Londoners, eat? I thought we eat shrooms and fish and that’s about it, plus or minus. There is not much things that can be actually grown here, or is it?
So we probably don’t have any vitamin D deficiency at all. I certainly didn’t notice the rickets in the Urchins for instance…
Root vegetables seem common enough, and there are land animals that are edible if not palatable. Food from the surface might not be cheap or fresh, but it’s available. And there are stranger species grown or caught across the zee, in London’s colonies.
Edit: I went looking for any ideas about how Fallen London could grow crops underground, and discovered that, well, real London already is.
edited by Sir Frederick Tanah-Chook on 7/3/2015
I also considered this possibility, but what do they eat? They must be eating shrooms too. :-)) Sure, there are rats. And cats. Maybe that’s why the Duchess propagates her love for cats so hard.
I don’t know, most of the root veggies need their upper parts too, it is just us, who is choosy…
Anyway, now I started to seriously wonder how does a typical diet of the Neathian look :-)
The Haunted Doctor says “the Sun is literally law. Because we’re far away from the Sun, we lack half a dozen laws down here.” Which probably includes the vitamin D thing.