Myth Tech Device #2: The Hydrol

Myth Tech Device #2:

The Hydrol

Washers. What an easy and convenient way to wash our clothes at a much faster rate than the old fashioned way. I just recently did my laundry and wondered to myself: why does it spin? Does the spin shake off the nasties? Surely there was a more efficient and less potentially destructive way to do it. As I’m not an engineer, I didn’t fully understand the mechanics behind it - though I’m sure my father would chastise me for even voicing the thought of ‘shake off the nasties’. The concept for the Hydrol, though beyond my mechanical understanding, is functionally the same. The Hydrol is a hollowed out Kappa shell filled with water. For those of you not familiar with a kappa, they’re a mythological, humanoid turtle-monster from Japan. They cradle water in a shell on its head, which gives it consciousness. When I was first researching this idea for my Myth Tech device, I got the idea of reverse engineering one of their shells from the way it ‘sloshed’ water on its head. It also had magical properties, apparently, as the water it held on its head was pure.

The Hydrol here became then the perfect means at cleaning things off. Although it’s primarily used for cleaning clothes, since we don’t want to damage the shell, kappa shells are renowned for their cleansing properties, and can serve to purify water for more general purposes as well. What you see there in the schematic above is a ‘Mermaid Tear’: a gemstone made of aquamarine, sea-shell essence, and sea-foam extract (specifically from tidally intense waters). Combining these three ingredients in an alchemical mixture, and slotting this little gemstone into a water rune charges it with a small amount of magic. The effect is this: when placed near small bodies of water, it causes that water to ‘cry’ and ‘stir’ - hence the name Mermaid Tear!

Putting these two together, and we have a Hydrol: Kisharia’s Myth Tech method of cleaning off one’s clothes, resembling the way we do it in our world today, yet still keeping that traditional epic fantasy theme.

I hope you enjoyed this Myth Tech presentation, and keep reading the remaining ones.