Blood Still

A Blood Still is a device which uses extreme, concentrated heat and a funnel to create water from organic matter, specifically human bodies. Blood stills are used by organizations such as the Carvers to produce water from the bodies of slain victims, thereby preventing the loss of the water into the ashes or the atmosphere. Though called 'blood' stills for their most common use, such devices can also produce water from other organic materials, such as plant matter or dead animal carcasses. Less destructive survivor groups, such as the Yellowstone Nomads, employ stills to create water from the dead of the caravan, the carcasses of animals, and other organic materials collected along their path, thus recycling everything they carry with them and wasting nothing. Blood stills usually require a power source of some kind, such as a micro-fusion engine, meaning only survivor groups with advanced technological capabilities beyond pit fires are capable of constructing them.

Utility

As the name suggests, the primary use of a blood still is to reduce human bodies to their basal elements and extract the precious water contained within. As such, stills have a fearsome reputation among survivors, with other common nicknames being 'body ovens' and 'death kettles'. There is a small niche for the use of stills to create water from organic matter other than human bodies, but given the scarcity of such available raw material the more gruesome function frequently wins out.

Manufacturing

Blood stills typically consist of a central chamber heated from below to searing temperatures. This source is typically either an engine of some sort, such as a repurposed micro-fusion engine, or in less advanced cases simply a large fire. The heat gradually vaporizes the organic matter in the central chamber, separating the Hydrogen and Oxygen gases, which then make their way out of the chamber through the funnel in the roof. After recollecting in the tube, the gases merge to form H2O, water, which trickles down the pipe and into a collection basin of some kind. As such, these fundamental components (power/heat source, central chamber, funnel, and pipe) are all requirements for a functional still.

Social Impact

The social impact of the blood still's development and widespread adoption was enormous. It fueled the growth and expansion of dehumanistic groups such as the Carvers and reduced human life as a concept to merely a vessel of precious liquid waiting to be exploited. With the proliferation of the technology, travelers on the open ash plains became little more than popsickles waiting to be melted for their vital resources, significantly increasing the power and danger of Carver gangs and other such illicit organizations. However, the less immoral uses of stills also allowed for better groups, such as the the Yellowstone Nomads, to take advantage of what resources they had at their disposal to create water when none could be found. This led to the development of a small niche in which human beings could continue to thrive among the desolate wastelands of Ashrain.

Access & Availability

Blood still technology was available throughout Ashrain within years of the Great Cataclysm. Such technology was deemed a necessity by the groups proliferating it: a necessary evil to sustain the remnants of mankind in such a wasteland. Despite this, there are restrictions to the construction and maintenance of blood stills which require a large group with advanced technological capacity in a semi-permenant location. More nomadic groups such as the Carvers and the Yellowstone Nomads developed more portable variants of the technology, but with significant technological requirements.

Discovery

The development of blood stills was an eventuality following the destruction of the Great Cataclysm. With water sources so scarce across the entirety of Ashrain, many groups of human survivors turned to the most readily available source left: human beings themselves. Knowing that the human body is up to seventy percent water, organizations such as the Carvers were among the first to realize that this fact could be exploited beyond the simple drinking of blood or consumption of human bodies, which proved to be more dehydrating than replenishing. Blood stills were invented divergently across the new world by enterprising and sociopathic organizations hell bent on survival even at the cost of fellow human lives.