Whitewalls public baths are one of the city’s noted treasures. A hot spring provides the city with a regular flow of both hot water and steam, which is diverted into a large complex of bathing pools, where the city’s residents gather to socialize and bath.
Cleanliness is held in high esteem by residents of Whitewall, and frequent bathing is considered a sign of good citizenship.
Though private, the baths fall under Whitewall’s definition of public space. Children (supervised) bathe in one section, adults of marrying age in another and elders in a third.
While Whitewall residents are quite proper (even prudish), nudity in the baths is expected. Friends, neighbors, co-workers and others, male and female, are accustomed to seeing each other here nude and accept it as a matter of fact.
Adults often visit the public baths to steam, to bathe and to be anointed with perfumed oils. For a fee, a visitor can be scrubbed, shaved (if necessary), groomed and tended to in other ways.
Intimate Abodes
Steam-drenched alcoves of the baths are often used as trysting spots for adolescents or young adults, but it is considered part of the standard courtship rituals of the city than acts of indecency. Adults may wag their fingers, cluck tongues and complain about the moral turpitude of the young, but most likely had their first liaisons in those very same alcoves. Whitewall’s civil charter is concerned with maintaining civility and stability, not the prudish constraints of its self-appointed moral guardians.