Honey Bee
Valuable both as pollinators and as sources of honey and beeswax, bees are kept by people in most countries. Both a friendly companion in flower-filled pastures and a popular motif for children's toys, it's fairly safe to say that the honey bee is a beloved part of any civilization.
In Cyrina, it's not unusual to be walking through the forest and find natural honeycombs hanging from the trees. Cyrinian bees are perhaps a little aggressive in protecting their hives from predators, but will generally let most outsiders pass by without incident, as their hives are much sturdier than the normal beehive. Though Cyrinian bees might be easily domesticated, the Cyrvae have neglected to do so, choosing instead to leave the bees alone for the most part. The Cyrvae mostly acquire their sweeteners from fruits and nectars, though they have been known to dismantle abandoned or damaged hives to bring the combs back to their villages.
The Finnadese have taken to beekeeping like ducks to water, and wasted little time building apiaries and tracking down wild hives in the mountains to domesticate mere months after settling in the country. Magical flora grows especially well in Finnaden, and this is reflected in the honey the bees produce, which has magical properties. It's not uncommon for a Finnadese beekeeper to specialize in a particular plant so that the honey produced by their bees possesses a certain property, though there has been some argument among beekeepers which suggests that a more varied pollen diet makes for more Magically infused honey. Magical honeys can be used in Potion making, and occasionally in Alchemical pursuits. Like most honeys, Finnadese honey mostly yellow in colour, though its fairly common for the honeys to have a pastel tint to them dependent on the type of flower used in its creation. Some folk say the bees are half the reason the mountainside is so covered in flowers come springtime.
While there are plenty of wild Crecian bees, the domesticated hives are kept exclusively within fields of carefully tended grapes, which are then used to make Crecian Wine. The construction of Crecian hives differs from the normal apiary. Crecian apiaries are held several feet off the ground and the honey is harvested via a complex set of knobs and dials which, when turned, crack the wax walls of the comb in individual supers, allowing it to then be funnelled out of the hive and into jars.
Zanath's bee economy is also fairly strong, perhaps stronger than Finnaden's though this is mostly due to the fact that the Zanthans are incredibly serious about their mead. Much like how those who show dogs are fanatical about their animals, Zanthan beekeepers are incredibly serious about their bees, the crops they pollinate, and the honey produced by them. Due to this borderline-obsession with hive insects, Zanath boasts the most docile bee populace in the world, as well as the widest range of honey types. Zanthan bees are not yellow and black like most types of bees, and instead range in colour from pale blues to jewel-like greens.
The Luminese did not domesticate bees, so much as the Luminese bees domesticated themselves. Luminese bees are known to create hives in abandoned buildings and structures wherever possible and due to this, most villages have a playhouse-sized house built somewhere within the solasigh hedges bordering the villages to invite bees and serve as an apiary. Due to the apiaries' similarity to human-sized houses, as well as their proximity to the other houses in the village, the Luminese consider it polite to treat the bees as they would their human neighbours, by stopping to chat if they happen to pass by the bees' house, greeting the bees as they walk by, and sharing gossip or news with the bees. Like many things in Lumin, Luminese bees are content to subside mostly on solasigh, which gives their honeys a golden cast. When harvested, Luminese Honey is so thick it has to be scooped out of the jar with a spoon, rather than simply drizzled on things. Wild Luminese bees are aggressive, but are content to build their hives well off the path, so there's no real danger of stumbling across one while travelling.
Barquen bees, unlike other types of bees, do not make hives. Instead, they burrow underground to escape the heat. Classical apiaries don't yield a lot of success as far as rearing bees go, as the heat of the desert makes the combs unstable. Instead, these bees nest underground in small colonies. Due to the relatively mild weather year-around, Barquen bees do not make honey, and instead simply collect as much pollen as is required to sustain the hive at any given time. Rather than try to domesticate bees, the Barquen collect nectars from various desert plants to create sweeteners.
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