Mother's Gift

by Julien Dupre, public domain

Mother's Gift is a vast patchwork of farms stretching over one hundred miles in south-central Ostelliach, storing its supplies and harvests in Sun and Silo and carried up north to be shipped to various parts of the continent through the Cities of Mercy and Wrath. To the northeast of the farmlands, Jona's Wall looms to separate the vital breadbasket agricultural center from the weeping arcane waste that is the Arcane Heap and Forged Basin.
The crops grown in Mother's Gift vary based on the time of year, but the location allows for a relatively climate winter that does not outright stop all farm activities. Some of the exports include:

• Wheat

• Rice, in particular in the northwest where more marshy ground is available

• A hearty tuber called Rockroot

• Vegetables of many kinds

There are also smaller crops of things mostly trafficked from other areas of the continent, though these only serve to supply the south and central portions of the continent, supplementing work done in climates better suited for them:

• Certain medicinal herbs and potion ingredients (although the primary source of these for most of Ostelliach is the Everglen in the north)

• Fruit trees (whose primary export comes from Rowa more to the southwest).

The Cities of Mercy and Wrath provide a robust training academy for would-be agriculturists (both farm staff and horticulturists enriching the plants and processes) for affordable or sometimes no price in order to keep Mother's Gift properly staffed. This also includes mages dedicated to keeping out vermin, providing proper irrigation and water flow, and retaining nutrients in the soil.
The Tryst provides trained protective staff for the farms as well as Sun and Silo, though generally the primary focus for all involved in the planning and oversight of Mother's Gift is on distributing the harvests fairly enough so as to not encourage the need to endanger or rob the storehouses in the first place. To this end, delegates from each of the major cities in the land meet monthly to provide reports about need, waste, spoilage, and health in their represented areas. In ongoing efforts to keep this representation as fair as possible, traveling employees that census and survey smaller settlements are also brought in to the negotiations to see that they do not go hungry either.

Purpose / Function

Mother's Gift was created over 150 years before The Breaking as an effort to utilize the fertile loam south of the recently established Cities of Mercy and Wrath. There was true altruism by some in the creation of Mother's Gift in wanting to feed the entire continent, but there was undoubtedly political impetus as well: The farmland was established to be connected to the cities and distributed through them, serving as the primary and sole claim to "capital" status for the cities (other than, of course, their centralized location).

Founding Date

-154

Type

Farm

Included Locations

• Jona's Wall

Related Report (Primary Locations)

• Session 11: Awh, Beans. Hags.
• Session 12: Ah Gnar! It's the Gnoll Gnoll!

Related Historical Events

• 154 PB
  Mother's Gift planting begins