Refined Sugar

Written by World Smithy

Sourcing After Extinction

After the events of the Cataclysm it was long thought that sugar cane, which required intensive amounts of sunlight to grow, was eradicated from the continent of Vasara. For centuries, refined and white, granular sugar was unheard of. Because of this, honey bees, particularly the Wissian Honey Bee, was quickly domesticated and put into apiaries beneath the Sols of Elysian Bastions. These bees would promote polination of crops being grown within the agriculture rings of these new cities, erected to fend of the darkness that plague the continent. Sugar refined from sugar cane was quickly forgotten by the masses, as it was now able to be extracted from the honey produced by bees. This sugar is always slightly yellow or brownish in coloration, and maintains the tang and richness often associated with pure honey.

Revival

While popular convention held that sugar cane was extinct, it was revealed that a host of preserved seeds was kept by Venefic Sigilis, Headmaster of the Dominion. A portion of these seeds were originally granted to a team of researchers to be studied and potentially modified to be grown in dimmer light, though some slipped through the tight regulations of the Institute. These illicit seeds found their way into the hands of individuals that held significant wealth and influence, namely in the Syndicate. One particular Baron of Industry, Sebastian Milbourne, came into possession of a handful of these seeds.

He would go on to commission the construction of an underground greenhouse beneath his manor in Stahlrest, including the implementation of an enchantment that mimicked the light intensity given off by the sun. Despite the risk of his gamble, the seeds germinated and grew in his custom, subterranean greenhouse. In order to keep his illicit crops from becoming known, he continued to abide by the myth of refined sugar being a bygone commodity. Though, for those in his inner circle, he is not afraid to distribute it as long as they, too, keep refined white sugar's revival between themselves.

A small pantry containing common goods among homes in the countryside of the Vasani Dominion