Baskets

Baskets are a common and ancient means of storing food or other goods. Used in farming and travel baskets have been integral to forming a solid society. In more recent times baskets have been supplemented by leather bags but such items are still quite expensive and in some areas of the old empire difficult to come by. The poorer elements of Ethilia still heavily rely upon baskets.
The material used to craft baskets varies from territory to territory. The more northern provinces in which Ethilia is part, cedar bark is a popular basket weaving material in addition to the regular basket crafting materials such as reeds or other types of grasses. During the reign of the old empire it was quite common to have finely crafted baskets, with complex designs woven into the basket, or pictures. After the fall of the old empire much of the finer basket weaving techniques were ignored. The poverty that came with the economic collapse lost a good chunk of the skilled workers. Additionally Ethilia is well suited to the use of leathers, and the relative ease of raising animals by the mainland cities has made that supplemental industry thrive, helping to further displace the basket markets.
The seaxe communities that have started to migrate over in the past several decades also rarely use baskets, relying almost entirely upon treated leathers that are better capable of dealing with the salty and wet conditions faced by open ocean travel. However a strange kind of basket weaving is used by them in burial chambers. They like to weave, or stack, bones of servants or prized animals into basket like shapes within the tombs. During the burial itself a light is placed inside these bone baskets casting strange shadows that they say speak of what the recently diseased is facing in the afterlife.