Butcher
A Fyros occupation
In ancient times, when homin civilisation consisted only of nomadic tribes, all races obtained most of their food from hunting. In those early days the hunters were also the butchers, and butcher didn't emerge as a separate occupation until the tribes started herding cattle along with them. Hunting became less necessary, but the meat still needed to be prepared.
When the tribes settled down into cities and organised into nations, homins turned to gathering and agriculture to supply most of their food. Though all civilisations also kept meat in their diet, the butcher occupation lost it's monopoly position. It remained most prevalent amongst the desert-dwelling Fyros. Few plants that are edible by homins will grow in the desert, but plenty of animals have adapted to thrive there, and most can be eaten by homins with the proper preparation.
Further helping to preserve the butcher occupation was the warrior culture of the Fyros, which led to a widely held notion that "true Fyros eat meat". Some speculate that the prehistoric Fyros believed, as some Frahar still do, that eating an animal gives you it's power. No actual evidence exists that Fyros ever believed that, but for as far back as written history goes, most Fyros did believe meat gave them strength where other food provided only sustenance.
Thus while the other homin races adapted to a diet based mostly on plants, the Fyros continued to prefer a meat diet. In particularly the Fyros warriors, as they were judged to be most in need of the strength that meat provided. Fyros butchers always experimented to find better recipes, believing it would help the Fyros warriors. "Meat prevents blood" was a popular saying that butchers used to promote their trade.
The butcher occupation was common enough to emerge unchanged from the Great Swarming, and carried on in the New Lands as if nothing had happened. But it was nevertheless dramatically changed by the kitin decades later. Recently it was discovered that the cattle held by kitin provided meat that somehow brought the strengthening effect up to miraculous proportions.
This was actually the Larvesters' idea. They figured "larvae from a kitin lair have miraculous effects on homins, so maybe cattle from a kitin lair will too". Stealing cattle from the kitin wasn't easy, but no harder than stealing their larvae, so the Larvesters managed. They brought their captured cattle before the Fyros butchers, and their suspicions were confirmed. Fyros scientists are both baffled and alarmed, and already positing theories that whatever the kitin are doing with their cattle must be the secret of the kitins' power.
Since the discovery, the occupation of butcher is undergoing a rapid transformation. While for all of it's history it has been a very common occupation practised mostly by the lower class, a new butcher occupation is now emerging as an upper-class occupation reserved only for a few elites. There is fierce competition amongst the normal butchers about who will become the lucky few to advance to 'kitin-cattle' butchers.
It's expected this new occupation will soon distance itself from 'normal butchers', but right now the two are still intermingled. The practitioners of the new occupation are mostly former 'normal butchers' whose climb up the career ladder was so sudden and unexpected, they haven't had time to get used to their new status yet. They still call themselves butchers, still dress shabbily, and still practise their occupation in the streets.
A Fyros occupation
In ancient times, when homin civilisation consisted only of nomadic tribes, all races obtained most of their food from hunting. In those early days the hunters were also the butchers, and butcher didn't emerge as a separate occupation until the tribes started herding cattle along with them. Hunting became less necessary, but the meat still needed to be prepared.
When the tribes settled down into cities and organised into nations, homins turned to gathering and agriculture to supply most of their food. Though all civilisations also kept meat in their diet, the butcher occupation lost it's monopoly position. It remained most prevalent amongst the desert-dwelling Fyros. Few plants that are edible by homins will grow in the desert, but plenty of animals have adapted to thrive there, and most can be eaten by homins with the proper preparation.
Further helping to preserve the butcher occupation was the warrior culture of the Fyros, which led to a widely held notion that "true Fyros eat meat". Some speculate that the prehistoric Fyros believed, as some Frahar still do, that eating an animal gives you it's power. No actual evidence exists that Fyros ever believed that, but for as far back as written history goes, most Fyros did believe meat gave them strength where other food provided only sustenance.
Thus while the other homin races adapted to a diet based mostly on plants, the Fyros continued to prefer a meat diet. In particularly the Fyros warriors, as they were judged to be most in need of the strength that meat provided. Fyros butchers always experimented to find better recipes, believing it would help the Fyros warriors. "Meat prevents blood" was a popular saying that butchers used to promote their trade.
The butcher occupation was common enough to emerge unchanged from the Great Swarming, and carried on in the New Lands as if nothing had happened. But it was nevertheless dramatically changed by the kitin decades later. Recently it was discovered that the cattle held by kitin provided meat that somehow brought the strengthening effect up to miraculous proportions.
This was actually the Larvesters' idea. They figured "larvae from a kitin lair have miraculous effects on homins, so maybe cattle from a kitin lair will too". Stealing cattle from the kitin wasn't easy, but no harder than stealing their larvae, so the Larvesters managed. They brought their captured cattle before the Fyros butchers, and their suspicions were confirmed. Fyros scientists are both baffled and alarmed, and already positing theories that whatever the kitin are doing with their cattle must be the secret of the kitins' power.
Since the discovery, the occupation of butcher is undergoing a rapid transformation. While for all of it's history it has been a very common occupation practised mostly by the lower class, a new butcher occupation is now emerging as an upper-class occupation reserved only for a few elites. There is fierce competition amongst the normal butchers about who will become the lucky few to advance to 'kitin-cattle' butchers.
It's expected this new occupation will soon distance itself from 'normal butchers', but right now the two are still intermingled. The practitioners of the new occupation are mostly former 'normal butchers' whose climb up the career ladder was so sudden and unexpected, they haven't had time to get used to their new status yet. They still call themselves butchers, still dress shabbily, and still practise their occupation in the streets.