Occupation Products
Hello homins! After a break of a week, we now return to you with an extra long episode!
Now that we've seen how the occupations came to be, today we will be looking at the most famous products produced by them! Most occupations may have many different functions, but all the 8 occupations we've discussed have attained their fame mainly because they all produce one product that is highly craved by the upper class adventurers, who form the richest demographic in our modern society and so have a profound impact on our economy.
To explain to us how these various products work, we've invited a leading expert on all things; an old Zoraï who looks sort of wise! So let us waste no more time and hear what this Zoraï has to say about...
Magnetic Cartographers' Maps of Magnetism
Hmm, the magnetic maps? These are actually only a by-product of magnetic cartography. The main job of a magnetic cartographer is namely to... dundundun, cartograph the magnetic fields! But, as part of their training, magnetic cartographers learn to become attuned to these magnetic fields, and as a side-effect, they acquire the ability to tap some of the magnetic energy of the field, and store it in an object. Most any object will do, really, but cards and maps are traditional because they symbolize the magnetic cartographer occupation. Upon breaking the object, the stored magnetism is then released as a short burst of energy, which stimulates the muscles of all nearby homins, restoring their stamina and health.
Medics' Med-Kits
Med-kits, yes, they heal you, that should be obvious. That was easy, next! Well, okay, I'll tell a little more. Medics can actually make a lot of different balsams, but most only work against very specific ailments. Only a few known balsams are general-purpose, meaning they just make you heal faster from any injury. And most of those are relatively weak. The balsam that medics have become famous for is called the PACT-balsam, after the plants used in it's creation: Ploomweed, Amoeba, Cokamool and Toopez. It's a very powerful all-purpose balsam, healing injuries almost instantaneously. The major downside is that it needs to use up your own sap to heal you that quickly. Though wicked tongues claim the medics just built that effect in to discourage magic use!
Water-Carriers' Flasks of Water
Water-carriers collect many different types of water, for many different purposes from washing to drinking and from watering to cooling. The cheapest water is pumped right out of the lakes and sold in bulk, while high quality spring water is only sold in small quantities at high prices. However, the very best kind of water is the kind the water-carriers keep for themselves! It's a very specific combination of Lake water, Spring water, and Dew water, so it's often called LSD-water or DSL-water for short. You can drink this water, and it tastes delicious, but the main use is to just sprinkle it all over yourself, and other homins nearby too. Because when absorbed through the skin, this water has a remarkable refreshing effect, restoring sap and health!
Larvesters' Larvae
The fabled kitin larvae, stuff of legends! Yesyes, it's been known for quite a while that kitin larvae are particularly delicious. That is, if you can come to terms with the fact that you're eating babies. Anyways, you're probably wondering how they can restore a homin's focus, when almost nothing else can? It's a very good question and we're not quite sure! But, the most likely theory is that they simply contain a very powerful stimulant, like sugar or caffeine, but stronger! Something that really, really wakes you up! Ofcourse, they need to be properly prepared in a very specific way before this property comes out, so the larvae don't actually contain the stimulant, just the ingredient, so to speak. If they're not prepared in the special way, they're just a delicious snack.
Toolmakers' Tools
Toolmaker, so very under-appreciated... Toolmakers make so many useful tools, for harvesting, for crafting... The whole Fyros society was built on those tools, you know! Amazing feats of construction like the bridges over the canyons! But no, the only thing toolmaker is famous for are those stupid little gadget tools that were designed to exercise with. Sure, it's a very specific balancing exercise that can only be done with those tools and that actually restores strength to tired muscles, quite ingenious actually, and it took many decades to discover and develop... but still, it's nothing more than a minor stimulant. Does this compare to a twenty foot wide aqueduct through 500 miles of solid bark!? I think not! That's what the Fyros did with their tools in the Old Lands!
Butchers' Meat
Mmm, the Fyros butchers have many delicious recipes with meat... but I suppose you're only interested in the miraculous healing properties of the kitinlair meat? Well, it actually doesn't speed up your healing, it speeds up your entire metabolism! As long as this meat is in your system, your entire body works faster, including the part that heals wounds. Your digestion system is sped up too, so all that meat you scarfed down is entirely digested within seconds. That's why the whole process leaves you physically exhausted, it takes a lot of stamina to digest all that meat so quickly. You even age quicker, but no worries, it's minor, won't cost you more than a few days of your life. Now the question everybody asks is ofcourse: Kitin eat this stuff as their regular diet, so could that be what made them grow so freakishly big?
Florists' Bouquets
You need me to explain how flowers can restore a homin's sap? Seriously? Do you people know nothing of basic biology? Sap is the lifeflow of Atys, it flows through every plant. How do you think every intelligent plant is able to use magic, hmm? You suppose they go to magician school? All flowers contain sap, it's trivial to prepare them in such a way that the sap can easily be extracted from them. Oh yes, ofcourse the florists cultivated these specific kinds of flowers to have far more sap than most flowers. That should go without saying, they're Matis, that's what they do. They have hundreds of different kinds of flowers for dozens of different purposes, each flower cultivated to be optimal for their purpose. But these sap-flowers are the ones useful to adventurers, so they're the ones that grab all the fame.
Scollmakers' Writing Necessities
Hmm, yes, the mysterious scrolls. To be honest, nobody's really sure how these work. They make their paper out of larvae and their ink out of medicinal plants, so it's possible that putting the ink on paper triggers some alchemical reaction that releases stimulant vapours. But according to the scrollmakers the actual materials don't matter, they just need to be rare and expensive materials. As if it's some kind of ritual to Jena or Ma-Duk, which actually some believe it is, a ritual to ward off bad luck. My own theory is that the writing is simply an exercise that sharpens the mind, so that you're less likely to make mistakes afterwards. The use of those expensive materials is just to make it seem more magical so that people will believe it'll work. Belief is a powerful thing!
One last question; why do we need to wait so long after using an occupation product before we can use another?
Well that should be obvious after everything I just explained! All these products are basically stimulant drugs in one way or another. They give you a quick boost in your performance, yes, but that kind of thing is taxing on the body and unhealthy in the long term! Your body needs time to recover between uses. So the cooldown time is implemented by international law to ensure safe and responsible use of these products. If you just kept popping them like roasted sarina seeds, you'd soon be reduced to a shrivelling husk of a homin, and your seed would wither away. Really, lobbying by adventurer interest groups has ensured that the cooldown time is already an absolute minimum for what can still be considered 'safe and responsible' use. It would be best if homins stopped using them altogether and turned to natural products. Like my own recipe psykopla moss tea with najab skin extract, you can drink as many of that as you like, and the only bad side-effects are the purple flying yelks, which really aren't bad at all as they offer good conversation.
Right, thank you for your insights, wise-looking Zoraï, and join us again in our last episode next fortnight when we'll discuss the occupation masters!
Hello homins! After a break of a week, we now return to you with an extra long episode!
Now that we've seen how the occupations came to be, today we will be looking at the most famous products produced by them! Most occupations may have many different functions, but all the 8 occupations we've discussed have attained their fame mainly because they all produce one product that is highly craved by the upper class adventurers, who form the richest demographic in our modern society and so have a profound impact on our economy.
To explain to us how these various products work, we've invited a leading expert on all things; an old Zoraï who looks sort of wise! So let us waste no more time and hear what this Zoraï has to say about...
Magnetic Cartographers' Maps of Magnetism
Hmm, the magnetic maps? These are actually only a by-product of magnetic cartography. The main job of a magnetic cartographer is namely to... dundundun, cartograph the magnetic fields! But, as part of their training, magnetic cartographers learn to become attuned to these magnetic fields, and as a side-effect, they acquire the ability to tap some of the magnetic energy of the field, and store it in an object. Most any object will do, really, but cards and maps are traditional because they symbolize the magnetic cartographer occupation. Upon breaking the object, the stored magnetism is then released as a short burst of energy, which stimulates the muscles of all nearby homins, restoring their stamina and health.
Medics' Med-Kits
Med-kits, yes, they heal you, that should be obvious. That was easy, next! Well, okay, I'll tell a little more. Medics can actually make a lot of different balsams, but most only work against very specific ailments. Only a few known balsams are general-purpose, meaning they just make you heal faster from any injury. And most of those are relatively weak. The balsam that medics have become famous for is called the PACT-balsam, after the plants used in it's creation: Ploomweed, Amoeba, Cokamool and Toopez. It's a very powerful all-purpose balsam, healing injuries almost instantaneously. The major downside is that it needs to use up your own sap to heal you that quickly. Though wicked tongues claim the medics just built that effect in to discourage magic use!
Water-Carriers' Flasks of Water
Water-carriers collect many different types of water, for many different purposes from washing to drinking and from watering to cooling. The cheapest water is pumped right out of the lakes and sold in bulk, while high quality spring water is only sold in small quantities at high prices. However, the very best kind of water is the kind the water-carriers keep for themselves! It's a very specific combination of Lake water, Spring water, and Dew water, so it's often called LSD-water or DSL-water for short. You can drink this water, and it tastes delicious, but the main use is to just sprinkle it all over yourself, and other homins nearby too. Because when absorbed through the skin, this water has a remarkable refreshing effect, restoring sap and health!
Larvesters' Larvae
The fabled kitin larvae, stuff of legends! Yesyes, it's been known for quite a while that kitin larvae are particularly delicious. That is, if you can come to terms with the fact that you're eating babies. Anyways, you're probably wondering how they can restore a homin's focus, when almost nothing else can? It's a very good question and we're not quite sure! But, the most likely theory is that they simply contain a very powerful stimulant, like sugar or caffeine, but stronger! Something that really, really wakes you up! Ofcourse, they need to be properly prepared in a very specific way before this property comes out, so the larvae don't actually contain the stimulant, just the ingredient, so to speak. If they're not prepared in the special way, they're just a delicious snack.
Toolmakers' Tools
Toolmaker, so very under-appreciated... Toolmakers make so many useful tools, for harvesting, for crafting... The whole Fyros society was built on those tools, you know! Amazing feats of construction like the bridges over the canyons! But no, the only thing toolmaker is famous for are those stupid little gadget tools that were designed to exercise with. Sure, it's a very specific balancing exercise that can only be done with those tools and that actually restores strength to tired muscles, quite ingenious actually, and it took many decades to discover and develop... but still, it's nothing more than a minor stimulant. Does this compare to a twenty foot wide aqueduct through 500 miles of solid bark!? I think not! That's what the Fyros did with their tools in the Old Lands!
Butchers' Meat
Mmm, the Fyros butchers have many delicious recipes with meat... but I suppose you're only interested in the miraculous healing properties of the kitinlair meat? Well, it actually doesn't speed up your healing, it speeds up your entire metabolism! As long as this meat is in your system, your entire body works faster, including the part that heals wounds. Your digestion system is sped up too, so all that meat you scarfed down is entirely digested within seconds. That's why the whole process leaves you physically exhausted, it takes a lot of stamina to digest all that meat so quickly. You even age quicker, but no worries, it's minor, won't cost you more than a few days of your life. Now the question everybody asks is ofcourse: Kitin eat this stuff as their regular diet, so could that be what made them grow so freakishly big?
Florists' Bouquets
You need me to explain how flowers can restore a homin's sap? Seriously? Do you people know nothing of basic biology? Sap is the lifeflow of Atys, it flows through every plant. How do you think every intelligent plant is able to use magic, hmm? You suppose they go to magician school? All flowers contain sap, it's trivial to prepare them in such a way that the sap can easily be extracted from them. Oh yes, ofcourse the florists cultivated these specific kinds of flowers to have far more sap than most flowers. That should go without saying, they're Matis, that's what they do. They have hundreds of different kinds of flowers for dozens of different purposes, each flower cultivated to be optimal for their purpose. But these sap-flowers are the ones useful to adventurers, so they're the ones that grab all the fame.
Scollmakers' Writing Necessities
Hmm, yes, the mysterious scrolls. To be honest, nobody's really sure how these work. They make their paper out of larvae and their ink out of medicinal plants, so it's possible that putting the ink on paper triggers some alchemical reaction that releases stimulant vapours. But according to the scrollmakers the actual materials don't matter, they just need to be rare and expensive materials. As if it's some kind of ritual to Jena or Ma-Duk, which actually some believe it is, a ritual to ward off bad luck. My own theory is that the writing is simply an exercise that sharpens the mind, so that you're less likely to make mistakes afterwards. The use of those expensive materials is just to make it seem more magical so that people will believe it'll work. Belief is a powerful thing!
One last question; why do we need to wait so long after using an occupation product before we can use another?
Well that should be obvious after everything I just explained! All these products are basically stimulant drugs in one way or another. They give you a quick boost in your performance, yes, but that kind of thing is taxing on the body and unhealthy in the long term! Your body needs time to recover between uses. So the cooldown time is implemented by international law to ensure safe and responsible use of these products. If you just kept popping them like roasted sarina seeds, you'd soon be reduced to a shrivelling husk of a homin, and your seed would wither away. Really, lobbying by adventurer interest groups has ensured that the cooldown time is already an absolute minimum for what can still be considered 'safe and responsible' use. It would be best if homins stopped using them altogether and turned to natural products. Like my own recipe psykopla moss tea with najab skin extract, you can drink as many of that as you like, and the only bad side-effects are the purple flying yelks, which really aren't bad at all as they offer good conversation.
Right, thank you for your insights, wise-looking Zoraï, and join us again in our last episode next fortnight when we'll discuss the occupation masters!