December Content Update: Farming in the Fledgling Realms (Patreon)

Agriculture in the Fledgling Realms

Despite the many varied cultures of the Fledgling Realms, despite the power of magic, the ingenuity of skilled crafters, and the increasing proliferation of wonders both arcane and mechanical, one constant remains: that of the primacy of agriculture. In all societies with only few exceptions, the vast majority of the population are committed to the process of working the land, harvesting its bounties, and raising flocks upon them. In the Concordat, anywhere from two out of three to three out of four individuals are directly engaged in farming or animal husbandry - a proportion which would be even higher if not for the intervention of arcane forces and the expertise of the many and varied hedge magicians and herbalists who ensure that the productivity of the land is as great as human labour and ingenuity allow. 

Proportions in the Nizam-i Khazar and the Korilandine Empire are of similar proportions, though due to the differing circumstances of climate, population, and systems of governance, the means by which they coax the greatest possible harvest out of the land differs greatly.

1: Agriculture in the Concordat

In the Concordat, where populations are scattered, land remains plentiful, central authority is almost non-existent, and infrastructure is scarce, farming is often the business of individual families. Most commonly, an extended family of peasants will maintain a homestead centred around a cottage and a small number of animals. Collectively, they will work a relatively small plot of perhaps fifteen or twenty acres. These homesteads are usually clustered around a market square, forming a village, alongside the workshops of local crafters, and a Sanctuary of the Divine Court. The village serves to provide services and solutions outside the scope of the individual homestead. A village may group together for common defence, or to remove an obstacle which might require many hands. A homestead may purchase tools from crafters, and sell their goods in the market square. The Watcher of the Divine Court provides healing services and addresses spiritual needs, while the hedge mages and herbalists which often live in the countryside make their living by curing blights, healing the soil, and managing the growth of crops by arcane means.

If seen from above, it quickly becomes apparent that the plots of land around a village tend to push our in concentric circles, allowing for terrain features like rivers or cliffsides. This is due to the unique way in which Concordat farming households manage matters of inheritance. While it is customary for the eldest child to inherit the land upon the deaths or seclusion of their parents, those younger siblings who feel too confined by their presence in their own household and refuse to move to another are encouraged to set up new homesteads with their own families beyond the land already under cultivation. With the assistance of their relatives - and often the whole village - a new plot is cleared out from the wilds, and put under the plough. Thus, bit by bit, the wild lands of the Concordat are tamed a little more with every passing generation.

Of course, these wilds are still far from safe: brigands, wild animals, and the sorcerous legacies of the Flowering Court all provide a certain degree of danger which often requires professionals to resolve. The job of addressing these threats falls to those who rule over the villages as protectors and guardians, the Concordat's class of Landed Knights. Being experienced fighters with excellent equipment, lifelong training, and armed retinues, these individuals are charged with protecting settlements every day of every year, a duty which does not allow them the time or resources to farm for their own sustenance. As a result, Landed Knights are usually given a considerable stretch of farmland which each peasant under their protection is expected to work one day out of every week. In return, they not only receive the protection of the Knight and their retinue, but also the right to shelter in the Knight's keep, should such a thing be needed.

2: Agriculture in the Korilandine Empire

In Korilandis, where arable land is altogether more scarce, the patterns of agriculture are likewise entirely different. While the Korilandine Empire is mostly known for its deserts, the rivers which cross the empire also support narrow river valleys which regular floods have made immensely rich cropland. While these areas are extremely fertile, they also only make up a tiny fraction of the Empire's total breadth. As a result, measures have been developed to ensure that the largest possible harvest may be squeezed out of the smallest possible land area. Thus the crops commonly grown are not the wheat and barley of the Concordat, but rice and sorghum, which require more water, but produce far more in the way of harvests for a given area.

In addition, the Mansa's own servants have taken up the responsibility of ensuring that every measure of land which might bear crops can do so. To this end, the Mansa maintains an imperial corps of irrigators, made of mages and engineers trained for the task of laying out, building, and maintaining irrigation canals which bring the waters of the Empire's rivers to areas which might otherwise never have been covered. Armed with the authority to draw upon military resources for materials and labour, the Irrigators have greatly extended the boundaries of the river valleys in which almost all Korilandine crops grow. As a result, they are perhaps the most well-respected arm of the Mansa's government, and its senior officers are given places in the Mansa's household. 

Of course, such experts are paid in more than respect. The Irrigators also reserve the right to section off land which their canals water for their own maintenance and upkeep. These lands are usually used for the growing of valuable crops like cotton, which is in turn sold as an Imperial monopoly to fund not only the Irrigators, but much of the rest of the Mansa's government. However, despite the immense wealth they bring in, these "Crown Lands" only make up perhaps a tenth of the land under cultivation at any one time. The rest remains in private hands, primarily those of small landholders who often join in cartels with their fellow farmers to control the prices of food in a given area. As a result, these landholders and their families enjoy considerable prosperity - although that prosperity does not always trickle down to the hired labour which is necessary to effectively maintain and harvest crops like rice - and who make up the vast majority of the Korilandine agricultural workforce.

3: Agriculture in the Nizam-i Khazar

In the Nizam-i Khazar, where land is more plentiful, but altogether more populated, a different approach entirely is used. While much of the land in the outer governates remains under private cultivation and the growth and husbandry of crops and animals considered less essential to the sustenance of the population remains the province of small landholders and ranchers, the crops which are seen as the core staples of the immense cities of the realm's core governates - wheat, millet, and rye among others - are controlled directly by the Sultana's government. This is the prerogative of the powerful Office of Common Works and Welfare, which also maintains roads, city walls, and fights poverty - often with the same tools at its disposal.

This it does through the use of a vast number of indentured servants, some of these brought in as petty criminals, or as a result of tax arrears. Others volunteer due to poverty or unemployment. Through hard labour, they earn food, accommodation, and a small stipend which is intended to pay for whatever luxuries they might desire. Working in gangs of anywhere from two dozen to over a hundred under the watchful eye of skilled engineers and artificers, these labourers maintain the irrigation canals, and work the vast machinery which is used to plough, sow, and harvest fields with great efficiency.

The practicality of this system is mostly the result of the sheer size of the state-owned fields in question. It is not uncommon for a single such estate to encompass tens of thousands of acres, with the tools and labour needed to work such fields centralised in a handful of depots. This makes for highly efficient agriculture through the use of expensive and complex machinery and irrigation works - which might be impractical for a field of twenty acres worked by a single family, but would easily pay for itself and more when used with a field of ten thousand acres worked by five hundred. 

This efficiency is the Sultana's gain, for as the state fields are directly managed by her government (in particular, her Grand Vizier, who maintains direct authority over the Office of Common Works), the proceeds from the harvests of these fields are also hers to do with as she sees fit - minus the proportion needed to feed the labour which work the fields in the first place. These surpluses are usually then sold within the cities at fixed prices, the proceeds of which are enough to not only pay for the maintenance of the system, but provide a tidy profit for the throne as well. As a result, the Sultana profits, those who don't have work are given it, and the cities of the Nizam-i Khazar are given a constant supply of staple foods at reliably low prices.