Looming Dangers: The Meat Crisis (Patreon)

Thistleland is a continent of a diverse population, with predators and prey in civilised townships and settlements living in near perfect harmony. 

While certain predatory tensions may exist in the more backwater parts of the continent further away from the influence of The Adventure Guild, in the capital of Guildtown and the four great cities of Thistleland the idea of a carnivore feeding on their herbivore friend is something reserved for the most outlandish of bad dreams at night.

This level of harmony in the civil parts of the continent is made possible by the history of Thistleland, as well as the Hidden Farm.

Almost all of Thistlelands peoples from Mages to Adventurers, and even the Bandits, can trace their history to starting in one of many of the ruined cracked Temples; former Sealed Temples that were opened by Roofection to plunder those inside. Those that escaped to become the populations of Thistleland escaped from a diverse place where their needs were met by a food production facility somewhere else in the continent.

Known as the Hidden Farm, until recently this facility was a legend to Thistleland. Many of the pipe terminus still exist in working order, regularly delivering shipments from elsewhere in the continent, the tubes hidden underground as they snake along for hundreds of miles. The produce they send is as diverse as the people needing them, vegetables, fruit, and meat. 

The meat in particular is a most curious thing, on a brief glance it certainly appears like any normal meat that would set a prey person on edge, but on a closer look, it's clear this meat is not from any animal. Coming pre-packaged, it appears to have been culture-grown with each piece identical down to the defects, using a process that nobody in Thistleland these days has retained. There are various lines of meat, with different tastes and textures, and while delicious, it has been reported that the meat does taste slightly bland, and appears to not be toughened up.

However the meat is made, it's effects have been essential to Thistleland, alongside the less carnivorous produce. Many communities depended on these produce when first setting up, and in the four cities that grew around the pipe terminus that still are an essential way to not only feed the carnivores, but also the herbivores. 

With the threat of predation removed, entire communities of trust have opened up in Thistleland, leading to civilisation as we now know it. The view of carnivores as savage beasts, while still a stigma in some of the more remote settlements that have no access to this supply and require wildlife hunters, is removed from the urban centers. In fact, most carnivores in Thistleland would likely be unable to think of a natural prey co-worker as a source of food, even if they missed breakfast or lunch!

However, two significant issues have become a challenge to this peaceful co-existence as time goes on: the looming Meat Crisis.

While impressive in it's output, over the few decades there has been noted a gradual decline in the delivery of produce from the Hidden Farm. While this is not noticed on a day to day basis, in the last ten years the Mages have recorded between a 5% and 10% reduction of the produce shipped through the pipe system to the various terminus.

If this wasn't bad enough, Thistleland's cities are already growing at a reasonable pace, increasing strain on the various outlaying farms, which is forcing them to rely more and more on produce from the Hidden Farm. Some have speculated that the lowering output combined with population growth will mean that within fifty years, there will no longer be enough food for everyone. The real problem is that the synthetic meat delivered only represents a small part of the total food output, and the timescale for specifically this portion of the output to be lacking is possibly in as few as five, or even less, years.

While currently synthetic meat is still easily available, serious effort is being given by a few settlements and individuals to solve the upcoming Meat Crisis, an effort that is becoming more focused as the years pass by. While great strides are being made in the concept of brewing meat, it is expected that there will be a gap of a few years between the start of the Meat Crisis, and the development of a safe beat brewing system that every shop, let alone household can afford.

Some settlements and parts of society have already started taking things into their own paws. Smaller settlements, especially those on the edges of Guild influence, have already started to feel the effects of lowered amounts of synthetic meats and begun to train hunters to trap local non-sentient wildlife, which might not sit too well with the more civil folk. Darker still is the whispers that deep in the darker parts of the cities the trade of meat might seem to be provide more for carnivores then the supply would suggest possible...

A major upheaval to this precarious balance occurred not too long ago when the Hidden Farm was at long last discovered, sitting in a valley in one of the more remote forests of Thistleland. While undoubtedly as good thing, the discovery did cause significant problems: it was not discovered by the Mages, or even The Adventure Guild as a whole, but instead by a group of Avala descendants hunting Cultists, illegally. 

The Mages in a panic that what they saw as lawless bandits suddenly gaining control of the meat supply for all of Thistleland decided to take decisive action to retake the Hidden farm before wasting precious time to gather support from the rest of the Guild, launching several of their new airship cruisers to crush what they insisted was a rebellion and attempt to gain power.

The resulting disaster led to the Hidden Farm and Avala folk there, now retaking their Stalker heritage, being blockaded by the Mages, with the Hidden Farm cut off from Thistleland save for the food it exports. Due to the Mages rash actions and unexpected reply, the Guild as a whole maintains their blockade and effective siege without openly assaulting the Hidden Farm, leading to a tricky and delicate situation. An unfortunate result is that while now discovered, as he Hidden Farm still can not be restored to it's full capacity yet, despite the best efforts of the Stalkers trapped there to maintain it.

Without something to break the political deadlocks, solve the meat brewing process or somehow increase the supply of synthetic meat, Thistleland is looking at a dangerous future where the prey species of the population might need to keep a worried eye on their predator friends.