Farms

🌾 Feeding Ashkarin: An Agrarian Analysis

Though Ashkarin rose from blood, exile, and ambition, it endures on bread, salt, and fish. A city of 5,000 souls—warriors, priests, poets, smugglers, and saints—requires more than steel and spells to survive. Beneath its spires and shrines lies the quiet rhythm of the fields.

While its proximity to the Viremere River and Tidehome’s bounty of fish reduces dependence on farmland, Ashkarin still draws its daily sustenance from a ring of outlying farms and sacred plots—roughly 12 hexes of cultivated land, totaling 10 square miles.

🌱 Types of Farms Surrounding Ashkarin

1. Grain Fields of Bear Valley (~4 hexes)

The southern farmlands are Ashkarin’s breadbasket.

• Crops: Barley, millet, rye

• Layout: Terraced lowlands and wind-swept ridges

• Features: Stone granaries blessed by Nisaba; traveling priests inspect yields by weight, not word

2. Orchards and Vines of Valebreach Road (~3 hexes)

East of the city, amidst rolling hills and noble steads.

• Crops: Grapes, figs, hard apples, nightfruit

• Layout: Walled vineyards, orchard groves, pergolas adorned with festival charms

• Features: Many plots tithed to temples—particularly Oshun and Lughrin

3. Viremere Wetlands and River Farms (~2 hexes)

West and north, along the slow, silty Viremere.

• Crops: Wild rice, wet-tubers, swamp flax

• Fishing: Eel weirs, crayfish baskets, frog lines

• Features: Shrines to Straasha dot the riverbanks; water rites precede planting

4. Highland Pastures and Herb Gardens (~1 hex)

On the slopes north of the city—thin soil, cold winds.

• Livestock: Goats, hill sheep, marsh pigs

• Crops: Hardy herbs, garlic, ashleaf, stone-root

• Features: Druids of Ky occasionally “bless” (or curse) these lands with strange fertility

5. Sacred & Rotational Plots (~1 flex hex)

Set aside for fallow rotation, divine offerings, and protected groves.

• Purpose: Prevent soil exhaustion, honor old pacts

• Features:

  • Ky’s Grove: Where crops are never harvested, only offered

  • Samadi’s Field: Scarecrows wear masks; no one speaks while planting

  • Fallow Rituals: Farmers leave symbolic tools half-buried during the waning moon

🛡️ Defensive and Cultural Notes

• Farms nearest the Dalmont Gate and Valebreach Road often employ hedge-walls or stone posts carved with protective sigils from the Temple of St. Ras.

• Wheelmarked agents have been known to use grain shipments for coded trade.

• Roving priests of Donblas perform “harvest oaths” binding farmers, millers, and bakers to mutual truth.

🧭 Summary Table