Amberbaler

Amberbalers are farmers who practice a form of farming that allows them to draw tmakikan from the tilled earth and imbue either sown seeds, livestock, or people with the aetherial energy as an act of fortifying, healing, or protecting the food. They use a cyclical set of rituals and festivals that create their powers anew every year.

Farming

Amberbalers who work the land are often early adopters of agriculture, using it in a more egalitarian manner than later societies would.

Land

First, one finds the land. Any land upon which crops may be planted can be used; it must contain some nourishment and water. An empty wasteland can be restored later, but to start, one needs fertile soil.

Equinox

At the vernal equinox, a festival is held, before the land is prepared. The amberbaler and their family or community gather, chant and sing, dance across the land, and each participant will cut their palm to drop blood upon the soil under the moonlight.

Tilling

To prepare the land, one needs a season. One needs to plough the land first, using a stone plough, one made of heavy, ancient stone dug from the land itself. Then, till the land with a bronze or wheat bronze tiller to enrich it. Then, planting begins

Seeds

Seeds are best as heirloom seeds, given to a new amberbaler from an old one. However, mundane, normal seeds may be used as well, so long as they are good seeds. The seeds will soak up the powers imbued into the soil by the tiller and transfer them to the crops grown.

Beltane

The next festival is at Beltane or May Day. The three days before Beltane, all of the weeds, bad crops, and chaff are gathered from the fields and bundled together. On the day of Beltane, they are piled high amidst the growing crops and set aflame. Everyone who is of age dances into the night and makes love in the fields to call up fertility. If they have none to make love with, they spill their own seed. Children are allowed to stay up in their homes and play late, but not allowed out to the bonfire.

Barn Building

A temporary barn is built where the bonfire was.

Solstice

The third festival comes at the summer solstice, midsummer, and offerings are made to the Oak King in Jesenya, the spirit of summer. These offerings are usually foods made from the early harvested grains. A sweat offering is made as well in the form of a dance in the heat. At this time Harvest Queen is chosen.

Cornucopia

The harvest queen designs a cornucopia out of the horn of a bull, goat, or other beast, or from wood or a gourd if need be. She begins to fill it with cakes and breads.

Lammas

The fourth festival is called Lammas in Lyrilla and Jesenya. At this festival, the community sings ancient songs of harvest and good weather, and as night falls, they tie the harvest queen to a bale of hay and throw it into the temporary, rickety barn, which is filled with offerings of moldy hay and a live animal. This is all set on fire. The Harvest Queen burns, a blood sacrifice to the goddess Emblaien. Her ashes mix with the soil. If she was a worthy sacrifice, the live animal will live through the fire. If she was unworthy, she and the animal will be ash in the morning and the fields will die. The only way she could be an unworthy sacrifice is if she has despoiled the land or committed some heinous act against her people.

New Barn

Upon the site where she died, a new barn is raised. This one is sturdy, made of strong apple wood or good oak or maple, some wood full of life. It is filled with hay, crops, livestock, and food stuffs, stored in the cornucopia. During this time, if the spell at Beltane worked, the barn will be full of tmakikan, and anyone who is sick, injured, or tired may rest there and be restored.

Scales

Within the barn, scales of wheat bronze are hung high. Food is placed upon these scales before it is fed into the cornucopia. If it is worthy, it will weigh as much as a single stalk of hay no matter its actual weight.

Harvest Feast

And then, harvest comes. The community brings in the harvest, cooks a massive feast, and celebrates. For each course, more food is also stuffed in the cornucopia in the barn. That night, at midnight, the barn doors will fly open and the harvest queen will re-emerge, alive and hale, carrying the cornucopia, which will not run out of food until winter is over.

Bounty

The harvest queen then shares her bounty, giving special apples to the amberbalers who lead each ceremony. These apples give them the powers to nourish the ground anew the next spring (with the apple seeds) and to heal, strengthen, and grow the people in their community with their touch. The Queen herself has such powers and more. The barn continues to be a place of healing as well. The Queen will retain her powers until spring.

Livestock

On the farm, the livestock or other animals who eat the nourishing foods grown there become bigger, stronger, and more nourished and nourishing themselves. Cows and goats give better milk, sheep give better mutton, chickens lay better eggs, etc. Bees make better honey, too.

Meals

Throughout the entire process, the amberbaler may only skip meals if it means someone else will not eat if they do. Otherwise, they must eat regularly to maintain their own energies, such that when the time comes, they are strong enough to become bearers of the power for the community.

Tools

Tools kept in the new barn will be imbued with tmakikan for the next harvest.

Food

Whether they prepare the food or grow it, the results of their rituals are foods that are more nourishing. They result in these specific effects:

Nourishment

Food prepared or grown by an amberbaler will provide thrice normal nutrition, without negative side effects.

Healing

Tmakikan-rich foods will make it easier for the eater to heal from illness, to mend bones, or to resist infection. Wounds will not heal quicker, however.

Growth

Those who eat tmakikan-rich foods grow quicker and can build muscle easier. They often have higher than average STR.

Preservation

Foods with more tmakikan in them, whether prepared or grown, resist spoiling longer than other foods, up to three times as long, without any sapping of its nutrients or altering of its flavor.

Exercises

If the amberbalers exercise or lead others in exercises, they can invoke the tmakikan they have consumed and allow faster growth, strengthening, and so on.

Similar Occupations

Other occupations who use tmakikan include the following:

• Agrarian: a large-scale farmer who grows tmakikan-rich crops.

• Agribotaner: an agrarian who uses agriscience.

• Alderman: an elder in Jesenranic farming community.

• Amber druid: a Jesenyan druid of the pastoral lands.

• Apiarist: a bee-keeper.

• Dabbawala: a deliverer of lunchboxes in Vimala.

• Ektokxeftis: a giant warrior who hurls stones to break sieges.

• Ixim Pitz'ok: a central Palhuric baker who makes special maize-based foods that are incredibly potent with tmakikan.

• Kaznodzieja: a preacher to the Jesenyan farming communities.

• Landsknecht: a knight of Jesenya who is bound to the land.

• Mahimiawapi̠: a warrior of the Pihi empowered by tmakikan to be stronger and larger who rides a dinohippus (Palhuric horse).

• Ohapitu: those who draw out tmakikan when cooking food.

• Pawang: a Pihi shaman.

• Piekarz: Aeslan bakers known for their breads and cakes that feed more than they seem capable of.

• Sweettooth: a piekarz who specializes in confections.

• Awatsiss: a harvest witch.

• Cantafael: Jesenranic bards who tell stories at harvest ceremonies.

• Hubiyawapʉ̠: ohapitu who lead chants and songs in group ceremonies.

• Karpophoros: ohapitu fruit-gatherers of Stayflies.

• Matelikihla: ohapitu who are divorced from the land but use their skills making barrels that preserve foods by enriching it with tmakikan.

• Natsu taibo: ohapitu who specialize in foods for healing purposes.

• Notkesnikat: ohapitu farmers who use leather from their livestock to craft shoes that strengthen the feet of the wearer.

• Nodawighigat: one writes, studies, or keeps a collection of cookbooks and other useful literature.

• Wakatelikws: ohapitu who use tmakikan-enriched oxen to pull carts.

• Wizow: a fresh grocer of produce grown on an ohapitu's farm

Persecution

Amberbalers are hated by the ruling lords who fear their power over the land and see it as a violation of their own rights to the land.

Skills

Some skills include

• Farming

• Agriculture/agriscience

• Herding

• Rustling

• Cooking

• Pickling

• Culinary chemistry

• Harvesting

• Weeding

• Bee-keeping

• Butchery

• Animal care

• Animal husbandry

• Baking

• Building

• Carpentry

• Smithing

Stats

Amberbaler

PRO +1
ATH +2
STR +5
AWA +1
WIL +1
STH -3
PRS /

Harvest Queen

PRO -2
ATH +4
STR +3
AWA +3
WIL +3
STH -2
PRS +4