Butterburn
Butterburn
Religion
Traditions
+10% National Tax Modifier
+50% Innovativeness Gain
The Last League MemberTired by the squabbling of Appleton and Pearview, Butterburn, Turnwell and Cowskeep banded together to create a third economic and military alliance strong enough to stand their ground against the two. This alliance stood for nearly two centuries, until Iochand and Appleton came together to disband the league in 1207, annexing Turnwell and Cowskeep in the process. While Butterburn had to agree to Gawedi vassalage for protection, its legacy as sole remnant of the Turnwell League lingers on.
-10% Land Attrition
+5% Trade Efficiency
Butter BaronessesDue to dairying's association in Cannor with female rites of fertility, birth and lactation, halflings have strong taboos against men handling milk, leading to the production of butter and cheese being professions exclusive to women. As Butterburn's economy consisted predominantly of dairy products, these practices gave rise to the Butter Baronesses, a powerful group of female merchants who dominated the region.\n\nThe Baronesses had an immense impact on Butterburn by organising its dairy workers into a unified guild known as the Churners’ Guild, where both knowledge and techniques were shared and formal butter-making training was taught to any would-be churners. The result was this innovative system of quality control granted Butterburn its reputation for superior butter as well as a thriving butter monopoly and a price advantage for Butterburn's churners.
+50% Female Advisor Chance
+10% Production Efficiency
The ‘Fat’ HalflingsHalflings traditionally view plump cheeks and a well-rounded belly as a symbol of prosperity and good health—and Butterburners are stereotyped as the fattest of the lot as a result of their general wealth from trade. Their diet, however, may also play a part in this. Aside from using butter for nearly every recipe from delicate flaky pastries to rich heavy sauces, many Butterburner dishes are cooked in fat like deep-fried pork scratchings, sweet and savoury fritters, and sugared doughnuts. Whether by coin purse or by stomach, Butterburners are certainly the fattest of the halflings.
+1 Yearly Prestige
Gold in Yonder HillsGawedi subjugation did have one positive effect for Butterburn: opening the alpine pastures of the Dragonhills to a few enterprising ranchers, who set up dairy farms in the highlands for cows so as to not compete with Eaglecrester shepherds. The Dragonhills cheeses were firm, nutty, and buttery with a wonderfully gooey texture when melted. Though they differed from the typically mild and soft cheeses locally made in Butterburn, it was no surprise that these cheeses came into high demand in Butterburn. Paired with Bluefoot expatriates longing for the flavours of their homeland, a vast network of country roads and carriage paths soon developed in Ciderfield, all of which led to Butterburn. Known colloquially as the Goldbrick Roads for the shape and colour of the goods ferried upon them, they connected hundreds of small dairy farms within Butterburn to the markets in the Dragonhills and back again.
+1 Merchants
Cider-Style SpeechOf the various states that emerged from the former Ciderfoot lands, none adhered to the old Ciderfoot mannerism of unfailingly polite but slippery language quite like Butterburn. Sharp barbs were hidden behind innocent commentary, mockery privately indulged with oily smiles. Promises were only ever generously hinted at, rarely affirmed; behind every veneer of truth lay one hundred ways to bend it through generous interpretation.\n\nThe most infamous incident of this came in a rare moment of agreement by the Earls of Pearview and Appleton when both bemoaned being lured by smooth-talking Butterburn diplomats into signing a trade agreement fixing the price of butter at a low point in 1646, not knowing that the merchants of the west would also apply the heavily-lowered price to their artisan pear butters and apple butters by virtue of sharing the same label. When the trickery was discovered, they found the ambassadors had already slipped away with the agreements in hand.
-15% Envoy Travel Time
+10% Improve Relations
Great Butter ExchangeBy the end of the 1600s, the demand for fine agricultural products in urban regions grew too much for the scattered cheesemongers and merchants of Butterburn to handle. With the approval of the Churners’ Guild, the merchants opened the Great Butter Exchange to help regulate the critical trade of all dairy products. By pooling the supply from a legion of farmstead butter-churners and cheesemakers, Butterburn grew into one of the world's largest dairy export markets. In its heyday, Butterburn regularly had riverboats and caravans from the nearby kingdoms coming to the region to stock up on its goods; Reveria and the Gnomish Hierarchy, in particular, were keen on supplying their colonies. Demand was said to be so high that the Great Butter Exchange was open day and night.
+10% Global Trade Power
Bog Butter ManuscriptsIn 1752, a halfling farmer discovered the preserved corpse of a gnome from a bog while searching for caches of fermented bog butter. It was, at first, not an unusual sighting, the first bog bodies near Butterburn had been discovered half a century prior by farmers doing the same thing. While the farmer did find a keg of ancient preserved butter, what stood out in this incident were the other items found alongside the gnome's body: birch-bark manuscripts, which the ancient gnomes had used for writing prior to the adoption of parchment.\n\nCovering various topics from philosophy to administrative documents, these manuscripts made Butterburn famous across Cannor and proved invaluable for historiography of ancient Lencenor. Most important for the halflings were the extensive inscriptions in the Old Halfling language, which proved to be crucial for the language's reconstruction.
+1 Administrative Possible Policies
Ambition
+1 Monarch Diplomatic Skill
History
TBD
Strategy
TBD