Foreword

Whether cutthroat assassin or masterminding general, all Avalonians gain the ability to labour and farm. The Farming and Labours skills are gained automatically within your first days in the land. They begin at their most basic of levels and grow in potency through practice and experience. There are no lessons required and indeed, any lessons spent on farming and labours would be wasted on these physical, worldly endeavours.

It is through farming and labours that most commodities are produced.

The Labours Abilities

Labours concerns itself with the production of commodities through various processes; blowing glass, mining for precious ores and metals, brewing refined essence, drilling for oil and spinning rope to name but a few.

2002h, 2002m aex --- ab labours
Your current proficiency in Labours is Crowned-Ultimate.
"Fires"      Making, stoking and fanning fires [Poor]
"Clay"       Digging clayholes and digging for clay [Apprentice]
"Panning"    Panning for gold and diamonds [Practitioner]
"Logging"    Dissecting up a felled tree into suitable  [Competent]
"Cups"       Making paper cups from papyrus sheets [Competent+25%]
"Glassblowing" Blowing glass from suitable sand [Competent+50%]
"Cookery"    Making balanced meals out of raw ingredien [Respected]
"Crafting"   The ability to create artisan items and un [Respected]
"Sand"       Shovelling suitable sand ready for transpo [Respected+50%]
"Dyes"       Extracting valuable dyes from crushed flow [Respected+62%]
"Papyrus"    Harvesting and preparing papyrus from papy [Respected+75%]
"Marble"     Picking out a quarry and quarrying for mar [Respected+87%]
"Baking"     The art of baking: advanced cookery [Renowned]
"Salt"       Filling a salt-pan and scraping out salt [Renowned+16%]
"Ropes"      Weaving rope from stripped hemp [Renowned+66%]
"Spinning"   Spinning cotton into cloth [Renowned+83%]
"Pelts"      Sourcing and preparing pelts; the furs com [Master]
"Tanning"    Tanning leather; making the commodity from [Master+6%]
"Smokehouse" Building the smoke-house from raw material [Master+12%]
"Flans"      Specialised baking: the art of the flan [Master+18%]
"Flint"      Picking out a quarry and quarrying for fli [Master+25%]
"Sailmaking" Creating broad sails for ocean-going vesse [Master+37%]
"Excavation" Starting and continuing excavation of a mi [Master+62%]
"Mining"     Mining precious ores and stones [Master+62%]
"Sealing"    Closing up an open mineshaft [Master+62%]
"Rigging"    Constructing a ship's rigging [Master+75%]
"Gluemaking" Turning certain animal carcasses into glue [Grand-Master+13%]
"Figureheads" Carving a ship's figurehead [Grand-Master+20%]
"Omelettes"  Whipping up a hunter's omelette in the fie [Grand-Master+26%]
"Yeast"      Finding and growing yeast [Grand-Master+33%]
"Pigeons"    Breeding and training carrier pigeons [Grand-Master+53%]
"Scoutmaps"  Making the scout-map from papyrus [Grand-Master+66%]
"Netweave"   Weaving stripped hemp into a fishing net [Grand-Master+86%]
"Spices"     Preparing gardened spices in an arboretum [Legendary]
"Balsa"      Scraping off the valuable ripe balsa bark [Legendary+20%]
"Bronze"     Fashioning bronze from tin and copper ores [Legendary+33%]
"Oil"        Digging, tapping and extracting oil [Legendary+53%]
"Lockmaking" Fashioning a lock from appropriate materia [Legendary+66%]
"Essences"   Mixing up essences in cauldrons [Legendary+86%]
"Adamant"    Preparation of the most valuable ore of al [Ultimate]
"Jewelsmith" The fine artistry of working jewels and je [Crowned-Ultimate]
"Originals"  Crafting items without reference to a near [Crowned-Ultimate]

The Farming Abilities

Farming, on the other hand focuses on the harvesting and rearing of various plants, crops and animals, with abilities such as the ploughing of fields, harvesting of crops, animal husbandry, scrumping from fruit trees, and beekeeping chief among them.

2002h, 2002m aex --- ab farming
Your current proficiency in Farming is Crowned-Ultimate.
"Fruits"     Expert fruit assessment, maximising mixed  [Beginner+20%]
"Gather"     Sorting, gathering and collecting fruit, n [Beginner+20%]
"Soil"       Packing soil, preparing the earth for grow [Poor]
"Ploughing"  Yoking oxen to a plough and ploughing fiel [Poor]
"Skinning"   Stripping the skins from dead animals [Apprentice]
"Hemp"       Sowing, growing, cutting and stripping hem [Practitioner]
"Seedbelts"  Using many-pocketed belts designed to stor [Competent]
"Sugarcane"  Sowing, harvesting, and cracking sugar can [Competent+50%]
"Potatoes"   Sowing, growing, and harvesting potatoes [Respected]
"Flyfishing" Fishing in the rivers and lakes of the lan [Respected+25%]
"Apples"     Sowing and nurturing apple trees [Respected+50%]
"Pears"      Sowing and nurturing pear trees [Respected+68%]
"Plums"      Sowing and nurturing plum trees [Respected+81%]
"Meadows"    Planting grass-seed and tending grassland  [Renowned]
"Bananas"    Sowing and nurturing banana trees [Renowned+33%]
"Gardening"  Preparing, planting and keeping a soil-ric [Renowned+66%]
"Cultivating" Cultivating herbs and poisons in fertile g [Renowned+66%]
"Scrumping"  Climbing fruit trees and shaking them down [Master]
"Seeding"    Broad skill with seeds, stones and pip pla [Master+12%]
"Potfishing" Catching crabs and lobsters using pots [Master+25%]
"Coops"      The mysterious art of the chicken coop [Master+37%]
"Hutches"    Taking care of rabbits and their hutches [Master+50%]
"Cotton"     Sowing, picking, seeding and reseeding cot [Master+62%]
"Croplore"   Attending to crop health and soil richness [Master+75%]
"Wheat"      Sowing, growing, harvesting and preparing  [Grand-Master]
"Nuts"       Planting nuts and picking nuts from trees/ [Grand-Master+13%]
"Milking"    Milking cows and goats [Grand-Master+20%]
"Seafishing" Fishing off the coasts for sea fish [Grand-Master+33%]
"Soybeans"   Sowing and harvesting the soybean [Grand-Master+53%]
"Beekeeping" Preparing a bee hive, keeping bees for wax [Grand-Master+66%]
"Hivelore"   Extracting wax and honey from bee-hives [Grand-Master+86%]
"Breeding"   Tending, enriching and breeding animals [Legendary]
"Felling"    Felling trees and preparing useful wood [Legendary+20%]
"Shearing"   Shearing wool from sheep in the dog day af [Legendary+33%]
"Butchery"   Slaughtering animals and cutting out their [Legendary+53%]
"Acorns"     Planting acorns and raising the mighty oak [Ultimate]
"Landscapes" Using fertile soil to extend entire fields [Crowned-Ultimate]
"Fertilisation" Increasing field output with manure [Crowned-Ultimate]

Tools

The majority of abilities within these skills require specialist tools or equipment to carry out, such as spades for digging, cauldrons for brewing, picks, hammers and saws for the excavation and shoring of tunnel heads and mine shafts, and dozens more. Most city markets have a stall dedicated to labours and farming tools and this should be your first port of call as a fledgling labourer or farmer.

Duties

Duties are often entrusted by city leadership and among them are commodity-gathering tasks on behalf of the city. It is often worth enquiring of your city leadership (particularly the ministers of Trade or State), which commodities are in highest demand for these - as one might expect - tend to bring the highest rewards and potential profits.

Example Labour: Mining

Mining is one of the most profitable - and dangerous - of labour endeavours. Precious metals are among the most-desired commodities for their worth in fortification construction, forging, supplying the city army, the fashioning of runes and the crafting of various sundries and essentials. Mining requires a pickaxe (for excavation and the act of mining itself), a hammer and nails (for shoring a minehead from collapse), a saw, and a bottle of oil (to seal the finished minehead behind you).

First, a source of ore must be located. Ore veins are usually discovered through exploration of the land's mountains and cavernous underdeeps. The underbelly of the world contains many things lost to time; long-forgotten tunnels leading to hidden troves, brutish horrors of the Earth and artifacts of great and terrible power are among the many discoveries waiting to be made.

Once the ore vein is sourced, the mine shaft must be safely excavated using a pickaxe and shored with a hammer, wood and some nails. The act of shoring is a preventative measure against the collapse of a minehead; protection from what would certainly be a slow and agonising death as you are buried alive among the ruins.

The act of mining is a time consuming process as one uses the pickaxe to harvest raw ores from the mine interior. Ores are a much-craved material and theft and disruption are a serious risk, whether it be enemy thieves wresting the ores from under your nose or saboteurs attempting to deliberately collapse the mine shaft and leave you to your earthy demise...