Editing Breoa (section)

==== Breoan Beekeeping ====
Surprisingly, the Breoans have found a way to improve their crop yields, create a tradable item, and make sweet mead all with one industry: beekeeping. The beekeepers of Breoa mostly operate near Razzia. With elementrix to aid them in keeping the bees warm in the winter, the beekeepers travel in great caravans across Breoa during the spring, summer, and autumn months.

These bees pollinate the meager crops of Breoa allowing them to create yields two or three times what is expected (and yet the yield is still far lower than anywhere else on the continent). Family history and tradition, passed down orally, is how the new beekeepers are taught. There is a beekeeping guild in Razzia but they do not teach new keepers. Instead, the guild helps regulate crop production and makes sure the bees are being kept in safe conditions. Every family of beekeepers has different methods. 

Those families with stellar methods have survived generations. Families with poor skills either starved or moved to raiding. Because of this, it has become difficult to replicate the techniques of the beekeepers in other areas around Ramesh. Many master beekeepers have their students simply observe over decades. No scholar has been able to wait with a single family for decades yet to learn their secrets...yet.

A new beekeeper is considered an apprentice. This apprentice helps the master beekeeper of a family until their death. When the master dies, the apprentice becomes a full beekeeper. One of the regular beekeepers of the family then rises to the rank of master beekeeper and takes new apprentices.

Sometimes, thieves from outside Breoa will attempt to kidnap a master beekeeper. This is devastating for a family. Ransoms can climb as high as ten thousand gold pieces. However, powerful or rich beekeeping families might hire a group of raiders to get their family member back. The raiders, who understand the need for Breoan bees, are usually happy to oblige. Woe to those who kidnap a master and are not prepared for the onslaught that is about to befall them.

Finally, in the winter months, the beekeepers harvest honey from their bees. This honey is used to make the legendary Breoan mead. During a time when the sun does not rise and the raiders are stuck in port, nothing lifts the spirits in a Breoan tavern than when a keg of newly made mead is broken open. This mead, spoken about mythically around Ramesh, is Breoa’s one true export.