Fendasa

Nyssa's Notes

  I had been travelling for many months after my awakening before I first visited a fendasa plantation. Row after row of shimmering, opalescent plants grew at the bottom of a crater, for the plant only grows in soil tainted by some manner of unknown weapon used recklessly in the waning days of The Affliction's aftermath. Fendasa is a critically important plant in The Quivan Republic for it is the primary ingredient in fendas, the currency of the Republic and its closest trading partners.   Fendasa is planted as a seed every spring, for the full plant is uprooted during harvest. The plant grows for about 7 months before it is harvested by digging with a trowel at the base of the stalk. The stalk grows to be about two meters tall, and roughly 5cm thick, depending on water and mineral availability in the soil. When harvested, the stalks are taken to have their grain removed so it can be planted again next season. The grain grows on each stalk in low quantities, so care must be taken to gather every kernel. After the seeds are removed, the stalks are rendered into fibres and spun into thread. It is at this point that the rendered thread is taken from the plantation to the facilities that produce the fendas and unfortunately I was not allowed within those buildings, but what I do know of the process suggests that a mixture of seed and mineral oils from unknown sources are used to harden the fibres once they have been spun into the round fibre disks used as coinage in The Quivan Republic.   Outside of government controlled plantations, growing fendasa is strictly forbidden, and there have been several incidents where plantation workers have attempted to smuggle the grain to outside buyers who hope to produce their own fendas for purposes of counterfeit. I hope that someday I will be allowed to learn the process by which fendasa fibres are hardened, even if I will not be allowed to write them down for posterity.