Craneberry Curd

What is Craneberry Curd?

Craneberry curd is a secret and sacred paste from the The Reivers' Marshes made from the rare Craneberry. The paste is used to make ancestral Craneblood Wine, which is used in one of the most important and ancient rituals of the Marshlands: the Blood Gift. Craneberries only grow in a few locations in the Marshes, often in dangerous and inaccessible bogs.

Young warriors of the clans fight for the glory of bringing back the villages' craneberries. It is a dangerous undertaking that both men and women of the clan seek to bring them fame and glory. However, only the villages' Wiseheart witches can make and use the Curd and Wine. All others are forbidden to drink or even touch any of it.

Physical characteristics

Craneberry curd is a hard-to-medium-soft paste obtained from the drying out and processing of the craneberry. Craneberries need to be relatively fresh for the paste to retain most of its properties. Clan warriors pride themselves on the speed with which they gather and bring back the berries in Leafall.

The making of the curd usually corresponds to the Samayne Celebrations, and the use of the berry is strongly linked to the death rituals that take place (or used to take place) at that time in the Marshlands.

The main characteristic of the paste is its odour - the craneberries are heavily fragranced. Some liken the smell of the berries to a sweet, musky perfume. When concentrated into the curd, the perfume is overpowering, and one can smell the curd being made from Wiseheart's workshop, many houses away. It is usually why the Wiseheart's long house is traditionally on the outskirts of town or village.

The colour of the curd is the same as the berries - deep blood red. However, one of the fruit's properties is that it does not taste as it smells. When distilled into Craneblood Wine, the processed berries acquire a bittersweet taste, and the fermentation derived from the curd's maceration gives the wine its fizz.

This change in form and taste goes a long way to explaining the berries' religious and spiritual signification. According to religious lore, the berries are said to acquire their sweet fragrance from benevolent spirits who have descended to the The Underworld.

The plant, through its deep roots in the life-giving waters of the bog, is said to be able to draw on the departed's spiritual force. When distilled into the Wine, they become food for mortal clansmen and a way to commune with the people who have gone before and the Ancestors.

Compounds, production and storage

Craneberry curd is a paste that is difficult to store. Usually, the paste is only potent for a year before it loses its properties, which is why gathering and processing more of the berries is necessary every year.

The curd is kept underground in intricate glass vessels. Placing the curd below ground ensures that the paste can still draw power from its source. Underneath every marshland's temples exists an otherworldly necropolis where the dead are buried. There lies a vault or altar room, usually named the Bloodhall, where the craneberry curd and wine are stored. No one is allowed to enter the room except for the Wisehearts.

To keep the curd's potency longer, Wisehearts include a secret ingredient in the craneberries as they are processed into the hardened paste. Many have surmised that the oil of the Madden Willow is added to the concoction to prevent it from hardening completely and losing its powers too quickly.

The curd recipe is passed down from one generation to the next, and every village or community has its unique version of it. The Bloodhall is one of the most sacred spaces of the Marshlands clans, and is nowadays consecrated to the goddess Brid or Brigand. The Bloodhall is where many rituals take place to the goddess during Beltane and Samayn.

Origin, geology, geography

As mentioned earlier, craneberries are only found in far-off bogs within the sprawling, dangerous marshlands. Craneberries have refused any attempt at cultivation, and the sites where they grow are well protected and kept secret from anyone not born into the clans.

It is taboo to talk about or reveal the locations of the bogs. A few adventurers within the last centuries have found to their detriment that looking for the berries can be a deadly experience indeed.

The reason why craneberries are so rare remains a mystery - some have put forward the water temperature as a barrier to cultivation. The craneberry bushes grow in bogs where hot water springs gush to the surface and warm the surrounding waters.

Transplanting the bushes to colder waters kills them straight away. Furthermore, craneberries produce significantly few viable seeds, and those have never been successfully grown in other marshland waters.

Properties and Usage

Craneberry curd has several important properties: one of them is a natural painkiller (e.g. poppy milk). It is often administered to dying clansmen to ease their passage to the nether life. The thought is that the ancestors' spirits contained in the paste will infuse the patients with otherworldly sustenance and help them to find their way to the Underworld.

In significant quantities, it will act as a poison and kill its patient outright, usually within the first five minutes of ingesting the substance. Finally, the curd, especially distilled as wine, has mild psychoactive properties. The Wine is drunk during Samayn festivities to prophesy and predict the future for the coming year.

Distribution

Within the last century, the fabled properties of Bloodwine have reached the ears of the burgeoning Alven scientific community. Many have thought to study the craneberries' properties, but to this day, no one from outside the Marshlands has been able to get hold of the fruit, never mind the Wine and the Curd.

The Marshlands clansmen, the Reivers, are very protective of the craneberry fruit and its byproducts. However, it is only a matter of time before an 'enlightened' adventurer will brave the Marshes' dangers and get hold of the precious fruit.

There is also, unfortunately, a growing market for psychoactive drugs in the industrial urban centres of the clanlands. However, the rarity of the craneberries has kept The Ambulant Men , among others, away from the substance.

The Reivers are not immune to inside treachery too. Five years ago, a Marshland clansman, Matter Villion, was accused of stealing Craneberry Curd from Mirkwode's Bloodhall. Matter was exiled from the Reivers' clanlands and sent on his way, clanless, to The Lost Coast .

All AI images unless mentioned.