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Mead is alcohol made from honey that is popular in Anuire and the Rjurik lands. Mead is a byproduct of honey harvesting and wax production, a watery honey is made when the combs are washed to remove the last of the honey from the wax. The watery honey is strained to remove contaminants such as bee larva and then left to ferment.

Mead brewing is a highly skillful craft, while mead can brew naturally in flooded wild hives, when brewed by the Anuireans in particular flower essences and many other products are added for flavour, scent and colouration to create truly wondrous beverages.

Mead is considered a sovereign remedy against many ailments and many healers swear by the beneficial properties of bandages soaked in mead for placement directly over a wound, particularly for burns and deep wounds claiming that they ward off sickness, encourage swift healing and reduce scarring.


[top]Anuire

Mead brewing is particularly practiced by the Northern Imperial Temple whose famed Rose-mead is but one of many specialised beverages and lotions made from mead, the Northern Imperial Temples makes heavy use of strong mead (and other honey based products) in its healing arts and rituals.

In the north of Anuire hops are commonly added to the fermenting mead made to make a more "manly" drink with a relatively bitter taste, while in southern Anuire wine is mixed with the mead or grapes added during the mead fermentation process creating a sweeter drink commonly referred to as honey-wine.


[top]Rjurik

The churches of Erik and Laerme consider mead to be sacred and it is sometimes referred to as Laerme's milk. Mead brewing is carried out mainly along the Taelshore in the Rjurik Highlands as bees become rare in the chilly north, but oddly Hjolvar in the far north also brews mead from the odd frost-bumbles which form huge hives in the frost-bitten land and, in places where farmers who build walls to retain heat and encourage the growth of flowering plants near the hive produce a particularly strong honey that can be stored indefinitely and never crystalises or freezes (except in the direst winter in the lands of Thaele). The mead from Hjolvar is particularly noted for its restorative properties and is one of the northern lands few exports, traveling not only to connoisseurs in Brechtur but to Thaele and south to Anuire and Rjurik.

Popular variants of "standard" meads in Rjurik lands include "short" meads (made for near-immediate consumption and only faintly alcoholic) and "jack" mead found in the north which is frost-distilled and stronger than many Brandies. Halskapa is noted for its sparkling meads and Jankaping for its spiced meads made with spices from as far away as the distant Sun coast of the Khinasi.


[top]Goblins

A less well known mead is brewed by the goblins of Urga-Zai and Thurazor and the Orogs of the Blood Skull Barony. Goblins rarely export their mead but have long brewed it, their Shamans have long added extracts from various fungi and other forest flora to the mead and a deep draught of Goblin Black is said to either drive a man mad or show him the truth of his soul. Goblin stout is one of the few brews of mead that is exported from Thurazor, the mead is ruby in colour and bitter to the taste, but drinkers swear that it staves off fatigue and numbs the drinker against pain, goblin berserkers are said to have fought on despite losing limbs when battling under its influence.

One goblin mead that is noted is "Victors toast", which is drunk at the end of a blood feud or particularly hard-fought duel, the victor drinks mead mixed with the blood of their defeated foe from a skull - preferably of a previous rival. Similar drinks celebrate successful hunts of particularly dangerous beasts and some coming-of-age and initiation ceremonies. Amongst most goblins clans warriors go to great lengths to harvest an appropriate skull, consider another touching their mead-skull (or worse drinking from it) as a terrible insult and the theft of such an item is both great insult to a goblin and if not swiftly avenged, proof of weakness.


[top]Aduria

The Anuireans took the craft of making mead to Aduria when the empire settled colonies along the north of the continent (of which only Mieres now remains), certain mystics than melded the Anuirean craft of mead making with certain native traditions by adding lotus flowers and the venom of certain snakes to the fermenting mead. The resulting heady brews are noted for their soporific and pain-relieving qualities but, if over-used, also for sapping the will. Some of the brews are less benign and approach goblin brews in their ability to generate visions in the drinkers - or in sapping the will and addictive nature although these are outlawed in Mieres except by licensed persons. Similar brews are said to be sold along the Sun Coast by agents of the Serpent although the use of such drinks is against the Khinasi code of sayim.


[top]Khinasi

The Khinasi code of morals generally frowns upon drinking alcoholic beverages however mead, unlike Ales and wines is not banned by any holy texts (indeed some interpretations of older texts of Basaia indicate that mead was used in ceremonies). Ilien and Coeranys both brew very sweet (and accordingly barely alcoholic) meads for sale along the sun coast and Ilienese gold refers not to coin of Ilien but to the city's mead amongst the Khinasi.

[top]Brechtür

In spite of most other countries, mead here has a rather awkward image. Due to the Anuirean invaders, who brought mead with them, mead is not considered a typical Brecht beverage. In most countries around the Black Ice Bay it even is shunned. As a result the art of mead brewing has been neither practiced nor taught and thus forgotten.
Instead having access to distilled alcohol the beekeepers started to mix honey with spirit and created a fine beverage called "Bearfang". This is quite common and due to its sweet, pure but manifold taste, it became highly valued especially in southern states of Brechtür. Nowadays it even is served at several occasions at courts especially as aperitif and welcome drinks.


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