wool in Scarterra

Tengku #5 by Zeta Gardner

-Eknok, tengku merchant

 

Elemental forces shape wool color, but they also impact texture and utility.   Wool from earthy sheep tends to be thicker and more durable than other wools. Wool from watery sheep tends to be softer and smoother. Wool from fiery sheep tends to be very breathable. Wool from airy sheeps tends to be extra warm.   Sheep with hybrid wools can be deliberately bred (or accidentally bred). In the northern inland parts of West Colassia, they tend to get earthy/airy sheep whether they want it or not. The wool is produced is great for winter wear.

  Fiery/watery hybrid sheep often produce wool that is both soft and breathable. Great for undergarments because they are worn directly against the skin, feel smooth to the touch, and wick sweat away.   When hybrid lambs are born, it is often a matter of a luck how well the elemental traits will manifest. A small number of sheep born to one watery parent and and one fiery parent end up with wool that is both neither soft nor breathable. These unlucky sheep tend to quickly get served up as lamb chops.

-Beslyfle, matriarch of the Fumayan Tenders

 

A lambs first sheering produces softer wool than at any other time in its life, even if they are from a breed that doesn't normally have soft wool. Since young lambs are by their very nature small, a first shearing doesn't usually produce a lot of wool.   The wool from a lamb's 'virgin shearing' is considered to be valuable for its softness. It is considered good luck to provide newborn infants with garments or blankets made from such wool."

by me with Hero Forge

-Tanoa, gnome tailor's wife

 

"My parents wanted me to be a merchant, but I ended up marrying a tailor, so I act as merchant on behalf of my husband both selling his finished work and buying raw materials for his craft. I learned more about wools and dyes than I ever thought was possible.   I often wondered why anyone bother buying naturally occurring blue wool when you can just apply blue dye to cheaper wool. The answer is surprisingly complicated.

  It turns out that just like there are cheap wools and expensive wools, there are cheap dyes and expensive dyes. Basic red dye is pretty common and affordable and can make almost any garment a dull red but if you want garments to be bright red, than you need very expensive red dye. The most discerning (and well paying customers) really want bright vibrant colors. If you want the bluest blues, you start with blue wool and then add blue dye to it. The same for red, green, yellow, or any other color.   Even if you have wool that is a dull colors, it is easier to make a bright red garment by taking naturally occurring dull red wool and adding red dye to it than it is to take naturally occuring grey wool and adding red dye to it.   Fashion conscious lords and ladies (okay mostly ladies) can see the difference between dyed wool and naturally colored wool, and will pay extra for natural colors. Dyes will eventually fade with repeated washings, but natural wool colors persist through almost limitless washing"

by Me with Hero Forge

-Aunt Ragani the goat and sheep herder

 

In general the more rare a wool color is, the more valuable it is. The two things that are affect wool value are its color purity and the presence or absence exotic colors.   There are more dark grey sheep than there are midnight black sheep. There are lots more light gray or slightly brownish off-white sheep than there are snow white sheep.

  Very dark black wool and very bright white wool can sell for double or even triple what more common wool sells for.   Once in a while some watery influence seeps into our sheep and we see slightly green or blue tinted wool. Mostly white wool with a slight blue tint is both rare and very valuable almost exclusively worn by nobles.   Naturally, shepherds will try to selectively breed sheep to produce more valuable colors of wool. This is certainly possible, but a lot of the process is luck. Even when two sheep with a the same coloration mate, you are lucky when even half the lambs match the parents.   I don't own a lot of sheep, so I cannot afford to be picky about what I breed. I focus on breeding the healthiest rams with the healthiest ewes and not worry about the color.   Sometimes, by dumb luck, I end up with a lamb with a valuable wool color. We herders call these welcome surprises 'jewel ewes' (this include rams too, but 'jewel rams' doesn't have alliteration).   I will usually sell my jewel ewes to the local nobles (or more accurately to the local nobles' shepherds). I can get three or even four healthy 'common lambs' with each such trade.   I've only seen a tiny handful of exotic foreign wools, but I understand that hybrid colors are the norm in other lands too. There are sheep in East Colassia that are bright yellow, striking red, or vibrant orange, but these sheep are fairly rare. More common are dirty yellows, orange tinted browns, and dull reds. Not too surprisingly, wool in 'pure yellow' sells for a lot more than 'common yellow' (with a brownish tint), and so on and so forth for all the colors.  

by me with Midjourney

"Common wool"

by me with Midjourney

"rare wool"

  While pure white and pure black wool sells for double in Fumaya, it is still affordable for many commoners to wear a garment made out of a local pure color. But while white and black wool is relatively common place here, way down south, it is considered exotic and valuable. It can sell for four or five times the amount in faraway lands.   Likewise, blue wool is considered exotic in Fumaya but is pretty common in the tropical islands of the Elven Empire. Some merchants and traders can sustain their living entirely by buying 'common wool' in one place, traveling a long distance, sell their 'exotic wool', and use the profits to buy 'common wool' then circle back to their original location to sell the 'exotic wool'. Even a "common yellow" from the Elven Empire will sell for a lot up north.   Sometimes exotic breeding rams and ewes are transported alive and moved to faraway locations to breed exotic wooled sheep in foreign locations. This works well enough but because the local elemental genealogy will gradually seep in. That means each successive generation of new lambs will gradually revert back to the local norm.   You can fight this elemental reversion by raising sheep near a localized font of elemental power. Most of elemental fonts of power are claimed by the nobles and you'll notice a lot of nobles keep their sheep penned nearby.   A shepherd can make a lot of money breeding rare sheep, but it is very complicated. This is why you are far more likely to see wool traded than to see live sheep traded.