Endless Bounty Prefecture
Endless Bounty Prefecture is a small administrative division of the central Blessed Isle, along the Fire Dragon Road between Lord’s Crossing and the Caracal River. It is bordered to the northwest by Lord’s Crossing Dominion. Its economy is primarily based on rice and beef cattle.
The prefecture consists of a large valley and several smaller dales surrounding it. The prefectural capital, Endless Bounty , is a market town built around a ruined Shogunate fortification. Though its population is only 50,000 people, several pieces of infrastructure are present to improve quality of life, including streetlamps in the main market plaza and cooled chambers below a few buildings, powered by ambient essence. The Weary Step Caravanserai is an inn located in the town, which can support both Dynastic guests and their entourages as well as trade caravans. It is known for the discerning tongue of the citizen family which operates it, who are said to buy only the finest meats and Arjuf Dominion Rum to be served from their kitchens… merchants from the Southern Isle often make a point of stopping there for a drink even if they do not need to stay the night, as tariffs on Arjuf rum make it difficult to afford further up the road in the Dominion.
The prefecture, particularly the area known as the Dry Stale, has long been known for the quality of its beef, which has fine-marbled fat. Tax records recovered from the early Shogunate state that ‘an Endless Bounty cow is fit to cultivate the fields, to carry burdens, and to eat." Peasants in the Dry Stale region often house and feed their cows within their own cottages.
‘Dry Stale’ is an unusual name for a cattle-raising region, and a relatively recent development. Barely a century ago, the main cattle-rearing part of the prefecture was the valley known as Drye’s Dale, named for some long-forgotten hero or explorer. The quality of Drye’s Dale beef meant the peasants living in the area were quite prosperous.
Seeking control of this prosperous asset, a junior branch of the Carpenter Patrician Clan attempted to force the peasants in Drye’s Dale to hand over their lands and herds. The peasants resisted, supported by the local prefect… but the Carpenter Clan was closely allied to Great House Tepet, and Dynastic influence proved a major issue. Tax records in the Imperial City were combed, and an aberration was found on the first recoverable record, from RY4, where the brushwork was poor and waterstained. The Carpenters and House Tepet appealed to the ministers of the Thousand Scales that Drye’s Dale had in fact entered fealty to the Realm as ‘Dry Stale’, and that this original name ought be the one legally recognized. The judgment came in agreement, and from then on local beef had to be stamped ‘DRY STALE BEEF’ in keeping with requirements to identify livestock origins at market. Though the beef did not change in quality, the label caused many to dismiss it without examination, or to consider it inauspicious, and the peasants of the dale had soon lost much of their wealth.
The peasants have refused to sign over their lands and herds despite these difficulties, and recently their overtures to the Kuroga patrician clan have not been dismissed out-of-hand.
