Tribe Craftsmen

*"It is such that almost everything is hand crafted. Tools, clothing, weapons, buildings, cooking materials, and even the bowl that you eat from. They produce such items not as a business but as a contribution to the Tribe as a whole. Their contribution to the village is then paid in kind via their access to the communal food stores, to the bounty of a recent hunt, or simply in trade for other materials they need. Such a society is so alien to our own, one in which all people are given access to everything rather than what they have directly earned. In some ways, I could argue, this way of life seems so much more rich and just, human."* - **Writings found in Arkland history book.**

The term Tribe Craftsmen is used as a generic term to describe the people in a village who are talented and trained in the ways of hand crafting any material that the Tribe may use. This could span from pottery, to metal working, to cloth work, and even to stone work. Such skills are passed down through the generations as children are apprenticed to the craftspeople in the village and learn those trades. The communal government that most Tribes have is such that the craftspeople of the village work to support the whole Tribe, and in return, they receive the bounty of the farmers, hunters, and protection of the warriors. This type of communal barter and trade system makes it such that the Tribes have little need for a monetary system or an economy.

## Stone Working

Stone working is the craft of taking rock and transforming it into a useful product or building material. The process of grinding and smoothing rock into usable stones that can be used for construction purposes, such as for buildings, fire pits, or even flooring is laborious. It requires chipping away at stone and smoothing it with other, harder stone. Stone work in a Tribe is most commonly used as a building agent. Because it is time consuming, it is relatively expensive and low volume. Thereby, stone structures within a Tribe are uncommon and are often treasured. Having a stone fire pit in your home is a great luxury and often got there because your home had something valuable to trade for a bit of the stone worker's side time. Most stone work is done at the request of the Chieftain, and stone workers are most often committed to communal projects.

Stone working may also be done to create stone weapons. This may include stone axes or stone tools.

## Metal Working

Metal working is very rare within the Tribes. Simply getting access to metal ore is impossible in some areas, and those Tribes that typically have metal workers also have access to areas of the Spine where ore can be found or access to the Highway so that they can trade for it. Metal workers are also equally as rare. A Tribe that has both a gifted metal worker and access to metal is considered wealthy. Metal weapons, tools, and armor are very difficult to come by and are expensive to trade for.

The Tribes throughout history have only ever really had access to iron and bronze. However, within the last few centuries, due to the Republic, steel work has also been introduced into Tribes who have outside connections to foreigners.

## Cloth Working

Most Tribes do not grow or harvest plant material from fields for the use in making cloth or thread. Often they don't need to as any scavenger worth his weight knows how to find fibrous plant material within the Great Forest. The most common materials for such are the Geyrant Vine and also Sionic Moss. Prolific throughout the Great Forest, Geyrant Vine is easily processed into very strong threads through slicing and peeling. Those threads can then be spun together to create strong fiber that can easily be sewn, tied, or otherwise worked. Such threads can be used for tying material together and are resistant to water, meaning they make excellent building and crafting binders. Sionic Moss is also common to many areas of the Great Forest, and likewise can be easily worked into thread.

This natural abundance of fibrous plants makes cloth working a common staple among almost all Tribes. These threads can be worked into clothing, building materials, blankets, and all sorts of other crafts. Sionic Moss in particular can be easily dyed. The Tribesfolk can use the materials from various flowering plants found in the forest to produce vibrant dyes that can be transferred to that cloth. Often, then, Sionic Moss cloth is woven into other fabrics and dyed for artistic purposes.

The fibers from Geyrant Vine can also be hardened through a curing process involving boiling along with other ingredients readily available in the forest. This hardened cloth is difficult to cut once it cures, and it is an excellent material for making shoes, sacks, baskets, and other containers.

## Hides

Animal hides are also readily available throughout the Great Forest, and they can be cured and hardened to make clothing, containers, and building materials. The skins of animals often make the most decorative dressings for clothing or for one's home. The myriad and seemingly limitless number of species in the Great Forest provides a wealth of material for artwork as well. Hide, because of its durability, makes for the most common clothing material. It can be used to make shoes as well, a very important commodity.

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--Neil (talk) 16:44, 25 October 2016 (AST)