What do you get the city that has everything? It's a question that's been hovering in the back of your mind of late as you walk the streets of Tor Lithanel, wondering how it can be interwoven with the Empire that surrounds it. It has been self-sufficient for over four thousand years, and anything it could not provide itself it has long since worked around or forgotten it ever wanted. What could such a city want from the outside world?
Opportunity? That was what had always immediately come to mind, back when I first heard about some of the social troubles and malaise of some of Laurelorn's peoples.
That is... one of the issues with stagnation or ennui that common elves seem to hit in the city, is that while they can sometimes get 15 minutes of fame, they can't ever reliably break out. Presumably you could gain some honorable position by pledging to and joining the household of a Noble House, but... But even the nobles have a limited ability to gain power and prestige. Possibly one that relies on some weird mix of oneupmanship between the noble houses, and also providing for the masses, and other stuff.
But, well, basically -- what if you were able to convince the common elf that they could find prestige and opportunity
in the Empire?
That, they could gain power and wealth and importance, by selling goods and services to the Imperials, rather than trying to get their 15 minutes of fame in Laurelorn? (The Colleges of Magic, for example, would probably love to be able to copy what Mathilde did in buying laboratory equipment from that one Noble House. Horse raisers would love to be able to get Eonir stock. Or animal trainers; though maybe the Amber College would see some competition there?)
But in order to do that, you'd have to convince them that pursuing a career selling goods and services to humans, instead of to other Elves, would
be desirable and prestigious. You'd have to make them want to sell to humans as an
end, rather than a means to an end; where they're basically only looking at them only selling and trading with humans in order to get supplies or raw materials they can use to transform into finished goods for selling to other elves. (i.e. Right now, they'd trade with humans in order to get supplies for what they
really want to do; provide goods and services to their fellow elf.)
And how do you do something like that? Not sure that completing the Waystone Project and wowing everyone would be enough. Or, perhaps, it would need to be done in a particular way, with a focus on wowing the right people the right way, and inspiring them to think about things. Or something.
And then of course there's the issue that, even if you did somehow entice a bunch of elves to be willing to sell or whatnot... well, maybe Laurelorn itself would then be leery at the idea of
too many valuable or fine goods leaving Laurelorn; because if the humans can get tons of arms and armor or valuable goodies, then maybe some of Laurelorn's advantage over the Empire around them would shrink. ... Though, I guess you just don't sell (too many) weapons or weapon technologies then though. Mh.
With the first half of the book on Windsoak mushrooms already written, the remaining task before you is the instructions on how to take a fully-grown and soaked mushroom and turn it into something portable and palatable.
Well what about --
Panoramia absconds away with your draft while you grumble and pout and are consoled by Wolf, but returns after having consulted a few knowledgeable Halflings who all agree that this isn't the sort of thing that can be salvaged with a few notes and tweaks, it will take a full revision.
yeah, that.
What about going to the Halflings?
That is; the Halflings probably have
tons of experience writing cookbooks, right?
Why not try drawing on that experience?
Sure, it'd mean adding another sub-author or contributor. A Halfling who knows how to write good cookbooks. Buuut. It would result in a higher quality book. It'd feel more professional. Rather than an amateur's attempt to write how to cook all this stuff up.
