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#1! Yesss. I've been wanting to ramble on this one. I've rambled about it to @blorbologist before but.
Whitestone is based in the north of Tal'Dorei, it is canonically pretty cold! It is also, as I've discussed recently pretty isolated and even before the Briarwoods, trade was dangerous through the Parchwood.
And yet. We know they make mead because Percy brings some for his pre-Thordak evening with Vex. And if they're making mead, that means they've got an active beekeeping practice. And if they've got an active beekeeping practice, and especially if they've got enough excess honey to make mead out of - that suggests they've got an available, affordable source of other sugar to feed the bees during winter if they've taken much of the honey themselves.
(Yes, they could have taken less honey so the bees can use their own supply - but if they're making not just mead, but a local speciality mead! then they have a system for beekeeping. So they have something to make sugarwater out of.)
And, further, despite this isolation and cold climate, despite that this is when they're recovering from the Briarwoods and the Conclave... Whitestone seems to have a ready supply of sugar if it was so feasible for Vox Machina to set up the Slayer's Cake. Relying on trade, especially through the dangerous Parchwood, especially during the rebuilding, especially at such distance - that's a risk. But the Slayer's Cake doesn't have those troubles and maybe it's because it's VM and Keyleth could pop to Emon and tree-teleport back but Vex is involved in the rebuilding of Whitestone and she understands economics so I'm inclined to think she'd want to support local traders.
And that means Whitestone has a source of sugar.
Now, lets take a sideways step - historically, sugar was expensive. Honey and fruit was used for sweetness in foods, but sugar was not very common - it was around but it was harder to obtain and expensive at that. Way back when, refined sugar came in a loaf and it was ground or chipped off for use. It was used rarely too - because it was expensive as hell. Even when it didn't come in a loaf, you had brown and demerara sugars that were rated by moistness until more recent developments. Sugar cane just wasn't so prevalent or available and the use of sugar beet to refine into sugar was, again, a more recent development.
And, let us be clear here, Whitestone is not in a climate suited to growing sugar cane. Indeed - it's a cold climate! It's a climate well suited to root vegetables.
It seems very likely to me that Whitestone grows sugar beet and refines sugar as a local business. They produce mead as a local speciality - so they have sugar to feed their bees when there's no flowers or honey. They're able to support, even when rebuilding, a bakery with a speciality in pastries and cakes. They have a source of sugar despite a cold climate.
Whitestone grows sugar beet and refines sugar.
Indeed, as Tal'Dorei recovers and Whitestone grows under the guidance of Percy and Vex and Cassandra - it's quite likely that huge amounts of Tal'Dorei's sugar is sourced from Whitestone sugarbeet.
send in “📓” and I’ll roll a d10 and ramble some worldbuilding thoughts
