Notes

I wanted to write this story early on because it is much more important than many people think. This also meant, however, that it didn’t fit in a single story. This one and the next few have been planned and written in one go, because they all revolve around the same idea: people learned to control nature (and thus their food supply).

This is what “agriculture” means. Not “maintain a garden”, but purposely making steps to control plants or animals to make them as consistent and useful as possible. In the eyes of a human, that is.

Before people discovered they could harvest crops, they were hunters and gatherers. Your only task was to hunt animals or gather “static food” from your environment. You had enough food? Then take the rest of the day off and do whatever you want!

Research shows that people during this period probably had more free time than people who used agriculture to grow their food. They devoted more time to music, art, and other things. They were also generally more healthy.

Then why did we switch to agriculture about 10,000 years ago? Because it had a few major advantages.

• You control your food source. (You don’t depend on weather, coincedence, competition, etcetera.)
• You can create a surplus of food. This means people are free to do other jobs besides gathering food! For the first time, specialization or jobs appeared.
• It can be used almost everywhere, if you have the space and prepare the earth.

The disadvantages are …

• All those modifications to the earth aren’t great for nature. Most human inventions to help agriculture—such as building a dam or adding a lot of fertilizer—are terrible for the climate.
• Working the land is hard work that requires many strong hands. This indirectly created slavery and power dynamics as most know it today.

How did it appear?

Well, that made this story so difficult. We don’t know. There are several theories.

• The tribes in which people lived grew too large. The pressure increased to gather food more efficiently and consistently.
• They initially planted seeds for another reason, such as an experiment or a ritual. This is how they accidentally discovered that this led to edible food. (Let me repeat that they had loads of free time back then which they did use for experimentation or creativity.)
• It started as a reserve, a “back-up”, for less fortunate years. Over time it turned into the main food source.

We can’t pinpoint a single cause, especially because agriculture independently evolved in many different places. Roughly around the same time period. But prehistoric people obviously couldn’t call each other to say: “let me tell you what I invented today!” So all of them probably arrived at the idea from a different chain of events.

The specific plant they domesticated depended on their environment.

• South Asia: rice
• Mexio: mais
• South Amerika (Andes): potatoes
• Mesopotamia (Middle East): Grain
• West Afrika: Yam

This story tries to show a few of the different theories and how it evolved in different places. Later stories, though, will also show this (as we visit different continents and folks).

A modification

A subtle element of this story is that plants grew very slowly before this time. And that the idea of a garden existed, but was seen as decoration or ritual. Quili is the first to specifically grow a garden for food. Because of the magical seeds, and later the Stone of Destinydust, these plants grow more quickly and make agriculture possible.

This is not based on true events. It was necessary for the story.

(If plants already grew as quickly as in our world, the story would be less tense or believable. Agriculture would have been invented way earlier, especially because (nature) gods walk among them. The “magical” seeds would serve no use, and I would have no way to introduce the Destinydust in a meaningful way.)

The original version of this story had some more additions … which made it too long. For example, it explained you could also grow plants as medicines (against poison). It explained the difference between “poisonous” and “venomous”. Quili did not manage to safe her garden, but they used the garden left behind by the enemies for food. It was also … unclear how Quili “suddenly” got the idea for planting the seeds.

I removed all these things or clarified them. This brought the story below 15,000 words (my limit for these stories), but also made it much clearer for the average reader. I sometimes try to put too much into a single Saga of Life story. With these rounds of editing, I also teach myself how to prevent this and streamline more.

Domestication

Another element that was “too much” for this single story was the general idea of domestication. (Which is why I planned this over several stories.)

It wasn’t enough, for humans, to plant a seed, then hope and pray. They only wanted the best seeds. So if a plant was sick, or didn’t grow large enough, they removed it and didn’t allow it to multiply. Over time, this meant only the best plants were left, who kept growing larger and more nutrient.

For example, we know bananas as a large, tasty, healthy piece of fruit. But the very first banana was nothing like that! It was a small, shriveled thing with more peel than content. Through the domestication humans did—only keep the beste banana plants and replant those—they grew larger and more nutrient.

You can obviously do the same thing with animals. You only allow your strongest cows, giving the best meat or the most milk, to procreate. Over time, cows grow stronger and more “useful” on average.

The domestication of plants and animals helped humans leap forward quickly. They made villages and cities possible. Suddenly there was a surplus of food, so people could live together and all do their own jobs.

But hey, more on that in the upcoming stories :)

Characters

• Quili: active and always seeing opportunities, which does make here a naive loudmouth with anger attacks. (She would really like to “bite in the tail” of a lot of animals.) Doubts the king and his usefulness.
• Epoh: silent, shy, unsure, responds to everyting with “what do I know, what do I know”. Lets herself be commanded by others. Wants to “be normal” and not draw attention, which is why she heavily dislikes Quili’s idea about the garden.
• Didrik: our favorite time-traveling sun badger, who sometimes says things from a different time period or place. Talks and acts loosely. If needed, he’s always strong, fast, and helpful.
• Tibbowe: a good king, full of love for his wife and loyalty to the gods. We don’t really get to know him in this story, but we will in later stories.
• Gossin: thinks the Gosti are amazing and everyone else stupid. Lies about being scared of blood, for he’s actually a spy of the enemy. Gosti are the only animal species who are split: half are behind the gods, the other half against them.
• Bunjo: the Biggest Bearchitect, kidnapped by the Pricecats to build things for them, but precisely because of that he declares all Bears to fight for the gods by the end.