Crúor-Windcatcher

Overview

Let the name not fool you, a Windcatcher is not a fancy installation somewhere to dry clothes or anything. A Windcatcher is the very distinct name of the inhabitants of Crúor for their sails, which are not made out of linen, but made out of the processed goo of the Rotav fruit.

There are only two Terbera who are paying the Rotav farmers for their fruits and provide the Rotav Gelee to the clothmakers which is the main ingredient to craft the Windcatcher in their unique colours.

The Windcatcher themselves are quite sturdy. They can withstand a lot of real-world punishment like storms and strong winds, have only three quarter of the mass of a normal sail, and in the right light they look like transparent skin with veins in it. Creepy? Some people find this oddly satisfying and comforting.

Make it flat before anything else!

The Rotav Gelee is the main ingredient for the Windcatchers and provided by the two Terbera in Crúor. The Gelee arrives in wooden barrels which are lined with a very thin layer of metal, so the Gelee can be removed a lot easier than from wood. With a flexible scraper worker remove the the Gelee from its prison and pour it on a very long, very broad and flat metal surface. They coat a metal tube with linseed oil - it works for some reason -, press the tube on the Gelee and roll very slowly over the entire surface.

The oil prevents the Gelee from sticking to the metal tube, so the tube squashes the Gelee every round a bit more. The workers try to squash the Gelee in such a way that the overflow of the Gelee drops into a metal tub where it is collected and used in the next round.

Round by round the Gelee is getting more and more flattened until it is only a quarter of a finger thick. At this point a lot of the fibres are embedded properly into the Gelee. Now the entire sheet is brought into the next stage where fires are lit and are burning day and night all around the sheets, to dry them properly and evenly. For most clothmakers three sheets can be dried at the same time and normally there is just enough time between one sheet and the next to check the fires, restock the wood for the fires, and clean the area from ash and dust.

Then the sheets are lined up in the next stage. A small amount of the Gelee is used to "glue" the sheets together. Another, larger, fire is providing the heat to cure the Gelee and makes the seam invisible.

This entire process, from flattening the Gelee to glue the sheets together, lasts as long as there is no Gelee left. The clothmakers lay out the sheets in squares, so they don't have to think about which part is going to be the main sail or the square sail for example. In terms of time one delivery from one harvest takes about six to eight weeks to a) deplete the reservoir of Gelee and b) to create enough finished sheets to take on new orders.

There is only one thing left which every clothmaker does at the end of the process: colour their own Windcatcher. The colour is tied to their reputation and everyone knows who crafted the Windcatcher in question.

Now make it colourful

After the sheets are dried and ready for usage, the clothmaker makes the sheet "wet" again with a specialised concoction of their own. It is a combination of oils, binder, and a colour pigment. The complete sheet is covered into the concoction and is left alone for at least two weeks to absorb the colour.

Since there are only four clothmakers there are only four colours for the Windcatchers: Crimson Red, Vibrant Blue, Lush Green, and Violent Purple. Why Violent? Nobody knows, the clothmaker isn't spilling the etymology behind the naming and the colour itself is really pleasant to look at.

Now sell it

The coloured sheets are left in the storehouse of the clothmaker, only small samples are brought out to the store, where ever that is. Mostly at the port and in one of the shipyards, where captains want to inspect their ship. It is a good spot to show your Windcatchers, so people can see and feel your product.

If a captain or the owner of the ship orders their Windcatcher, they have to provide the necessary specs for their order, like length and width of the sail. The clothmaker and their workers are cutting up the dried sheets to the specifics and also embed the rings for the rigging into the sheets.

Each Windcatcher is really valuable, and the further you go away from Crúor the more expensive they get, mainly because of distance and getting a sheet to the customer. Not that there are a lot of external customers, since Koria does not have a lot of ports.

Now tell us about it!

The Windcatchers are really sturdy. I mean, I do not like to look at them when the sun hits them directly, but their silky feel and the reliability of them makes them my favourit.

— Sailor to a curious barmaid

They make a good sunblocker. The Violet is definitely a choice, but it is way better than just laying under a white sail. It helps a lot with the shade, you know?

— Exhausted sailor as asked what he thinks of his Violent Purple Windcatcher

The main problem I have with the Windcatchers? Well, normally you can see from far away if the ship in reach is friend, foe, or none of those. With the coloured Windcatchers you can't really say. Yes, you have to assume that the captain is neutral or a friend because paying for a Windcatcher takes a lot of coin, but a pirate could have stolen it, you know?

— Captain of a merchant vessel