Terroir and belief

Terroir is the power of the land. Affinage is the craft of ageing cheese, and an affineur practises that craft. The Guilds use cultures and cellars to concentrate terroir into their wheels.

Many people believe the land is alive and that careful work keeps it healthy. Blue Guild scholars call the connection between land, water, weather, living things and craft the Harmony. Village belief and scholarly accounts give different explanations for what people see around them.

The Terroir Mythos tells of the Uncurdled, divided into the Fixed and the Flowing. Its creation story compares the making of the world with milk separating into curd and whey. The book presents this as a way of understanding land and craft, with no surviving witness to establish how the world began.