Bocage

An agricultural feature that dominates much of the realm, a heavily cultivated, picturesque landscape of pastures and small clumps of trees. Winding lanes, sunken into the ground and flanked by rows of trees and hedges are protected from the winds blowing across the open spaces. These lanes, with limited visibility are a favourite of highwaymen and brigands.

Utility

Bocage landscaping is used to spur agricultural development, creating arable farmland with easily recognizable boundaries between fiefs and leaseholds. The trees ringing the bocage, also called hedgerows, serve to block the high winds that rush across the fields, with sunken paths between these rows providing sheltered passage around and through the fields.
The hedge also provides a home to local wildlife, such as deer, foxes and birds, which can be hunted for food and pelts. Some Korrigan, such as the Kornikaned and the Boudics also make use of the hedge for their own homes.

Manufacturing

The creation of bocage is straightforward, but arduous. In its simplest terms, it requires clear-cutting the forests and tilling the land to make cultivatable fields. Trenches are dug through these fields and lines of trees and hedges are planted alongside to shield travelers from the winds. Stones, removed from the rocky soil, are used to reinforce the hedgerows, used as walls within the bocage, or used as building materials elsewhere.

Social Impact

Bocage have popped up around cities throughout Northern Kornôgel, establishing ordered farmland that can be managed easily and efficiently, typically earning those farming it more than the hardscrabble existence of those farming wildlands. The Teuz have widely adopted the use of Bocage along with their Bediz neighbors.

Access & Availability

Bocage landscapes heavily dominate the North of Kornôgel, dominating large swaths of Akitainia, Anjev, Gallia, La Manche and Upper Letha. Bocage requires continued maintenance and dedicated creation, and as such is generally found surrounding urban areas.

Complexity

Although simple in concept, Bocage are the result of centuries of continued development and landscaping, taking several generations to properly cultivate.

Discovery

Bocage is a common landscaping technique, refined over centuries of use. Some hedgerows around urban areas such as Kemper are thought to be centuries old.

Related Species

• Bediz
• Kornikaned
• Teuz