High Stacks, Low Fat

Despite the arid environment in which most Loebnaeturians live, they have had a rather peculiar way to handle their harvests. Every time the yearly harvest commences, especially in the middle-to-southeast region of Loebnaeturie, folks take part in the strange game called High Stacks, Low Fat.

History

The origins of High Stacks, Low Fat go back to the periods of bad weather conditions and ruined harvests that happened during the Second Warring Era. Since the lower part of Loebnaeturie is mostly an arid landscape, there wasn't much opportunity to make buffers out of previous harvests. Eventually, the poverty and the class hierarchy caused uprisings in some parts of the region.
The upper class in the region had to find ways to not only avert disaster for their position, but also to keep the lower class alive. In a rare meeting between the holders of the Karalath and Jafez fiefs it was decided they would incorporate a new strategy to deal with bad harvests: A gambling game called High Stacks, Low Fat.
The effects of this game were significant and went different than expected. The smaller villages that belonged to the fiefs were disproportionally affected by the luck element in the game, and soon they began to vanish due to the lack of food, their inhabitants moving away to the main cities of their fief or fleeing to better lands. New leaders of the fiefs kept the game, corrupt for more power over the poor masses.
In 6337, The central government of the Oakenlands officially put a stop to the political nature of the game, since there were multiple disastrous effects linked to it:

• Karalath had lost almost all villages, only Krostenar and Moreth remained alive as communities.
• Jafez only had Remuth left, all other village populations moved to either Remuth, Jafez or the independent coastal town of Triplenook.

This was also caused by the wars and other droughts that raged over the area, but now that there was peace and balance once more, the fiefs did not need to continue this system of harvest distribution.
Nowadays, the game has changed into more of a tradition, signifying a friendly competition between farmers in proximity to each other. But the bad memories of inequality and corrupt fiefs remained, and High Stacks, Low Fat is a harvest-related ritual frowned upon throughout Loebnaeturie.

Execution

High Stacks, Low Fat is played by putting harvest and money as opposing sides on the table. The buyers (usually higher class) betted their money on the harvest of the farmers (lower class).

• At the start of the game, farmers put an amount of harvest on the table. The buyer has to add a sum of money that is the base market price of every individual piece of produce.
• Every turn, the buyer is able to raise the sum of money and the farmer gets to add extra produce to the table. Note that this does not immediately require a market price sum to be added from the buyer.
• If the buyer has the winning hand of cards, they only have to pay the total of the base market price of all harvest on the table, but they can give away more money if they so desire. If the farmer has the winning hand, all harvest goes to the buyer and all the money goes to the farmer.

Due to the buyer's advantage of not having to pay a base market price sum for every additional piece of harvest added during the game, this version of the game was the reason for the social changes in the Karalath and Jafez fiefs.
The new version of the game is mostly a standard card game with only harvest as betting material. The tradition is now the most important part of the game instead of the sale of harvest.

Year of Implementation
5423
Year of Discontinuation
6337