>So what's the deal with maize? The other Grain Mothers seem happy enough
>without blood or (in Esrolia) a little high-quality blood. What does HonEel
>need buckets of the stuff for?
Because Maize is no ordinary grain but the gift of the Blood Sun. It grows best in the rains of blood which fall only when the Blood Sun shines (and have not been seen for some millennia). In the light of the Quiet Sun, maize still requires blood to grow.
Maize is no ordinary grain for it grows on rocky soil in Bliss in Ignorance, sustaining the too many Ignorants there. In the fertile soils of Peloria, it far outperforms other grains by the bushels _if_ fertilized with blood.
>It would also suggest that maize is a poor cash crop; the supply of
>expendible people isn't inexhaustible (especially with the Bat and
>other hungry dependents around).
Ah, but due to the bounty of maize, the Lunars are able to feed more expendable people than they could before. Thus they have more to sacrifice.
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