Hoppers

Hoppers, also referred to as hop-harvesting peoples or the hop clans are a Coscivian ethnosocial group (or groups), often described as an ethnoclass or, who are traditionally engaged in the cultivation and harvesting of. The labour-intensive nature of hop harvesting and processing created a large demand for migrant workers during the harvest season. These migrant workers organised themselves into clans for protection during their annual travels, mutual aid during the off-season, and in some cases collective bargaining with landowners. Although different clans and groups of clans may be of different ethnic backgrounds, speak different languages and dialects, and inhabit different parts of the country, they nonetheless feel a sense of kinship and solidarity with other hopper clans. Hoppers have often leveraged their crucial role in the production of one of Kiravia's most important commodities in order to protect their communal interests and advance themselves politically and economically. In modern times, even though many or even most hoppers are no longer actually engaged in hop harvesting, people of hopper descent continue to marry mainly within the hopper community and retain a distinct group identity. Hoppers often vote as a bloc in state and local elections, encouraging political parties and candidates to court the hopper vote, and giving rise to dedicated hoppers' parties in some areas.

As a legacy of their migratory lifestyle, historical landlessness, and lower social status, hoppers as a class experience poorer economic, educational, and health outcomes than the average Coscivian-Kiravian, though with regard to most indicators hoppers in inland Kiravia are now largely on par with other rural Coscivian-Kiravians in the same areas.

History
In the Coscivian homeland, hop production was typically a household undertaking or a village enterprise, though these are records of entire tribes or villages specialising in hop production, particularly during period when large parts of the landmass were brought under the rule of one large empire or another, creating conditions more conducive to larger-scale, long-distance commerce.

The Kiravian hop clans originated in the early Viceregal period, mainly in South Kirav and the northern Transaterandic territories. The oceanic climate of these areas and a growing demand for beer in the growing proto-industrial cities of the eastern seaboard spurred the establishment of large hop plantations which required much more labour during the harvest season than they did during the rest of the year. Landless peasants, Coscivian immigrants, working-class townspeople, Celts, and Aboriginals alike were recruited as harvesters. The hop clans were originally something akin to an early labour union, organised among the hoppers to negotiate with landowners, help members find housing and employment during the off-season, provide logistical oversight and security during seasonal migrations, and (often violently) maintain their control over the harvest labour supply by intimidating scabs and planters. Over time, these labour cartels became clans in proper, developing a sense of fictive kinship and their own distinctive cultures and customs. Those wishing to join a clan (usually in order to take harvest work) had to undergo ritual initiation.

Hop clans also emerged in Farravonia and the Western Highlands after these areas became colonised by Coscivians and became used for intensive hop cultivation.

Hopper clans would often stage strikes in order to protest poor working conditions or drive a harder bargain with employers. These strikes would often be coordinated with neighbouring hop clans, and could threaten to shut down production across an entire region.

Hoppers were generally supportive of Kirosocialism and the Kirosocialist government's efforts to reduce the power of the landed gentry, though hoppers' opinions on Kirosocialism soured over time in the face of economic underperformance and the national government's disinterest in rural issues. In the post-Kirosocialist era, some hoppers' parties remain at least nominally Kirosocialist, while others have turned toward or remained non-ideological.

With post-Kirosocialist economic liberalisation and the mechanisation of agriculture, most ethnic hoppers are no longer directly involved in the traditional mode of hop harvesting, though a significant minority are, especially in inland states and parts of Kiravian Punth. Many have taken up commercial hop cultivation, either as family farmers or as members of coöperative enterprises with other hoppers. Two major Kiravian pale ales - Great Aterandic KPA and HVMVLVS - are manufactured by a hopper collective and a partially employee-owned company with a predominantly hopper workforce, respectively. Many now live in cities and towns, though urbanised hoppers tend to form with other hoppers and retain their clan affiliations and hopper identity.

Geographic distribution
Today, hoppers can be found in most parts of the Kiravian Federacy, at least in small numbers. However, they are most heavily concentrated in areas with well-suited to growing hops, such as the Eastern Highlands, the Transaterandic Uplands, the West Coast, and the northern tier of South Kirav, and this is where the largest and most visible hopper communities are found. Numerically significant (but more dispersed) hopper communities can be found throughout Central and Upper Kirav and the Northwest.

Hoppers are much least common along the North Coast, which is not only too cold for hop cultivation, but has also developed a long tradition of alternative flavourings for beer, such as spruce, heather, and elderberry.

List of Hopper Clans

 * Clan Ápskatśa - Mainly of Kaltem, Gaelic, and Aboriginal descent, living in Kiorgia and Tanuvia.
 * Clan Dukláva - Of Tínoran, Ærem, and Kaltem heritage, living in Ventarya, Trinatria, and parts of Hanoram.
 * Clan Lupulin - Of Pelargiem, Kastovem, and Antaric Coscivian descent, living in Kaskada.
 * Clan Perrin - Mainly of Kyrnem Coscivian and Prythonic Celtic heritage, living in North Ateranda, Etivéra, and Íarthakelva.
 * Clan Hōrstom - Of Antaric Coscivian descent, living in Kaskada.
 * Clan Peronin - Of Peninsular Coscivian descent, claim to have been hop cultivators since the First Coscivian Empire.

Cuisine
Hoppers drink a fuckton of the hoppiest IPAs imaginable because of course they do.