Flax is a vital crop used in the production of textiles. Flax's main products, tow and lint, are processed in order to make canvas, linen, and rope, all goods fundamental to the Egyptian lifestyle.
Additionally, flax seeds can be crushed in a kitchen to make oil for use in cooking (10 flax seeds yield 1 oil).
Flax comes in many varieties. Anyone may receive a packet of either Old Egypt or Nile Green flax seeds from any School of Art. You may go back a few minutes later and get more, which may provide the other variety. Through crossbreeding, it is possible to design even more potent flax strains (see below for more discussion on this).
To grow flax, plant a bed of flax plants using the "Plant" menu, on grass. Flax will not grow on sand. After a short while, green flax shoots with blue flowers will appear in the bed. Shortly afterwards, yellow weeds will appear. Weed the flax bed by selecting the appropriate menu option. Depending on the variety of flax being used, you may need to water the flax when you weed it (using one jug of water), and you may need to weed the bed several times. Eventually, the flax will complete growing and you may harvest it. There are no signs that the flax is ready for harvest except more flowers grow in the flax bed. The best way to tell is to click on the flax and see.
To get water, you need a jug, which you can get by signing up to learn the pottery skill at a School of Architecture.
Flax grown in the above manner will not produce any seeds. To grow flax seeds, plant a bed of flax but do not weed it. Shortly after weeds appear in the bed, the flax will go to seed. You will see more of the yellow weeds. You may then harvest seeds from the flax up to 5 times before it finally dies. When the plant dies, it will leave more seeds on the ground.
Take care to not use up all your flax seeds when growing flax; you should always keep at least a few in reserve to grow more seeds. If you do run out, you can go back to a School of Art to get a few more seeds.
Most uses of flax require rotten flax, as ordinary flax cannot be processed until it has been soaked in water to soften and separate the fibers. Regular flax may be rotted by standing near a body of water and selecting the "Rot flax in water" option from the "Special" menu. Rotting flax in a body of water does not appear to have any impact on fishing. Rotting flax in a body of water will create a flax buoy that you can retrieve once it's rotted. The time required to rot flax is independent of the amount of flax in the bouy. You can donate the buoy to your guild, and may retrieve bouys left by your spouse. Ownership of buoys was first introduced in our grandparent's Age by the Laws/Flax Processing Co-Operative Law.
Flax may also be rotted in a tub.
Crossbreeding can produce some amazing improvements in flax over the original Old Egypt and Nile Green strains. Previous crossbreeding resulted in nearly 10x the yield of the school-provided strains.
Our ancestors had flax with the following characteristics:
Shorcut notation used :
Flax produced / Rotten flax produced / Seeds produced per harvest / Weed (but no water) needed + Weed and water needed
The top flax strains are available in stash chests located in RSO at 2302, 2272, Sinai at 2639, 5534, Karnak at 1405, -838, VoK at -1278 5439. If any other locations are set up please add then to the list. If you have a top flax seed that is not in one of these chests please stash some.
NOTE: the following tables may have completely changed since the "storm" of November 30, 2005.
| Name | Watering + Weeding | Weeding | Flax | Rotten Flax | Seeds |
| Castle Cappu | 1 | 0 | 19 | 4 | 7 |
| Zintwana #23 | 1 | 0 | 19 | 4 | 7 |
| Kimber's Whisper | 1 | 0 | 18 | 3 | 10 |
| Caping Cappu | 1 | 0 | 18 | 3 | 9 |
| OldJoe #53 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 2 | 8 |
| Lynch Mob | 1 | 0 | 12 | 7 | 7 |
| Pinpon #5 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 7 | 6 |
| Golden Age | 0 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| OldJoe #46 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 2 | 8 |
| Zignotrop #7 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 14 |
| MacPhisto#155 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 10 |
| OldJoe #34 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 7 |
| MacPhisto#156 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 11 |
| Royamen #13 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 5 |
| Zokar #78 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 5 |
| Valerium #2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 5 |
| Royamen #7 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 4 |
| MacPhisto #104 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 4 |
| dedenav #10 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 4 |
| Mithrus #16 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Zokar #41 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 6 |
| Boboluke #52 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 4 |
| Arpallan #1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| Tekhamon #6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| Chichis #74 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| hitoriki #12 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| MacPhisto #116 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 8 |
| Chichis #113 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| Boboluke #12 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 2 |
| Chichis #17 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Banana | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| LittleCleo #4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Nile Green | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Old Egypt | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Name | Watering + Weeding | Weeding | Flax | Rotten Flax | Seeds |
| Zignotrop #7 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 14 |
| MacPhisto#156 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 11 |
| Kimber's Whisper | 1 | 0 | 18 | 3 | 10 |
| MacPhisto#155 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 10 |
| Caping Cappu | 1 | 0 | 18 | 3 | 9 |
| Reyzer #2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 9 |
| Valerium #7 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 9 |
| OldJoe #53 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 2 | 8 |
| Golden Age | 0 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Chay #7 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 8 |
| Zokar #80 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 8 |
| Valerium #3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 8 |
| MacPhisto #116 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 8 |
| Lynch Mob | 1 | 0 | 12 | 7 | 7 |
| OldJoe #34 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 7 |
| Zokar #64 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 7 |
| Pinpon #5 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 7 | 6 |
| Zokar #41 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 6 |
| Chichis #113 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| Zokar #78 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 5 |
| MacPhisto #104 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 4 |
| dedenav#10 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 4 |
| Boboluke #52 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 4 |
| Mithrus #16 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Arpallan #1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| Banana | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Tekhamon #6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| hitoriki #12 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| Chichis #74 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| Boboluke #12 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 2 |
| Chichis #17 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| LittleCleo #4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Old Egypt | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Nile Green | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
Tow and lint are then processed in a distaff, and then a Student's loom or (far better) a Hand loom will let you have final products. An Automatic Loom allows unattended production of finished product while using tow and lint at a higher rate.
A sum up of production for 100 rotten flax:
| Flax comb results (From) | Distaff results (Via) | Final products (To) |
| 100 tow | 300 twine | 60 rope |
| 100 tow | 300 twine | Manual loom: 5 canvas Automatic loom: 4 canvas |
| 100 lint | 1500 thread | Manual loom: 3.75 linen Automatic loom: 3 linen |
Flax production is dependent on some ecological factors. Different flax strains will have different production results based on ecology parameters.
As of now (25 Jul 2005) the only directly measurable ecology parameter that is currently known to affect flax production is the phosphorus level. Phosphorus values below about 80 produce no flax and a message is shown in main chat. Phosphorus levels between 80 and 90 result in reduced production. There are at least two flax strains involved. One strain will produce reduced levels of both normal and rotten flax under these conditions. Another strain produces no normal flax and reduced levels of rotten flax under the same conditions. The amount of production increases as the phosphorous value climbs from 80 to 90.
This second strain has been known to produce 0 normal flax and the expected value of rotten flax under conditions that are as yet unidentified. All the directly measurable ecology values appear normal.
9/2/05
I am in the process of testing different flax seeds as some output has decreased. Changes are in bold. I added a region section in case anybody wanted to put their own tests up there. - Xirxx
Ok, so I went to Sinai and got the correct amount of flax & rotten flax for Castle Cappu, it must be a regional thing.
VOK is also currently showing reduced results in some areas. I think this may be related to the Phosphorus findings listed above, with certain strains being affected by it. Possibly time to crossbreed more resistant strains?
| Name | Watering + Weeding | Weeding | Flax | Rotten Flax | Seeds | Region |
| Castle Cappu | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | RSO |
| Zintwana #23 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | RSO |
| Kimber's Whisper | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 10 | RSO |
| Zokar #80 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 8 | RSO |
| Caping Cappu | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 9 | RSO |
| Name | Watering + Weeding | Weeding | Flax | Rotten Flax | Seeds | Region |
| Golden Age | 0 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 8 | RSO |
| Chichis #74 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | RSO |
| Chichis #113 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 6 | RSO |
| OldJoe #53 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 2 | 8 | RSO |
| Pinpon #5 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 7 | 6 | RSO |
| Lynch Mob | 1 | 0 | 12 | 7 | 7 | RSO |