Narcotics Regulation and Consumption in The Steppes

It's still a few days until the next release is ready, so we'll bridge that gap with a lore post.


While tobacco is simply unknown as a drug in the known world of the game, brewages and other drugs such as opiates are occasionally manufactured and consumed, specially by beastfolk.

Officially, with the exception of opiates in the form of painkillers, The Court of All Humans enforces through the whole of The Steppes a teetotalism with an strictness and enthusiasm that varies from one city to another.

This is most successful in Tershelle-Val and Stallia, cities that culturally consider all forms of intoxicants to be "beastfolk poisons". The official stance of The Court stems in fact from the days of The Old Court, located in Stallia, and is considered anachronistic by a large section of more cosmopolitan cities such as Nivhar and Ill-Vess.

There is then the approach of Arrakans which, as per usual, manages to irritate both sides at the same time. Most arrakensis citizens, as an old city itself, are also culturally disinclined towards drug consumption. But in their "live and let live" approach to issues, the authorities make nothing but token efforts to stop the smuggling of brewages and other drugs.

This is an important leak in the system, as Arrakans is not only a hub of maritime commerce connected with both Nivhar and Ill-Vess, but it provides a gateway for beastfolk smugglers through the Arrakans River, which reaches into the unknown depths of the protectorate of Malahs Kovoss.

The jungles of Malahs Kovoss, under the control of the warring beastfolk clans, is where most of the narcotics consumed on The Steppes are produced. This is so because it is actually cheaper to smuggle the different clans' wares than to produce them locally, specially under the secrecy required because of these laws.

Some clans have grown extremely powerful because of this smuggling. This fact, above morality or productivity issues, is the main argument of both detractors and defenders of the institutional teetotalism.

Detractors argue that by removing these laws and producing alcoholic drinks inside The Steppes, the stronger smuggling clans will lose power and eventually collapse into smaller, more malleable ones. Defenders, on the other hand, argue that those entrepreneurial clans are precisely the less aggressive. Because of their regular trade with The Steppes, they restrain themselves from attacking their clients, unlike the ruthless systematic plundering of those clans without any economic interest on The Steppes.

Cutting that trade short now, defenders argue, will potentially radicalize the stronger clans, encouraging them into using their substantial forces to plunder The Steppes for profit.

The whole thing is therefore a pretty sticky situation that goes beyond moralism and from which there is no short-term solution at sight.