Wasabi and narcotic drugs in Skyrim

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roerich
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Wasabi and narcotic drugs in Skyrim

Post by roerich »

Wasabi is actually considered a drug, and should (mostly) replace moon sugar and skooma in large parts of Skyrim. I think it's primarily an Old Hold thing, but we should be sure to include it properly in more Nordic settings than the Reach (and maybe among the Nord warrior elite). It is a legal drug though, tolerated by Imperial officials and imported from Cathnoquey and Akaviri east. I do think it will be heavily taxed, with the added benefit of a lucrative, criminal smuggling trade.

It inspires strength and battle prowess in Nords, sending them into a blood frenzy driven by the burning hot taste in their mouths and noses. Shield-biters smear it on their shields and others use it on their weapons.

Alchemical effects should be something like fortify attack, damage intelligence, fortify endurance, fortify speed etc. I propose a price of 70 gold for the powdered wasabi and 200 gold for the wasabi root ingredient (with corresponding rarity in levelled lists - something like skooma in vanilla). I wonder if we could turn the powdered wasabi into a potion instead, or perhaps a "wasabi salve". The "potion" would give a short burst of berserker-like abilities (increased attack speed, increased strength, blind, damage intelligence etc.).

Edit: On the same note, moon sugar and skooma should be very rare in Skyrim. An exotic, expensive and eccentric habit, not a "street drug" as it is in Morrowind and the southern provinces. Users would almost exclusively be foreigners; Khajiit, Elves, Imperials and so on. Most commonly found in cities like Karthwasten, Dragonstar, Falkreath and Riften.

Here's one of the relevant parts from the Aldugagga:
The earliest hunters had no luck; spouts of joy-snow would drift down from the clouds and turn the men goofy. They would laugh like happy babes, some getting so tickled that they’d roll back down the mountainside in big flumphs—which only begat more guffaws-- or begin to pat each other on the back or hug in the masculine style to reaffirm their affections and camaraderie; in essence, the joy-snow got in their heads and they just forgot what they were doing. Eventually, Huggert the Wrinkled Unto Unreadable, one of our Clever Men, made sure that the hunters remembered to occasionally hit one another out of the blue, or make lewd jokes of their respective wives or mothers or sons that had not yet shown promise, and steal and hide the shoes of their fellows, and to line the rims of their shields with wasabi so that, when they bit them, that they might ignore all happiness in fits of burning nose and choked throat.
And here, from the second PGE:
The Wasabi Run:

After the Disaster at Ionith and the retreat of the Cyrodilic navy back to Tamriel, there was little reason for the Empire to keep either resupply stations or legion garrisons in Cathnoquey. That changed with the discovery of “the Wasabi Run,” a trickle of shoals and small islets whose every available surface had been cultivated in swirling garden crops of a tibrol-based wasabi. Wasabi is as lucrative a trade in Skyrim as skooma is to the hinterlands of the south and east, with the added benefit of actually being legal. Withdrawal of the occupying forces from Cathnoquey was stalled in 3E306, to give the Treasury Agents of Outland Holdings time to surreptitiously tally a drake-value annual return based on exploitation of the wasabi gardens. Only a year later, a wholly-endorsed provincial investiture was won by Veto at White-Gold Tower, opposed only by the powerful, and corrupt, “Blackmouth Counts” of the Cheydanene districts.

During the Treasury’s investigations, the Quey naturally denied having created these gardens in their alien and insouciant way, shrugging as if the mystery was really quite obvious. To their credit, the Quey had never been actually seen trading wasabi at market in the thirty years of Imperial occupation. When their “untitled leaders” were questioned how it got there and who its gardeners were, they merely told the Imperials that “it showed up when you did.” Under torture, the origins of the Wasabi Run and its careful cultivation were made even less clear, with variations of a single answer: “you needed something from Cathnoquey, so it gave it to you. You are Quey now, so stop hurting yourself.”
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Post by Undertaker »

Isn't it a bit of immersion breaking? I mean wasabi is just normal vegetable in real life. And here it is supposed to be a drug. Imagine having potato drugs or radish drugs.

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roerich
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Post by roerich »

Be that as it may, the concept of wasabi as a form of drug is well established in lore. The same goes for ebony, which is a form of wood IRL, and not the blood of a god.

Keep in mind that Skyrim wasabi is probably just the same as real life wasabi, but the Nords get something out of the pain brought forth by wasabi's strong taste and odor, which (if nothing else) makes them able to focus, when the snow-whales rain joy-snow upon them.

Real wasabi is rare (in real life), because the plant is hard to grow. This is probably the same on Nirn, and only adds to make wasabi a lucrative trade, due to its scarcity.
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