On the Vices of Several People

To His Royal Majesty, King Mynus, Sovereign of the Saks and Prince of the Silver Peaks, Paragon of Knowledge and Mercy, Magister of Reknown, and Scholar of Matters both Magnificent and Mundane

From Grele of Laketon, humble servant and sage, duly licensed fellow of the Guilded Caskmasters of Spirits and Preserves, Lodge #3.

Inasmuch as you lordship has requested a full report of the vices that plague the several nations, I have prepared this scroll. My study of the matter has taken me to four continents and to the many cities, towns and villages therein.

I have found in the course of my study that nearly every people produces an intoxicant which may vary in production, potency and taste; but which achieves the same result in those who indulge overmuch. First comes a general loosening of the tongue. Then a haste toward laughter which may progress to other antics. Beyond that the imbiber often becomes belligerent, then stuporific, and finally, unconscious.

The cure for intoxication has as many variants as there are imbibers, but the surest is the passage of time.

Westrun

The people of Westrun are known for their barley wine, commonly called ale, which is obtained from the fermentation of that harvest. Menea especially, as the bread basket of the Eight Kingdoms is known for this beverage.

The wine of grapes is also widely consumed and while there are many vineyards across the kingdoms, the most popular of them are found in the provinces. Provincial wine is highly sought, if more expensive than any of its continental counterparts.

The Kingdom of Talir also boasts a sort of wine made from the molasses drawn from their sugar cane. It comes in three varieties: Brown, Golden, and White.

Northrun

Men of the North are widely known for their honey wine, which is also called meade. It is a concoction made, as it sounds, from the produce of bees. The soil and clime of the North is unsuitable for grape growth, but even the scrub growth of the highlands supports the husbandry of that stinging insect.

Honey wine is consumed in great quantities for all manner of celebrations and preparations. As a rule, it is enjoyed from the large horns of the beasts that those men keep as cattle. This unusual vessel seems to be favored for its shape, which makes them unsuitable for placing on a table top and thereby tends to increase consumption.

Eastrun

The Eastruners have a startlingly potent beverage made from the fermentation of their staple crop of rice. This rice wine is called kesae shu and is available all across Jenia, though it is most often consumed aboard the merchant and pirate ships that ply the coasts. Rice wine is particularly resistant to algae and also helps to decrease the incidence of the wasting disease often suffered among those long at sea.

Kesae shu is stored in clay vessels and when served, it is ladled into small cups. Despite the potency of the beverage, intoxication is not widely observed in those lands. The men of Eastrun seem particularly ill-constituted for spirits, and will drink to seal contracts or else to mark the passage of specific holidays, but seldom otherwise.

Southrun

The black wine of Southrun does not have the same effect as the various other wines, wherein excess causes drowsiness. Rather this wine causes an exaggerated sense of energy and wakefulness in those who take it. Overindulgence is rare. It is brewed by pouring boiled water over the roasted and milled kaafe beans, only moments before imbibing. Black wine is sipped from small bowls which fit into the palm of one hand. It is most often shared with a morning meal or in the mid-afternoon and its bitterness is often cut with palm sap.

Palm wine or Maay is another beverage enjoyed in Southrun, but is wholly unsuitable for consumption elsewhere. The sap of the palm tree is first harvested as a sweetener, but within just a few hours is able to ferment into a weak intoxicant. It cannot be shipped, however, for if it is left too long, the sap becomes a vinegar which is fit only to be sprinkled over foods in slight quality.

Dwarf Realms

The dwarves drink a barley wine not dissimilar from the ale of Westrun, but which also includes hops in its manufacture. This type of barley wine is called beer by those people and "Dwarf Wort" by others. It is a strong intoxicant, nearly as potent as Provincial wine.

While dwarf wort is common enough among that diminutive people, it is highly sought by the men of the Eight Kingdoms and subsequently expensive. The brewing of this beverage seems to be as much drudgery as the baking of bread and the dwarves seem uninterested in producing quantities beyond personal use.

Elf Realms

Elves seldom use grapes in the production of their wine, rather they are most known for the fermentation of berries (Berui), pears (Peravi) and even apples (Apfevin). Elf wine is served heated and spiced which they believe makes it more potent.

Most men find that Elf wine produces sleep too rapidly to be enjoyed. Dwarves dislike it for its overt sweetness and the presence of sediments.

Halfling Realms

Halflings are found of ale and wines from both men and elves, but are not brewers in their own right. Rather, the halfling grows and harvests a plant they call pipeweed, which is stored in unwalled sheds and hung to dry, before being cut and sold in oiled pouches.

There are four strains of pipeweed which are grown: Brightbrittle Green, Stoor Leaf, White Stem, and Rustica Brown. Of those four, only Rustica Brown is usually seen outside of the Halfling Realms. Regardless, all strains are highly sought by men, elves, dwarves and gnomes alike.

Gnome Realms

Gnomish beer is altogether unlike the vices enjoyed by the other peoples. It is made by boiling ginger root in a process that they regard as highly secretive. The end result is a beer which assaults the nostrils as it is consumed and sometimes produces a fit of coughing in those who are new to it.

This ginger beer is not an intoxicant, but has been known to quiet nerves, settle stomachs and aid digestion. The gnomes prefer to drink it along with a delicacy they call snowflakes, which are maize kernels turned inside out by intensive heat.

Goblin Kingdoms

The goblins produce an acrid wine from the various wild tubers that dot the landscape of their home. Their name for this drink is unpronounceable to many (Glog-tuunk) but is called "fire water” or “goblin wine" by the men of Westrun, with whom it has found unlikely appeal.

The tubers themselves are first made edible by a long-boil in crude pots. The cloudy water that remains is then put aside and allowed to ferment. That water is boiled again in the same pot with a hammered copper lid designed to capture and cool the steam that rises. That steam is drawn again and again through the process until the liquid that remains is deemed ready for consumption.

The following pages are committed to the complete methods by which each of these intoxicants are produced, along with diagrams for the equipment needed to produce them. Wherever possible I have included notes detailing the specific material needs of the equipment and where it might be found across the Four Lands.