Fantasy King or Kingpin? A High Fantasy Narcotics Story

[Snackofthefuture]

-KING OR KINGPIN?-

As you walk through the throng of the crowd towards your favorite inn, a figure rushes past knocking you to the ground. As you curse and lift yourself from the wet cobblestones, several blue clad guards rush past. Frustrated, you check your pockets for your meager amount of possessions before realizing a note has been slipped onto your person.


"The year is 1245 A.E. (After Empire) and the world is shattered. Hundreds of small and large countries vie and struggle for dominance in the ruins of the once great nation. The civil war that shattered the land and it's people is over, but its effects will be felt for hundreds of years afterwards. Misery and pain are abundant and for many it is a time of strife and poverty.


But it doesn't have to be that way for you my friend. The misery that consumes the world is something that can be fought, something that can be beaten. And the thing that defeats that misery my friend, well, it makes a helluva lotta money. So on behalf of my associates within the Black Wing Medicinal Acquisitions Company (BWMA) I would like to extend an invitation to join our illustrious unit in pursuit of the little, ahhhh shall we say, refreshments(?) that make life worth living for so many of us gutter scum.


And yes, I know, don't think I haven't heard what those rats in the Glarehold city guard say about us and our business. The bastards call us dealers, traffickers, murderers even! But if we're that bad then they're even worse, going about enforcing their will on those who cannot defend themselves, telling us we can't do what we want with our own bodies. But they'll get whats coming to them one day, and you can be apart of giving them their just desserts, so long as you just join us.

If you want to be wealthy, or perhaps even just employed, come to the Glarehold 14th district north-side bridge on Sanday the 14th. Further sermons and info await the worthy and the intelligent."

 

[Snackofthefuture]

=Setting the Stage=

-Welcome to the continent of Ignus, one of the three known landmasses. Ignus has many nations but there are only four worth knowing about at present. Glarehold is a major city in the North East of the continent, in the nation-state of Zomal. The other 3 nations are Zomal’s 2 neighbors, and its distant ally, The Dremmen Republic. The neighbors are known as the Allicktan Confederacy and the Empire Remnants Collective, E.R.C. The E.R.C. and the Confederacy are engaged in a slow and lazy border conflict at the moment and are happy to let Zomal stay neutral so long as it continues to trade equally with both nations.-​

Ignus was ruled by an Empire 1,245 years ago, an empire that collapsed after an apocalyptic civil war that lasted over 500 years. In most historian’s minds, this civil war, stemming from an interior trade dispute that snowballed into a war of rights and resources, killed the empire the moment its earliest skirmishes were fought; which is why many consider the war to have ended in 500 A.E. After this conflict there was a period of injured peace, most cities and major powers having been annihilated or banished from Ignus in one way or another. This period of peace lasted 245 years as no one could bring themselves for generations, to even think of starting a conflict. Another 500 years passed with peoples having finally decided against pacifism in 745 A.E. with the prolonged border skirmishes of Zomal and the Allicktan Confederacy. The current year is now 1245 A.E. going on 1246.

Glarehold is a coastal city with a population closing in on 2 million strong. The summers are scorching and the winters are freezing, but trade is abundant year-round. There are 15 districts in Glarehold, each with 5 sections for each major direction on the compass and a central section with a fire station and market/open auditorium. The city is spread out around the edges of a bay that flows out into the ocean with most ships headed to the Dremmen Republic. There are mountains several miles south of the city and dense forests to the west, each providing natural borders with the E.R.C. and the Confederacy. These forests are filled with ruins older than the Empire and the mountains have cave dwellings that go back a dozen millennia.

Currently Glarehold is Ruled by the Grand Commissioner and The Royal Mayor, with Zomal being ruled by the 5 Shard Council. These powers have kept Zomal and Glarehold prosperous and relatively stable for ages. But within the past decade a new and very lucrative product has sprung up on the market. The Madrug: a medicinal good harvested from the beasts and monsters of the land and then often enhanced/enchanted via mass produced low mana enchantment scrolls. Madrugs provide unnatural highs and powerful abilities with some granting flight, foresight and emotional manipulation with a mere puff or snort of whatever good the customer has chosen. An example being the ever popular Cave Goblin tooth ointment; This Madrug reduces pain and heals wounds without need for a cleric or surgeon; It also increases the defence and resistance of the spot it is rubbed into, all the while providing a week long physical high that is described as heavenly and comfortingly dark. The side effects may put you off however as a quarter of the users may find themselves the places rubbed with ointment rotting and oozing blood and pus, with a rarer 1 in 50 experiencing a transformative effect that turns the user into a Drugblin (Not a scientific term) a cannibalistic, decaying addict with goblinish features and a thirst for bloody violence.

Due to Madrugs being so unpredictable and potentially dangerous, as well as the sheer quantity and variation of the product, The Grand Commissioner has outlawed Madrugs except in a research capacity, declaring them unsafe and liable to increase crime within Glarehold. Many citizens see this as just another attack on their rights however and resent the authorities for beating down the up and coming Hunter Dealers that work so hard to produce their product. And while the poor are beaten down, the rich continue use and study of the Madrug industry in order to turn their own profit.

-Of course there are always many perspectives and many different plots and plans moving about when a sudden fountain of wealth is discovered. It will be up to the people of Glarehold to discover how they want to move forward with this burgeoning new industry. That means you.-

The Tower by andreasrocha on DeviantArt

www.deviantart.com

It is evening in the 4th District marketplace, Shops are bustling and the many older residents of the District have come out to play. Drink is found in every other pair of hands, and rich, sweet smelling smoke drifts through the stalls and over the cobblestone streets of the city. The inns and bunkhouses of the area are loud with the sound of laughter, dining and refreshment. In the District central square, couples hold hands and dance to lively amateurish melodies, the orange glow of the lamps setting a romantic scene for many to roam in. A man looks into his partner’s reptilian eyes as they sway under the multicolored tarps of the market, the soft melody forcing a blush onto their faces just as easily as the drink they had been indulging in. A Night Elf woman laughs shyly as a Blood Dwarf drunkenly flirts in her direction, the two having set eyes many times on each other, never having gone the whole way. Perhaps Tonight?

-You are not here for merriment however, you are like the innkeeps and the shop owners. Business is still open for the time being, and you have a job to do. Whether you’re selling or buying, investigating or arresting, you are still on the clock. Many things have gone down in the last week and the city, despite the merriment found in the marketplace, is uneasy. Talk of abominations in the sewers has only increased with each disappearance, whispers of necromancers and corrupted Madrugs linger on the lips of the younger folk. An ambitious Guard Captain recently took down the largest underground Cabal in the city, severing the head of the snake known as the Blue Claw. With the head gone however, the body has split and divided, spreading out throughout Glarehold, with many looking for work in their old line of business still. And with the death of The Blue Claw, a power vacuum has opened, and some say the old business is back. BlackWing. BlackWing Acquisitions. The BWA. Infamous and beloved, gone but apparently not forgotten if the word of the street is truly law. And that is only a portion of the news that passes through these streets. There is surely more that lays in wait to be discovered, just under the surface, breath held with eager anticipation. But that’s up to you of course. -​