Alcohol also requires a fair amount of grain and water, that could be put to better use.
However, alcohol does serve its purposes. Anasthesia, antiseptics, solvents, and, if used properly, antidepressant (yes, a depressant can be used to loosen up with some friends without being an alcoholic).
Is there any mention of alcohol in the books, either the rulebooks or the novels? Flipping through the equipment in the original box set, I can't find anything.
Even if alcohol is mentioned, should it be regularly present, or would other stuff have taken it's place? Some sort of root powder for it's medical uses, kank urine for solvents, peyote and shroom brews for getting hammered, or whatever.
Remember, the world's oldest recipe is for beer, found in Mesopotamia, the precursor for Urik. As keenly noted in Firefly, beer was an important part of ancient diets. Wine was also important in ancient Egypt and the Levant. Dark Sun might be a desert but if they're producing food, they're producing alcohol.
Think of it this way. As desperate as Athas is, there's still a large population (templars, smiths, merchants) not engaged in food production, therefore agriculture/herding still produces a surplus. As long as that surplus exists, there will be precious liquors.
Hell even the Fremen made and sold spice beer.
Even with epic world bending magic, the best ways to control a large slave and oppressed population are still tried and true vices. And if you still don't like that, there's probably a ton of Athasian hash and opium.
Beverages
Ale, General: Raam and Tyr both export ale. Cheap ale is served warm.
Asticles Wine: Asticles wine has a pale golden color and a tart, dry scent. It has a light taste that leaves the mouth dry. It is a very fine drink and as such is very expensive. Asticles wine is the preferred drink of nobles in Tyr.
Beer: Gulg exports beer. Cold beer is available but expensive.
Brown Wine: Brown wine is thick and is an acquired taste.
Broy: Broy is made from fermented kank nectar. Spiced broy and watered-down broy are also available. When served plain, it is potent and foul tasting. However, broy can be served warm and spiced with a pungent herb that disguises its sourness, as well as enhanced its enrapturing powers.
Bulis Berry Wine: The bulis berries can be made into a wine with a dark blue-purple color. The taste is sickeningly sweet and so is often mixed with water.
Cactus Blue Ale: Cactus blue ale is served in Tyr and is made from fermented grall. The ale has a strong, rough taste and is very potent.
Cider: Gulg exports cider.
Elven Wine: Many elven tribes make their own wine, thought the process and quality vary from tribe to tribe. The Fastcoin elven tribe specializes in the sale of a simplistic elven wine, light on taste but fast and cheap to produce. Sky Singer wine, on the other hand, is made from kank honey and is an acquired taste, potent in both flavor as well as alcohol content.
Goat Milk: Fermented goat’s milk is served in bars.
Honey Barley Ale: Honey barley ale is made from honey barley. It has a smooth taste that is slightly sweet.
Javo Nectar: Fermented javo nectar is potent. The nectar retains the sweet flavor of the javo, but does not have the obnoxious smell.
Klick-win: Klick-win is a sickly-sweet wine made from fermented flowers by tohr-kreen.
Kola Tea: Kola nuts are from Gulg. The nuts can be grounded into a fine powder which is then steeped in water. The resulting beverage is tasty and also stimulates the mind and wards off sleep.
Milkwine: Milkwine is a gummy liquid.
Palewater Ale: Palewater ale is served in Salt View. It has a rough yet simple taste.
Palm Wine: Palm wine is of poor quality but is affordable to the lower classes.
Port: Good port is available. A sweet dessert wine, it is drunk exclusively by the nobility.
Pulque: Pulque is fermented cactus juice that is drunk in Draj. Pulque comes from the huge maguey cactus. The taste is milky and slightly sour.
Red Wine: Thick red wine is served in Tyr.
Sapwine: Sapwine is tart. It is fermented from tree resin and has a powerful kick. Most consider it to be the foulest drink available in the wine shops of Tyr and Gulg.
Scuppernong Wine: Scuppernong can be fermented into a silver wine that is thick, with a slightly bitter taste.
Spiced Mead: Spiced mead is served in many taverns.
Spiced Wine: Spiced wine is sold in wine shops. The wine is mixed with a variety of spices to give it a strong flavor.
Yes, it dehydrates, especially in large quantities So? People will and do still consume it in areas where dehydration is quite a distinct possibility, such as desert or tundra, or out at sea on a ship.
Alcohol most assuredly exists throughout Athas.
Alcohol also requires a fair amount of grain and water, that could be put to better use
Alcohol does NOT require grain at all. Any organic material with sugars or starches can be fermented to make alcohol including fruit (grapes, dates, apples, etc), honey, potatoes, etc.
Alcoholic beverages are VERY important in a desert because they are very high in calories and very transportable. The Egyptians called beer 'liquid bread', for good reason. When grains or fruits arent in season, beer can be stored more easily.
In particular I remember Broy being mentioned alot in the books, and Asticles Wine, obviously.
Just a minor nit-pick here, isn't Kola Tea basiclly coffee.
No. The kola plant is more closely related to the cacao tree than the coffee bean plant. That's assuming Athasian kola is the same as Earth kola, but the description makes it pretty clear that it is.
EDIT: If your point was that it's non-alcoholic, though, then you're right. And it does contain caffeine, so in that sense it's simlar to coffee.
Kola is better known to us Westerners by its alternate spelling: 'cola'.
Perhaps they favor the pipe on Athas?
I seem to recall something in one of the novels about the kanks producing a type of 'honey' like an aphid.
Perhaps they favor the pipe on Athas?
Yes, kank nectar. They make broy out of it. ;]
I seem to recall something in one of the novels about the kanks producing a type of 'honey' like an aphid.
Perhaps they favor the pipe on Athas?
Yes, kank mead would indeed be quite apropos, and likely quite commonly served (as would other meads, since there are plenty of honey-producing insectoids on Athas, going by the old 2E stuff).
As for the pipe? I'd say it's highly likely. Plant and animal-based euphorics and hallucinogens would be very common indeed. Many hallucinogenic drugs are derived from poisonous substances of various ilk. In heavy doses, lethal. In small, diluted doses, you'll get high. The others, that aren't poisonous to begin with, will both get people high, and not be as risky (generally without as intense a high).
Such escape would be more common on a world like Athas, methinks. So, yes, not only would alcohol be prevalent, so would other types of drugs.
That's from Firefly, right?
"This is what it must feel like to go insane."
Yes. Yes, it is.
turlough
:P
turlough
The Hero of Campton! The man they call "Jayne!"
Brilliant episode!
The Hero of Campton! The man they call "Jayne!"
It's Canton not Campton.
/end firefly_geekness
But then, there is Compton and weed and malt liquor... ;)