Tobacco Consumption

Tobacco is an exotic import from the New World. It is smoked through a variety of pipes, cigarettes having not yet been invented. Its first attested use in the Old World was in the Empire of the Crescent Moon in the late 16th century. It is still extremely popular there and in the lands under its influence (including large areas of the Fair Kingdom).

In other areas of the Old World, tobacco is mostly popular in those countries that conduct a brisk Atlantic trade with the New World, with the exception of Albion, whose king has famously forbidden its consumption:

[Smoking is a] custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomelesse.

At the time of the Lamentations of the Blood Countess, tobacco consumption is fashionable in much of Continental Europe. Pipe smokers can be seen carrying hand-carved tobacco rammers, used to press the shredded leaf into the pipe bowl, and ember tongs, used to hold the burning embers of juniper wood used to light their pipes.

In 1610 Sir Francis Bacon noted that trying to quit the 'bad habit' was really hard, so the GM may want to introduce some addiction rules for PCs who indulge in this habit.