Opium

Item from The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

The key to the gods and the chain around the neck — opium opens the door to the Pantheon and ruins the person walking through it, and the Empire that bans it publicly runs on it privately.

Also known as: Opium, The Drug, Poppy

What They Know

• Primary pharmaceutical method for shamans to access the Pantheon — smoking opium opens the door between the human and spirit worlds
• Chemically addictive independent of its shamanic properties — creates physical dependency that mirrors and reinforces the shamanic dependency on divine power
• Traded throughout the Nikara Empire — sold openly in southern provinces, creating an economy of addiction that benefits merchants and destroys communities
• Rin's foster family in Tikany were opium dealers — the drug is woven into her origin story before she ever becomes a shaman
• Hesperian involvement in the opium trade parallels historical Western colonial opium trafficking in China
• By the later books, Rin no longer needs opium to channel — she can access the Phoenix through pure rage, which is arguably worse because it has no off switch

Connections

• used_by — rin
• used_by — altan
• gateway_to — the_pantheon
• traded_in — tikany

View full profile at Simulacra.Ink