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
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