Ashq Powder

Overview

Ashq powder comes from the very rare and incredibly poisonous ashq flower that is found exclusively in the Verrynia Tangle in the Sakilitian Empire. This area is controlled by the Zhu'Zmoh and relatively cut off from the rest of the world, at least in terms of traffic and visitation. The only reason to ever travel to or through the Tangle is to visit Zmoh, and they’re not all that receptive to said visitors. The flower the powder comes from is bright and often found in clusters of other such vibrant plants. The powder itself is used to crate a new, experimental drug that works almost exclusively on high grade Shra as a sort of mind-numbing sedative, making them malleable and suggestable.

Properties

Taste

Tasteless

Color

Pale to bright pink depending on potency and purity – brighter pink, the more potent.

Odor

Floral, almost sickly sweet, but subtle. Easy to miss around stronger smells.

Commonly Found State

Usage

Dried out and ground down, ashq can be made into a pill to be swallowed. This is the most effective way of delivering ashq. The powder itself dissolves quickly in alcohol and can be consumed that way – a stronger dose is usually required in this method.

On the surface, ashq is heralded as a headache cure for the high grade Shra – those Dhath or higher – and enables them to push past a point that might otherwise exhaust them. It could be addictive, in this sense, if that were actually the reason for its creation. What ashq is actually used for is mentally numbing vnou and making higher grade Shra easier to influence. It lowers the mental defenses and makes high grade Shra susceptible to suggestions they would otherwise decline. The higher the Shra, the more potent ashq’s effects.

Availability

Ashq powder is extremely rare and an incredibly controlled substance. Most vnou don’t even know it exists and it has been used exclusively in Zmoh experiments, under the implicit approval of Zhu'Shpazh. Much of the nobility wouldn’t even recognize it or know it by name. It is exclusive almost entirely to Zmoh and grows only in the Verrynia Tangle, which is both owned and controlled by both Zmoh and Shpazh.

Notably, because the flower is pretty, common vnou in the region who might happen upon it or have it aren’t considered a problem. They wouldn’t know what they have anyway. The flower is not a controlled substance and it would only be nobility that would be banned from having such a thing in their greenhouses or on their property. This prohibition is because the flower, much like most flora in the Verrynia Tangle, contractually belongs to Zmoh and it’d be considered theft. Petty? Yes. Socially acceptable? Also yes.

It would likely seem petty to complain about a flower, but nobles are extremely protective and, arguably, obnoxious, about things that fall under their name. The entire noble class exists amongst these constrictive rules where a family can and would be accountable for taking something as small as a flower out of a jungle that did not belong to them.

Related Organizations

Zhu'Shpazh
Zhu'Zmoh

Cultural Significance

Given its high potency against high Shra, the existence of the ashq powder and its uses are a well kept secret. Even amongst nobles. The fact that the plant is incredibly rare and found only in one region helps with its secrecy. It has only been used, besides the initial experimentation and development, on a very small select vnou. Usually threats against the cultural structural stability of the vnou as a whole – which is determined by Shpazh. Zmoh, for all their involvement in the creation and refinement of the ashq powder, have no ambition in its use when it comes to power plays. The discovery and creation of the drug is the reward in and of itself for the family – though it does help that they are the ones that get to use it on the few times it has been called for.

The existence of such a drug that can render high grade Shra mentally defenseless would cause incredible stir and unrest amongst the nobility. They would likely demand its destruction and erasure from both records, should they exist, and minds of those who had created it. Especially the lower families, fearing it might be used against them.

For all the power such a drug could grant, Shpazh is generally too arrogant to believe they need it when dealing with other vnou and as previously mentioned, Zmoh has no interest in its use beyond its use. Shpazh doesn’t care if the swamp family wishes to continue their experimentation, so long as such things don’t leave their swamp. Since that is the very thing Zmoh is known for, many families don’t pry into the works of Zmoh. They don’t want to draw the attention of the enterprising swamp family who seem so favored by Shpazh.