[APOCRYPHA] Alcohol of the Bosmer
Alcohol of the Bosmer
By Blasius Fulvius and Drusilla Regula
Anvil Cultural Society
When one thinks of the Bosmer, the first thought among many is their uniquely jovial nature. Bosmer humour often trends on the absurd. In spite of their blank faces, they betray their deeply sentimental nature with their emotional voices and wild hand motions. However, while both men and the other varieties of mer are commonly seen acting as such only with a drink in hand and five more already in them, the Bosmer are an incredibly sober people. One might think this is out of a lack of need – they are already inebriated by life. The reality is that they abstain from drinking due to the Green Pact, a religious doctrine which states they are unable to consume any plant matter out of respect for their god Y’ffre. However, they have gotten around this restriction in their native Valenwood by manner of relying on non-plant-based alcoholic beverages, of which there are two major examples.
Jagga
Jagga is a pungent drink crafted from the milk of boars deep within the forests of Valenwood. It is said that Bosmer hunters search for mother boars leading their young, then ambush them from the tree tops. The sow and piglets are captured alive and returned, with pride, to the village by the hunting group. The mother is kept within a dark tent with other sows and small, piglet-shaped leather dolls, kept alive with generous meals and utilized solely for their milk. The children are kept in pens outside and fed a unique mixture of fat, crushed insects, calcified bones, and sap.
Depending on the manner in which it was brewed, jagga can vary in color from a stark white to a deep clear brown, not dissimilar to an ale. Woe be the person who mistakes jagga for ale, for the cheese-tasting drinking coats the mouth and throat in a fatty film, and as the fermented liquid enters the stomach it almost immediately results in instant stomach aches and vomiting. Anvil sailors who commonly travel between Cyrodiil and Falinesti take pride in drinking the exotic drink, and its acquired taste can act as a motivator for these sailors to pursue trips to Valenwood. Altmeri sailors, meanwhile, are less open about their consumption of jagga, both out of cultural pride and legal reasons. Since the Second Aldmeri Dominion, the drinking of jagga specifically by Altmeri sailors was forbidden for it “may cloud the mine and enfeeble the connection to our ancestors” (Alinor Maritime Codex for Commercial Sailing, Plaudius translation). In Valenwood, the drinking of jagga is equal parts ceremonial and recreational. Giant clay pots are shared among tribes, both during times of peace and war, and the beverage acts as a way for suitors to learn about potential marriage candidates and warriors to better know the enemy they will soon battle. It is impossible to refuse an invitation to drink jagga for the Bosmer, and even the most metropolitan Wood Elves have memories of being forced to drink the alcohol at family gatherings.
The container it is poured into is almost as important as the drink itself. Large clay pots with intricate designs are the common method of storage for fermentation, and it is often surrounded by small clay bowls which are used to retrieve jagga for drinking. Bird bones fitted with skin filters are utilized as straws, and each member of a Bosmer family is given their own straw after their final weaning. Many Bosmer also carry jagga on their person through a variety of different containers. Animal bladders, especially pig bladders, are slung over the shoulder with sinew straps and drank throughout the day. In the larger cities of Valenwood (and in the Bosmer Quarter of Anvil), jagga vendors carry large leather baskets filled with bladders and sell them. Jagga kidneys are valued for the unique, salty taste they give to the stored liquid. Jagga hearts are commonly carried by the wealthier Bosmer, and the different compartments are filled with differently flavoured variants of the drink. In two sips, a Bosmer noble can taste a spicy ant-flavoured jagga and a sweet honeyed jagga, all while walking from his manor to his place of work. The jagga heart is the subject of a popular Bosmeri folktale, with two opposing nobles sharing a drink only for one to wind up dead after imbibing poison contained in one of the ventricles.
Rotmeth
While jagga, due to its less strict trading restrictions, is the most commonly known Bosmeri alcohol to outsiders, the most popular alcoholic beverage in Valenwood is rotmeth. Jagga is the higher-class cousin of rotmeth, and is the brandy or wine to rotmeth’s ale. Rotmeth is made from rotting meat, and is nonspecific in the source of meat as the true flavor comes from the maggots which infest the foul ingredient. Rotmeth is first prepared by placing a large amount of meat into a clay pot fitted with small holes in the lid. Honey is poured over the meat and on the surface of the lid as to draw flies. Over the next few weeks, the meat is pounded and stirred until it is a consistent slurry filled with writhing maggots. Once this occurs, the mixture is poured into a new clay vat, and sealed for a week. At this point before sealing, some brewers add in a disinfecting concoction of antivenom to neutralize any potential disease, however this is often only for batches designed for tourists. After the week has passed, the vat is placed over a fat-fire and boiled until the lid pops off, at which point the meat and maggot film is skimmed off to be used as food flavouring and the reddish-brown liquid is sealed for another few weeks until fully matured.
The resulting concoction is an acrid, sour, and somewhat spicy alcoholic beverage with slight hallucinogenic properties when drunk in large amounts. Even the Bosmer, who are known for the resistance to foul odours and tastes, can react quite viscerally when drinking rotmeth. The “rotmeth hurls” is the event which marks the beginning of any Bosmeri party, and this malady is only alleviated by drinking more rotmeth. Nose clamps and extra dollops of honey are given to young Bosmer drinking rotmeth, however adults are forced to tough out its pungent flavor. The revolting nature of the beverage does not hamper its popularity in Valenwood, and virtually every establishment where drinks are sold has their own rotmeth supplier or brewery out back. The hallucinogenic effects of rotmeth is the most likely reason it is drunk in such large quantities across the province. Rotmeth is described as making the legs feel weightless and the head heavy, and the vision bob up and down like an acorn babbling brook. Drinkers can feel invisible maggots swirl around inside their braincase, and many of them cite seeing the ground, plants, and sky swirl into one writhing, dancing mass. Outside observers can see rotmeth drunks twirl carelessly in the streets. Meanwhile, those inebriated on rotmeth also experience red swollen faces, watery eyes, and chronic sneezing – about all of which the drinker is unaware.
The containers used for rotmeth are far less creative than those used for jagga. Bug shells are filled with the liquid and handed out to patrons both at bars and on the street. Outdoor vendors drag around giant stitched-together bladders covered in leather and fill the shell-cups via a spigot in the bladder, having to change their prices based on the size of the shell used. This is the source of many arguments on the streets of Valenwood’s cities. Every New Life, the more upstanding vendors will bring their bladders to their usual spot and remove the spigot, then jump on the top of the bladder while calling for nearby vagrants to get their fill from the strong stream of rotmeth spraying wildly.
Other Beverages
While jagga and rotmeth are the most commonly known types of beverage, cities and tribes throughout Valenwood have their own solution to the Green Pact alcohol dilemma. Common concoctions are honey wines, thick drinks made from fermented bug paste, snake venom liquors, and the chilled blood of dead drunks (often those who died from drinking bad rotmeth, their blood is drunk in honor of the deceased). A drink unique to the jungle west of Silvenor is known as gura, made from the liquified brains of the shaking fowl native to the region. Once consumed, this alcohol causes the drinker to have bouts of hallucinogenic fits once every few months for the rest of their life. Gura is consumed in the tribes of this region as a coming-of-age ritual, and represents giving oneself to Y’ffre wholly. The end of a gura-drinker’s life is marked by a vivid hallucination and intense spasming, with their own brain liquefying and sloughing out their nose and mouth. The tribes see this as the individual “returning to the Ooze.”
The existence of these many grotesque drinks shows that despite the many geographic and cultural adversities people are faced with, they will swiftly find a way to make alcohol. From the fine wines of High Rock to the Maormer cephalopod liquors which float to the shores of the Summerset Isle, there is but one constant which unites the races of Tamriel: booze. One can only imagine the other devilish concoctions that might be made within the most inhospitable reaches of our fair continent.