Alright, so after reading the title to this post, you might have asked yourself, "Why is Ben writing a post about smoking? Tobacco wasn't introduced to Europe until the 16th Century." I have to admit that my blog may come across as a little rigid at times regarding accuracy. I thoroughly enjoy doing research and learning how things work (or worked). However, the point of all this is simply to know the rules before I break them. Yes, I like working in a pseudo medieval European setting, but if I want my characters to be smokers, I will figure out a way to make it so. Limitations are great to make things feel real, but the rule of cool is paramount (this is not intended as advocacy for smoking), and it's my world damn it. The history of tobacco starts in the Americas. Tobacco was grown in various places throughout the modern day US, as well as Canada, Mexico, Cuba and others. Primarily, it was dried and smoked in pipe or cigar form. It was also used as a trade good and was used for a variety of medicinal applications. Tobacco was sometimes smoked ceremonially, or to seal bargains. Additionally, uncured tobacco was used as an entheogen (I had to look it up too) by experienced shamen or medicine men, like peyote or ayahuaska. Yes kids, tobacco taken in large doses can induce hallucinations (so, Old Toby didn't have to be marijuana, as all the kids seem to think now, or at least the theater in which I saw Fellowship). As previously stated, tobacco first hit Europe and the Ottoman Empire as a luxury good in the 16th Century. Plantations were established in Brazil and Africa by the Portuguese, to supply the demand. It's important to note that tobacco growing seriously depletes the nutrients in the soil, making growers dependent on fertilizers (or fresh fields).
Once the tobacco is harvested, it needs to be cured to increase the "smoothness" of the smoke. Air cured tobacco is hung in a well ventilated are for 4-8 weeks. Fire cured tobaccos are hung over smouldering hardwood fires for a period between 3 days and 10 weeks. Flue cured tobaccos run a flue up through the smokehouse to add heat, but no smoke to the tobacco for about a week, slowly raising the temperature over the period. Sun cured tobacco is generally done in the Mediterranean and seems pretty obvious. Sorry, but if you want more info on how the tobacco is processed into various usable forms, you'll either have to wait for a later post
or do some of your own research (this is getting way too long).Obviously, tobacco use is still popular today across a variety of formats. Chewing tobacco is a form of enjoyment that many of us may forget (or try to forget) about, though it gave us the rather atmospheric spittoon (and some great moments in Westerns. Love me some Josey Wales). Snuff was big in Europe (and the colonies) for quite some time, spawning decorative snuff boxes and apparently encouraging sneezing. Cigarettes will obviously be rare in most fantasy settings, due to the lack of paper. However, cigarettes rolled from corn husks (like they still do in Brazil), or similar materials are reasonable. Cigars of all shapes and sizes (tobacco rolled in tobacco), should be a perfectly acceptable method of consumption when tobacco is inexpensive.
Pipes are my favorite form of tobacco enjoyment (so they get their own long paragraph). The first known pipes were shaped like a tube or and hourglass, made of stone (like soapstone or catlinite) and dated to the Woodland period (500BC-500AD). During the Mississippian period (900-1600 AD), these pipes evolved into highly decorative pieces depicting animals or people. Native Americans who did not have access to soft stone would make clay pipes. The first pipes made in Europe were of clay (kaolin). Over 3000 clay pipe makers have been identified in England alone. Clay pipes were usually made in two-piece molds of wood or iron. Wooden (hard woods with tight grains were used) pipes evolved slowly and carving centers first emerged in Germany, Austria and Hungary. Porcelain pipes emerged in the late 18th C and were often hand painted with a variety of subject matter. Meerschaum pipes (began 18th C, in Turkey) are the white pipes still available today. While resembling clay, the material is mined and carved into the desired shape (preferred styles have changed dramatically over time). This material will change color as a result of smoking, turning amber, honey or even red in hue. Briar pipes (the most popular today) developed in the 19th Century. Briarwood comes from the burl of the heath tree, which grows in arid regions around the Mediterranean. Corn cob pipes are a cheaper option. The dried cobs are hollowed out to form the bowl and dipped in some kind of plaster mixture before finishing (make at home doesn't require the plaster, but cobs are dried for up to 2 years prior to use). Pipes came in all shapes and sizes (though most had small bowls because tobacco was expensive early on) with the level of decoration depending primarily on current trends and the affluence of the smoker.As with any naturally occurring product, tobacco can affect your story in many ways. If it's scarce, you can deal with it as a trade good. Maybe it's a country's cash crop and there is a blight on the plants (oh those evil wizards). Perhaps you are stealing the secret herb (it doesn't have to be tobacco) of some hidden tribe for profit and glory. Maybe you use it to set off one of your characters as being from a distant land where they have strange customs. We all have ideas regarding what being a user of each variety of tobacco says about that user. If one of your characters chews tobacco, I'll have one image; if you tell me they smoke a pipe, I'll probably have a different one (also within the styles, as cheroot smokers are usually different from those who puff on churchills). We can use the preconceived notions to establish characters quickly or to put our readers off the scent. Tobacco, like everything else, has a story to tell if you just bother to listen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_tobacco
The Pipe Companion: A Connoisseur's Guide (2000) by David Wright
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2010/08/09/how-to-make-a-corn-cob-pipe/
http://theoldfirm.hubpages.com/hub/Tobacco-Growing-and-Curing-at-Home
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