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Message: <blockquote data-quote="InVinoVeritas" data-source="post: 5166285" data-attributes="member: 41485">Just a few quick thoughts on the spice route that interested me to the idea of a new world: The trade in spices covered pretty much the entire Old World, from Indonesia to China to India to Arabia to Africa to Europe. This happened despite the fact that there was no central authority governing its existence, no communication system to place orders, no central marketplace, nothing to coordinate the activity. Because of their rarity, spices were often more expensive than gold--you could say that money did in fact grow on trees! Pepper, for example, would be sold by the peppercorn, and each would cost considerable coin. In such a way, spices were a pinnacle of luxury, and were a strong sign that you were rich and powerful. Furthermore, as a side effect of the lack of coordination, most people had no idea where different spices came from--and that includes most of the merchants who braved the oceans to reach the spice markets. Maps would indicate islands in all sorts of bizarre places, many Europeans thought that most of these spices came from Arabia (instead of, say, eastern Indonesia), and so on. Without knowledge of where the spice came from, plantations were rarely maintained. Nutmeg, mace, and cloves, in fact, came from only a couple of small islands near New Guinea. But only a handful of people traveled between there and Java, and it was other merchants who would travel from Java to Sri Lanka, and others from Sri Lanka to Oman, and so on. One of the reasons the Age of Exploration took off was that trade to the east was cut off between Europe and Asia.  And all this took place over thousands of years. Empires rose and fell, but the spice route remained.  Now luxuries are great and all, but as ssampier pointed out, that's boring for a fantasy world. And in fact, magic might just get in the way all together. Why brave the uncharted oceans when you can fabricate a pound of cinnamon whenever you want to? Why not just scry the location of the nutmeg tree and teleport there?  So, I thought... but what if it takes a pound of cinnamon to power a fabricate spell? What if spices are required to power magic? What if spices are, in essence, mana? Alchemy becomes incredibly interesting. Control of the spice trade becomes not only a way to economic domination, but magical and military domination. It just takes a pinch of ginger to cast a magic missile, and that is why the king holds all supplies of ginger for the kingdom. No magic missile for you. The attempt to hoard power would prevent the coordination that would allow for the simple scry/teleport/replant that would break the cycle. Of course, there would also be magical spices that would carry a lot of power all by themselves. Yet, I see the quest to find resources a major source of adventure all by itself. Rival factions trying to reach some fabled island that may or may not be there. The trade routes are jealously guarded secrets, as they are the sources of wealth and power. Byzantine politics in bazaars. Expeditions to far-off lands.  Deep down, that's why I see that it may take a new campaign world. There needs to be ambiguity for where some of these resources come from. There needs to be a limitation on free magic. That would be different from other worlds out there. I have to think about this some more. I like where this is going.</blockquote>

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