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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Empirate" data-source="post: 5781472" data-attributes="member: 78958">I believe the negative connotations often associated with poison use can easily be traced historically, at least in the western world: in ancient Rome, and maybe even more in the European middle ages, the nobility lived in constant fear of poisoning. Poison was a simple, affordable, and (if done right) almost untraceable method of killing a rival. What's more, it was very hard to defend against.The kinds of poison I'm referring to (and the kinds most feared) were ingested poisons, though, not the - in D&D - much more common injury or contact poisons. For this reason, the rich kept their salt in 'unicorn horn' shakers (narwhale tusk or rhinoceros horn), drank from goblets studded with amethysts, or wore talismans as a pendant.'Evil' meant rather 'usable and affordable even by the poor, very likely to go undetected, and very likely to be fatal to nobles'. The very same reasons crossbows, and later, gunpowder weapons were considered dishonorable by the nobility.A lot of what we take to be honorable has its deepest roots, not in ethical, but in social paradigms...</blockquote>