The Ale Wars
From my Sundered Skies Campaign:
The Ale Wars
The Ale Wars were a series of trade disputes that raged between a number of Dwarvish, Orcish and Human breweries. What started out as a few isolated vandalisms on brewery premises soon escalated into pirate raids, arson, riots and full fledged battles in taverns and streets. To understand what caused such widespread bloodshed and destruction, one must understand a fundemental truth of the Sundered Sky.
Water is life. Many areas of the Sundered Sky are in a constant state of drought, with water being their most crucial import. Many islands maintain a strict allocation system of water to the most important areas or projects, sadly (for those in the brewing trade) alcohol production is rarely considered important enough to be more allocated more than a trickle of the precious liquid. This practise has forced the brewing houses and families to base their production on the more water rich islands. This of course means that the ale, mead and spirits produced must be transported to other islands which raises the price on these out of the way places.
What the brewers found was that people will always drink, even if the price is exhorbitant. To further improve profits, the human brewing family of Drakespear, hit upon the idea of discounts. Ale was introduced to previously dry islands at a special knock down price. Once a decent sized demandhad been created for the brew, the price rose steeply. It was also rumoured that Drakespear brew contained mild magically enhanced addictive qualities, although this could not be proved. This practise soon made Drakespear the most popular and sought after Human produced ale and mead.
The other Brewing families soon followed in the Drakespear heels and introduced their own "introductory offers", this led to a short but intense trade war within the Orcish and Dwarvish brewing families. The Orcish Clan Grag, who produce the strong Brew known as Choke, and the Dwarvish Family of FrosDrin of the Hellafrost Clan, Their Brew is known as Icefire, due to the magically enhanced casks, caked in ice, that it is poured from.
This aggressive marketing led many islands to declare all alcohol illegal on their islands which led, as does every prohibition, to the smuggling and consumption of alcohol to go underground. The increased risks of smuggling their brews onto these restrictive islands led the brewing families to take direct action against one another.
This first started as the destruction of illegal store houses and the firing of rival drinking dens, but soon escalated into sponsered pirate raids on both legal and illegal shipments around the Sundered Sky. Pretty soon, production facilities on those islands that had not declared alcohol illegal had to maintain around the clock guards, as the threat of attack was almost constant. These attacks and mercenary engagements escalated and the loss of life and destruction of property rose to an alarming level, many suspected that agents of the Lords of Light were using the chaos of the Ale Wars to mask their own activities.
Everything eventually came to a head, when a particularly vicious and destructive attack on a Drakespear drinking Den on the island of Jovic sparked a three day riot that destroyed a good sized portion of the lower city. Up till now the Trade Council had turned a blind eye, but this incident prompted a response and they threatened to blockadeevery island that contained a proven stillery. This effectively brought the Ale Wars to a close.
Today, hostility still simmers and their is still the rare attack on a drinking den. Pirates who once sailed under the mandate of one of the brewing families still show a preference for their previous sponsers and have been known to attack the odd shipment of a rival family. The Ale wars still continue, but not as violently (or obviously) as before.
Note: Wine is considered a very effeminate drink in the Sundered Sky, not even female adventurers will admit to drinking it. Elves drink it almost exclusivley, however.
This is the kind of thing why I love ENWorld 
