Smoking Traditions of Tamriel: The Summerset Isles

As it is with so many things, the Altmer styles of smoking are those of lavish, unabashed excess, and in some ways wholly unique to that people. In the typical Altmer fashion, smoking has been elevated above what is seen by that people as more base forms into something refined, sophisticated, and quintessentially Aldmeri.

It would go without saying that the formost of Altmer smoking traditions is the Aquaphoria. While similar in function to a huqqa or narghile pipe (a tradition that the Altmer claim to have invented, in direct conflict with Khajiiti and Dunmer claims), the Aquaphoria is something altogether grander. A lavish pipe of spun and blown glass and silver, Aquaphoria are massive and fragile. Most Aquaphoria contain several places to connect a hose for smoking, and the most lavish of them fill rooms, allowing dozens of smokers to partake of a single, sprawling pipe. With dozens of hoses come dozens of bowls, which are not in fact bowls but rather something closer in description to glass vials, intended to vaporize a purely liquid product. The liquids are vaporized by orbs of pure magical light, believed by the Altmer to be more pure than fire or base charcoal. This light passes through the glass, creating dazzling arrays of color that fill the room. Expensive Aquaphoria are fitted as well with a number of reeded or fippled pipes that produce pure, crystalline tones when negative pressure is applied, making the pipe ‘sing’ as it is smoked. The Aquaphoria does not burn tobacco, but rather distilled essences of flavors, typically flowers and spices, and in more high-class establishments with talented alchemists on staff, even pure thought or emotion may be rendered into a smokable form. The dozens of vials on a single Aquaphoria can be filled with any combination of flavors, thoughts, and feelings, often conflicting in nature. Experienced Altmeri smokers say that this combination of light, color, sound, emotion, and thought, all occurring at once and in spite of each other, is the closest a mortal can come to experiencing the chaotic euphoria of the middle dawn. The Aquaphoria was outlawed in the Cyrod during Alessia’s time, likely owing to the fact that Ayleid lords would take a great perverse pleasure in smoking the vaporized essence of their slave’s despair and despondency. All Aquaphoria in the Empire were smashed into dust, and the form has never been widely accepted outside of Summerset since.

Of course, simpler pipes exist and are used in more common, day-to-day smoking. The altmer enjoy the waterpipe, which they call a shisha. These pipes are typically all-glass constructs, even in their shafts, although shafts of precious metals are not unheard of. Decorations of insect wings and solidified good intentions are commonly used as visual elements. The Altmer load their pipes with a mild, honeyed tobacco often infused with flavors of fruits and spices to create a nuanced, delicate taste that invokes contentedness and quiet contemplation.

Pyandonean shell-pipes have become something of a popular item in recent years, made with bowls of carved seashells and stems of exotic hardwoods, these pipes are expensive and hard to come by, and are seen as a status item among the Summerset elite. A mild, local form of tobacco is preferred, although imports from Pyandonea and Elsweyr are not uncommon.

The Altmer rarely partake of cigars, and consider even the fine Breton and Argonian cigars to be base and filthy.