Full nation name with title: The Most Serene Republic of Southland
Legal drinking age: 18
Average cost of alcohol: Ꞩ5.00 per pint for beer, Ꞩ5.50 per bottle of wine, Ꞩ7.00 for a bottle of Sake, Ꞩ10.00 for a pint of whiskey. For reference, a bottle of water is Ꞩ0.50, a bottle of healthy juices without added sugar is Ꞩ1.00, a bottle of juice
with added sugar is Ꞩ2.50 , and a bottle of soda is Ꞩ3.50.
How has alcohol been a part of your culture and has it always been popular? Alcohol has been a staple of Southlander culture from its inception. The first settlers, from this universe's equivalent of England and France, were recorded as bringing many barrels of alcohol on their ships. Gauhos and Bangeanos--people of mixed European/Indigenous and African/Indigenous ancestry, and basically Spanish Afrikaners respectively--both claimed that wine and whiskey was what conquered the frontiers, and provinces where they are the majority are well-known for their expansive vineyards and microbreweries. Asian immigrants, alongside the Yokai that stowed away on their ships, brought alcohols like Sake, Palm wine, Brem, Tuak, Arak putik, and Kabawaran to Southland. Non-human sentient groups like the Merman, Hundsmen, and Plain and Mountain Elves had alcohol play a major part in their cultures and historic kingdoms (more on that below). The socialist Chancellor George Adriaan Camus even once claimed in an interview that drinking a glass of fine Southlander wine is the closest he ever felt like he was a king. This has caused alcohol to play a major role in various cultural festival, most notably their Autumn Wine Festival and Fête d'Octobre. Ironically Rev. Philip Browne, the "father of Southland", was a major prohibitionist and preached against alcohol in many of his sermons.
Is alcohol used in cookery much?: Despite having a strong alcohol culture, it's actually not used in cookery that much. It's really only used in dishes derived from this universe's equivalent of France and Japan, and that's only if the chef seeks to emulate the dish's nation of origin as closely as possible.
Where can alcohol not be legally consumed, bought or sold?: Nation-wide alcohol can't be sold, consumed, or produced within 100 ft of an elementary, middle, or high-school; and on-site in non-service or non-agricultural workplaces, especially those that involve heavy machinery. Otherwise further restrictions are left up to the provinces and cities. Some cities choose to ban alcohol consumption on nights when major sports events happen to prevent riots or rowdiness. In the Muslim-majority Ürümmu Autonomous Region they can't be sold during the day on Ramadan, and sales are banned entirely on Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, and Mawlid. In that region they also can't be sold, consumed, or produced within 200 ft of a religious building.
Is on-street drinking prohibited?: Nationally it's not. This is left up to the provinces and cities, but almost all of them don't have this prohibition. The Ürümmu Autonomous Region is so far the only major area that does ban this.
When did significant national laws on alcohol come in?: Two major pieces of legislation on alcohol is the
Law on the Regulation of the Quality and Production of Beer and Wine, 1919 (commonly known as the "Beer and Wine Purity Law") which regulates the amount of ingredients that can be used in beer and wine, and set the level of quality that has to be met in order to be used for either. Passed in response to cases of mass poisonings caused by low-quality alcohol and an influx of foreign alcohols, the laws are widely seen as the reason Southland's beer and wine has an international reputation for high-quality. It's to the point that the Seal of Quality is often used in marketing both domestically and overseas. The second one is the
Alcohol Advertisement and Tax Act, 1973 which regulates both the advertisement of alcohols and simplified the tax code on alcoholic drinks. The former's most notable rule is that cartoon characters can't be used to promote alcohols. The reason it's well-known is that the Ürümmu-based beer Satrapi, which used to advertise with
a cartoon young girl in a hijab, was involved in a decades-long dispute with the Alcohol Regulations Commission over its use, with it finally ended in 2021 when the Southland Supreme Court in a 8-1 decision upheld the Commission's decision to fine the brewery. Sensing this ruling was coming, the company had started using
a cartoon of a young woman since 2013. The tax code, meanwhile, simply divides alcohol into "Low" (alcohol percentage of less than .05), "Mid" (between .05 and 0.2), and "High" ( > 0.2); the higher the alcohol grade the higher the tax.
Are there any ethnic groups or culture for whom alcohol plays a significant part? Among humans, Gauhos and Bangeanos have alcohol play a major part of their cultures, using it for many festivities and events. Some indigenous groups also did this, with them brewing a strong alcoholic drink from grains and tree bark that they claim would grant shamans dream-like visions. Among non-humans, Some Yokai shrine maidens produced
a type of Sake using their spit as part of some religious processions. The historic Plain Elf and Hundsmen kingdoms brewed a strong beer that they claimed would give their warriors extra courage and remove all sense of fear before battles, and is sometimes ingested by both groups before major events (like college entrance exams, major sports events, or military deployments. The first one has caused some underage students to get in trouble with the law). Vampires use alcohol for rare occasions, such as marriages, births, and passing major milestones in life. Their alcohol, dubbed "Vampiric wine", is extremely weak because vampires have a low tolerance for alcohol (this is not an issue for Dhampyrs, who can consume alcohol like a regular human). Vampiric wine is basically watered-down wine with animal or human blood added. Finally, both Mountain Elves and Mermen traditionally produced
extremely strong alcoholic drinks before the men (or in the case of the Mermen, males, females, and third genders that are of age) went on major hunts or scavenging trips. The Mountain Elf's drink is derived from animal bones, while the Mermens got theirs from tropical fruits like guavas, mangos, Durian, and coconuts (for the Tuvalman kind) or whatever was produced by Indigenous groups for trades (for the Mainland kinds). Some anthro tribes also produced alcohol for the same reason as the Indigenous human groups, but it's not nearly as common as many anthro species are notorious for being unable to handle their liquor. This tendency has been dubbed the
"fur/scale flush".
Are there any specific cities or buildings where alcohol is legally prohibited or culturally unavailable?: See above
Deaths attributed to alcohol each yea:r 1.39 per 100,000
If alcohol is legally prohibited in your nation, what drinks are more popular? (e.g. coconut juice, cola, soda etc.): While not banned in the Ürümmu Autonomous Region, their restrictions mean that tea and coffee is more common among pious Muslim adults.
Any other information: Taxes on alcohol are updated every year with the passage of the annual Farm Bill.
Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2023 3:22 pm