Reekweed
Ibu’temba

Danaen is known for two things: incredibly deadly animals of immense size with a taste for human flesh, and an entire agricultural supply-line based on the supply and demand of reekweed.

The beasts of Danaen eat humans for sport and work hard to include humankind as part of their daily diet. Only a fool would enter the untamed jungles of Danaen without reason, and even then, that reason had better be damned good.

Only the stench of reekweed, also called stinkweed, shitweed, or corpse grass (ibu’temba in the Danaesh language), keeps these creatures away from humans, or their settlements.

The reekweed plant is a naturally occurring grass-like plant that grows along the riverbeds in Danaen, and when plucked and dried, it produces a smell not unlike a mountain of rotting corpses. It’s unknown why this smell wards off scavengers, predators, and other creatures, but no one’s going to argue with the results when they could get eaten just trying to visit their family the next town over.

Recognizing the importance of reekweed, the Danaesh Crown holds a tight and jealous monopoly over the cultivation, processing, and distribution of this commodity.

Anyone entering the country must pass through one of the four border checkpoints run jointly by the Estian and Danaesh governments. Estion supplies these checkpoints with half of the personnel and materiel, while Danaesh provides the remaining soldiers, the funding, and the reekweed.

Travellers who wish to travel along the road must purchase, at their own expense, as much reekweed as is required to reach the next fortified position along the major roads. Those travelling for business, such as trade, are sold reekweed at a discounted price, compared to those travelling for pleasure.

Being that the Danaen government holds a monopoly on the reekweed, prices change like the weather. Some more cynical historians can always tell when something big is about to happen in Danaen; the building of a new fleet, a military recruitment drive, a royal wedding, a royal celebration, a declaration of war, or even the death of an old king. All of it can be predicted by the sudden rise in the price of reekweed.

Because of the dangerous creatures in Danaen, people will never plan to camp by the roadside when travelling through the country, and so are always forced to buy small amounts of reekweed at a time to get them from trading post to trading post along the road. Travelling merchants and traders will travel between the trading posts along the road, as well as towns and settlements, to sell their wares, and buy more reekweed to keep travelling.

It is a joke among commerce guilds that when one is travelling by land to Danaen to peddle their wares, they are “going out to buy reekweed” or “going to feed their reekweed habit.” It is a well-known fact that any profits made at the trading posts and towns of Danaen are always cut into by the high cost of the reekweed needed to keep moving. It doesn’t help that the Danaen government demands their fair share in taxes on all foreign merchants peddling foreign wares in their lands as well.