Among the deities of the Elder Scrolls universe, many would quickly think that the being who has domain over the use of drugs, narcotics, and such would be Sanguine and by no means would they be wrong. Sanguine is the Prince of Revelry, Hedonism, and Debauchery and his closest real world equivalent which is the Hellenic god; Dionysus is not only a patron of winemaking but the source of religious ecstasy, frenzy, revelation, and possession which is likely why Sanguine is much more demonized in Khajiiti culture as a spirit of bloodlust.
But i've been thinking that at the very least the use of narcotics wouldn't be solely located within Practitioners of Sanguine Cultists. I believe that some more of the gods of the Elder Scrolls may be linked in some way to the use of mind-altering substances for both or either recreation and ritual.
For example, in Skyrim we experience the use of a powerful Soporific potion known as Vaermina's Topor which allowed the individual to live a dream-like state that repeated the events and memories of another person. Because Vaermina is also the Prince of Dreams, Nightmares, etc her portfolio already is inclined towards experiencing alternative states of trance and consciousness. Throughout real world history the use of narcotics have often served of course for medicinal purposes but also in order to commune with spirits and divine forces so it may not be far fetched to speculate that priests at least ritually applied Sopors in order to speak with Vaermina.
Then strangely enough but oddly appropriate there is Azura. With here spheres being both vague and grandiose as to encompass dawn and dusk, being a venerated patron of the Khajiit and Dunmer some may not think to associate her with drugs. However, it was Azurah at least according to Khajiti mythos that introduced the race to Moon Sugar and along the same vein you have Sheogorath's Khajiti equivalent who is known as the Skooma Cat and is set on testing the minds and mental fortitude of the Khajiit.
But what about gods outside of daedric realms, from the eyes of your average aedra-inclined citizen are things like skooma, moon sugar, and other illicit substances something evil? I think it would depend on who you ask considering the faith in the divines, even though they are part of a communal pantheon, are also venerated in a monolatristic way with many clergy solely focusing on one divine. On one end of the spectrum you have Mara who I would assume opposes such lifestyle vehemently like a mother who doesn't want to see their children fall into their vices after all her commandment is for mortals to live soberly.
On the other end, however, I would suspect that of the divines that maybe Kynareth and Dibella would be the least offended or hardly bothered by it at all. Dibella is a deity whose spheres are art, music beauty, love, friendship. She seems more open to the idea of throwing yourself towards passions and vices than the others and there has existed correlation between the use of drugs with art and music as a way of finding inspiration. Kynareth on the other hand would focus more on the medicinal and practical aspects of their use since her clergy are supposed to be renown physicians to have a comprehensive understanding of alchemy, herbalism, etc.
What do you all think?
Source: reddit.com
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