Very random question

[elves1us]

Hi Folks,

Pleasure to meet you all, virtually that is

Just starting my hand in the fantasy arena and have a very random, detail-oriented question:

Do you think it believeable for a character to smoke a cigar in a fantasy setting (not steampunk, more feist/tolkien/eddings)? If so, would he or she use a match?

Reason I ask is I don't want to do the traditional "pipe", nor do I want the character to posses magic (i.e. muttering at catrip and the cigar lights). Using something like dwarven tinderbox is a mouthful, etc.

"The match flared as Kane lit his thin cigar..."

TIA

Will

 

[The Judge]

Hello! Welcome to the Chrons!

The concept of making a bundle of a few leaves and setting fire to them has been around a long time, but I think I'd be wary of using the word cigar itself, since it is a comparatively late coining -- around the 1700s, though tobacco was known in the West from the 1490s. I'm not sure if people smoked the equivalent of cigars/cigarettes in the intervening 200 years, certainly not in England I'd have thought, anyway. Perhaps do a bit of digging and find out if they were smoked on the continent and see what word the Spanish or others used and possibly adapt that. Just checked an etymology site I use and this might be of interest http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=cigar&searchmode=none -- cheroot is earlier, and I can see that fitting better than cigar.

As for matches, the safety match came a long while later, so yes it would be out of place. A fire steel would have been used for lighting fires and torches, but it's a bit clumsy for lighting a cigar, I'd have thought. I imagine most pipes/rolled up tubes of tobacco were lit by using a spill from a fire or lamp, so people wouldn't have lit up at any old time, but only when a fire was nearby.

 

[terryweide]

I agree with the above comments. I think the easiest way to light either a pipe or a cigar before the invention of matches and lighters would be to take a small, burning stick from a fire and use that to light the tobacco.

 

[elves1us]

Thanks for the quick replies, guys!

I was concerned about both "cigar" and "match" and I see that my concern was well-founded. Damn

Since the character is supposed to be lighting the "cigar" in a city street, I don't think I can use the lamp, branch from a fire, etc. I guess he'll just have to be a non-smoker.

 

[TheTomG]

Depends on how / if your city street is illuminated. Anything from a burning brand to a gas lamp might be nearby from him to light up from.

In fact I think the whole thing lends itself an interesting twist. What would happen if the leaves being smoked were addictive, like tobacco? That could be an interesting element to a character, their desire to light up conflicted with the difficulty in doing so. What ends might they go to just to light up? How would they cope when not able to do so?

You could have some fun with all that I think!

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

Personally, I don't get the problem. She might not be capable of magic herself, but in a magical world the mundanes are obviously able to purchase 'magic'.

Why can't she have a box of magical 'lucifer's', purchased that very day from the "Olde Magic Shoppe", which you can spend a good three or four pages describing in vivid detail.

As for the cigars themselves. Rolling leaves and smoking or chewing and spitting them out is a well established practice from time immemorial. Most ancient (and modern) tribes must have tried it at some time (even if they didn't inhale) I don't have any problem (and believe me 'picky' is my middle name) with the process being described.

OK, cigar isn't the word to use, but if it smokes like a duck...

Actually, having your character stop to roll up her own 'specially made up' blend (obtained from that same shoppe) into a smoke would be perfectly acceptable in any setting (apart from the UK, circa 2010 onwards. Though IMO chewing always has more options for descriptive detail, the rolling it round in the mouth, spitting it out, the unfortunate dog that gets a mouthful of tobacco and sputum in the eye etc: why not chewing and smoking both?)

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Just a thought, might the town have little braziers in the streets for citizens to keep their hands warm, which might allow the character to light his cigar? As for cigar, no I think the word conjures up an image that doesn't fit with fantasy, even steampunk. Pipes maybe cliche but they fit better in my opinion.

Cheers.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Why do you even have to describe what he used? If your not sure what he was smoking, why not just call it his 'smoke' - let the reader picture what he was smoking. Unless it's an important plot device (which I'm assuming it isn't) there's no need to go into too much detail.

'He lit his smoke and led back, looking up at the stars'

 

[goldhawk]

I agree with the above comments. I think the easiest way to light either a pipe or a cigar before the invention of matches and lighters would be to take a small, burning stick from a fire and use that to light the tobacco.

Those long, burning sticks were also called matches. You could buy long sticks called matches for lighting candles and oil lamps from a fire. And candles and lamps were popular sources of illumination.

 

[The Judge]

A difficulty with using the word "match" is that people will automatically think safety match, which is why I'd use "spill" -- not exactly the same (I think they can be made of wood, but I always associate them with paper) but it avoids the misunderstanding. Or if it's a camp fire, "twig" might be better. Would it be possible to use a smouldering piece of coal/charcoal to light tobacco or does it need an actual flame? (Ignoring the problem of holding a hot piece of coal in the first place...)

Checking the etymology dictionary again I see that in the 1500s a piece of cord or wood soaked in sulphur for lighting fires etc was also called a match. The perils of using a word which has had diverse meanings over the years!

 

[chrispenycate]

Does your town have street lamps? If so, the lamp-lighter will probably carry a firepot, with smouldering charcoal, to light the end of his snuffer/lighter stick. Cigar smokers are quite gadget savvy (the special curved scissors/miniature guillotine for smoothly cutting the end to allow for inhalation is often called the 'little rabbi') and would be quite capable of adopting something like this.

Lighting a cigar from charcoal is quite possible; indeed it's somewhat more practical than matches. The trouble is that the flavour of the wood would mix with that of the tobacco, so the charcoal would be a special 'smokers' mix' (Dedicated cigar smokers will never use a petrol{'gas', in the American usage} Zippo type lighter, and even the matches must be long enough that ignition is not started until the unpleasant sulphur head is completely burnt – who did a film about Zino Davidov, then?).

And yes, a 'matchlock' musket would have a piece of slow-burning impregnated string ti ignite the powder, not a lucifer.

 

[goldhawk]

A difficulty with using the word "match" is that people will automatically think safety match, which is why I'd use "spill" -- not exactly the same (I think they can be made of wood, but I always associate them with paper) but it avoids the misunderstanding. Or if it's a camp fire, "twig" might be better. Would it be possible to use a smouldering piece of coal/charcoal to light tobacco or does it need an actual flame? (Ignoring the problem of holding a hot piece of coal in the first place...)

Checking the etymology dictionary again I see that in the 1500s a piece of cord or wood soaked in sulphur for lighting fires etc was also called a match. The perils of using a word which has had diverse meanings over the years!

How about a wood splinter?

 

[Phoenixthewriter]

Interesting ideas all of them. I tend to steer toward what others have been saying, and that's to leave it ambiguous. A person walking down a street and specifically using a burning street lamp sounds strange. Strange, like someone in today's era washing their face in a swimming pool as they're passing by.

However, as some have stated, perhaps they have a flask of oil and piece of wood dipped in it, that they can simply waft over a fire, light it, and then light their handrolled tobacco?

 

[Toby Frost]

I don't have a problem with using the word 'cigar' as the rest of the book will presumably be written in modern English anyway. I'd be more bothered that it might look too much like a shorthand way of describing the character - this guy is tough - that would stick out all the more for its relative rareness in the setting.

As for matches, there are a lot of options. A hot strip of metal could work too. I'd imagine that the availability of cigars would be much less in such a setting, and hence the cost of cigars would be greater and their smoking more significant, like drinking expensive wine is now. So perhaps the character would only smoke them at certain times, and would see doing so as more of a luxury?

 

[Flugel Meister]

I'd go with Cheroot.

As far as the match is concerned I go with:

• Flint stick
• Sulphur stick
• Strike
• Friction stick
• Fire-inch stick

 

[sabolich]

I love these kinds of questions. The existence of "smokes" is a bit of worldbuilding that says something not only about your character but about your world, as tobacco is an extremely fiddly crop that is labor-intensive and difficult to grow. While your guy may not be smoking tobacco but something else, whatever it is, it is nevertheless a part of the commercial makeup of your world and presumes that someone, somewhere found enough of a market for this stuff to make it worth the effort to grow. That means that your character is not the only one smoking it, which means there is likely some industry around it large or small, which includes (drumroll) a means of lighting the foul weed. Cigarette lighters and safety matches may have been a late invention in our world, but who says what emphasis may have been placed on such conveniences in yours? You could certainly have a low-tech lighter of some sort, since all they basically are is a fuel reservoir with a striker and a flint. Or something cool and unique to your own world, giving you a chance to do something original with this.

My rule of thumb for worldbuilding is that everything that exists in the world does so for a reason, and is not just supported by hot air, because that's not how real, viable worlds work (except in politics, of course.) So if your character is supposed to be a tough guy, as demonstrated by him smoking, maybe there's a better way to demonstrate it without stressing on the cigar and the means to light it. OR, conversely, it may be something that defines his character and is worth including. I like the previous suggestion that it might indicate his addiction to something that would drive his actions. Die-hard nicotine addicts get really twitchy when they go too long without a cig; this could put your guy into hot water if his need overcomes his good sense or draws attention to him at an awkward time.

Like everything else, the cigar needs a reason to be in the plot, like Chekov's gun.

Have fun with it, whatever you decide to do.