The story of Gulbert Shwegroth and his Nightgale Brandy is a tale of terrible failure and an unexpected success.
Shwegroth was a fairly wealthy entrepreneur who made a fortune through technology trades with the Yesha Empire. Although he was Anglean born and raised, he never felt a strong connection with his people. As a sophisticated and educated businessman he had little affection for these rough, even outright barbaric Pirates and Raiders.
One late night after enjoying several bottles of his favourite Mercantile Import Brandy, so the story goes, he had an idea that would change his life for ever. He decided to "civilise" the Angleans, but not through sermons or bribery, but something a lot more basic and less suspicious: through the power of alcohol.
All the people from other nations he'd come into contact with, all of them respectable and intelligent businessmen themselves, shared a fondness for choice liquors. Tastes ranged from sweet Brandy to Whiskey and rice wine, but nobody seemed to ever voluntarily imbibe the burning grain alcohol the Anglean raiders seemed to enjoy.
Mr Shwegroth deduced that the crude nature of the Angleans was caused by the simple alcoholic beverages they drank.
To fight this problem, Shwegroth set up the Shwegroth Distillery in Orrell, and only a few months later the first bottles of his new Nightgale Brandy rolled off the conveyor belts.
He had put a lot of thought into his product. The sweet taste of the drink would refine the blunt minds of the pirates, while the heroic name would inspire more and more of them to buy it. Within only a couple of years, Shwegroth was sure, Anglea would enter a new Golden Age thanks to him.
Needless to say, his plan failed. Miserably.
The Nightgale Brandy was a success, and very much so indeed, but that was about it. The drink was just as cheap as the home-brewed moonshine sold in the taverns, but it was well-made and tasty. This caused a sudden thirst for southern drinks throughout the Republic and sent a new wave of piracy across the Chill Sea. Hundreds of airship captains raced south, each one determined to find the most exquisite liquor.
While Gulbert Shwegroth watched his dream fall to pieces, he also made fortune after fortune with his Nightgale Brandy and soon the characteristical large copper fermentation vats and bottling plants could be found in every major city of the land.
However, if you should ever venture into an Anglean tavern, don't be surprised if nobody knows what "Nightgale" is. Although Shwegroth meant well when he created the name, it is just a little bit too hard to pronounce when drunk and so it is more commonly referred to as "Nightingale" or "Nightie", and today the expression "flipping the bird" is a common expression for getting absolutely wasted.
Gabalingo