The English language is replete with sayings about how to live our lives. Ranging from "you can never have enough of a good thing" to "everything in moderation", we seem to have covered all eventualities from hedonism to showing restraint. The problem is of course that not everyone can agree which code is the right one to live by.
The problems causes are legion, especially when one mindset is in the minority and the other forces their lifestyle choice on all around. Seeing as most hedonists are too busy enjoying themselves and their base natures, they don't usually form a ruling block. More often then not those who end up in charge preach something akin to everything in moderation as it helps to have the majority of the population sober most of the time if you want to get anything done.
But what happens if that desire for good, healthy living itself becomes "you can never have enough of a good thing" and isn't taken in moderation? While their intentions are perhaps good, you know what they say about Hell and good intentions. At first it's just a few things, maybe banning intoxicants or ordering everyone on a strict vegetarian diet, but then gradually it gets to the point where they need a special police force to go around enforcing laws and measures become more and more draconian.
It's a situation like the latter that the people of the very good city of Quaint are dealing with in Steven Erikson's novella The Healthy Dead. Up until a while back, Quaint had been fairly typical of most city-states in and around the Malazan Empire with a despotic King and an equally venal court where if you wanted anything done it was best to know whose hands to cover in silver, or gold if you could afford it.
Brothels and other house of less than savoury repute did a thriving business among the citizens and there were areas of town that the city watch wouldn't go in groups of less then a dozen. Things were ticking along fairly normally, in other words, until the King, Necrotus the Nihile, met with the unfortunate accident of his younger brother wanting to be King in his stead.
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