Drugs

Kalmus

Myrrh

A family of Dionysian drugs that induces sleepiness and pleasure and (depending on type) hallucinations, euphoria or lowering of inhibitions. Taken in a variety of forms.

Sparks

Dionysian orchid-like flowers frozen into ice cubes with hallucinogenic properties.

Gratias

A Dionysos drug that produces an undirected feeling of gratitude and joy. Used for religious purposes.

Cuddles

Oxytocine analogue developed on Dionysos by Soma Inc. It makes people feel positive emotions more strongly, especially social emotions such as friendship, affiliation and love. Often mixed with inhibition-lessening drugs.

Mortex

A drug mixture invented by the Borderliner cult on New America in the late 2240's (these days the cult is completely gone, even if many stories about them circulate). It mimics a near death experience, putting the user into a stupor and giving him visions of out-of body travel, moving to other dimensions and meeting the Ultimate. Highly dangerous (it can easily lead to brain damage or real death) and banned on NA.

PDE, Pattern Detection Enhancer ("Noids", "Einblicke")

A smart drug developed on Atlantis by Euphrosyne Pharmaceuticals to amplify the brain’s ability to find patterns. The effect is an increase in creativity and awareness, but also a tendency to find patterns where there are none and in tense situations paranoia.

[ PDE gives a –1 bonus to use of creativity or awareness-based skills, such as perception. When subjected to some form of stress, the user must make a WIL roll (normal difficulty) to avoid getting a paranoid delusion. The delusions only last while the drug affects the person, unless a critical failure is rolled – in that case the delusion persists. The delusions depend on the situation, and can range from a feeling of being watched to the realisation that the Arcadians are spreading designer diseases.]

Socio

Empathy-reducing drug, which induces a state similar to sociopathy. The user becomes less likely to care about others and more purely selfish, without the normal cognitive drawbacks or violence caused by real biological sociopathy. Developed by Euphrosyne Pharmaceuticals on Atlantis, where it is sometimes used by people desiring an extra edge.

Neo BNF

Growth factors that make neurons sprout new dendrites and synapses, and overall stimulate the brain to regenerate and develop. First developed on Nova (similar drugs exist on Arcadia, new America and Atlantis) to treat dementia and aging-related cognitive loss. Essentially it rejuvenates the brain. It can be used by younger people, but the price of a more plastic brain is that old information tends to get lost; during a Neo BNF treatment new information is easily acquired, but old memories and some personality traits might be forgotten.

Learning enhancers (Eidetic™, Mnemonal™, Memocode™ , etc)

Improves the learning capability of the brain briefly. The eidetic drugs (Eidetic™, for example) cause that what is experienced during the effect is stamped into memory in nearly perfect clarity, while consolidation enhancers make memory consolidation during sleep more efficient. Often combined with a medical support system that releases it when needed. Constant use has the same problems as Neo BNF, as well as the risk of learning lots of trivia. Especially dangerous is that if a person with learning enhancers experiences a traumatic experience, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder becomes almost a certainty. Popular among students on Atlantis. Some similar drugs are used in psychodesign on Dionysos.

Liquid Amnesia

Hippocampus inhibitor, erases intermediate memory of the user/victim. For the duration the person will suffer from anterograde amnesia (the inability to remember things beyond short-term memory; in most cases people become extremely confused and upset but cannot keep information more than a few seconds). Afterwards, that period and the hours or even days before will be blanked from memory and cannot be retrieved.

[During the effect, the victim will suffer +4 on all tasks requiring more than just working memory. They will be disoriented, confused and loose track of what they are doing. ]

Soul Sleep

Dionysian psychodesign drug, putting the user into a state similar to a hypnotic trance with very little control and a high degree of suggestibility. Users feel passive and accepting, not initiating actions of their own.

[The WIL of the user is effectively halved for the duration of the drug. If given a suggestion or order, they will obey unless they succeed with a WIL test with a difficulty depending on the kind of order - a very easy, direct or innocuous order will be Challenging to avoid, while an obviously harmful act will be Extremely Easy to avoid. Of course, if the person is first convinced it is good the difficulty will be harder.]

Mother's Rage

A psychoactive substance found in a decaying felt in western Dolphin on Gaia. It acts as a powerful adrenaline analogue, stimulating users in low doses but causing anxiety, anger and all the physiological effects of an adrenaline overdose. The Mothers regard it as an embodiment of the righteous anger of Gaia, and there have been instances of people poisoning each other's food with it or use before battle by Cybelists.

Canine / Nimbus

A dopaminergic smell-enhancer discovered both on Atlantis and Dionysos. It increases olfactory acuity, making the user strongly aware of smells (they also have greater emotional impact). While regarded mostly as a novel experience on Atlantis, it is quite popular on Dionysos to truly savor sensual experiences. When combined with training (for example wine sampling) it can make users extremely sensitive to tiny taste and smell differences; some Dionysian outdoorspeople use it for hunting, tracking down prey by smell alone.