Lybrium
When a situation calls for more than Soma, but less than Nerve Stapling, there's Lybrium
Description:
Lybrium is a neuro-suppressing mood controlling drug. It is a yellow round pill that is taken once daily, and it noted for its sharp bitter taste.
Creator:
Lybrium was created in China by an ACPS funded pharmacology group. It has since been spread or copied to where it can be found under a variety of names. The pills typically retain the normal shape, color, and bitter taste.
History:
The early part of the ACPS founding was marred by frequent riots, rebellions and emotional outbursts. Lybrium was researched since it was simply not feasible to nerve-staple every political dissident, and the tradition battery of drugs and conditioning were too expensive or time consuming. Rebels were sprayed with the drug from low flying aircraft, and water supplies would be spiked with it to bring about rapid and largely non-violent ends to uprisings without exterminating valuable population bases.
Some scientists and arcanotechnicians have voluntarily started taking Lybrium as its effects allow them to continue working on projects that would normally be repulsive or morally objectionable. In the case of arcanotechnicians, it allows them to handle their fraying sanity a bit longer.
Some prisons and asylums will administer Lybrium to problematic patients/inmates.
Specifics:
The drug alters the chemistry of the brain associated with emotional response. It has the side effect of dampening imagination and creativity. It is not habit forming on a chemical level, but the withdrawal period, 3-6 days, can cause emotional irritability, headaches, dizziness, and insomnia.
3.png){kind=avatar}
Not Registered Yet? No problem.
Do you want Strolenati super powers? Registering. That's how you get super powers! These are just a couple powers you receive with more to come as you participate.
- Upvote and give XP to encourage useful comments.
- Work on submissions in private or flag them for assistance.
- Earn XP and gain levels that give you more site abilities (super powers).
- You should register. All your friends are doing it!
? Responses (11)
Have you played Dragon Age? Lybrium is one letter away from Lyrium, something most players will probably pick up on, regardless of the dissimilarities. Just wanted to make you aware of that.
There's actually a real-life drug called Librium that is a tranquilizer and a sedative. When they made the movie Equilibrium (which takes place in a high-tech, future dystopia), they were also going to name their civilization-stabilizing drug Librium, but had to rename it Equilibrium because there's already a drug that does that. This stuff sounds a lot like Soma in Brave New World, too, right down to it being sprayed on rioters to calm them down.
Actually, the drug in the movie Equilibrium is called Prozium and not Equilibrium. The nation it was set in is called Libria. I googled Librium as I considered that a decent name for the drug and I did discover that it does exist pretty much exactly as written on the box in the movie, albeit not to the same full scope of effect. Swap an I for a Y and it's taken care of.
As for Soma, as I recall, soma makes people blissful happy and calm. Lybrium makes you not capable of feeling bliss or dissatisfaction.
Ah, sorry. I should research stuff before thinking I know what I'm talking about.
Can Lybrium dull psychic abilities? I can imagine psychics freaking out about Lybrium canisters being shot through the windows by special forces.
Lybrium might also have some uses in the religious sphere, too, since religion seems to work just fine until dissatisfaction crops up.
And what kind of cultural connotation does it hold? Is a symbol of government repression (like tear gas)?
I love that idea, Lybrium can reduce or even completely suppress parapsychic abilities. It's important that the orderlies at the Ashcroft Asylum for the Cosmically Insane makes sure their wards take all of their meds every day.
I can also see Lybrium being used as a cult suppression drug, or by some cult leaders to ensure that their sacrificial lamb to the Gods who Walk in Shadow don't run away screaming.
As for social connotations, I can see it being seen in the same light as thorazine (keep the crazies calm) in a general positive light, but in a non-pill form as a method of government control. Lybrium canisters and gassing is the sort of thing that does happen, but the powers that be work hard to make sure no one pays attention to it.
Update: Recovered from the Void
It seems a little small by itself for a sub. It would better fit perhaps in a set of similar or related drugs...
Hmmm.
I am thinking about making a 30 Drugs and Pharmaceuticals of the Cosmic Era, plenty of good stuff out there, the different flavors of Nuke, Slo-Mo, Substance D, Crystal Dream, etc
Pleeeze file off the serial numbers!! :P
There is certainly that option, but I was actually thinking doing an homage to the illicit substances found in fiction, and both porting them into the setting, and making them plausible, grounded in a game/storytelling system/mechanic, and actually tie them to actual drug use and actual 'how drugs work' which Hollywood (ironic considering the amount of cocaine, LSD, and pot there is there) somehow can always really screw up. Plus, with the onset of modern designer drugs like Bath Salts, something like Nuke is just a street name for the latest batch of whatever makes you want to get naked and eat homeless people.
And I did file the serial numbers off in this sub, since the point of inspiration was Prozium from the movie Equilibrium, and in this submission I tied it closer to Soma and its use in 1984 rather than its movie role as an emotion suppressant.
The comsic era likely needs 100s if thousand of the minutia subs.