Historical Lore for Chemistry

[kermit]

Type (e.g. Planet, Faction, System): Mainly Chemistry/Medicine/History. Briefly touches upon other facets of lore such as certain religions and region-specific crime.

Describe this proposal in a single sentence (12 word maximum):

This proposal is designed to ground chemistry in our universe’s lore.

How will this be reflected on-station?

The proposal will mostly affect the roleplay of pharmacist/chemists and those who are collecting prescriptions or asking about chemicals, as well as doctors who use the chemicals. Some of the historical lore of certain drugs will have also have a moderate impact on other facets of lore, including religion and planetary lore, where individuals within these groups can capitalise on the new lore surrounding these chemicals and incorporate them into their character. 

With the historical lore introduced in this proposal, we also have expanded upon how some regions of the Orion Spur may be technologically behind when it comes to the available pharmaceuticals, and so the historical lore here can have an impact on character’s backstories and can, to a small degree, dictate what injuries are survivable and what are not. The new historical lore is also intended to spice up some chemicals which, otherwise, were just there - this could spark a bit of interest for those chemicals, seeing more characters who are interested in them.

Does this faction/etc do anything not achieved by what already exists?

Currently there is very little historical lore for chemicals and how they impact the various societies in our universe’s lore, so no, I do not believe so.

Why should this be given to lore developers rather than remain player created lore?

Some large portions of the historical lore we have will need to be looked over by the lore developers of their respective species to ensure that the lore we have is compatible and in-line with existing species/planetary lore. Some of the historical lore for certain chemicals is grounded heavily in planetary/species lore that I’m not entirely well-versed in - a prime example being Spectrocybin which is grounded in the unathi Th’akh faith, a segment of lore I’ve only glossed over on the wiki given I do not play unathi characters myself. Lore developers can also include additional details, for example, wherever it says “a skrell chemist” or “a tajaran chemist”, a lore developer could insert actual named chemists which could then be listed on the ‘Notable (Species)’ wiki pages as chemists who have revolutionised the field of pharmacology.

The historical lore we’ve come up with could also allow the further development of facets in lore that have only briefly been covered. Red Nightshade, for example, has been grounded in Martian crime lore. With Red Nightshade being grounded in this facet of Martian lore, it could allow further development of Martian lore surrounding drug cartels which produce and distribute Red Nightshade and other illegal combat performance enhancers.

Also, due to time constraints however, I wasn't able to finish writing the lore for every chemical, so if any lore developers want to pick up where I left off, they're free to. There's some interesting chemicals such as hyperzine, phoron salts, phoron salt derivatives, etc., that could have some wicked lore done with them.

Do you understand that if this is submitted, you are signing it away to the lore team, and that it's possible that it will change over time in ways that you may not foresee?

Yep.

Long Description:

Thus far, I, alongside two other chemistry/medical players who have helped me out a tad, have completely expanded upon the descriptions of chemicals (which have already been merged with the chemical renames, thanks Chada), planned out some additional mechanical features, and also have given the vast majority of chemicals in-depth history which grounds them in our universe’s lore. The latter, of course, is the focus of this application, though it all compounds together to form what we hope is a massive expansion of the various chemicals, making them more interesting. Some of the more generic drugs haven't got a lot of lore that I've written for them, though some of the more fancy drugs have a lot more. With all of that said, let’s move onto the actual lore we’ve drafted.

To avoid ruining the formatting of this post, I have all of the chemicals, their descriptions, and the historical lore I've written in one single Google document. It'll be way neater than posting it all here as there's like,14 pages worth of history. If posting this in a Google doc. is an issue, I'll take the time to move it all over into this post, though I can't vouch for how well it will then be presented.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HMMlY7RvP-chU0yKHJsgyAb_TL1pfPtn8xDIaI7ci5U/view?usp=sharing

I've got no experience when it comes to formatting and editing the wiki, but my general idea for how this would be presented would be with a drop-down box beneath the chemical descriptions on the Chemistry Guide which contain all of the history.  That way it's available to every player, but can still be hidden by folk who are just skimming through the guide looking for recipes as opposed to lore.

P.S.: I'm a dummy and, when submitting the descriptions for chemicals for Chada to merge with the chemical renames, there were artifacts of the lore I've written that are, of course, not yet canon/approved. Namely Ryetalyn including in it's description 'developed by Dominian scientists' and Red Nightshade including 'originating from the criminal syndicates of Mars'. I'm hoping this isn't such a huge problem and that, eventually, it won't be a problem at all as it will be canonised, but should this not be canonised, then I'll probably have to figure out how to fix my mistake, which will involve having figure out how to do pull requests. Apologies for that.

P.P.S: I pulled on my big boots and learnt how to do PR shenanigans. The problem mentioned in the first post script can be easily reverted by myself if it's a problem.

Edited July 31, 2020 by SadKermit
Post Post Script

[Chada1]

If needed, I could remove those parts, but I think they're neat and add a lot, so I'd encourage Lore devs to consider them ?

[Carpe Venenum]

Consider Lake Tricord on Biesel for Tricordrazine. I had an idea on it in the past:

Spoiler

 

[Caelphon]

After discussing with Mofo, we'll be declining this application. 

Locking and archiving.