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Chemical Messiah
- 100 statements
- 18 feature instances
- 23 referencing feature instances
| Chemical Messiah | type |
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A drug (often of the illegal variety) is seen as either an object of salvation or as vital to the structure of society and is therefore worshiped or hoarded. This isn't always because it's a simple street drug that people are horribly addicted to. Sometimes, it's actually a cancer cure, Super Serum, or another form of Applied Phlebotinum. Whichever the case, things become so bad that the general populace depends on drugs as their last hope of survival. People, whether correctly or incorrectly, believe that it will end their catastrophe. Thus, they stockpile as much of it as possible. This, more often than not, goes horribly wrong. Sometimes, it will plunge the world into further chaos because people begin to abuse it. Other times, it will have been abused already and those who are addicted to it will think of it as their last hope. In either case, people will do anything to get it. Even as it causes further damage, they will continue to believe that it will make things better. This often overlaps with MacGuffin. This is a more cynical version of Destructive Saviour. It is a Sub-Trope of Terminally Dependent Society, in which a society is so dependent on a piece of Phlebotinum that it can't function without it. See also Utopia Justifies the Means. Compare and contrast with Dark Messiah, Government Drug Enforcement and Fantastic Drug. Examples |
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Dropped link to GovernmentDrugEnforcement: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to HiveMind: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to TheSixties: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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| Chemical Messiah / int_15196c90 | type |
Chemical Messiah | |
| Chemical Messiah / int_15196c90 | comment |
Wild Palms: The drug Mimezine, used to make holographic images appear more real, has religious overtones, considering that the Scientology-like cult Synthiotics/The New Realism controls the pharmaceutical labs where it's manufactured as well as the media outlets which benefit from its use by consumers. Senator Kreutzer, the Big Bad, certainly believes that opening the doors of perception using Mimezine is one of the first steps to enlightenment in the New Realist/Synthiotics paradigm. | |
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| Chemical Messiah / int_2b08d409 | type |
Chemical Messiah | |
| Chemical Messiah / int_2b08d409 | comment |
In Under the Dome, a character known as the "Chef" cooks meth for the Big Bad. He regularly uses his own product and spends the majority of his time in a meth-induced hyper-religious haze, wherein he believes he's doing God's work. | |
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| Chemical Messiah / int_3d8baf12 | type |
Chemical Messiah | |
| Chemical Messiah / int_3d8baf12 | comment |
Mostly edited out of the final cut of RoboCop 2, but the villain Cain is a cult leader who believes that the drug he uses and distributes, "Nuke", is the key to higher consciousness. | |
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| Chemical Messiah / int_5967b0d2 | type |
Chemical Messiah | |
| Chemical Messiah / int_5967b0d2 | comment |
Neuroshima has a Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane phenomenon called "black tornado", a moving cloud of unknown substance which leaves hardened droplets in its wake. Those who get caught too close and inhale the cloud or purposefully eat a droplet go catatonic for about 20 hours while their mind seemingly experiences Mental Time Travel to a body of a random person, allowing them to experience the last day before the bombs fell. Obviously, there are people who follow news of black tornado, gather the droplets and sell them as drugs. But there are also people who fully believe in the visions and take the droplets day after day, hoping that one day the random person will be the president of the U.S. and they will get a chance to stop the war from happening. | |
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| Chemical Messiah / int_7559ae0b | type |
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| Chemical Messiah / int_7559ae0b | comment |
Melange from Dune, more commonly known simply as "Spice". Without it, safe interstellar travel wouldn't be possible, and society would collapse. | |
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| Chemical Messiah / int_7ae8ef1a | type |
Chemical Messiah | |
| Chemical Messiah / int_7ae8ef1a | comment |
In Equilibrium, the drug Prozium makes people emotionless. The government touts it as the solution for man's tendency to war and strife. Self-administering the drug or dosing is required on a strict schedule. Civilians are trained from a young age to police their peers for signs of emotions, and to report any outbursts of emotion to the authorities. Prozium itself isn't addictive, though going off of it can be difficult as it results in a flood of emotions that are hard to control or hide. | |
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| Chemical Messiah / int_7f9dbbce | type |
Chemical Messiah | |
| Chemical Messiah / int_7f9dbbce | comment |
Yogi and Reggie in Far Cry 4 are supposed mystics in the country of Kyrat whose religious practices largely consist of getting high on their numerous drugs which they test out on themselves and on Ajay Ghale. Then again, considering their drugs are what enable Ajay to first start experiencing visions of Shangri-La, they may have a point. | |
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| Chemical Messiah / int_7f9dbbcf | type |
Chemical Messiah | |
| Chemical Messiah / int_7f9dbbcf | comment |
The Bliss, some kind of scopolamine derivative, is extremely important in the Eden's Gate cult of Far Cry 5. While the leaders really use it for brainwashing the followers, it's presented as being a method of getting closer to God and becoming spiritually healthier. | |
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| Chemical Messiah / int_9a8bf274 | type |
Chemical Messiah | |
| Chemical Messiah / int_9a8bf274 | comment |
Command & Conquer does this with Tiberium. The Brotherhood of Nod forms a pseudo-religious cult around Tiberium, believing the substance to be the future of humanity's evolution. The degree varies between games; in the first it was merely useful because they developed harvesting technology first (with the resulting cash infusion making them an N.G.O. Superpower practically overnight), in the second and the FPS set during the first it was played straight, in the third it was played straight at first but later revealed they were faking it, and in the finale it was Nod technology and an alliance they initiated that rid the world of Tiberium forever. | |
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| Chemical Messiah / int_9c33b8ab | type |
Chemical Messiah | |
| Chemical Messiah / int_9c33b8ab | comment |
Sliders: In an episode, the crew visits an alternate Earth decimated by plague. Eventually, they realize that antibiotics were never discovered in this timeline, so Arturo creates some penicillin, which becomes the Chemical Messiah for this world. In another episode of Sliders, nanite-tainted water absorbs people into a Hive Mind. Yet another world has Government Drug Enforcement, with anyone who refuses to take drugs being arrested and forced to. |
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| Chemical Messiah / int_a0d6888d | type |
Chemical Messiah | |
| Chemical Messiah / int_a0d6888d | comment |
In Storm Front, the drug Third-Eye has a vaguely New Age-style following. It also does seem to give muggles some degree of magical power. | |
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| Chemical Messiah / int_a6bce733 | type |
Chemical Messiah | |
| Chemical Messiah / int_a6bce733 | comment |
In Astral Chain, the Hermits of Zone 09 rely on a Fantastic Drug called Blue Evolve, said to prevent redshift. It also allows them to see and fight chimeras, monstrous entities from the Astral Plane that are Invisible to Normals. Unfortunately, the drug has some nasty side effects, like turning the user into a chimera themselves and merging the real world and the Astral Plane together. | |
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| Chemical Messiah / int_af42a07f | type |
Chemical Messiah | |
| Chemical Messiah / int_af42a07f | comment |
Serenity: The Alliance wants its populations to be docile and peaceful, so it develops the drug Pax (G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate) and tests it on the planet Miranda, causing most of the population to lie down and die and the rest to turn into the Reavers. | |
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| Chemical Messiah / int_b9419bd1 | type |
Chemical Messiah | |
| Chemical Messiah / int_b9419bd1 | comment |
Deus Ex: Human Revolution has Neuropozyne; any augmentation that will be moved by the mind requires a neuroprosthetic junction, essentially a chip in the brain that acts as the interface between body and machine (cybernetic arms, legs, eyes, etc). However, this process causes what is described in-game as "nerve scars"; these scars eventually interfere with the integrity of the chip and it causes the body to reject the augmentation. The only way to prevent that is to take weekly doses of Neuropozyne, a drug that's available as a prescription only and whose distribution is heavily monitored which has led to it selling for exorbitant prices on the secondhand market. Thanks to genetic experiments performed on him when he was an infant, Adam doesn't need Neuropozyne. | |
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| Chemical Messiah / int_c49d7337 | type |
Chemical Messiah | |
| Chemical Messiah / int_c49d7337 | comment |
In Embassytown, the local Starfish Aliens become addicted to an imperfect form of their Starfish Language produced by human settlers. | |
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| Chemical Messiah / int_ca4f6926 | type |
Chemical Messiah | |
| Chemical Messiah / int_ca4f6926 | comment |
Far Cry: Yogi and Reggie in Far Cry 4 are supposed mystics in the country of Kyrat whose religious practices largely consist of getting high on their numerous drugs which they test out on themselves and on Ajay Ghale. Then again, considering their drugs are what enable Ajay to first start experiencing visions of Shangri-La, they may have a point. The Bliss, some kind of scopolamine derivative, is extremely important in the Eden's Gate cult of Far Cry 5. While the leaders really use it for brainwashing the followers, it's presented as being a method of getting closer to God and becoming spiritually healthier. |
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| Chemical Messiah / int_eaeeea9b | type |
Chemical Messiah | |
| Chemical Messiah / int_eaeeea9b | comment |
StarCraft II: Terrazine is a substance found in certain Protoss worlds and it has the ability to boost psionic powers but is also addictive and comes with side effects. In the co-op campaign, Stetmann, a non-psionic human, had long-term overexposure to Terrazine and gets glowing purple eyes and starts hearing the voice of the planet. The Tal'darim in particular worship it as sacred substance and erected shrines around its harvesting zones. Terrazine may actually have some "divine" connections, as it's heavily implied to come from the Void where the fallen xel'naga Amon resides in. | |
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| Chemical Messiah / int_ff9ab17f | type |
Chemical Messiah | |
| Chemical Messiah / int_ff9ab17f | comment |
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Symbiosis" features a medicine supplied to the Ornaran race by the Brekkinas which supposedly cures the former of some sort of illness... except that the medicine is really a drug, curing them of nothing more than severe withdrawal symptoms. Yes, it did cure the Ornarans at one point, but now the people of the planet have become drug addicts. | |
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