Combat drugs

Combat drugs, or the use of non-medicinal chemical substances for an advantage in warfare, have a long history. The Order of the Red Stars earned the name “assassins” for a corruption of “Hashashin” (eaters of hasish). Use of drugs in some Elementalist magical traditions gave a heightened state of awareness and was sometimes used to increase spellcasting ability and potency.

In more modern times, the Dark Wrath pursued combat drugs with vigor, developing substances to make their soldiers regenerate wounds quickly and feel immune to fear and harm.

The Celpo, naturally, is reputed to have a wide variety of combat drugs, with several focused on psionics. Reputedly, they also have drugs to manipulate memory and emotions for use in brainwashing and interrogation, although these would not be combat drugs strictly speaking.

Grand Army research has focused on drugs intended to maintain focus in a long and difficult deployment. The most-used is Long Haul, a drug intended to keep someone awake for days at a time. The GA also has drugs to suppress libido, and, in extreme cases, to obviate hunger.

The Tasnican Republic Marine Corps, which needs to operate in multiple environments, did work on Gravonol, a drug acclimating humans to both heavy (“Gravonol Plus”) and light (“Gravonol Minus”) environments

Ticonderan Usage

Ticondera has perhaps the most extensive program of combat drugs, partly inherited from the Dark Wrath. In addition to short-term boosters (“Caidin’s Candy”, a powerful mix of adrenaline, endorphins, and enhancers), Ticonderan soldiers undergo drug therapy as part of a larger gene therapy. Key to this therapy are the gene-activating drugs Melanophen and Adrenophyll, which act upon certain properties of Ticonderan DNA to make Ticonderan soldiers much tougher and give them amazing endurance.