The Pharmacopoeists are a Methodology of the Progenitors who focus on the interaction between the human body and foreign chemicals.
History[]
The Pharmacopoeists began as a part of the Cosian Circle. Acting as herbalists, alchemists and healers, these early medicians were often confused by the populace for witches and faced persecution during the Dark Ages, where they had to hide their clinics from the proto-Choristers and Verbenae. Many Pharmacopoeists believe that they could have cured the Black Plague if they had been allowed to act in the open and have a grudge against superstitionists ever since.
During the Convention of the White Tower, the splintered Cosians joined in the newly founded Hippocratic Circle as the Apothecaries. Seeking other lost branches of their order, they built hospitals and enhanced their infrastructure to allow for a quick transfer of knowledge. Using their skills, they also supplied the Order of Reason with poisons to use against their enemies. Using scientific advancement, they prospered and medical sciences allowed them to cure many illnesses that were previously fatal.
In the 1950s, the Pharmacopoeists entered a feud with the Genegineers. Prominent members of the revitalized methodology accused the Pharmacopoeists of being outdated, with their methods being little better than those of Traditionalists. The resulting feud drove the Pharmacopoeists to organized crime in the 1970s. The New World Order had arranged for the Methodology to keep an eye for the new criminal gangs and their distribution of dangerous drugs to the Masses. The Pharmacopoeists instead found an avenue full of lab rats for their newest products. They themselves claim to have been pushed by the greed of Syndicate and even post-Anomaly, they work closely with them, since their work provides one of the largest fundings for the Union.
Culture[]
The Pharmacopoeists have many trappings of a Syndicate endeavour. Legal laboratories work in the first world, creation of their products takes place in less developed countries and then shipped back to be distributed. This makes them one of the richest Methodologies among the Progenitors and is the result of much envy.
The reputation of the Methodology is hardly impeccable. The Pharmacopoeists are blamed by many to have made drugs harmful by altering the Consensus and keeping the "real" drugs without malicious side effects for themselves, to have introduced alcoholism and designer drugs into society, using drugs to manipulate Sleeper society (like during the Opium Wars), have their hand in meat plants, fertilization industries, and pesticide creation and control popular soft drink and cigarette brands. Their defenders point to penicillin, vaccines for diseases from smallpox to AIDS, and treatments for chronic and terminal conditions like heart disease and cancer.
Pessimistic Pharmacopoeists believe that Man is an ape and that the constant search for more efficient drugs and other narcotica is proof that most Sleepers not only do not want to be Enlightened, they do not even want to be sentient. Some even go so far to state the Pharmacopoeists actively work to kill the sleeping Avatar of every Sleeper through exposure to their drugs, chems, and similar tools. The Methodology itself denies this and Ethical Compliance is always on the prowl for those within their own ranks who attempt to subjugate the Masses.
References[]
- MTAs: Technocracy: Progenitors, p. 18-19
- MTAs: Guide to the Technocracy, p. 112, 134
- MTAs/cMET: Laws of Ascension Companion, p. 37
- MTAs: Convention Book: Progenitors, p. 47-48