As the venerated and incredible group of people who accidentally find themselves in a position to be spoken to by me during late hours of the night know, I have a habitual tendency to intake LORE through the nose with a rolled up dollar bill and then ramble incoherently to nearby targets in an attempt to make it fit together. Today's subject? Cardamine. Why? Cause I think I did pretty good this time.
Round 1: Fight!
Cardamine is, in it's most basic form, an addictive drug produced and exported solely by the Outcasts on Planet Malta. It is an orange powder produced from an orange grass. Addiction to this drug is permanent, and withdrawal is fatal. It is banned in every house, and is used by a vast array of criminals.
This is what we got from vanilla. It's very simple, yes?
Part 2: Disco boogaloo
Discovery Freelancer has its own canon. Within that, Cardamine has its own canon too. Although Discovery canon is widely based on Vanilla canon, it is not entirely the same. Cardamine now has Nomad and DKV connections, and it now takes the form of the common orange powder, or the rarer purple liquid (I LOVE LEAN ?!!!), which is what we operate with. Everything I have to say here is based on Discovery canon.
Now, begin.
What is a cardamine?
From a series of infocards I tricked @Toaster into compiling for me, Cardamine is a product harvested from the Cardamine grass on planet Malta. The active ingredient modifies DNA and RNA on a molecular level. Use of Cardamine manifests as decreased aging, increased cognitive and motor functions, immunity to disease, increased stamina, and reproductive sterilization.
131533 > In the heat of battle they can give themselves a Cardamine booster with a flick of the wrist. Maybe that's why they're such awesome pilots.
131612 > You have really strange hallucinations with heavy doses -- flying across alien landscapes, seeing creatures and places that you can't imagine. It's truly an amazing trip.
131772 > The inhaler masks aren't a long term substitute for the Cardamine-infused biosphere of Malta, and the concentrated Cardamine doses we sell to the Rogues and Hackers aren't suitable for us.
132338 > Taking an extreme dose of Cardamine raw from the grass is almost always fatal, but it's a gentle way to go. It was also a curse, as we became dependent on Cardamine to survive, though we don't get a high from it anymore.
132698 > Some of our scientists ran an autopsy and discovered that they differ from regular human beings on a genetic level. Their cell reproduction requires Cardamine to build RNA.
132752 > The Alien Organisms found on this world and elsewhere in the Edge Worlds, there is no doubt about it, they were engineered. Just like Cardamine. There is no chance that either the Cardamine grass or these alien organisms evolved naturally.
132765 > We know that there is a link between the Alien Organisms and Cardamine, because they both affect RNA and DNA molecules in the same way. Most likely the Cardamine plants were mutated when Alien Organisms came in contact with them - a process similar to what happens when Cardamine comes in contact with human DNA.
132766 > Aside from the narcotic powers of the drug, we believe that it also has anti-aging benefits.
132769 > Test Subject 04227986 escaped from her containment area a few nights ago. She managed to kill several guards between the subject area and the communications center. Once inside the communications area she continued her slaughter. She wasn't discovered for twelve minutes. We were able to recapture her alive, though she injured three more of us in the process. I'm told her wounds have already healed. Remarkable regenerative capabilities, which might be another Cardamine side effect.
133099 > Have you ever tangled with an Outcast? I and two other police interceptors engaged four of them a few days ago. It was a mistake to go against them with fewer numbers. The other two interceptors got cooked.
133150 > An Outcast just seems to understand how a ship should look and run, like it's a part of him.
133164 > Somehow the Cardamine also had a negative effect on our birth rate. Fewer and fewer Outcasts are being born, though we live much longer.
133237 > An ancient race of beings developed the orange grasses on our planet. The codes within the genetic structure of the grass transform the user slowly. We are not human because we have been given a gift and can see further into truth than any man. Human beings are infants dabbling in the loam of an expansive ocean that stretches beyond the horizon. The Cardamine has let us see this.
134302 > Sure, their Cardamine mutations give them greater stamina and quicker healing, but that just means you have to punch them a bit harder.
466012 > Individually, our pilots are more than a match for anything they will encounter down here. Cardamine has sharpened our wit and improved our reflexes, well beyond anything the Corsairs or GMG are capable of.
475469 > Our own researchers, and those at Sendai Research Complex in the Okinawa system, believe that Cardamine was originally engineered by the Daam-K'Vosh for the Nomads. All I know is that it has increased my already fine intelligence and given me a much greater lifespan than I might otherwise have had.
475515 > Have you heard of Hisako Takahashi? She is over a hundred and seventy years old. Surely an amazing age to live up to, isn't it? We believe it to be a result of DNA mutations caused by Cardamine.
478747 > Use of the drug causes euphoria and induces a trance-like dream which gives the impression of being in contact with beings from a higher plane of existence. Side-effects of prolonged use are slower aging, immunity to disease, and lower fertility.
" > The Cardamine drug-trance is found to enhance design and invention abilities.
Second: Discovery nomad lore has varying canonicity. The nomads themselves have a lore document that they work with, however 1)not everything there is canonized 2)not everything there has references and 3)some of the reference links have since become defunct and result in 404s. The best answer, however, comes from the lore document.
Cardamine grass was engineered by the Daam K’Vosh to serve as stable source of organic compounds for Nomads; it would be easier and much-less energy intensive to incorporate these into their anatomy than to assemble the compounds from scratch. Distinct enzyme co-factors are synthesized by Cardamine grass that assists in a Nomad’s physiological mechanisms, and the plant itself is capable of extracting and concentrating trace elements from the soil to be used in higher-level functions.
Though the plant matter itself is indigestible to humans, extracts of the enzyme co-factors act on their molecular receptors in beneficial, and adverse, ways. The enzymes are capable of acting as a genetic template within an adult stem cell, modifying telomeric activity to yield stable chromosome structures that will not fall victim to replication degredation; they also tend to show a high affinity for specific gene promoter sequences, upregulating the synthesis of RNA strands that lead to proteins involved in regenerative functions. When consumption of Cardamine ceases, though, the rapid decrease in the levels of gene expression lead to a cellular ‘crisis’ as a negative-feedback mechanisms force apoptosis and cell death; a massive flow of cancer signals generate a severe auto-immune response that causes a human’s immune system to attack its own body.
One critical drawback to Cardamine use in humans involves inhibition of gametogenic cells; meiotic division found in sperm and egg cells are prevented by the action of the co-factors in Cardamine grass, resulting in incredibly reduced birth rates.
The reference link in this part of the document is broken. 404s are neat. Important part is that this is not directly canon, not by infocards, rumors, or RCR. The key points of this is where I'll derive the conclusion, though.
The other material used for this is Chris Todd's Freelancer: Nomad Faction Overview. A specific excerpt from it will be posted below, however the description of nomads as
One of these creations was the Slomon-K'Hara -- what would later erroneously be
named "the Nomads" by human beings. The Nomads were specifically created with a
high-degree of genetic adaptability. Possessing almost no fundamental genetic
structure of their own, the Nomads were able to absorb and decode the genetic
structure of other organisms; they were in effect living machines, crawling analysis
tools that supervised the many different experiments of the Daam-K'Vosh. In some
ways, the Daam-K'Vosh were surprised and even delighted by their creations (if such
emotions can be applied to anything so alien), and gifted the Nomads with both
increasingly sophisticated intelligence and a larger degree of autonomy.
Without getting into what a nomad is (please), the nomads possessed the trait of self-genetic-modification. The lore doc says that cardamine is used by the nomads, and Chris Todd's work does as well.
The Sirius Sector was intended as an elaborate school for the
Nomads, and the Daam-K'Vosh had left gifts scattered around it like toys -- the
cardamine grass on Ishmael with its life-prolonging genetic code (and unexpected
narcotic dependence when absorbed by human beings)
Once again, the canonicity of these materials is not exact, and in some cases just isn't. Malta being called Ishmael is funny though, perhaps...? Anyway, with the infocard of the Wild Temple on Malta that described Nomads coming to graze cardamine grass gone, the options are slightly more open ended. However, cardamine to a Nomad is a non-necessary but useful supplement to their physiological functions.
Using these points, I have drawn a full solution to cardamine which should be easy to use for science roleplay and should cover all canon lore points, and also cover most if not all common RP points as well.
The Cardamine solution wall of text.
Orange bits will be the not-canon-but-makes-everything-work bits.
Cardamine is an orange grass that grows on Planet Malta. Possibly for the Outcasts to maintain their monopoly, or possibly due to environmental needs, it is not grown anywhere else (Galicia Research Station not withstanding) . The enzymes in Cardamine are the active ingredient for all of its effects, and are only ever recorded elsewhere in a specific set of alien organisms. These enzymes put the DNA and RNA into a free-float state, where they can be modified and then reassembled without the body using them for it's processes. The effect of these enzymes in the human body leads to enhanced strength, speed, reaction, lifespan, and intelligence, slowly transforming heavier users and their descendants into superhumans. Due to humans having a foundational genetic code, when cardamine use stops, the DNA and RNA assemble into roughly the most optimal human genetic code. Since the resulting code, however, is neither the body's original code nor is it necessarily stable, withdrawal from Cardamine's DNA-use-inhibiting effects will result in headache, dizziness, nausea, shortness of breath, coughing, insomnia, diarrhea, gastrointestinal disturbances, internal pain, urinary frequency, liver and kidney damage, and death. The effect of the enzyme on DNA also propagates as reproductive sterilization. Cardamine was created and seeded onto Malta by the Da'am Kvosh for use by the Nomads to greatly ease the process of genetic reconstruction. The purified liquid cardamine is the extracted enzymes on their own, providing a stronger and more direct effect, and is the form used by Nomads.
Though I've said it a hundred times already, I'll say it one last time: this is not a statement of canon. This is merely a suggestion of canon that seems to be most optimal and most interesting. I'm putting it in a forum post primarily for having a place that is not Xenos discord to have it written down, and secondarily for feedback.
The symptom list was drawn from the real world Amatoxin, a poison found in a species of mushroom. Its effect is to inhibit RNA polymerase II, which is vital to the synthesis of mRNA, microRNA, and snRNA. This effectively makes the DNA unreadable by the cells, and stops protein synthesis. Unreadable DNA is the basis for this conclusion.
If I had spare credits, this might have just been an RCR of sorts.
Finally, this is primarily intended for Outcast, Researcher, and Nomad roleplay. I suppose it can apply to cardamine users, but I'd think it's safe to assume that the more unique effects are only present after very extensive use.
Edit: the big Chubazoidal Chungus has informed me that it is canon, not cannon. After this grammar correction I will be immidiately dying. Goodbye.
I'll do something about my superiority complex when I cease to be superior.
"Whatever happened to catchin' a good old-fashioned passionate ass-whoopin and gettin' your shoes, coat, and your hat tooken?"