Activated Ichor

Used as a common power source, dangerous narcotic, and an important biochemical agent, activated ichor, or T-Irradiated Necrohemic Fluid (TINF), is a staple of modern life on Tevrus. Whether you're a long-haul truck driver, medical practitioner, or average factory worker, you likely encounter activated ichor in one form or another in your day to day. While most people have a passing knowledge of the substance and it's uses, few know how truly versatile the substance is.

Composition/Description
In it's raw form, ichor is composed primarily of hydrocarbons (like alkanes), oxygen, and dissolved cellular material (primarily amino and nucleic acids). Ichor derives it's source from arcane entities, such as celestials and fiends, that have died and been compressed by the force of geology, much like petroleum. However, ichor has a few key distinctions from petroleum, namely it's much younger age, higher concentration of intact macro-chemicals, and increased amounts of T-irradiation (all properties caused by it's extraterrestrial source.)

Called necrohemic fluid due it's chemical resemblance to blood, ichor is a blackish-red, thick and tar-like fluid that reacts upon the introduction of an electrical charge. Upon sufficient presence of electricity, necrohemic fluid becomes activated, in which it's atomic makeup begins to vibrate at the E-threshold and it's energy potential increases by a factor of 10. Activated ichor has a similar blackish-red coloration and tar-like consistency to usual necrohemic fluid; however it is laced with electric lines of bright red and gold light and appears to attempt to latch and spread out from it's own mass.

Narcotic
Due to it's ease in integrating with the human bodies' cardiovascular system and it's ability to cause both immediate and chronic change within the body, many people have turned to injecting activated ichor into their bodies as a way to overcome their woes.

Immediate Effects:
After injecting the activated ichor intravenously, the user will feel an immediate rush throughout the body as their blood begins to bond with the ichor and absorb it's energetic properties. In some people this feeling is extremely painful, in others, this can produce a "rush" like sensation of pleasurable sensations ranging from small tingling along the veins and arteries to something described as "a molecular-level massage." Physical symptoms of recent injection are raised veins, bloodshot eyes, and dizziness or disorientation. Recent injection causes the blood of the user to temporarily behave like activated ichor, allowing limited use of arcane abilities to those without and a more potent ability to those already possessing them.

Chronic Effects:
Chronic effects of activated ichor abuse begin to form after 3-5 months of continued use. Each time activated ichor is used, the human body retains an amount of the excess energy produced by the ichor, continued use of the substance increases this amount until the addict's blood becomes similar to activated ichor in properties (including T-irradiation, reaction to electricity, and in rare cases even viscosity and reaction to organic material). This chronic build-up of excess energy can cause the manifestation of arcane powers within the user, along with degradation of the cardiovascular wall, hemophilia and/or excess blood clotting, overdeveloped heart chambers and synapses, and high blood pressure. Long term mental effects manifest as paranoia, anxiety, aggravation, and rapid mood swings, while the surface traits of a chronic user can manifest as veiny limbs, blood spots in the eyes, and frequent dazed spells. The most deadly effect of chronic ichor use is increased tolerance. This tolerance leads to addicts injecting higher and higher concentrations and/or amounts of the substance, leading to a worsening of symptoms and an increased risk of overdosing.

Withdrawal Symptoms:
Once a chemical dependency has been formed between the addict and substance, the addict begins to suffer adverse effects whenever they go prolonged periods of time without re-uptake of the substance. The most common symptoms that manifest between 1-5 days without reuptake are; extreme fatigue and lethargy, cravings (both for activated ichor and for fatty foods), flare-ups in anxiety and depression, anhedonia, and vivid nightmares. More extreme examples include rapid degradation of the cardiovascular and nervous systems (especially the breakdown of the blood brain barrier) causing increased risk of aneurysm, stroke, heart attack, and necrosis in certain parts of the body.

Overdosing:
When a human body injects more activated ichor than it can bond to, it begins to fill the volume of veins, arteries, and capillaries in the cardiovascular system. Activated ichor begins to rupture these structures causing massive internal bleeding. If left untreated or if significantly high concentrations were injected, the human body can start to rapidly attempt to filter the ichor through the heart and lungs, circulating it more rapidly through the body. This causes extreme fatigue, vomiting, and sharp pains in the chest and shoulder. Soon after these symptoms manifest, the patient's heart, lungs, and brain would begin to clog as the ichor rapidly bonds with the highly active blood, this causes the nervous system to fire in extreme pain and send electrical currents traveling from the brain down to the rest of the body. The final symptoms before death are, a severe pain radiating from the head outwards, a shortness of breath, trouble seeing, hearing, and smelling, and finally a loss of locomotion in the limbs. Finally, after the patient is paralyzed and unable to breath properly, one of two effects occur; either the cardiovascular system ruptures completely causing the patient to die of blood loss or a brain aneurysm, or the patient's blood becomes so energized as to cause a reaction with the chemicals in the human body often resulting in an explosion of flammable, toxic fumes.

To treat an overdose, medical practitioners will attempt to stabilize the patient by hooking them up to an artificial blood filter and depolarizing their body to prevent any excess activation within the bloodstream. More severe cases might require a medically induced coma, blood transfusion, and even heart and lung transplants. All of these can cause lasting damage even if the patient lives.