About Drugs. The Bad Kind.

[Saiah]

I remember an antagonist from the early pugilist quests inhaling a drug from a pipe that made him impervious to pain and put him in a state of rage causing his aoe attack to harm friend and foe alike. I like to think he took a fantasy equivalent of crystal meth.

[Keever]

I remember an antagonist from the early pugilist quests inhaling a drug from a pipe that made him impervious to pain and put him in a state of rage causing his aoe attack to harm friend and foe alike. I like to think he took a fantasy equivalent of crystal meth.

That was Weggfarr, and he was taking pluto, which previous posts in this thread have mentioned.

[Enyd]

Somnus is made from Dream Flower according to BLU quests.

[NessaWyvern]

There's also some kind of mind control drug, as seen in the SB Hildy quests.

[Iscah]

Replying to an old post, but...

The biggest thing I took away from that post is that those plants being grown in the cave at Lost Hope are what's used to manufacture Somnus, and I honestly never knew that. How haven't those people been raided, again?

There are Brass Blades stationed right there in the camp, so I can only assume they're complicit in the scheme and report back to their bosses that everything is fine.

[Alleluia]

There is also a third illicit drug mentioned in the game called 'pluto', but it's unclear just what that term refers to, whether it's another term for somnus or a completely different drug (although the name itself seems to suggest the later, and a dangerous one at that).

Somnus is clearly shown to come from a purple-coloured plant that is being illicitly cultivated by the refugees in the caves near Black Brush Station (presumably they do it as a means of supporting themselves, despite the drug being illegal in all Eorzean citystates). And as mentioned, it is apparently a narcotic, having opium-like properties of drowsiness/lethargy, and is also highly addictive, not to mention deadly if overdosed.

So the plant to make somnus does actually look like Althyk Lavender, then? My only real experience hearing about the drug is the starter sidequest from Niniya in the Drowning Wench, who tricks you into thinking a bunch of lavender that's been dropped on the ground downstairs is really the plant to make somnus. It turns out its just her hazing you, but its interesting that the plants may indeed look alike.

[Enkidoh]

I can't remember - I do know the plant somnus is cultivated from seems to also be phosforescent (glows in the dark), which Althyk Lavender does not - the somnus plants being cultivated in the caves of Lost Hope are glowing brightly even though the rest of the cave is rather dark, bathing the whole thing in a lurid violet glow.

And speaking of somnus, the level 63 GNB Job quest goes into the issue of somnus addiction, revealing that the drug is also found on Othard and that many inmates of Garlean prison camps are addicts who manage to smuggle the drug in. Apparently somnus addiction manifests certain symptoms in the eyes, as Sophie in the GNB quest line picks up on another npc's secret addiction by noticing her eyes show those same signs, although it's not elaborated on exactly what those signs are (presumedly excessive reddishness or dilated pupils).

Either way somnus addiction manifests physically in the addict's eyes.