Eon Apotheca, LLC

Eon Apotheca, LLC., formerly Menmaatre Pharmaceuticals, is a formerly Lyran private company wholly owned and operated by the Menmaatre Family, serving as a distributor and maker of numerous drugs within Acheron Rho. The current CEO, Meistersinger Crux Eon Solvain, inherited the company after the death of her parents and retained possession of it through her marriage into House Crux. While the company’s primary focus is the distribution of products within the Imperial Core on behalf of other interests, it has more recently also entered the market of producing its own drugs to help boost its presence and income.

History

In 2915, during the reign of the Blood Eagle and the Second Imperial Civil War, the Menmaatre family of Lyra established Menmaatre Pharmaceuticals. Desiring peace, and unwilling to be directly involved in conflict, the Menmaatres used the company to help distribute much needed medicine to devastated civilian centers and war fronts. Dangerous trade lanes and inter-house conflicts meant that such aid was difficult to move across the whole of the Imperial Core, and as such Menmaatre Pharmaceuticals became something of a beacon and ally for those on the Orphean side of the Sector.

Unfortunately, the end of the Second Imperial Civil War and the crowning of the Lyran Emperox proved more harmful than good to the Menmaatre business. Without war, the need for many pharmaceuticals plummeted, and with a unified Empire, more trusted sources such as House Serpens quickly took over the Menmaatre’s clients. The business  was on the verge of bankruptcy, and it seemed likely the doors would be closed by 2965.

It was at that time, somewhere between 2964 and 2967, that the active head of the Menmaatre family, Horuset Lyra Menmaatre Zidalia, decided to transition her company into more recreational and illicit substances. Zidalia saw an opportunity, to provide a Noble-aligned distributor for substances both legal and illegal within the Empire, giving freepeople and criminal organizations a friendly and more trusted face to get their products moving. Nobles disliked non-Nobles, this Zidalia knew well. Perhaps, she hypothesized, the ability to buy drugs across the table from a fellow Noble, especially an attractive Lyran, would bring more customers out of the woodwork and increase the likelihood of existing customers trying new things.

The tactic worked, and Menmaatre Pharmaceuticals, retaining its old name, slowly began to dig its way back out of financial disaster. The company stabilized, and what was once a noble effort for peace and aiding the wounded became a thinly-veiled front for a pseudo-criminal ally amongst the Nobility.

The company remained a constant presence for a number of years after, staying relatively unchanged, until Horuset Lyra Menmaatre Ezmer put forth the concept of drugs as an artform in the 3150s. In her own words, “what is the mind but a canvas? And these substances, these concoctions, they are our paint.” Ezmer believed that crafting drugs, rather than simply distributing them, was a worthwhile business for Menmaatre Pharmaceuticals to explore, since she saw it as both a new form of artistic expression and a way for artists to find new inspirations and interpretations.

So, in the late 3150s, Menmaatre Pharmaceuticals began developing its own drugs and distributing along with its other available products. This proved an exceptional boon to the company's income and output, and even drew in a number of contracts for developing substances for other Noble families and Houses.

These good times, however, were not to last. During the War Against the Artificials, most of the Menmaatre family was killed, including Ezmer, leaving only two surviving members, Meret Lyra Menmaatre Isis, Ezmer’s mother, and Meret Lyra Menmaatre Nepthys, Ezmer’s daughter. Nepthys, now under the name of Eon Dusk, was only a few months past her fourteenth birthday, making her just barely of age and moving Menmaatre Pharmaceuticals into her hands as part of her inheritance. The company was largely managed by Menmaatre Isis as Nepthys underwent proper training to become the next CEO until Nepthys’ eighteenth birthday, at which point she forcibly deposed her grandmother Isis from her position.

Under Nepthys, the company name was quickly changed to Eon Apotheca, after her own, newly assumed name, Eon Dusk, and the production and development of new products was greatly increased. Eon Dusk also worked tirelessly to solidify ties with other groups, both legal and criminal, within the Sector, and to gain access to ship more of their products on their behalf.

After her marriage into House Crux, Eon Dusk, now Eon Solvain, maintained ownership of the company as a private family business, though all Orpheus-based assets were sold off, and moved the headquarters to the company's space station, the Cherry Blossom.

The EAS (Eon Apotheca Ship) Cherry Blossom

Not long before the War Against the Artificials, the Menmaatre family, in coordination with House Fornax, contracted the construction of a small space station in the Askirut Sal system, ostensibly to observe the remnants of Phymete VIII and its culture. While this goal was initially true, the station, named “The HLS So Very Still, Even Cherry Blossoms Are Not Stirred By The Temple Bell (aka “The Cherry Blossom”),” was repurposed very quickly as a means of production for Menmaatre Ezmer’s plans to create new drugs, rather than just distribute them. Nearly the entire vessel was gutted and redesigned to maximally output and store new substances, as well as including a number of guest quarters and other amenities for visitors and staff. The Cherry Blossom includes a massive series of hydroponics rooms, several ship docking ports, a small bar and restaurant, a lounge for testing products in a relaxing atmosphere, and laboratory space for research and development. The vessel is minimally armed, relying more on secrecy than combat capabilities to stick around, but often boasts a small frigate or two docked at it or in orbit.

After marrying into House Crux, Eon Solvain removed the "HLS," from the ship name and replaced it with a House-neutral EAS (Eon Apotheca Ship). She also filed paperwork claiming the space station was being temporarily taken offline for repurposing, but no action or intention has been shown in this direction as of yet.

Drugs As Art

In keeping with the nature of Lyra, Horuset Lyra Menmaatre Ezmer, while beginning the development of drugs at Menmaatre Pharmaceuticals, held fast to a number of basic guiding principles. The first, that drugs were a form of art, leaned heavily towards hallucinogenic and other perception-altering products. The second, that Lyra was a house of influence and propaganda, lent itself to drugs that were mind-altering in a different way, affecting either the user or those around them in ways that caused them to be more or less persuasive, amiable, seductive, and forthcoming with information. The final principle, that drugs were not just art but tools of creativity for artists, lent itself to products that played with the mind, its focus, and its thought patterns in somewhat different ways, but also played back into the first principle quite readily.

While these were not absolutes, shaping the whole nature of the products Menmaatre Pharmaceuticals, and later Eon Apotheca, would come to develop, they have served consistently to generally shape whatever new ideas come out of the research labs on Orpheus and the EAS Cherry Blossom.

It is worth noting, as well, that Eon Apotheca often approaches more niche markets and specialty products than other drug makers would, acting more as a tailor and crafter of special experiences than a producer of large quantities or baseline substances.

Products

Eon Apotheca is known for a number of products. Through a special contract with House Eridanus and the family of the Taxarch Division, Eon Apotheca produced the substances Taxphile, Locus(t), and Charismus. In working with families of House Crux and members of its Golden Generation, Eon Apotheca also developed Golden Flake, a substance that is now more broadly available from many different suppliers. Rumors suggest that Eon Apotheca was also responsible for the creation of The Void’s Caress and Nine Lives, but no evidence has surfaced to confirm this hypothesis. Gossip on the street indicates a number of new products are also in development.