Orchid

"I once thought I could save the world... now look at it" — Spoilers for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided follow!

A single dose of the Orchid

The Orchid is a codename for an experimental chemical agent, under development by VersaLife with the stated intention of eliminating the need for Neuropozyne in augmented people.

In its prototype stage, the Orchid is a lethal poison and is used by the Illuminati as an assassination tool.

Design

Developed by VersaLife researchers including Dr. Megan Reed at Roccasecca Beach, California, the Orchid is based on research on Adam Jensen, the only known individual who does not suffer from augmentation rejection. The Orchid attempts to replicate Jensen's unique biochemistry in other people, allowing them to bond with their augmentations as Jensen does, instead of needing Neuropozyne to suppress glial tissue buildup and augment rejection. Whilst often believed to be a gene therapy, the Orchid is never referred to as such, and its mechanism and effects more closely resemble an artificial prion.

Toxicity

A case of Orchid vials in the GARM facility

In its prototype state, the Orchid is lethal to both augmented and unaugmented humans. This is due to a "mutability" problem that VersaLife scientists have not been able to overcome. According to a limited analysis by the Juggernaut Collective, the Orchid targets a specific protein sequence in the body and deletes it. However, without that sequence, the immune system goes into overdrive, attacking and rejecting critical organs.

A short duration after exposure, the victim exhibits violent, painful convulsions and hemorrhage. The effect is described by Daniel Flechter (quoting a later-suppressed draft of the autopsy report for Talos Rucker) as the result of "a foreign agent bending cellular proteins out of shape," or protein misfolding, which both spreads to neighbouring cells and causes a widespread immune reaction. A side-effect of the Orchid is the sudden, violent rejection and malfunction of any augmentations in the subject, as visible with Talos Rucker's external augmentations. Higher doses of Orchid cause more rapid and more painful effects.

The only known individual to whom the Orchid is not lethal is, naturally, the person whose biochemistry the Orchid is supposed to replicate: Adam Jensen. However, Orchid exposure incapacitated Jensen for a significant period of time, suggesting he may not be completely immune.

Orchid poisoning is generally guaranteed to be fatal, though an afflicted person may survive if treated with an Orchid Neutralizing Enzyme.

Use as a weapon

As the Orchid is both highly lethal and unknown to the world at large, it is not part of routine autopsies or toxicity panels. This make the Orchid an attractive method of assassination for the Illuminati.

The Orchid is effective by injection as well as ingestion. None of the people ingesting Orchid-laced champagne noticed anything strange, suggesting it is tasteless and odorless.

Trivia

• The explanation for the Orchid's lethal effects, given in a conversation between Adam Jensen and Daniel Fletcher, blends two different real-world biological mechanisms:
  • Prion diseases: Fletcher describes the Orchid's mechanism as "an unidentified foreign agent started attacking protein strands, bending them out of shape". Prion diseases are caused by misfolded proteins that cause other proteins to assume the same, misfolded shape. The buildup of prions causes organ damage and death. Well-known prion diseases include Kuru (Cannibal disease) or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (Mad Cow disease).
  • Monoclonal antibodies / cytokine storm: A 500-fold lower dose than what had been used on research animals caused an unprecedented and unexpected massive, systemic immune reaction in real-world clinical trial subjects for the humanised monoclonal antibody Theralizumab, or TGN-1412. It is believed TGN-1412 may have overstimulated subjects' immune systems, causing them to attack their own bodies. Once the Orchid "bends protein strands out of shape", Jensen states "and the immune system took it from there".
• Data on cut content suggests that in an earlier draft of Mankind Divided's plot, the Orchid's plot-concept precursor was originally a biological virus. Specifically, the game includes an unused story item named "Apartment Virus Sample" that has a biohazard label in its item model. When this item is placed into the inventory using a debug menu, its description is the same as that of the in-game Orchid Sample story item.

Videos

The Orchid