So sorry...I know this is WAY belated and in the end winning/losing doesn't even matter since I'm going to be the only entry. I wanted to at least show what I was working on.
The Official Story...
After the formation of the Allied States, Dr. Pasteur Galt, an apothecary, left and traveled the Cefnor Basin. He began his quest for creating a collection of recipes to create medicines. In 1787, he published a book called, De Materia Medica (On Medical Material). It expanded into several volumes that he further published over his lifetime. The volumes covered a wide range of plant and animal material, their properties, proper preparations, uses, and recipes for medicines as well as poisons.
After traveling around Taijitu, Dr. Galt chose to settle in al' Khem. His choice based on their very liberal, and almost obligatory, use of a variety of medicines attracted him to settle and set up an apothecary shop in 1784. Using his time there to continue his research and publish De Materia Medica. In the capital city Carcossa, he grew very close to the locals. Married Nae'llara, a woman of the Ser'ev, converted to the Path of Truth, and became involved with their protests and revolts. For his efforts during the revolts, he was granted the honorary name of Kallisti, after Mount Kallisti. Kallisti means Life Garden. He adopted Kallisti as his full name and his family adopted it as their last name.
Supplying al' Khem, during the protests and revolts, required increased production capability and raw materials. Further supporting them and their allies during the Great War demanded more. The business acquired chemical factories, built larger laboratories, bought/leased tracts of land, and modernized the medicine production in the process. His family continued ownership, and his legacy, creating an emerging global pharmaceutical company. The diversity of Kallisti Health, controlling local and foreign properties, able to create chemical materials, grow medicinal crops, create base medicinal materials, conduct research and development across various scientific fields, produce cosmetics and bath related products, and of course, produce pharmaceuticals for various purposes, led the name to be changed to Kallisti Group by the 1910s.
Officially, no one knows how old Kallisti was when he died in 1873. Some historians calculate his age between 97-123 years. The year of his birth is open to much debate. His family line continued to have long life spans, coupled with the worst held secret that many members of the Kallisti family are drug addicts; conspiracy theories arose that Kallisti had discover medicines that prolong natural life, was a shape-shifting alien, or both. Some claim Kallisti never died and secret research facilities are said to exist, producing immortality drugs and developing new ones. Members of the Kallisti family have denied such facilities and/or drugs exist, produced documentation on Kallisti's death, and explained their longevity on diet and exercise. This has not quieted such conspiracies to this day.
Kallisti's legacy not only lives on via his family, company, and conspiracies but, his name has been used across the Taijitu amongst recreational drug users denoting being under the influence of drugs. Aside from being a drug maker, this is also attributed to his name belonging to Mount Kallisti, the highest point in al' Khem. “Hey Bud, you wanna get Kalli or maybe a bit Blue?” “Dude...I am so Kallisti...You gotta try this.” And the like.
The Truth?
Kallisti's De Materia Medica was only the journey to his true goal, immortality. He believed with the right ingredients, a person's life could be extended. He saw the wonders medicine had provided man, not only cures for ailments, but allowing the human body to become healthier and live longer.
After securing a loan from the Bustos Family, he set up in al' Khem where he heard plenty of legends about a “magical” juice that could prolong life. He dedicated his life to discovering the recipe of this immortal juice. Kallisti had made strides into various age slowing and body enhancing drugs but immortality was still beyond his reach. These drugs and their future developments are sold to the rich and elite while the watered down versions are sold to the masses.
Everything changed when a priest involved in his naming ceremony, told him of a rare plant that only grew on Mount Kallisti and the stories that told of its medical properties. Not only did Kallisti manage to find the plant, he was able to learn how to grow and produce it in his laboratory. By experimenting on himself, he discovered how to properly extract and ingest the immortal properties of the plant. However, it could not reverse the aging process and he had already grown into an old man by the time he perfected the juice. A juice that one had to keep drinking to keep on living beyond a normal lifespan.
Now behind the scenes, hidden from the world, Kallisti, along with select members of his and the Bustos Family as well as a certain Khemish priest, continue to produce the immortality juice, for themselves. To what end, is another story...The Immortals.
Any comments are welcomed (positive or negative).
