The Elysium Project

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The Elysium Project is an online audio drama series created by DragonKnightTara. It currently has two episodes released, each split up into seven to nine 10-minute chapters. They can be found here.

The Elysium Project begins as a small handful of students are pulled into the terrifying world of a powerful new drug, known simply as the Elysium formula. Developed by a power hungry businessman, and sold to a man with less than honorable intentions, the formula allows it's subjects to manipulate the world around them in accordance to their own desire.

However, the formula is far from perfect as the students begin to develop second personalities embodying their desires. Without hesitation or moral restraint, the project soon turns more dangerous than it's creators anticipated and the subjects must learn to control their abilities before the things they want most become their worst nightmares.


Tropes used in The Elysium Project include:
  • Action Survivor: Emma Grayson
  • Acting for Two: Actorman as Ian and his companion, as well as Shudo-Ranmaru as Emma and Nick's companion.
  • Big Bad: It initially appears to be Bastios, but Gabriel is shaping up to be The Man Behind the Man.
  • Child-Hater: Susan hates kids. And she likes to remind people fairly often.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: Alex and Rachel are unceremoniously killed off-screen in Chapter 15.
  • Evil Brit: Gabriel
  • Face Heel Turn: Kate after going to work for Gabriel.
  • Heroic BSOD: Emma after she kills Susan Danvers.
  • Hilarious Outtakes: Can be found here and here.
  • Misery Builds Character: This is Ben's reasoning behind telling Mirage to blame Emma for selling the group out, as he believes that taking everything away from her will give her strength.
  • Morality Pet: Shay is shaping up to be this for Mirage.
  • Odd Friendship: Mirage, the shapeshifting sociopath, and Shay, the innocent, idealistic young girl.
  • Reality Warper: The Elysium formula turns people into this.
  • Shapeshifting: Mirage's specialty is using his abilities to do this.
  • Super-Powered Evil Side: "Other Ian" is this to Ian.
  • Super Serum: The eponymous Elysium formula, which grants those exposed to it the power to manipulate reality in accordance with their desires.
  • Token Good Teammate: Dr. Evan Meyer is this to the villains. Despite his choice of employer, he is a relatively good person who is appalled when he discovers some of the more morally questionable things that Bastios is doing.
  • True Companions: Emma considers the group of escapees to be this, saying that they're almost like a family. Ian is quick to point out that it only seems that way since she's seeing them on their best behavior.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Ben calls Ian out on sealing him away inside of Emma's mind and nearly getting her killed.
  • We Have Reserves: Bastios' justification for ordering the killing of the entire first batch of test subjects in Chapter 15 was that they could always get more test subjects if they needed to.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Dr. Meyer and every single first batch test subject save Emma, Ian, and Kate are all killed for this reason. Also attempted on Mirage, who is simply left for dead in the soon to be burnt down Highmore Academy.