Stardust

Cover art from tweetyspics at Pixabay

Was offered Stardust by a friend of mine an' I was curious. Dissolved an' coated the tongue like sand. Truth be gold [sic], I liked it. Not gonna take it again, my kids need me to keep food on the table an' a roof o'er their heads, but... Got to tell my dead parents 'bout their grandkids at least, an' that's a chance I thought I'd lost.

— Balin Tallows, candlemaker

Symptoms

Hallucinations

After an average dose (one wafer), takers of Starlight have reported seeing illusions of other people around them. From that, there are two responses; one, the taker doesn't realize the people aren't true. They speak to the shades, engaging in conversations only they can hear, offer food, drink, and other trinkets, and have even recalled touching or making contact. The second response is that the taker realizes from the beginning that the people they see aren't real; this mostly happens with beings who have been dead for a goodly amount of time, the shortest being two months. In this case, the taker will still talk with the illusions they see, but they don't try to offer physical objects such as food or drink. Depending on the dosage taken, hallucinations can range from twenty minutes to an hour and a quarter.

Phantom Senses

After the hallucinations have disappeared, takers have described their bodies as being overly sensitive*. The order of sensitivity, from highest to lowest, is what follows for non-magical beings. Sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste. However, for any who practices magic, the order changes like so: taste, smell, touch, sight, hearing. For new takers these phantom senses take a short time (days) to go away, but for habitual takers it can take weeks and months after the last dose, and it'll never go away if they keep taking more. *this does not include beings with a direct ancestor in the last three generations who was a full-blooded dragon, drake, wyrm, serpent, or giant.

Blindness

Beings who take at least three doses during a week tend to slowly go blind. A darkness can be seen blooming in the center of their eye, a dark blue with a scattering of small white bursts (this has led to the name Stardust) that will, if partaking has not stopped, eventually cover the entire eye. Some beings have allowed this to occur and then stopped taking the drug, saying that since they can still see what they wish to, they have no reason to continue taking doses.

Death

Depending on if a being has overdosed in one sitting, has taken a badly made batch, or has been a taker for too long, the signs will vary. An overdose tends to make the body curl into a tense pose, described once by a lucky survivor as their entire body overwhelmed by everything in the universe, the being drawing in desperate breaths as their lungs stop working and shut down. A badly made batch will, in at least nine out of ten cases, freeze the body; if the batch also makes the being vomit, the taker, if unlucky, will die from lack of air. For long-term takers who have not overdosed or taken a bad batch, their eyes will turn completely black, they will recline in a way to stare upwards, and it seems as if their spirit simply leaves between one breath and another. It's not known what the turning point is that makes their body give up as different beings have varied their takes in intensity, dosage, frequency, and even in location.

Treatment

Hallucinations

No treatment is known that will erase these; in fact, the usage and symptoms of the drug lead to a belief that from the beginning, a magical component is included that prevents hallucination treatment so that the drug will always cause illusions.

Phantom Senses

Many takers have sworn that inhaling smoke and using the hot baths chase away phantom pains, but under testing this either appears to work for a very select group of beings or are merely rumours.

Blindness

If the blue has overtaken the being's natural eye color, there is no available treatment. However, if the blue is still contained to the center of the eye, then a healing salve wrapped around the inflicted eye, made by the Sisters of Mercy and to their particular recipe, can reverse some of the blindness (there has yet to be a case when the blindness was completely removed).

Death

If, by coincidence, a healer who understands the situation and has their tools with them is nearby, it's possible to save takers from overdoses and badly made batches; only a necromancer could stop death of a long-term taker and those that practice that art have been banned from Efflor for as long as I've been alive.

Prognosis

On average, a person who takes Stardust as a habit will die sooner than one who doesn't, barring death by idiocy or violence. Over time, they tend to lose the ability to distinguish between the real world and the illusionary world, but this differs immensely and needs more study.

Sequela

For those takers who continue to see hallucinations, they will have a foot half in this world and a half in another. It's common to see them arguing with the air, offering items to invisible people, and in a few rare cases trying to travel roads that are no longer in use (which lead to one accidental death by drowning).

Prevention

As this is a choice to take, prevention is up to the being holding Stardust - it's not been recorded that anyone has been forced to take it, and the few accidents known involved children who suffered no ill effects after their symptoms ceased.

History

I am a healer, not a historian - look elsewhere for histories

Cultural Reception

Most takers of Stardust are seen as souls who are looking for another world to be in and, depending on the community they are a part of, can be taken care of, ostracized, or even indulged.

The Private Journals of Healer Nain

Origin

Engineered

Rarity

Common