The Curse of Artemisia

As could easily be expected, the cataclysm's sudden upending of everything took a toll on people's mental and emotional health. It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that a number of Artemisians have developed a superstitious belief in a curse that is haunting their world.

Summary

There is a general feeling amongst Artemisia's population that things are a lot worse than they used to be, which is objectively accurate for the vast majority of its inhabitants. Some have seen situations where the lousiest people are ending up in charge in their areas, and are making the lousiest decisions, from just disastrously inept to outrageously malicious--far more malicious than the average person would have imagined real people would be, or any of their fellow citizens would root for.

Many have lost friends or family in the wake of the cataclysm, some directly to the void, others to the near total lack of communication now possible between Artemisia's fragments.

Accidents are happening more, everything from traffic mishaps to injuries, and people with chronic illnesses report that they are having particularly bad flare-ups.

Then there is the way that so many people are becoming the worst versions of themselves, like the only thing keeping them better was that they couldn't get away with being worse in the old Artemisia.

Everything just keeps snowballing into worst-case scenarios, almost like anything that can go wrong is now somehow much more likely to than it had been previously. Hence many Artemisians deciding that there is clearly a curse weighing down on the world's fortunes, and twisting its people towards ugliness and evil.

Historical Basis

Stories about the curse vary from place to place, but a common belief is that the psions cast it on Artemisia when its government killed them. At the time, everyone was already shaken by the cataclysm and the rapidly waning communications between islands. They were, frankly, in no mood for one of the last broadcasts to come through from the mainland to be the gory execution of some psions who still looked unnervingly like people. Who also mostly reacted like people to what under any other circumstances would have been considered backwards and unnecessarily cruel executions.

Most people try not to think about it too much, or to allow themselves to closely examine why they had voted for some of the people who had proved capable of cold-blooded killing. Though there are some truly vicious citizens who felt that the psions got what they deserved, thank you very much, a few people had doubts and misgivings, particularly about this sudden swing towards extreme measures by what was usually a fairly civic-minded government. A lot were decent enough to just not be happy about what they saw happen, and the fact that they were expected to watch it.

In the end, many framed it to themselves in terms of the government having protected the public the same way they would have by dismantling a dangerous power source, or shutting down a deeply polluting factory. However, some sociologists posit that the belief that the psions cursed Artemisia is an unconscious expression of collective guilt over their widely seen, graphic executions.

Spread

Interestingly, belief in this curse is found in people throughout the islands and mainland of Artemisia. The sociologically-minded in the Fleet suggest that perhaps it spread very early, before communication between islands sank into non-functionality.

It is particularly prevalent in Artemisia's telepath population and in people whose jobs involve considerable danger, like the police and those involved in criminal organizations. Oddly, a few intellectuals who have mapped out measurable occurrences like accidents and murders say that the numbers are way up, so something is likely happening, though many attribute the trends to social upheaval in the wake of the cataclysm.

Variations & Mutation

Variant versions of the story attribute the curse to the teller's preferred deity. Just about any religion that involves an end to the world has had some of its adherents claim that life in the wake of the cataclysm is their equivalent of the end times.

Some versions alternatively attribute the curse to Artemisia's ancestral dead, who they hold must have been angered by something that the world's inhabitants did.

Amongst those who tell the most widely accepted version of the story, some hold that the curse was laid on Artemisia by the psions just before their deaths. One psion in particular had, at his execution, furiously and rather creepily stated that he was cursing everyone down to the last child for what was happening to him. However, other tellers of the tale have an even creepier explanation, that the psions' ghosts are actively interfering in the world's affairs, and that they are actually present at the scene of serious accidents, torture, and murder. Some claim that people can glimpse them with the naked eye, while others say that tiny, wearable instruments can indicate their presence and produce a signal that drives them off. In fairness, that's mostly said by people who want to sell someone a tiny, wearable instrument, so make of that what you will.

Cultural Reception

Even people who do not believe in an actual, supernatural curse afflicting Artemisia do agree that things have been really, really bad lately. Everyone feels cursed, whether or not it's the case, and it's not uncommon for people to say wryly, "Whelp, the curse strikes again," when something terrible happens, to express a shrugging, "well, what are you gonna do?" kind of solidarity.

Related links:

For an overview of the effects of the cataclysm: Artemisia's Fractured Reality

For the story of how the psions developed in the first place: Psionics Potential