Breath Phantoms
If you ever see a face in the dark blue Breath Flow. Stay away from it. The Mental battle against an unknown consciousness can cost you your own identity.
I would rather die shredded by the teeth of some vile beast than lose myself.-Noer Kraiglius, Breath Flow user
Description
An Echo, afterimage, or entire lost consciousness of people affected by Breath Flow.The Breath Phantoms are formless beings, residing within the Breath Flow itself. Blind to anything and everything outside the Breath Flow they inhabit. Their only purpose is to find a physical body to inhabit once again. Finding them is close to impossible, as the Breath Flow itself can be invisible in smaller concentrations. It requires at least twice the concentration needed for Flow to become visible to force any Phantom to appear within it.
When the Phantom appears, it assumes a form of a face within the Breath Flow. This face is similar to how the consciousness perceives itself. The quality of the face shows how eroded the consciousness is.
Creation and existence
Breath Phantom is created within the Flow every time a living conscious being is stripped of its consciousness in one of the following ways.The body enters a coma when consciousness gets separated from the body and becomes the Breath Phantom. This coma last until consciousness returns, or the body dies due to starvation or dehydration.
In order for consciousness to return, the Breath Flow which contains it needs to get in contact with the body again.
If the Phantom does not return to its body, it will become lost until the Flow hosting it stumbles upon a new one, until it becomes the prey of some monsters scouting the Breath Flow, or until it gets absorbed by different consciousness. Breath Phantoms with greater resolve and a sense of identity can absorb weaker consciousness. Thanks to this, they can strengthen themselves in various ways. But this absorption means they take into themselves the identity and knowledge of the absorbed one.
This increase in conflict of identity increases the speed at which the original consciousness erodes. This erosion affects the consistency of thoughts, dreams, identity, and knowledge of consciousness. The more eroded the Breath Phantom is, the lesser is the chance that the person that faces it loses their own identity. This erosion however increases the chance of various psychosis or other mental issues. Occasionally, several Breath Phantoms with high resolve, but a very eroded sense of identity collide.
When this happens, there is a small chance the Breath Phantoms will loop in their attempts to absorb each other and instead create a Coagulate of Phantoms.
This combined mass of consciousness possesses enough mental power to influence the Breath Flow they inhabit.
Dangers to Raiders
The only way to find out the presence of Breath Phantom in time is when the Breath Flow is visible and the Raiders increase its concentration even further.An individual consciousness lacks the mental power to influence the Flow, so once the Phantom is detected, avoiding physical contact or breathing the Breath Flow hosting the Phantom is enough to ensure safety. If the Breath Flow hosting the Phantom is breathed in or gets into physical contact with a person for a few seconds time, the consciousness making the Phantom will enter the body and attempt to take over its control.
This results in an internal mental battle, during which the original consciousness either assimilates or completely rejects and forgets the intruding one. The same can happen to the original consciousness should the Phantom become superior. Eroded Phantoms lack enough identity to overwrite the original consciousness. Instead, they imprint themselves into the subconsciousness of the original person.
Raiders occasionally report that they dreamt about being in a body of a wild animal or a beast. This is often hinting that they encountered a heavily eroded Breath Phantom of the said beast, and their subconscious processed the imprinted Phantom. The Coagulate of Phantoms is a different story. Possessing enough mental power to influence the Breath Flow they inhabit, they can change direction towards anything they consider a suitable body.
Unfortunately, the sheer mass of fragments of identities, memories, knowledge, and voices with such high resolve to survive is too much to absorb. Encounters with Coagulate of Phantoms often result in the consciousness joining the mass because the body can not take it all and dies in the process.
The only reason Breath Flow is still usable and not full of such coagulates is because Corruption either destroy them when the Breath Flow crystallized or the Coagulate of Phantoms changes into something monstrous.
What the Coagulate of Phantoms changes into when it encounters Corruption depends on the identities inside it.
Usefulness
Albeit extremely dangerous, the assimilation of Breath Phantom means that the original consciousness absorbs everything the Phantom remembered and knew.Some Raiders became known for developing extreme mental strength. These do not shy away from hunting the Phantoms and absorbing their knowledge and skills. The side effect of this is, that the Phantom also remembered its time inside the Breath Flow. Which can be a traumatic experience for some Raiders. This is the most common reason the Phantoms get rejected and mostly forgotten.
Breath Phantom by Firel Dakuraito via MidJourney
Details card
Class: Metaphysical
Element: Breath
Material: None
Region: Flow Dimension; Breath Flow
Kind of damage: Mental Erosion; Possession;
Danger: Severe
Usage:
Information and knowledge;
Hindering of specific targets;
Target priority:
Can not be ignored once detected inside Breath Flow.
Breath Phantom absorbing another. by Firel Dakuraito via MidJourney
Coagulate of Phantoms by Firel Dakuraito via Midjourney
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