True Insanity

True Insanity is an often whispered about disease, afflicting people unasked for, undesired. For most forms of insanity, a little rest and natural remediation will- for the most part- cure the diagnosed, but True Insanity is incurable. The horrors of True Insanity are not fully understood, due to the fact that none have ever overcome it, but the piercing screams and horrific writhing of the affected in many of their phases leave no doubt in observers that True Insanity must be hell on earth.

Symptoms

The different symptoms of True Insanity come and go like the years in a Cycle, 8 phases which are gone through every day, except when the Doom hangs in the air; during Doom Years, only the eighth and arguably worst phase afflicts a True Insane.
Phase One: This is the phase most like normal insanity, and many True Insane have been mistaken as normal lunatics for the few hours of the day in which this phase afflicts them.

• Hallucinations: The victim experiences hallucinations of people not there, or sees people there as others.
• Gibberish: The victim shouts and mutters words of many meanings, in no order which makes any sense to observers.
• Convulsions: The victim convulses at random intervals, but the convulsions are usually preceded by a few moments of quieter mutterings.

Phase Two: Often called the Phase of Survival, this phase allows observers to tend to the True Insane.

• Frozen Body: The victim falls to the ground, back down, mouth open, the entire body immobile for the duration of the phase, except for breathing and swallowing.
• Final Feeding: In the last few minutes of this phase, should the victim not have been tended to, they will gasp and the nearest living person to the True Insane will fall dead, their life force entering into the True Insane and sustaining it for 100 cycles of these phases, though the number of cycles varies depending on the age and general health of the person whose life force was stolen.

Phase Three: Known as the phase of Laughter, the True Insane will spend this phase cackling hideously at the world around them, at the people they see, and at things they themselves make up.

• Cackling: The victim will laugh at every movement made in their presence, even laughing at themselves should they be positioned in front of a mirror.
• Wheeze: The victim will gasp and wheeze horribly after each bout of laughter, obviously in pain and desperate to stop, yet they cannot.

Phase Four: Dubbed the phase of Screams, the True Insane is destined to writhe in agony and scream in fear throughout this phase. This phase has been known to drive to insanity observers of the True Insane.

• Writhing: The victim will squirm and seize continuously throughout this phase.
• Screaming: The victim will screech in utter agony and yell out incomprehensible yet still terrifying phrases.

Phase Five: The phase of Plague, the True Insane will experience a variety of hallucinations which seem to play off their phobias, and they react accordingly.

• Hallucinations: Examples of what the victim will experience include:
  • Millions of bugs crawling on them, into their orifices, and underneath their skin
  • Falling into the sky
  • Being burned/buried alive
  • Being alone in the darkness for what appears to feel like years

Phase Six: Sometimes titled the Phase of Sight, the True Insane while in this stage will chant and hum, sometimes telling ominous prophecies, and sometimes speaking of (and- reportedly- to) people long dead, with knowledge only someone who knew them could have.

• Mobile: The victim will move swiftly in this phase, and any restraints which touch their body seem to cause them searing pain.
• Hallucinations: It is still debated whether the victim is actually seeing into the Realm of the Beyond or is simply hallucinating, but- either way- they see things which observers do not.

Phase Seven: Like the calm before the storm, this phase seems almost normal relative to the others, in which the True Insane sits mostly still, and even appears to regain some lucidity for a short while.

• Small Pose: The victim enters a small bodily position, such as curling into a ball or sitting cross legged, and remains this way for the entirety of the phase.
• Twitching Extremities: The toes and fingers of the victim will twitch and curl uncontrollably, sometimes freezing in unnatural positions.
• Lucid Actions: The victim may focus their eyes and perhaps quietly plea with any present observers for food and water, or remedies to their cramping fingers and toes. The victim will usually have only one or two requests repeated throughout this phase (though as many as six have been counted), and fulfilling the requests will not end the please. The victims do not respond to questions, and may only focus on a few of the present observers. It is advised not to feed or water the True Insane in this phase, as they expel it before entering the eighth phase, but providing the items in the next second phase is a common practice for those who pity the victim.

Phase Eight: This phase is the most dreaded by those who must watch a True Insane.

• Loud Silence: The victim does not utter a sound from its mouth, but everyone within ten arms of it can hear the victim's insides working- heart thumping, bowels slurping, blood flowing. Between ten and fifty arms from the victim, a loud ringing sounds in the ears of observers, but fades away when the observer averts their gaze from the True Insane or moves more than fifty arms away.
• Shiver-Lashes: The victim does not move beyond vague shivers, but these shivers can cause lashes of stone-air to roll out from the victim, like rings in a pond moving away from a rock dropped in. These Shiver-Lashes can break many types of materials, including some stones (though not all), and have been known to shake the foundations of buildings so badly that it collapses.
• Body of Water: The victim becomes like water, difficult to grasp and especially heavy should some device (such as a blanket) be used to lift them. Victims looking to weigh no more than fifteen stones have been said to require two men on each end of a stretcher to lift and transport when in the eighth phase of True Insanity.

Treatment

The only treatment available is seclusion and care during the Phase of Survival- for the sake of others, anyone who knows a True Insane is asked to notify authorities so they can be brought to a proper treatment center, where minimal lives will be at risk.

Type

Mental

Origin

Magical

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Extremely Rare

Affected Species

• Zweissen
• Candyonen
• Sypen