Ley-Line Frenzy

Causes

People became able to draw ever-deeper on the Ley-Lines and grew innately more powerful. Thus, the child mortality rate started skyrocketing around 220 AC, when newborns started showing strong magical capabilities they had no control over, leading them to draw more magical energy from the Ley-Lines than they could handle.

Symptoms

Drawing on more magical energy than the body can handle leads to fever-like symptoms, causing the body to painfully burn up from the inside. Nerves fray, blood starts boiling, flesh and organs end up cooked.

Treatment

Those affected are usually too young to know what they're doing, making it impossible to explain to them how to safely release the excess magical energy. This makes treatment virtually impossibly.

Prognosis

The most common result of Ley-Line Frenzy is death. Unless the afflicted person finds a way to safely release the excess magical energy, they will die in a matter of hours, sometimes even minutes, depending on the amount of energy drawn upon. There have been a few recorded cases where the afflicted drew on insurmountable amounts of Ley-Line energy, effectively causing an explosive, magical, spontaneous combustion with devastating destructive power.

Prevention

As a temporary solution and last-ditch effort to prevent even more children from dying, the Tearing ritual was created. This ritual permanently severs a person's connection to the ley-Lines, leaving them unable to draw on their power.
Eventually, the people of the Age of Discovery mastered the art of siphoning the Ley-Line energy a person is holding into Ley-Line Crystals. For many decades, it was common practice to have children wear a necklace with a Ley-Line Crystal enchanted to siphon the magical energy of the wearer and safely release it back into the atmosphere until they could be taught to control their connection to the Ley-Lines.

Type

Magical

Origin

Magical

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity:
Used to be common, extremely rare nowadays