Mana Stagnation

"Do you feel that? That burning sensation deep in your core? That crushing weight on your chest? That fullness in your lungs making it so difficult to draw a breath? It will only get worse." - King Gyrmandus

Mana stagnation or mana freeze is used to describe the phenomina of one's flow of natural elemental energies coming to a halt within the body. Like pool of water, without the flow of energy moving, the energies go stagnant and begin to fester with impurities.

Causes

Mana stagnation results from over consumption of magic enhancing stimulants and certain poisons. It is not known to occur naturally.

Symptoms

At the onset of symptoms, very little may seem amiss. Some tingling and numbness in fingers and toes may occur. Magic may begin to fail randomly or go haywire. Over time, this progresses to a burning sensation that radiates up the limbs, magic fails or goes haywire more often. Eventually this spreads to the torso, where the mage can no longer cast magic at all. Advanced cases report the sensation of drowning, feelings of inability to draw in breath, heavy limbs, weight on the chest, intense pain in the organs, inability to eliminate waste, dry mouth, and audio/visual hallucinations. Left untreated, the body may begin to rot while the victim is still alive, ultimately resulting in death.

Treatment

Treatment for this condition is rare, often not administered until it is later in the progression. Primary treatment is to restore the flow of energy, artificially through magical stimulation means such as healing, or by treating the underlying cause of the stagnation with medicines if diagnosed early enough. Treatment is usually very aggressive and expensive when discovered at later stages, requiring the constant work of healers to clear out the stagnant energies.

Prognosis

When caught early enough, the victim recovers normally. As things progress further, the likelihood of survival plummets. Once the severe conditions begin to set in, it is more difficult to survive. There is no chance of survival once the decay begins to occur.

Sequela

Recorded long term complications when caught early on include permanent tingling, numbness, or burning sensations in the limbs.
Severe symptom survivors report experiencing severe fevers, stiffness in the joints, hydrophobia, difficulty breathing, loss of stamina, loss of motor function, paraplegia, quadriplegia, and loss of one or more senses, and permanent magic loss.

Origin

Magical

Rarity

Extremely Rare