Censoring Ophthalmia

WARNING: This article contains discussion and description of medical trauma, burning, and eye gore. Skip the 'symptoms' section at minimum if these affect you.

Some things aren't meant to be read by mortal eyes.

— horrified cleric

Scholars of the unknown, especially those dedicated to ancient and esoteric religions, must be ever so careful with what they see. Sight is a virtue, not a right - and one easy to lose by the smallest of mistakes. Censoring ophthalmia, known colloquially as the Censor's Burn, is a horrific condition that strikes those who dive too deeply into eldritch tomes and trigger ancient protections that spare their mind at the cost of their sight.
The condition is violent and gruesome, and cannot be cured by any measure once it has begun. However, it is never fatal on its own - this is the devastating illness's most vital facet, in fact. Those that survive the torturous experience with their minds still intact find that, when the screaming has stopped and the gore has been cleaned away, the world seems different to them. Though they can never regain their sight by any means short of deific intervention, they can yet explore the world through new senses that open to them.
But they must be wary. The Censor's Burn may only sweep through them once, shielding them once from what lies beyond. If they are again exposed to the Burn's triggers, they will have no defence to the truly terrible entities that exist somewhere beyond comprehension. Then, they may regret the Burn's mercy.

Causes

I have read too much, and seen what should not have been seen. Yet it was not until that final page that my eyes themselves began to burn...

— penitent heretic

There is but one cause of the censor's burn, of censoring ophthalmia. Istralar, and indeed many other worlds within the multiverse, is plagued with a wealth of information that it is genuinely hazardous to learn. Cognitohazards, these pieces of literature are known. Despite their illicit and devastating nature, they make their way into mortal populations.

Forbidden Library by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

Some of these books, of these fragments of unknown terror, are minor in their ramifications. They cause mental terrors and summon foul demons, or localised troubles in the world. Some are greater secrets, revealing the very whispers shared between gods themselves.
Then there are those that inspire the censoring flame to erupt from its distant censer: whispers of the most eldritch beings to lurk in the multiverse. Whispers of knowledge that burns as it is spoken, of information that sows cracks into the world as it is spread. Dangerous information on a level watched for with fear by gods and other magical entities on their level. Information that cannot be allowed to ferment or seep into the world for fear of the ruin it may bring.
It is these powerful entities that may breach the gods' pact of non-interference for one crucial task: to prevent any who come close to these truths from ever being able to endanger their world. Then, or ever again.

The flame that burns is theirs, sent from the Outer Sphere in hasty defence. It is the censoring flame, the fire that erupts from the Divine Censer, and it does not cease in its endless task.

Symptoms

Gods, grant them mercy from this hell they have brought upon themselves...

— whispering cleric

The most obvious and immediate effect of censoring ophthalmia is what happens to the eyes. They spark with inner heat as a first warning, and if not immediately heeded, then the heat bursts into outright flame that consumes all vision. Like wax in a candle, the screaming scholar's eyeballs are first to melt from their skull, never to be replaced. The flame lingers there in their eyes, searing itself into their skull in painful, bloody letters of warning in every script the individual knows.

The flame does not stop there. It consumes the individual's entire body, inside and out, leaving behind warnings in messages that grow ever less coherent or intelligible, slipping into languages unspoken by any living being. Each one is etched slowly, from then, the agony prolongued. The flame cauterises as it goes, leaving little opportunity for infection at first.
When finally the flame dies, it leaves the individual bereft of any flammable item or clothing on their body, forever scarred by the inscribing flames. Worse, too, is the gift any spellcaster will find in the following days as their agonising recovery begins. Their magic remains tainted, every spell now resembling the flame that took them, or crackling with strange black energy.
The flame is not all that lingers. In the blind eyes of the afflicted, whispered into their mind as the little they can see, lie fragments of knowledge. Haunting visions of a world they can no longer see and whispers of text that they cannot understand linger at the edge of their consciousness, manifesting especially heavily in their sleep. Interfering in dreams, and twisting nightmares.

Flame's Marks by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

The dreadful weight of knowledge presses down on them as a curse, as a burden they will never be able to lift. Their will, too, is eroded, staying forever weaker than before.
Rumour has it, though, that not all of the consequences may entirely be negative...

Treatment

We have not earned mercy.

— heretic

No treatments are effective in healing the condition, but healing magics may at least offer some relief from the pain wrought and assist in repairing the mental strain of such a terrible, twisted condition. Mages are advised to be extremely careful when offering healing to one affected by censoring ophthalmia, as the entities that cause it may yet decide to spread it to others in close proximity to or providing aid to the afflicted individual, as a method of precaution.
After all, no price is too steep to offer up in defence of what lies beyond.

Victim of the Flames by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

Type

Magical

Origin

Divine

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Extremely Rare

Benefits of Censorship

It is said that those who are condemned by the censoring flame of the Divine Censer are left bereft of hope and abandoned by all that would care, but this is only applicable to mortals.
Indeed, divine servants often manifest for those who have been censored to grant them aid and advice, protecting them in a world most unsuited for those rendered blind and defenceless.
Some who choose to depart the Material Plane early, overwhelmed by the condition, are carried with surprising gentleness to the gods they have spent years serving, by writ of Death herself, so that they may find rest in the care of those who will shield their mortal soul from entities that would seek to corrupt it.
Others find themselves learning new abilities. New secrets, ones they must keep safe. Ones that offer them greater ability to exist in the world past their corruption.
Indeed, to be consumed by censoring fire is one potential method of obtaining the most rare and new of magics: Psychic Magic, that which exists beyond common understanding. The individuals that have had this rare boon manifest for them are generally those who will become psychics, not mediums or spiritualists.
After all, spirits do not find it comfortable to dwell in the minds of those already filled with whispers unknown to them.

Censoring Flames by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

The flames don't stop at your body, they consume all around you... they are normal flames, then, but fire burns with its own destruction.

— victim