Ousiaphage
Those of psychic sensitivity who feed off the psychic energy of the people around them.
Causes
Ousiaphagia or psychic vampirism is a mutated form of psychic sensitivity which allows the ousiaphage to "feed" off the heightened emotional state of another person. This generates an emotional or psychological "high" for the phage that is often addictive.
Symptoms
Ousiaphagia manifests around puberty as a general sense of malaise and restlessness which drives the budding phage to seek out someone with unshielded, heightened emotions. The act of feeding is automatic at this stage, frequently resulting in the husking of a phage's first victim. As phages mature, they gain control over their abilities and most learn to "sip" emotional energy from others without being noticed or affecting the victim. An ousiaphage who does not feed on others for an extended period of time tends to become restless and agitated, subject to unpredictable mood swings and violent outbursts. Sipping from a crowd usually maintains an ousiaphage for 2-3 days, depending on how agitated the crowd was and how many people the phage fed from.
Prognosis
Some ousiaphages master the act of consuming and converting the energy of others into their own energy, effectively extending their lifespans. The conversion diminishes the potency of the energy by an approximate ratio of 10:1. At best estimates, for every ten years a phage steals from a victim, they gain a year to their own natural lifespans.
Sequela
Related to ousiaphagia is the state of being a thrall, or slave of a phage. In some cases, ousiaphages will decide to completely drain all emotional energy from a thrall, known as "husking" a thrall or leaving a husk.
Possibly related to hags? Do extremely long-lived ousiaphages eventually lose their humanity and develop into hags? It would explain the feeding process, the differences between hags and manananggal and how they can still reproduce. All speculation, so who knows? ~John, 1990
Comments