Whispering Madness

Content Warning: Mental Illness & Suicide

Sadly, there is little we can do about this condition. We can try to quiet the voices with medicine and magic, or we can try to lessen the pain, but there is no cure we can provide. We can try to guide an individual through meditation on their way to learn to live with this condition, but in the end, everyone has to figure out a way to handle this condition themselves.

— Allesandra - Healer and High Priest of Tria

Whispering Madness is an illness that often afflicts travelers and sailors in the region around the Whispering Fields. When people spent too much time in or around the fields, the ambient magic of the place, and the constant presence of the whispers find their way into the mind and soul of an individual. In some rare cases, this illness also affected people spending a lot of time around heavily infected patients.

Origin & Symptoms

It's unclear what exactly causes the illness, but many people believe that it is the direct result of the mortal mind trying to understand something way beyond their comprehension. The Whispering Fields are the remnants of the last battle of the War for Dawn. An ancient battleground, where the laws of nature don't seem to work as they should. It's a place where the realms of mortals, gods and the dead seem to collide, and this is more than the mortal mind can take.
The most common symptoms include strong head aches, delusions, confusion, hallucinations and anxiety. Nearly all patients report hearing voices in their heads constantly, some clearly understandable, others only a faint whisper in a foreign language. In some cases, the individual even starts talking in languages previously unknown to them, or even languages that have been completely lost to time. These symptoms often start slowly and become worse over multiple months or even years. In the final stages of this decease, many lose control over their own emotions, and sometimes even kill others or themselves in an outburst of anger or sadness.

Treatment & Therapy

There is no known permanent treatment for this condition, neither through medicine nor magic. Many people tried many different treatments, from tinctures, over magic, even all the way to brain surgery, but so far, all of these experiments failed without even a glimmer of hope.
While healing seems impossible, there are treatments that can reduce the symptoms and sometimes even allow the patient to live a mostly normal life. Psychedelic drugs, like the Ambrosia Fungi can be used to lessen the impact of the voices the patient hears and painkillers are used to treat the physical symptoms. Even then, the individual usually has to stay in the care of a healer watching their condition.
The Star Seekers found great success in treating this condition with drugs and therapy. Through meditation and counseling sessions, they can guide their episodes and offer coping strategies to manage their delusions and hallucinations. Keeping individuals far away from magic also has seen some success in handling the condition.

Work in Progress

This article is still heavily WIP and can change at any moment

External Copyright

This article is covered by external copyright, and therefor not publicly visible.

Type

Mental

Origin

Magical

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired