Edgesight

Edgesight - also known as inflection layer psychosis or, more formally, as chronospatial thought disorder (CTD) - is a psychiatric disorder believed to be caused - or promoted - by long-term exposure to the sight of the infinite. Such exposure to these sights usually occurs as a result of long-term visits to inflection layers or commissures, where the unusual geometries of the Manifold Sky allow some rays of light to travel indefinitely without intervening obstacles. Sufferers gradually lose the ability to coherently speak about spatial or cause-and-effect relations between objects or events.

Inter-Layer Coordinate System by BCGR__Wurth

Transmission & Vectors

Edgesight is not believed to be contagious, being psychiatric in origin.

Causes

A visit to an inflection layer or commissure is necessary, but not sufficient, for a patient to develop edgesigth. Most visitors to these locations are unaffected, suggesting a specific combination of environmental and congenital factors are responsible for disease progression.

by BCGR_Wurth

A generalized example of the way in which Cube layers appear to fold apart or together as the observer crosses an inflection layer. All cube edges appear to remain joined at all times, distorting the appearance of the landmasses below. Note that, in the very middle region of the inflection layer, the land 'above' and 'below' appear to distort into infinite planes, while the view along the micro-gravity plane is effectively infinite.

Symptoms

The symptoms of edgesight occur in the absence of any observable neurological damage or malformation. Though patients frequently exhibit elevated cortisol levels, it is unknown if this is connected to the disorder itself or merely a result of stress and confusion arising from the difficulties sufferers face in their social lives as a result of their condition.
Sufferers of edgesight progressively lose the ability to coherently discuss the relative locations of objects and events in time and space. The patient eventually loses the ability to properly utilize verb tenses, quantifyably tell time (e.g. use clocks and calendars), or use terms relating to physical location (e.g. left, right, up, down, front, or back). In extreme cases, while the patient retains an understanding of the concept of property, they also lose the ability to use possessives; as Iuxat discusses locations as though they posess objects located within them, this symptom most commonly manifests in Rostran patients. While patients do not forget the words associated with these concepts, they can no longer use them in the right context and tend to pick one at random from the appropriate class of words; for example, asking a patient "What did you do today?" after a shopping trip might elicit a response of "I will going at the store I will went from on the left, I buy groceries. I get the rock-top priced. What will you did today?"
This disorganization in speech and thought lacks the problems of verbal comprehension and meaning associated with aphasic disorders and lacks the word salad, disordered connections between concepts, and dissociative qualities of other thought disorders. Sufferers can sometimes come across as prophetic and are more prone to religious thinking than their usual demographic cohort, though this is seldom accompanied with the delusions or conspiratorial thinking assoicated with schizoid disorders.
Because patients are aware that something is wrong with the way they speak and think, the often become highly distressed as the disease progresses. Edgesight has significant comorbidity with depression, anxiety, and (in rare cases) folded hands syndrome. Furthermore, as this inability to correctly sort notions of time and space even effects one's own inner monologue, patients become easily confused when forced to recon with such concepts (i.e. by attempting to navigate an unfamiliar town).

Treatment

Until the advent of psychotropic drugs in the 9950's AR, there was little that could be done for patients with edgesight. Navigators and pilots who developed edgesight were removed from their duties and placed in psychological treatment programs for comorbid depression and anxiety stemming from the disorder's effects, as being unable to follow directions or act according to a schedule renders one unfit for these jobs. Some patients were eventually able to reclaim some use of chronological and spatial terms through extensive speech therapy, though most never fully recovered.
As of the year 10,000 AR, however, certain psychotropic drugs have been demonstrated to help restore a degree of order in patients' speech and thought patterns. Those undergoing such pharmaceutical treatments still show idiosyncratic ways of speaking, but to a much lesser degree than they would have without assistance. The Ghostleaf Foundation, in collaboration with Cloudgate Asylum, originally developed these drugs for dealing with other forms of psychosis and has developed new extended-release formulations specifically for the long-term outpatient treatment of edgesight.

by BCGR_Wurth

Prognosis

As of yet, there is no cure for edgesight. Patients who develop edgesight will typically suffer with the disorder for the remainder of their natural lives, though treatment has the potential to restore some function.

Epidemiology

Sufferers are believed to have some genetic predisposition to edgesight, as most crew aboard airships, skystations, and skymoths see the infinite distances of the inflection layers on a regular basis without contracting edgesight.
Blind people appear to be immune to developing edgesight, suggesting that there may be some sort of visual aspect of inflection layers which sparks the progression into the diseased state. Ovinex appear to be unaffected by edgesight in any event. Verdials also appear to either be immune to the disorder or have a high resistance; on the other hand, it may be that folded hands syndrome, being a culture-bound syndrome, might be a uniquely Vale Verdial or Forgist manifestation of similar disordered reactions to witnessing the unusual geometries of the Manifold Sky firsthand.

Cultural Reception

In popular culture - if not in scientific circles - edgesight is regarded as a possible hazard of seeing into the Celestial Realms. Cosmic horror novels and films portray edgesight as a madness borne from witnessing the mind-bending reality which lies beyond even a five-dimensional space.

Type

Neurological

Origin

Alien

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Rare

Affected Species

• Rostran
• Human