Manaesia (Mah-nae-si-ah)

Summary

A magical complication between the natural body and mana. Manaesia results when a body is saturated in mana concentrations greater than it has the ability to process or avoid taking in. Similar to water filling a bladder, the mana saturates the body until critical failure occurs. How this failure progresses differs dramatically: the type of person, the type of mana, the environment around them, and so on. Mild manaesia over many decades can result in slight imbalances, such as unstable stamina and mental acuity. More serious manaesia begins manifesting physiological changes, like parts of the body becoming unnaturally hot, or solidifying into rock. To envision the difference between manaesia and magical attacks, consider the following. If one is constantly sitting at an angle, their spine will put pressure unnaturally on one side. Eventually, over the years the gel-discs between verberate and the bone will begin to warp from this imbalance. By the time chronic pain and physical damage results, the imbalance is at an advanced stage. Manaesia is the mana-equivalent of this, and so the body must be 'imbalanced' for prolong periods of time. Being exposed to extremely short bursts of intense mana, like magical attacks, will be more of a problem because it is an attack. That is, getting burned alive by fire magic is a bigger issue than the body being slightly imbalanced. Across Veltrona and the universe at large, mana is omnipresent, all life has evolved, created, or manifested alongside it. This is equivalent to complex life, such as people, having bodies capable of enduring gravity's constant influence. While gravity is dictated chiefly by mass, mana is much more volatile, and can be influenced by countless factors. Life has just as many mechanisms for handling these fluctations, and so there is often not much of an issue. However, life is not perfect. To frame it in another context, manaesia is why beings with extreme mana, like dragons, have issues being around other species. If they do not control their mana, the resulting manaesia will start to cause everyone else problems. Similarly, those gifted with unusually high mana concentrations would induce the same issues within their own species. Because of this, all sorts of primitive biases came about, and a gift of high mana was seen as a curse for everyone else. Such individuals became ostracized usually, but other societies found early ways of handling the excess mana. It could be said, as a result of manaesia, many early forming civilizations adopted ritualistic mannerisms surrounding mana handling. For example, cultivating plants with high mana absorption behavior in a living space would negate excess mana while similarly providing for the plant and its harvest. In a round about way, this helped to engender study into mana and magic. Thus, while the physical reality around manaesia remains the same, people have long since adapted to handling this fundamental issue. It is not unlike discovering how to regularly purify water for direct consumption, rather than processing it into mild alcohol. Incidentally, this makes beings with different levels of mana somewhat interesting in cohabitation. It became a form of ancient cultural exchange, as those who could live with 'higher mana species' may have migrated over to them. So it would be one person's curse was another's blessing, and the world ever went on. It is note worthy that of all kinds of mana that exists, pure mana does not induce manaesia. No matter how much one is exposed to pure mana, their body will find natural harmony with it. However, if they are extremely saturated by pure mana that then becomes aspected for some reason, the usual problems will result. In the worst cases they will go from 'okay' to violently exploding from all the pure mana suddenly aspecting.

Causes

Three problems need to intersect for manaesia to emerge: mana saturation, inadequate mana processing, and time spent exposed. Mana saturation is simply the amount of mana being concentrated in a given area. It is best to think of this as 'unnatural amounts of mana being concentrated', such as someone using magic. Beings like dragons are in perfect harmony with their mana quantity. However, if they were to go into a mana-storm or similar area, they would start to oversaturate with mana. Inadequate mana processing revolves around how one deals with mana saturation. Mages casting magic often have the flow of mana controlled, and directed in specific ways. Thus, despite the saturation being high, they are not in the direct flow and so 'skirt by'. However, as excess mana gathers around them, they still need to regulate how it interacts with their bodies. As another example, going through a mana-storm entails enduring the wild amounts of mana. Regardless of how the mana is handled, if they fail to do so, then the third problem activates. Time spent exposed to too much mana one cannot handle begins to physically affect their body. The severity of saturation and inadequacy of processing influence how much time exposed matters. Spending a little bit of time barely going over one's limits is not difficult to address or pull back from. Spending a lot of time exposed to barely going over will stress the body, and it will try to adapt to deal with that stress. Briefly being exposed to catastrophic amounts and it will simply destroy them outright. The last of these is simply magical combat, mindfully, or similar events. As a disease, manaesia is often found in a long-term context.

Symptoms

Unfortunately, manaesia is a problem to diagnose correctly in much of its early stages. The longer a body remains in a state of manaesia, the more it will try to compensate (willfully or not). The stress of doing this causes all sorts of physiological symptoms, all of which can be confused for other problems. Many doctors took these as the root cause, treated them, and the patient still deteoriated. It is this insidious, invisible nature that earned manaesia the early nickname of the 'ghost killer'. Moderate to advanced manaesia is far more distinct. The body begins changing under the influence of the mana, adopting traits closer to its aspected nature. A rough example would be:

Veltron mana will make them become rocky, sandy, dirty, and so on.
Water can bloat the body, partially liquify areas that remain 'functional'.
Fire rapidly raises internal temperatures and can 'magmafy' parts of the body, which starts cooking the areas around them.
Wind starts to disperse body mass and induce physical fragility.
Radiant calcifies flesh like a burning fire and can be hard to distinguish from veltron and fire.
Eclipse warps the physical rules of the body, distorting, stretching, crushing, or squeezing it in ways that might be confused for water or wind.

Not to mention the other types that might be encountered.

Treatment

Removal of, or from the area with, the saturated mana is paramount. It is much easier to move someone away (or shield) from that issue than it is to encourage their bodies to process mana better. While various drugs, spells, and other outside aides can help, few can be substitutes for a body's natural mechanisms. Some, however, rely on mana saturation to achieve an end, an issue mages and cultivators frequently run into. Otherwise, it is a matter of restoring the body's natural harmony. The exact treatment from there on depends on the severity of manaesia, the type of mana, and the type of person.

Prognosis

Mild manaesia can be handled quite easily once identified, though it may involve lifestyle changes to do so. At the stage of physical changes, immediate medical attention and extensive therapy is required. The body must be coaxed back into a harmonious state, and the changes unmade, removed, or healed in some manner. Physical symptoms compound the manaesia imbalance, and by the time they are visible, the person will rapidly begin falling apart.

Prevention

Magical wards, mana controlling attires and materials, and anything else that can handle the three simple issues of manaesia. Life, as a whole, is resilient to being exposed to all kinds of mana at varying intensities. However, any defenses against this 'excess mana' will make it that much easier to endure the volatility that follows. It helps that 'mana responsibility' became a norm in the magical communities of Veltrona, or manaesia might be far more regular and serious problem.

Type

Magical

Origin