Tenelithropy

A condition feared by many

Tenelithropy is a condition which affects very few people around Dysvoll. It causes the infected person to show much outwards aggression, especially in the night hours and is known to drive the affected person to commit heinous crimes.
The illness is chronic and is caused by remnants of Dark Entities bound to the person, embedded in their very being.

The Dark Tide

The illness is commonly referred to as the dark tide. This is due to one of the most common symptoms, which is a black stain starting at the fingertips. The stain could, to some who don't know anything about the illness, look like ink-stained fingertips; almost as if someone dropped something in their inkpot and had to fish it out.

Nightly Transformation

People affected by tenelithropy are referred to as night-maulers or the black-clawed. The black colouring slowly creeps further and further up the arms throughout the evening hours until their entire body is covered. Along with the change in colour, the slow wave-like transformation brings along other features too, which can vary slightly depending on what sort of Dark Entity the person has remnants of bound to them.

Symptoms

• Rage, irritability and altered behaviour
• Murderous tendencies
• Claws, also stained black. Both on hands and feet
• Black stain, spreads during the night
• Larger physique, sometimes hunched shoulders and longer arms
• Scales on some parts of the body, few have scales all over
• Black or yellow irises
• Sharper teeth or obvious fangs
• Larger bat-like ears
• Black hair

The black-clawed are wicked creatures who disguise themselves as humans during the day.
However, at night, when the dark entities are known to be their strongest, they reveal themselves and kill anyone in their way.
These horrendous things are known to do the bidding of Spell-casters, who are evildoers of the highest-ranking.
The black-clawed mindlessly follow their bidding, and so the magic users are the true evil in this world.

— citizen of Olinthis

Terrors of the Night

People affected by Tenelithropy are hated by most who know of their existence. A few pity them, but the general consensus is that they are evil and only bring destruction wherever they go.
The hatred comes from the fact that many towns all over Dysvoll have had cases of black-clawed wreaking havoc in their local community and leaving destruction and corpses in their wake. The situation was never bettered by the fact that it was usually someone's family member and friend who had committed the deed during the dark hours of night.

Unwilling Participants

One thing that is important to note though, is that the people affected by this sickness are not doing any of these things of their own free will.

However, they are not controlled by a magic-user either, like some have come to believe.
Instead, they are overshadowed by the part of a dark entity that is embedded in them, as it is stronger during the night.
They are unable to do anything but watch as they destroy and end lives.
Few are mentally strong enough to slow down the dark entity, and even fewer are able to control themselves enough to not cause any harm.

The Night-Maulers are nothing but bad news. however, it is ver tragic though if you sit and think about it.
They truly are just ordinary people during the day, but at night-time, they become dangerous bloodthirsty beasts who kill anything in sight.
No one can have that in their community and so they're usually either banished or killed.

— citizen of Elken

The Cursed Ones

Most people believe that the night maulers are controlled by magic users and made to do the evil things they do. However, this is not true.
In reality, they are cursed people, who have had a part of a dark entity tied to them, that they are unable to get rid of. This can be done by a Spell-caster who possesses strong Dark Magic, however this doesn't mean that they have to have a Dark Mark as many spell casters are able to work with multiple schools of magic.
Tenelithropy is caused by magic users, but the affected are controlled by spell-casters. Not many spell-casters would ever do something like this to other people, and it is highly frowned upon in magical societies.

by Ninne

Type

Supernatural

Origin

Magical

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Rare

Affected Species

• Human

Treatment

It is not possible to fully cure a severe case of tenelithropy, but a few treatments are known to dampen symptoms. It is however possible to cure the second hand symptoms of a person who has been in close contact with a person with very severe tenelithropy.
Treatments that are most effective all stem in light magic. However, sun therapy is also commonly used.
The most common way to treat it is by either enchanting the affected or something the person will have on their person at all times with light magic, emmulating the sun so the beast won't come out even at night.

Rare spread of Tenelithropy

In the vast majority of tenelithropy cases, the affected has been directly targeted and cursed. However in a few cases, the Spell-caster responsible has been so strong that they managed to bind a large amount of dark entity or even multiple. In cases where multiple dark entities have been bound, it has been observed that a part of the side effects have been transfered to other people from the affected.
In these rare cases, the victim has gotten a very mild case of tenelithropy, and no one has been able to figure out exactly how it has spread. It has also been seen that these cases are easily treatable with Light Magic, which means that the dark entity doesn't bond to the new victim but rather has a weak grasp on them.