Wantalcurse (One-tahl-curse)

A curse of unknown origin named after the first known victim, the wantalcurse causes the victim to slowly lose control of their vocal faculties. At first it merely distorts a few syllables and misspoken words, but the longer the curse remains untreated, the more muddled their speech becomes, actively inhibiting thought processes, often requiring vocalisation of those thoughts to focus. Eventually, the curse victim will be a gibbering husk, unable to focus their thoughts into words and uncontrollably voicing the jumbled mess of thoughts without any ability to control it.
 More maliciously still, the original curse has a mechanism to spread further; the incantation for the curse is ingrained into the victim's mind during the final stages of the curse. As a result, with their inability to control their thoughts or words, they inevitably end up citing the incantation unwittingly at times, spreading it to those who hear it. This draws upon the mana reserves of the victim, or should they be lacking their life force, making it potentially deadly to those of weaker constitutions at this stage. Those with magical knowhow have been able to figure out the specific incantations necessary to inflict the curse and how to counteract it, the more opportunistic of which intending to use it for their own gain.

Transmission & Vectors

The incantation from an individual already infected with the curse, consisting of verbal and somatic components, being heard by an individual within 30 feet for the duration of the chant.

Symptoms

Stage 1: Mispronunciation of syllables and mild difficulty controlling the tongue.
Stage 2: Foggy memory when it comes to words or phrases, slurred speech or excess lisping, often will use multiple strings of similar-sounding syllables before the correct word (e.g "duh, doh, dug...dog!") 
Stage 3: Further haziness of thought, often leading to speaking one's thoughts aloud, though distorted with the various speech impediments present in stage 2.
Stage 4: A general collapse in the ability to maintain cohesive thought when forming sentences, making most of their speech unintelligible. Will often resort to hand signs to try and convey meaning.
Stage 5: The curse has run its course and all thoughts are spoken aloud in the jumbled, incoherent form they're manifesting in. At this stage, the knowledge of how to use the curse itself becomes present within the victim's mind, leading to them accidentally casting it whenever a stray thought goes over it, using their mana or life force to sustain the casting. Should the victim not have the physical strength or means to satiate the curse's casting, they will die on the completion of the curse being cast.

Treatment

As a curse, magic is the most effective and ideal way to treat it, with most herbal remedies only slowing the advancement of the curse rather than curing it.
Stage 1 & 2: At this early point, the curse has yet to take root and any spell that could remove a curse will be able to do so. Lesser spells of restoration are also effective at slowing the symptoms for up to six months should nobody be on hand capable of breaking the curse outright.
Stage 3: The curse at this stage has ingrained itself deeply enough to resist basic attempts at removing it, requiring greater restorative magic. There is a chance that it won't be completely removed and the spell will revert it to an earlier stage, at which point another spell has to be used to ensure it's gone.
Stage 4: Greater restorative magic is still able to resolve the issue at this stage, as it can revert the wantalcurse back to stage 3, where the relevant treatments can be further carried out. Unfortunately, the nature of the curse makes it resistant and there is a chance it will have no effect.
Stage 5: At this stage, only the strongest magic can break the curse, and the only other known method is for the curse to be undone by the original caster of the curse breaking it themselves. This is usually a big issue, as the caster is frequently another victim of the wantalcurse and lacks the ability to focus enough to break the curse themselves without the one who cursed them breaking it first. Even then, once the curse is broken, it takes years for the stages to revert back without further greater restoration magic.

Prevention

Whilst the caster has to use somatic gestures in conjunction with the verbal phrase to spread the curse, the transmission is through the verbal component. As such, measures to mitigate the spread of sound or restraining the cursed victim in some form to prevent the criteria from being met can prove effective against further transmission, but not preventing the curse itself should it be intentionally invoked. If spellcasters are available, modifying the memory of the cursed individual offers the ability to remove the knowledge of the curse from the cursed victim after reaching stage 5, preventing them from spreading the curse further.

History

Whilst the mechanics of the curse are well documented, the reason behind it is unknown. Frederik Wantal was the first to be inflicted with the curse, a mild-mannered weaver with no known enemies and a number of close friends. Whilst the symptoms of the curse began to take root, nothing particularly untoward was picked up until the later stages, at which point it was assumed some form of standard mental ailment. It's only after the doctors tending to him and a number of his visitors began to show similar symptoms that it began to be investigated more seriously as a point of concern. Wantal passed away as a result of the curse, his body not strong enough to propogate the curse to as many people as he did as an active attempt to quarantine the town and all those who came into contact with him. Tests and all sorts of aiding magic were used to try and mitigate and control the symptoms, and whilst the first few stages were curable, once it was fully set there was no guaranteed way to cure the individual, though mind magic could remove knowledge of the curse itself to prevent it spreading further. By the time the outbreak of wantalcurse was controlled and stopped, a tenth of the town had died, and almost a quarter had seemingly permanent symptoms as a result of the curse.

Cultural Reception

To this day, people live in fear of another outbreak, as whilst easily stopped if caught early enough, the initial stages are so innocuous that it's easy for an individual to assume nothing's out of the ordinary, and with no knowledge of who made the curse or why, there's even less security as to when it might be released on an unsuspecting population. Wantal's town takes these concerns to the extreme, with each resident having frequent word recitals to ensure they're unaffected, and specialist asylums established specifically for containing those unfortunate enough to remain uncured in a safe and secure manner.

Type

Magical

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Extremely Rare