Moonsickness

Notes on Moonsickness, Running River, executed age 113, 12 Suldaon, 2302 by DD. Northern Gale
Restricted Access: Court of Stars, DD. High Council.
WARNING: Contains subversive propaganda intended to destabilize the rule of the Twilight Emperor. Share with extreme caution.


Moonsickness is the approved name for the condition which afflicts elves as they age into their second century and beyond. The symptoms are as follows:
1. Loss of Sensitivity: As elves age beyond their 100th year, their senses begin to dull. Though slow at first, few elves retain more than 20% sensitivity overall by their second century, and full sensory deprivation has occurred by 500 years of age in all recorded cases. These symptoms often lead to extremes of behavior in aging elves.
2. Loss of mental acuity: Similar to the senility of other species, elves suffer an increasing disconnect with reality, with 1% by age 100 being unable to function in most occupations and increasing to 30% by 200 years of age. This is the primary reasoning behind the use of death dealers, to prevent non-elven peoples from understanding the costs of elven immortality.
No elves are free from this affliction, which I believe to ultimately be a result of the Dreaming. While much speculation has been made of the nightly terrors of elven sleeping patterns, I subscribe to the belief that they are retrocognitive in nature, pointing to the fall of Yavesk which poisoned the world and spun us inexorably toward death. This unyielding nightly onslaught of images of divine unraveling would utterly destroy the minds of other folk instantly, so it is no surprise that over the decades it takes its toll on even strong elven minds.
While common elves are simply exterminated by death dealers if they refuse to take their own lives at the onset of symptoms, the Court of Stars seem to believe that there are bloodlines where this madness is in fact a gift of prophecy. Thus the previous Twilight Emperors are kept interred within the Palace of Dusk as advisors to the current Twilight Emperor, locked away from the world so that the truth of their untreated ravings cannot be seen. Rather than efforts being spent towards treating the cause(s), or even the symptoms, of moonsickness, the Court of Stars encourages its development. They intentionally engage in controlled breeding programs, up to and including inbreeding and incest, to encourage this so called “prophetic blood” within their own family lines.
If they truly believe that this is a gift, then their hypocritical extermination of those outside of the Court and their close friends is a monstrous act of social control. If any understand the truth, then they are guilty of not only amplifying the damage that these afflicted elders do to Lanlacal, but actively redirecting resources that could be spent to help manage these disastrous and debilitating symptoms to instead encouraging their development at younger and younger ages.