Shelley Syndrome
Transmission & Vectors
Shelley Syndrome is often thought of as an entirely congenital condition, and although the assumption that it was acquired at or before birth is nearly always correct in practice, it is not definitionally correct. In reality, it is simply caused by repeated and/or extensive artificial modification of an individual's genetic makeup. The reason for the conflation with a congenital origin is simply that very shortly after birth humans, and even most metahumans, lose the genetic elasticity to tolerate such genetic changes and survive to develop Shelley Syndrome. Theoretically a practitioner of great power and sublime skill could cause significant enough variation to induce the condition in the genes even of an elderly human without causing their death, but the floor of those requirements is so high that it's likely only gods or entities of like power could qualify. It would, of course, be well within the capabilities of such a being to simply cure the condition they had caused, or to prevent it from emerging in the first place.
Causes
Only the greatest of the geneamancers could give an accurate account of the specifics, but it is generally known that some tiny and intricate part of the metahuman genetic code performs two functions: one a rather mundane but necessary part of facilitating the function of the nervous system, and the other as an index of any and all non-human traits or artificial additions to the rest of that human's genes. When the contents of that index grow too large, it interferes with the nervous system function to varying but nearly always disastrous results. An individual's tolerance to increasing index size is referred to as elasticity, and that elasticity drops sharply the older the human is, beginning even before birth. It is largely for that reason that most geneamancy is performed on subjects in-utero.
Symptoms
Symptoms of Shelley Syndrome can vary drastically, but are almost always recognizable as effects of the nervous system. Some common expressions of the condition are involuntary shaking or muscle spasms, different degrees of numbness, partial or complete paralysis, phantom limbs, difficulty interpreting or loss of senses, hallucinations, delusions, neuroticism, obsessive compulsion, depression, mania, multiple personalities, sociopathy, and psychopathy. Some will show only one symptom their entire lives, others will display many. Some have a constant effect, others experience rising and/or falling of both intensity and number of symptoms over time.
Treatment
The symptoms of Shelley Syndrome can be managed in many ways, just as they can when caused by other sources. A truly masterful geneamancer may even be able to consolidate an individual's index or slightly boost their elasticity, but a true cure cannot currently be achieved short of divine intervention.
Prognosis
Results vary with each case, but the majority of those with Shelley Syndrome can expect their condition to worsen with time and very few reach their full life expectancy. Of course, as only heavily modified metahumans have the condition, many will still live longer than an unmodified human.
History
The first recorded case of Shelley syndrome occurred in 14 Sun, in the person of Lady Mary Shelley, firstborn daughter of a wealthy merchant family in the Empire of the Sun which was just on the cusp of entering the nobility. Subjecting the unborn Mary to the proto-geneamancy of Genus Titus' early experiments was meant to be their way to finally break that last barrier. Though their daughter was born with incredible beauty to their exact specifications, she was also born paraplegic and did not develop the capacity to speak correctly. Luckily for the Shelleys, since the changes to her genome were so small by today's standards and Genus Titus himself reached such lofty heights, he was later able to make her also the first example of a significantly less common phenomenon: a metahuman for whom every symptom of Shelley Syndrome is utterly suppressed. Lady Mary was even able to conceive children who did not inherit the condition at all, and their descendants are now highly influential in the affairs of the Shattered Empire.
Cultural Reception
There are three primary reactions to those with Shelley Syndrome. Nearly everyone outside the Shattered Empire reacts with fear and revulsion to beings even more inhuman than inhuman. Within the Imperium there are two reactions essentially determined by whether the benefits of an individual's metahumanity outweigh the costs of their Shelley Syndrome. Those who see more benefit than cost are seen as cunning for reaching far and avoiding paying too steep a price, while those who see more cost than benefit are seen as tragic martyrs whose intellect was insufficient to their determination.
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