Akashic Bedlam

"Amist the wreckage of this ancient mecca of knowledge laid remnants of danger for those who seek to unveil it's memories lost in times unknown. For as the owner of this ruin bought on himself through meddling with the akashic knowledges of the departed. As the academics seeks to fulfill their brains of lore like the thirsty traveler of scorching sands with water, beware they ones that drowns themselves as they own soul gets diluted in the thiccness of the void."

— Gerard Crowley

"The culprit was none other that the head of the estate himself. When we entered the mansion, sir Langley was removing one of his pupils's eyes and ears, muttering something about seeing no evil. Langley was transfered post-hate at Santa Cabrinacci and his affairs purged as requested. The Order will remain on site for three days as the protocol demand to avoid information leakage."

— Justicar Auron

Transmission & Vectors

There is two transmissions possible:

• If a Prismatic Aberrant manage to hit the cerebrum area of a sentient species with the numerous crystal it owns. The shards will leak inside the victim's brain to corrupt it.
• When a scholar or arcanist uses dangerous magic to gather information through necromantic means, mostly by gathering intel through souls and the deceased. Chronic uses will almost always result in a early state of Akashic Bedlam.

Symptoms

This disease is very varied for a specific reason: outside of the main symptoms, the victim can inherit the soul's former symptoms they had in their life. In a vulgarised way, a part of the departed soul can stick to the user's one through contact with the brain. Which often results in a parasitic and overwhelming soul merging making the victim a mix of various personnalities.
Because of this multiple personnality merging, most of the symptoms are

• personnality disorder
• hallucinations (seeing true/untrue visions, past or present)
• explosive mood swings
• rapid self-idendity changes
• fear of others (thinking they want to steal their knowledge)
• paranoia
• A maladive desire to gather knowledge at all costs. Wish can cause the victim physical detriments.

Treatment

Treatment is heavily complicated as the cognitive and brain interpretation of the victim is merged with many fragment of souls. One of the most efficent methods is magical fugue/brain drain. This is a highly destructive method which can destroy a lot of celebral capacity of the victim the more time they were afflicted. Some afflicted for too long may need a long session which can make them vegetables for the rest of their lives, or having severe brain development issues. Also, most expert in this techniques either aren't certified surgeon or arcanist, as this practice is illegal in some countries.
Another temporary treatment can be to make cranium holes in the victim's skull. This allows the victim to feel less pressure and risk less pathogenic/late-stage complications. However, this is only a time-buyer and not a curing solution.

Prognosis

When reaching a late stage, the victim brain capacity becomes so overwhelmed his brain start to swole, making severe lack of oxygen and pressure. The victim will start to experience vomiting, dizzyness and bledding orifices on the face, especially the nostrils. After some minutes, the victim will fall unconcious in most cases. Past a couple hours, the cranium will explode over extreme pressure, killing the host from shock. When raching that state, the multi-souled entity will become a grotesque arcanic aberrant.

Sequela

Because of the multiple fragments of soul fighting for dominance, the victim can develop, as mentionned, sequelas from the souls they tried to gather information from. For example, if the former living had hallucinations, they will manifest on the victim as well.

Affected Groups

The most affected revolves around middle aged to venerable people, usually having a scholar profession or retired/rich enough to not have to spend time on mundane jobs.
This can affect females as much as males, but males are usually a more common case since they are less eager to look for help regarding mental health depending on society's stigmatas they live in.

Prevention

Against prismatic aberrant, a sturdy full-face protection made of metal may be able to reflect some shard depending on density of material and distance.
But for the more usual mean, avoiding to use necromancy to gather soul for questioning and lore is the most common prevention to take.

Epidemiology

Epidemic are extremely rare as most prismatic aberrants will kill their prey through physical means or soul draining. This disease is mostly selective and singular.

History

The first official dated cause was documented by Doctor Simeon Copal, in [XXX] a surgeon of the Santa Cabrinacci Asylum, over the body of philosopher Morgay Auland.
However, it is implied cases of that mental disease could have been present centuries ago. Most doctors think King Basset II terror reign was because of symptoms similar to Akashic Bedlam.

Cultural Reception

When someone is suspected of being afflicted with Akashic bedlam, most authorities send military support to detain the diseased for analysis and securement. Those affected are considered highly dangerous individuals and may get executed on the spot if they do not comply with the authorities.
However, the most agressive force can be found in [Region], where a specific chapter of lawbringers take cares of cases and suspicions of akashic bedlam: The Order of the Black Flame. When confirmed, Justicars make sure the owner's belonging get investigated and usually burned and disposed of so curious people don't share the same fate.

Type

Mental

Origin

Alien

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Extremely Rare