The Anxiety
The Anxiety is a condition which all elves are prone to, but at varying sensitivities, and is what ties them geographically to their home environment.
The wide range of sensitivities to the condition mean some elves can leave their home environment for months with mild discomfort most of the time. On the other end of the spectrum, some elves can't stand leaving for more than a few days.
The symptoms from the Anxiety have been known to interfere with an elf's Gift, since Gifts are essentially active powers that usually require concentration.
To this day, no one is quite sure how the Anxiety works or what purpose it serves.
Causes
The Anxiety starts when an elf leaves an environment like they one they were born in and progresses as they spend time in other environments. At first, most elves claim it feels like a mild discomfort that is usually attributed to being unfamiliar with their new environment. If this is an elf's first time experiencing the Anxiety, they usually can't even accurately describe it. As time passes and the elf is not in an environment like it's birth environment, the elf starts experiencing heightened anxiety that evolves into paranoia, eventually reaching full, thoughtless panic.
The phenomena is well known, even if not well understood. Thus most experiences of the Anxiety never reach the full panic phase and no one knows if there are later stages to the Anxiety
Symptoms
Initially, indiscernible psychological discomfort upon initial leaving their home environment.
This discomfort shifts into overt anxiety over time and eventually leads to full panic. At the full panic phase, the elf's only goal becomes relieving their panic by returning to their home environment.
Treatment
The only known, effective treatment providing immediate and complete relief is returning to the elf's home environment.
However, each culture of elves has various treatments that they claim help delay the progression of symptoms. Nothing has completely eliminated symptoms or even stopped their progression.
Prognosis
While not fatal, if left untreated, the Anxiety will cause an elf to slowly lose their sanity as returning home becomes their only remaining thought.
Some say that an elf unable to return to their home environment will wither and die. Others say they will simply continue going insane until they turn feral and become one of the various monsters seen throughout the realm.
Affected Groups
All elves are affected by this condition, although some home environments provide some interesting cases, particularly those of Sun Elves, Moon Elves, and Star Elves.
Sun Elves get the Anxiety when they can no longer see the sun, meaning they experience the early stages on a daily basis.
Moon Elves get the Anxiety when they can no longer see the moon, meaning they also experience the early staging on a daily basis.
Star Elves rarely experience the Anxiety, since that would require them to no longer be in the presence of the stars. This generally happens when they spend a lot of time indoors surrounded by thick walls or underground.
Since these three kinds of elves are in tune with heavenly bodies, their cultures have evolved to be appropriately nomadic.
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