Wistfulness

Quantos Miriam was an experimenter, who worked deep in the woods, practicing a very simple and ancient form of wistworking. He pushed his wist to the surface, filling the air just above his skin. With this, he could use his own willpower to affect the world. He could reshape matter with his bare hands! How could no one have discovered this before?
He cackled loudly to himself, and picked up a stone. With a thought, it became like a block of soap in his hands, he could drag a finger through the surface and dent the rock, or squeeze the entire thing and leave an imprint of his hand.
He had only been doing this for a few minutes, twisting branches, and splitting stones, but already he had done far more damage to himself than he would ever realize.
Every action we take onto the world, is reflected back onto ourselves. When he forced his wist, his very essence of being onto those sticks and stones, they left an imprint on him. His mind was forever marked, losing the learned elements of humanity and replacing them with the base instincts borne in those sticks and stones.
He was stubborn now, like a rock, unmoving and difficult to work with. He was also brittle, like a twig, prone to cracking under pressure and pouring out his emotions. He struggles to grow, or adapt, for that was no longer the realm his wist inhabited. Even his wisthread was worse, no longer the texture of a fine twine, instead it seemed more like the thorny vines of a blackberry bush.

Transmission & Vectors

Wistfulness is gained through the infection of one's wist. Usually caused when one pulls for strength through an impure wisthread, it is also contracted when one allows their pure wist to interact with the world without a buffer.

Causes

When one replaces their own wist with that of nature's it affects the very texture of their soul. The pattern and forms that one's wist takes defines their personality, and through changing their wist irrevocably, their mind and body changes too.

Symptoms

Antisocial personality traits, exaggerated or subdued emotions, physical injuries taking longer to heal, and the adjustment of one's Wisthread.

Treatment

There is two treatments for the wistful.
The first is to intentionally wear down the wist of the infected. This treatment is more common among the researchers of wist and other scholars.
The second treatment is to counter the infection with a balance of other elements. Adjust a water wistful by leaving them by a roaring fire, or a earthen wistful by placing them in the treetops. This treatment is more common among the mystics and shamans, and other ancient healers.

Prognosis

So long as one's wist is no longer being affected by the foreign element, their condition will not actively deteriorate. In fact, some who cannot find or refuse treatment instead learn to live with their wistful nature. They might take their new life in stride, or envelop themselves in the route nature of humanity, to find some form of normalcy in their life.

Prevention

They best way to avoid becoming wistful is to never take impure wist into one's own body. Wisthread can be cleaned and held close, and inner wist can be kept inner.

Cultural Reception

Those who experiment with dangerous magic and find themselves wistful are shunned by those who discover their condition. Fear of dragons and other dangerous wist made beings bleed ut into the treatment of many who do not seek treatment for their infection.

Type

Magical

Origin

Natural

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Rare

Affected Species

• Human