Wizshades

All wizards are aware that the wielding of magic is inherently danger-ous—and that battling others who can also use magic is deadly indeed. One can end up blasted to nothingness; slain; maimed; rendered undead; forced into charmed slavery; trapped in the shape of a mushroom or something else unable to speak, move, or defend itself; afflicted by a curse; feebleminded; or rendered insane. Some curses combine one or more of these states, often forcing the recipient to sacrifice intelligence and/or life energy every time they use a spell, so that insanity and undeath await unless the individual turns his or her back on magic use forever.
Feeblemindedness is not a loss of Intelligence, but an enforced cessa¬tion of thought and perception. There are spells and other attacks, how¬ever, that do sap the intellect. Intelligence lost through the use of normal magic sinks the caster into a state of imbecility, and if it pro¬gresses far enough, a descent into no more than animal intelligence. Wits lost through wild magic or in a psionic or magical backlash, explosion, or uncontrolled discharge, however, cause a condition known as mindshadow madness.
This little-known affliction is curable by limited wish, wish, and heal spells, but it makes the victim dangerous to approach, and therefore cures put into effect are few. Mindshadow madness sharpens perceptions and creative thought, but also plunges afflicted persons into a shadowy world of mind images and feelings that stream in at the victim constantly from all of the known planes of existence. The affliction begins instantly, with a short burst of stuttering or the uttering of nonsense words, which is followed by the involuntary casting of a random spell at a random tar¬get, and then victims become governed by visions, and their behavior undoubtedly seems odd to those who cannot see what they perceive.
Victims of mindshadow madness need not sleep or memorize spells—magics return to them spontaneously or even come at random to their minds if they had no magic memorized when driven mad. Such spells may be cast without material components or any normal needs for rest, precisely seeing targets, or the like. Proximity to strong magic— either stored in items or enchantments laid on beings, items, or terrain, or recently unleashed in a locale—seem to cause spontaneous spells to come into the minds of the mindshadowed more often.
The alignment of victims shifts to chaotic neutral, and the images confronting them overwhelm the real world, so that they may not recog¬nize friends, foes, or relations—or even fully comprehend their sur¬roundings or situation. Someone who speaks to them is typically perceived as a talking monster of some sort or other or even a source of speech that is constantly shifting shape (usually into various shapes belonging to beasts in the mad wizards' memories or concocted by them in nightmares). In a similar manner, the ground, sky, and such things as trees and buildings are overlaid by slowly shifting images of ruins, other
terrain, floating shrubberies and rooms without buildings around them, and so on. This altered perception seldom seems to cause victims harm by leading them to walk off cliffs or step off roofs, but it does lead to erratic behavior, notably wild spellhurlings at random targets.
An additional danger that the mindshadowed pose is their randomly manifested power of doubled spell turning. Whenever any magic comes into contact with mindshadowed people, there is a 2 in 6 chance that it rebounds at double strength (duration and damage) on its source. This is an involuntary power that operates in addition to any spellcasting undertaken by the mindshadowed in the same round.
Priests afflicted by mindshadow madness are often imprisoned in temple walls, doors, or altars by their deity (for others' safety or their own punishment, depending on the circumstances surrounding the madness). They are able to howl, whisper, and otherwise impress unaffected per¬sons, but they are restrained from wielding magic or harming the faithful in other ways. Such "temple spirits" are often freed by the deity to defend holy areas from invaders and those who come to steal or deface, though such defenders can be as deadly to the faithful as to nonbelievers.
Wizards taken by the madness are usually destroyed by their fellows if they become a direct danger to other wizards, cities, or the doings of rulers or cabals of mages. Groups of wizards often make pacts at Mage Fairs to go out to hunt, capture, and cure (or destroy) particular known victims of mindshadow madness, and Harpers and other power groups tend to aid their fellows, but despite such efforts, the majority of wizards afflicted with this madness receive no treatment and either bring about their own deaths through misadventure, leave for other planes at their own behest to suffer unknown fates, or lapse slowly into wizshades.
Long before the origins of wizshades were known, their presence and powers were acknowledged. There is even a body of sorcerous lore that seeks spells to control wizshades with the aim not merely of warding them off or sending them as a wild storm of magic against foes—but of making them one's own army of fearless spell-hurlers! The strange entities known as wizshades are most common in the phlogiston between the crystal spheres that contain worlds, but they can also be encountered anywhere else—including any locale in Toril. They seem attracted to artifacts, magi¬cal items of great power (or collections of such enchanted items), wild magic areas, or places where great magical energies have been released.
The mindshadowed become wizshades only slowly. At the end of every month of madness, a d100 roll is made. The initial chance to become a wizshade is 18%, but it increases by 1% for every additional month of madness, plus an additional 1% if the wizshade has caused the death of another being by its magic during that month. Once the roll "succeeds" and the transformation into a wizshade begins, only a full wish can restore the mad victim to a sane, mortal state. During the transformation, the physical body of the victim, along with all worn or carried nonmagical items, dissolves into many-hued mists and swirls away into the upper reaches of the air. Magical items and artifacts actu¬ally rise up and then teleport away to random locations all over Faerun.
Some wizards or priests who have never been afflicted with mind- shadow madness also become wizshades in a rare and curious way: If they are turned to stone by magic while carrying powerful magical items or while they have spells memorized, they may (chance unknown) dissolve into the many-colored mists of a nascent wizshade if their pet¬rified form is shattered for any reason.