Extrahension

Image by Russ Seidel

Anyone who comes into contact with a Great Old One goes insane to some degree or another. Or maybe everyone else is insane and contact with the Great Old Ones allows you to see rightly?

Transmission & Vectors

It is extremely difficult to come into contact with a Great Old One and true Extrahension is only possible through making contact yourself. Being around others with this madness, listening to their rantings or reading their writings may lead you to bad judgement, ill-conceived notions of reality or poor treatment of other mortals, but it won't actually result in Extrahension.

Causes

Through powerful rituals, known only to a few, it is possible for a mortal on the prime material plane to come into contact with a Great Old One. This is less like reaching out and touching a far away object as it is like opening a part of your mind and letting something extremely foreign dribble in. The experience is often described as a glimpse outside of time and space, at the true nature of reality, mortality, morality, causality and the universe. This apparently alters the perspective of the one experiencing it to the point where they are no longer capable of acting "normally".

Effect

Once a mortal being has made contact with a Great Old One they find it impossible to see their day-to-day life or the ongoing activities of society around them in the same way as they used to, or in the same way that their peers do.
Extrahension can be judged to be more or less severe, usually relating to the duration and intensity of the exposure.
Class I
A general disconnection from those around them and their previous interests and activities.
Class II
As above, with the addition of small, innocuous tics or habits.
Some examples include:

• Always glancing upwards at the end of sentences.
• Spending the first hour of each day organising everything according to colour (but then ignoring this structure for the rest of the day).
• An obsession with numbers of a certain mathematical property (only leaving the house on odd-numbered days, only spending money in prime numbers etc).

Class III
As above, but the tics or habits are sometimes disruptive in nature, to others or themselves. At this level of effect, the effects of altered perspective may result in taking on an inexplicable goal of some sort.
Some examples include:

• To have every house in town made totally white, with a specific, different, constellation painted in black upon each one.
• To teach every person the name of The Most Ancient One.
• To find a rock at the lowest point of dry land and carry it to the highest point of dry land and back.

Class IV
As above, but the tics and habits are threatening or outright destructive to themselves and those around them. If they have obtained considerable power through a pact with the Great Old One, they may be a very real threat to society at large, especially if the goal they focus on is harmful.
Class V
Sometimes contact with a Great Old One leaves the mortal apparently brain dead. Some cultists revere this state as some sort of transcendence, but the inability of the transcended mind to take care of the body's sustenance and ablutions seems to suggest otherwise.

Treatment

It is generally accepted, amongst those who have studied these things (certainly a small group) that once a person has experienced contact, they will never be able to fully fit in. They will never be able to shrug off the new compulsions and ways of being that they take on.

Cultural Reception

The condition of Extrahension is not widely known.
In the cults that involve themselves with seeking contact with a Great Old One, it is often treated as a blessing. The symptoms of the condition are not just accepted, but accommodated or even celebrated.
When someone who remains in the general population shows signs of Extrahension they may be mocked or ostracised. Those who care for them will often try to constrain the expression of their particular tics or compulsions. Some may find love and acceptance, but many withdraw from society.

Type

Mental

A note from the author
In writing this (fictional) mental health condition, I wanted to explore the idea that if a warlock's pact with a Great Old One comes through contact with an entity that exists outside of time and space, then that contact may change the warlock's perspective to the point that their behaviour appears to be insane to those around them.
In execution I've drawn on my (second-hand) understanding the perspective-altering effects of psychedelic drugs. What if the guy getting high and droning on about how he now understands the interconnectedness of everything still took it as seriously tomorrow as he's taking it right now?
I worry though that it might sound like a hackneyed and stigmatising parody of real mental health issues. I don't want to be disrespectful toward people with different neurological function to myself. If you feel like playing a Great Old One Warlock by involving tics and compulsions is disrespectful towards people who have real-world mental health issues, you may be right. If you have such a mental health issue and would like to play someone whose tics and compulsions came with the power to shoot lasers from your hands, I'd love to hear how the game goes!