WhisperWinds

WhisperWinds is the names for a mental illness that often befalls adventurers, people who encountered many supernatural being or dangerous situations and sometimes even soldiers.

Ursachen

The condition manifests itself in people that have repeatedly faced enormous danger either on the battlefields of wars, while adventuring out on roads unknown or just trying to defend their home from an evil entity trying to rob them of everything. The deep-rooted fear of the unknown and not being in control causes the affected person to imagine enemies or people with bad intention.

Symptome

It mostly starts with the affected hearing whispers when the wind is blowing, giving the illness it's name. The person hears voices in the blowing wind, often threatening or sorrowful messages are heard by them. People who lost loved ones also imagine the voices of the passed away person, causing them to feel guilt.
As the mental illness progresses the whispers start to worsen, becoming more clear to understand to the person and often more threatening and violent. Additionally the whispers don't just appear when the wind causes noise but at any point without any ambient noise prompting it.
Soon after hallucinations can begin to appear in the form of monsters or enemies that the afflicted person fought many years ago, coming back to haunt them. From that moment onward it is not rare for the afflicted to become hostile towards anyone near them or attack said hallucinations, endangering everyone around them.

Behandlung

There is little that can be done for the people that suffer from WhisperWinds, since the illness is caused by the horror of past events. So the illness itself can never be defeated but the symptoms can be controlled.
For one those afflicted with the illness can choose to seek out an sorcerer with knowledge in the field of manipulation, who has the potential to change the memories that trigger the episode of WhisperWinds. The sorcerer can change the memories to make them appear more distant and less emotional like they happened in a dream or to a different person, this is only possible with the consent of the person since the mind would fight the invasion otherwise. However most people either don't like someone poking into their memory or can't bear the thought of losing the emotional connection they feel towards a situation where for example a friend of theirs died in battle.
The other option is to reduce the stress and pain the afflicted feel since those are major triggering factors for the hallucinations. This can be achieved through teas, peaceful environments or for people that search for a more radical cure: relaxation-inducing drugs.

Kulturelle Wahrnehmung

There is a dichotomy in the behavior of the public towards people afflicted with WhisperWinds. On the one hand they are often known to be war heroes or have been especially courageous people in the local communities, in most cases they have risked their lives to protect their loved ones or even total strangers, which makes people adore and like them. On the other hand once the illness manifests itself and causes hallucinations the afflicted become a danger to themselves and to those around them. Especially in the case of mages or other powerful people they can become a danger to their whole village if the symptoms aren't treated. Therefore it isn't that unusual for locals to be wary about older adventurers of soldier and treating them at an arm's length though they wouldn't be openly hostile towards them for fear of triggering a hallucination.

Typ

Mental

Ursprung

Natural

Zyklus

Chronic, Acquired

Seltenheit

Uncommon