'Snag'
While sorcerers and their staffs are part of each other, their relationship in later stages of 'life', if you could call it that, is parasitic for both. No one is happy. As staff gains sentience, it begins feeding on the elemental energy of the sorcerer. Once Snag is in full force, the sorcerer lives off of the photosynthesized energy made by the staff, and the staff still feeds off the sorcerer's elemental energy. It's miserable for both parties, and the staff eventually kills the sorcerer and feeds off of the reminants of the sorcerer's elemental pull.
Transmission & Vectors
This condition only affects sorcerers, and it is guaranteed if a sorcerer lives a long life. It can technically be prevented by either never finding the staff or completely refraining from using any sort of magic at all, but these actions are more dangerous than just risking Snag. Every sorcerer is, barring death, guaranteed to develop this, and it cannot be spread. There is no way to prevent yourself or your child from becoming a sorcerer, for it is a trait from birth and appears sparatically. The only way to prevent Snag from eventually settling in is dying, but that's not the most appealing solution.
Causes
Throughout the mature stage of a sorcerer staff's development, the staff slowly develops its own conciousness as it feeds off of the sorcerer's elemental abilities. It begs for more to feed it, and it grows into snag if it is fed enough. While it can be mitigated, it cannot be stopped fully.
Symptoms
For lack of better terms, the main symptom is turning into a tree.
Treatment
The only treatment is death, but that's not really a treatment. A sorcerer could try and ignore their staff, but it's difficult and only delays the inevitable.
Prognosis
The beginning of snag is generally characterized by decreased appitite and a lack of exhaustion, even after getting little to no sleep. This quickly turns into an inability and lack of need to eat or sleep. After maybe a day or two of this, the sorcerer's staff fuses to their body and slowly begins growing beyond its staff form. Cravings for the staff's elemental energy only increase, and it becomes nearly impossible to ignore it. The staff grows and becomes a tree. The sorcerer, fused completely to the 'staff', sits at the front of the tree, completely helpless to do anything but attempt to ignore the staff's words whispered in their ears. The stone that once rested in the staff now lays on their sternum. Eventually, the staff decides taking care of the sorcerer is too much work and pulls them, stone included, into the midle of the tree, killing them. The sorcerer officially loses their sentience and becomes the core of the tree. People call this core, for lack of better terms, heartwood.
Affected Groups
Only sorcerers fall victim to Snag. It usually affects people over the age of 60.
Hosts & Carriers
Sorcerers quite literally carry Snag, for their staffs are what causes this, if the staffs are not Snag itself.
Prevention
For sorcerers, the only ways to prevent Snag will do more harm than good. It would be easier and less painful to succumb to Snag in old age than it would be to prevent it completely. For non-sorcerers, they don't have to worry as it's impossible for them to fall victim to Snag.
Cultural Reception
People who fall victim to Snag are always feared, for they can easily destroy an entire villiage if the staff consumes them or they give in to the elemental cravings. Sorcerers in this state are often left completely abandoned, everyone in the nearby areas fleeing.
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