Delirium

This chronic condition results from dangerous encounters with powerful abberations or the more hazardous environs of cankers. There are no other known vectors of transmission for the disease. In point of fact, there is no danger of afflicted individuals transmitting the disease to others. However, if a subject succumbs to the final stages of Delirium, the resulting abberation does pose a danger to the populace as a vector of transmission.

Few, if any, within civilised society need fear affliction by the condition. Even so, due to the amount of misinformation among the general populace, most individuals are deeply terrified of contracting the illness from those afflicted by it. It is therefore not uncommon for those suffering from Delirium to be brutilized and even killed by other citizens, especially in outlying, rural areas.

Interestingly enough, despite the debilitating symptoms of Delirium, subjects exhibit resistance to any form of magical coersion of their mental faculties, whether from simple charm spells or outright attempts to dominate and control them. This resistance grows incrementaly with the level of the disease's progression. Additionally, while the subject remains a vector for other illnesses and diseases, the severity and length of symptoms is greatly reduced if not absent entirely.

Causes

Exposure to extreme supernatural phenomena or exposure to lower levels of such phenomena over time (qv the stilt-walkers of The Lament).

Symptoms

Stage 1: Agitation, aggression, irritability, and nervousness.

Stage 2: Severe sweating, physical and/or vocal tics.

Stage 3: Paranoia and violent outbursts.

Stage 4: Visual, tactile, or auditory hallucinations.

Stage 5: Seizures leading to severe transmogrification of the physical form.

Prognosis

So long as the individual is removed from the source of the condition, individuals in the early stages of Delirium rarely experience an increase in their symptoms. In later stages, while the progression of the disease can be slowed with treatment, preventing the symptomatic downward spiral of the subject to their ultimate fate has proven, thus far, impossible. It recommended that individuals suffering from stage 3 or above be isolated from society in appropriately prepared asylums.

Affected Groups

Adventurers, populations living near or within the borders of cankers, and any who are exposed to the depredations of the Empire of Scythes (eg personnel working the Sythian mines of the Ten Barronies).

Subject began screaming, clutching and clawing at their face and neck. Moments later, their skull exploded outward, exposing the brain. The organ's crenelations then uncoiled into tendril like appendages while the remainder of the subject's body split apart as it's ribs extended into long, insectile legs. The resulting aberation began attacking the cell door attempting escape. Damage to the cell was swift and severe. Abberant subject was deemed too dangerous for further observation and testing. Final protocol was enacted. Subject's file has been closed.

-- Excerpt from the clinical notes of Doctor Anton Senger

Type

Supernatural

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Rare