Soul Hypertrophy
"The naive anti-hedrons fall prey to the criminals who need them to exist. Even so, their naivete does not absolve them of the crime of ident-a-hedron counterfeiting."
"Stupid bastards. We try to warn them. I can barely stand to look at them when we find them.
Zone Authority agents burst the door open with thunder from outstretched hands. The Zone Watchmen rush in through the splinters, weapons drawn, ready for a fight. The Soul Stealer Gangsters are long gone, leaving a poor anti-hedron, writhing in a bed of sweat and blood.
The dwarf's limbs and head stretched out unnaturally, his skin pulled out into points in twenty different places. The points moved in grisly vectors as the counterfeit ident-a-hedrons at the end of them moved around the Zone miles away from their soul-source.
The ZA Agent says, "They like to kidnap dwarves the most. They're tough to kill. They can pull more hedrons out of them."
The agent puts their mechanical hand on the dwarf's chest and mutters a spell. The distended skin collapses like deflating balloons as the counterfeit hedrons dissipate. The dwarf relaxes, then begins retching.
"It's over you stupid bastard. You're lucky you're alive.", says the agent. "Also, you're under arrest for ident-a-hedron counterfeiting and soulaster trafficking."
Soul hypertrophy is the external manifestation of a soul stretched too thin by the drug soulastemer. The drug is not addictive, nor is it even pleasant. All it does is allow a soul to become more elastic. Thus, allowing the creation of multiple counterfeit ident-a-hedrons that can travel miles from their bearer.
The drug was developed and used by anti-hedrons, religious purists who believe that soul manipulation is a sin. The drug allows soul scapegoats to have multiple counterfeit ident-a-hedrons capable of traveling more than 30-feet away from their bodies. Anti-hedron safety protocols prohibit the creation of more than 5 or 6 counterfeits at a time and the distance is limited to 10 miles.
Criminal organizations care nothing about safety protocols. Hedron counterfeiting is too profitable for them not to take advantage of the poor anti-hedrons. They commonly kidnap soul scapegoats and make as many counterfeits that travel farther than the safety limit. They don't care about the pain it causes, as long as the scapegoat doesn't die.
Transmission & Vectors
An overdose of the soul stretching drug soulaster. Used in the counterfeiting of ident-a-hedrons.
Symptoms
Fully extended extremities and skin distended into dozens of points. The victim's soul is stretched thin with a counterfeit hedron at the end of each point mile away.
Treatment
If caught early enough, a shredded soul can be repaired with divine healing magic and aura/chakra balancing.
Affected Groups
Anti-hedrons who have been kidnapped by criminal organizaitons. The Soul Stealers specialize in the exploitation of anti-hedrons and counterfeiting hedrons.
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