Melancholia
Lunch atop a Skyscraper by Charles Clyde Ebbets
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Melancholia is a strange and unusual illness that has affected both humans and dium since time immemorial.
Its earliest records show up in the Kadian Empire as an imbalance of the physical and spiritual humors, excess in biles that caused extreme mood swings, grief and "prolonged exposure to nightmares".
As early as the 400s and 500s, it was suspected that Melancholia was caused by connections with the Dium and that it was a wound on ones' soul and being. One that could not be seen. It gained new names such as "soul fatigue" and "ghostscarring".
Causes
The cause of Melancholia and its connection to war or trauma has still not been discovered, even with the great insight granted by spirits and their powers. It is primarily seen as a disease of the mind and soul, one that is caused by an imbalance or an event that has shaken the person.
Some have purposed that it is physical damage to the nervous system, such as bruising or internal damage - which has given rise to new names such as "shell shock" or "the shakes", or even "railway spine".
Symptoms
To humans, it symptoms vary from person to person. But the commonalities of it are seen:
Night terrors and horrors of the mind
Reliving memories
Emotional numbness or Dissociation, as well as profound guilt
Anxiety around people, dium, or energies
Sudden outbursts, panics, seizures
In Dium, it is noted that certain behaviors change.
Some can become colder, causing ice to form around them and even become feral, wild, and uncontrollable.
Some have been noted to watch their humans die before fading from the Changing Realm entirely, unable to hold its form in this plane.
Some even burst into a radius of strong energies and flows, leading to plants and grasses dying and making humans fall unconscious.
However, due to the eternal nature of Dium and their ability to flow and change within our world - it is unsure how to check if they have truly changed or if these moments were a rarity and they return to normal in the Still Realm.
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