Advanced Naldhic Decay

The disease is caused by frequent travel to the Garden, from which the body slowly degrades as it travels between the realms without being properly anchored.

Symptoms can take a minimum of twenty years to manifest, sometimes longer. They begin with tremers in the hands and the illusion of seeing things in the corners of one's eye. Nightmares and unexpected visions often occur, usually with disturbing subject material. When in the Garden, sensations might begin to feel too real, and spirits may be able to smell the scent of death on you. Victoms will begin to loose senses in the living world, or become hypersensitive to things like sound and light. Paranoia, restlessness followed by bouts of eghaustion. Eventually, it progresses to the point where one is dragged between the living and dead with no control. At this point, the victom becomes a danger not just to themselves, but to those around them who might cross paths with anything they bring back with them.

During the early stages of Naldhic decay, the symptoms can be mitigated through frequent salt and smoke cleanses talismens to anchor the victom in the living, and also limiting their contact with Naldhic forces. If the victom stops traveling over the Hedge, their symptoms may ease, and they may recover. As the illness progresses, treatment is less effective. Some herbal medicines made from Golia resin and Hainthistle can ease the symptoms of eghaustion and hypersensitivity, but they can also be highly addictive and hallucinigenic. Victoms at this stage should be kept away from stressful envirnments and contained. At the final stage, the safest treatment is to send thr victom to the garden permenently.

If left untreated, the victom becomes a wanderer of the Hedge Border, where they pace back and forth in the garden and often take much longer to heal and be reborn.

Those who have quit Naldhism after experiencing Naldhic Decay may feel drawn to death and feel an urge to cross over once more, which must be avoided.

To prevent this illness, one should minimize the amount of time they spend in the garden while still alive, make sure that they cross over in stable conditions, and keep many anchors to the living. One should also avoid the many dangerous in the garden that could contaminate them.

As Naldhism became a better known practice, so also did the disease. First accounts of it come from the Dark Ages, but it was only documented by the Naldhist Lansel of Golia, who suffered from it and wrote down his experiences.