Pit Soul

When the pit in your stomach becomes something beyond the metaphor, you find it's not something you can simply fill.

Content Warning: Body horror, starvation, gore description

This article contains descriptions of starvation, bodily transformations and mentions of gore that some may find uncomfortable to read. If this isn't a topic that bothers you, read away!

Somehow his eyes hollowed nearly as much as his frame, which already held on by a mere shred of what it once was.
— Yulrori medic's final journal entry

Pit soul is a condition which develops over time as one physically consumes items tainted by the Leyline of Oblivion.

Corruption from Within

Domain of Power
by Strixxline

Consuming magic in any of its forms has varying effect on living things, and there are often no two reactions which present exactly the same way. The one constant, however, lies in the consumption of that which is touched by Oblivion. Those who consume anything tainted with this leyline's energy find themselves in a never-ending cycle of hunger and emptiness.

Descent into Starvation

The onset is subtle; one finds their meal to be less filling than usual. Common cravings make themselves known just a tick louder. Food starts finding its way into the mind more frequently. One exposure isn't enough to cascade beyond this point. In its earliest stages, the effects may even reverse back to baseline levels, and no permanent effect lingers. This reversal remains possible even into active affliction.

Chasing Bliss

Once the condition develops further into this active affliction stage, hunger becomes a painful experience — the pains of starvation wrack the body between meals, sated only for few blissful moments after each meal. Satiation becomes a high the afflicted chase, with limited success. Eventually, even this bliss falls away as meals no longer feel fulfilling and the pain lingers even as food passes the lips and enters the stomach.

Associated Powers

Leyline of Oblivion

Related Locations

Yulrorim

Symptoms

Onset: Hunger, cravings, difficulty staying full, reduced energy
Active: Intense hunger, frequent starvation, inability to maintain satiation
Late Stage: Dependence on Oblivion, inability to achieve satiation, loss of human hunger
Terminus: Insatiable hunger, bodily disfigurement, loss of humanity

Cure (Onset/Active)

Ceased consumption of Oblivion magic

Cure (Late/Terminus)

No known cure

Wardens of Hunger

Rarely, there are those who are able to stave off the madness, becoming wardens to their pains. Exhibiting self control in this stage of affliction allows one to survive in perpetuity with brief exposures to Oblivion-tainted meals — a state which continues forevermore, so long as they can bear it.

Beyond Recovery

Those who lose themselves to the madness of the pit soul condition become insatiable, dangerous, and slip away from their humanity. Though uncommon in most of the world, there are pockets of the null-magic lands where populations are familiar enough with the condition to declare such afflicted as kill on sight.

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The rate at which this condition progresses is directly influenced by the quantity of tainted materials one consumes.
Miniscule exposures, over time, will still bring one to the late stages of this condition, albeit slowly. Should one consume Oblivion-tainted materials recklessly and in large quantity, this process can take anywhere from several days to mere hours.

Feast after shining feast did we present unto our king, who grew cruel in his madness. "Satisfy me," he cried to his devoted subjects, "or it shall be your flesh they set upon my plate next!"
— Tales from the Fall of the Southland

Satiation Denied

The point of no return falls when satiation is impossible, even in fleeting moments. When no human methods can soothe the growing pit within, afflicted descend into a madness fueled by desperation. All that appears consumable, they attack ravenously. The quantity they consume finds itself irrelevant; no amount of food relieves the hunger or fills the stomach. As if the stomach has become a bottomless pit, food enters, then dissipates into nothingness. All things enter, nothing leaves. Oblivion-tainted materials become more appetizing than ever. Where food now fails, the magic seems to mimic satiation for a time, but even this passes. From this point forward, the afflicted is never capable of satisfying the human hunger they face by any means, but they likewise cease to need it. So long as they consume morsels tainted with this magic, they find themselves able to prolong their agonized state of living indefinitely.

Gutless Eternity

As though to dispel any notion that this affliction is solely psychological in nature, physical manifestation arrives with a brutal speed once this late stage has been reached. Creeping dread sets in mere moments before it begins, leaving no time for preparation or processing the sensation. The pit within the afflicted manifests beyond sensation and metaphor, causing the body to sink into itself until the abdomen caves in entirely. Where the gut once existed, fraying threads of bloodless flesh and bisected organs lie exposed, seemingly severed from all human function — vestigial remnants from the human life they once were able to live. The sinking force of this transformation distends the rest of the body with it, shrinking the human frame, while lengthening the limbs and neck. The jaw, pulled down by this force, extends downward, widening and expanding the bite, allowing the afflicted to devour increasingly larger objects and even prey, as they now pursue and hunt living creatures and even other humans to satisfy a hunger that can never truly die.

Some rare experiments have been performed on those afflicted with this condition throughout history, leaving a sparse record of evidence suggesting that this final transformation begins much earlier than outward appearances would suggest. Dissections described across scattered documentation have shown that the severance and displacement of numerous organs was observed within afflicted subjects long before their musculoskeletal form fell under the effects seen in the latest stages.

Within the Domain of Oblivion

Few places in Malkora see active presence of the Leyline of Oblivion, though each of the leylines may appear as flashes or leeching presences in smaller pockets of the world. What this means is that this condition is not limited only to locations affected by leyline emergences — it can strike any place Oblivion has touched, even briefly. Though these brief contacts seldom produce enough corrupted material to subject an individual to the full stages of this condition, prolonged exposure to even minor flashes of the leyline's energy can be enough to set it in motion. Most folks who develop this condition due to a minute presence of the leyline's energy in a location are expected to make a full recovery, so long as they refrain from repeated exposure.

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Answering: "A condition you can get from eating specific foods"

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Pit Soul

When the pit in your stomach becomes something beyond the metaphor, you find it's not something you can simply fill.

Content Warning: Body horror, starvation, gore description