Wiggle Eye
Yeah, most don't like talking about it, so bringing it up is a good way to get run out of town. But you don't know any better, and I'd rather you not ask anyone who might have been affected, so I'll sate your curiosity.
That little wiggle you caught, that's the mild form. You won't see the advanced forms. The priests have afancy name for it, but everyone else calls it wiggle eye if they call it anything at all. Like I said, most people don't want to talk about it.
You've seen the vine that grows everywhere around here, right? Deep green with lighter veins and three pointed leaves growing in clusters along the length? That's called beggar's vine. It grows pretty much everywhere, sometimes choking out more useful plants - farmers consider it a menace. But it'll grow in almost any conditions, including pretty significant drought.
It's edible, sort of. If you dry it out properly you can make a decent flour. It can certainly sustain you, but it doesn't taste very good. Many a community has made it through a rough winter or a bad drought thanks to the vine.
But the problem is, it builds up. You're fine at first, but if you eat it for long enough it starts to affect you. The wiggle is the first symptom. Just a tiny bit at first, hardly noticeable, but you better hope you notice.
Because once it sets in, it doesn't take much for things to get worse. The eye wiggles get worse quickly, and the victim's vision doubles. Headaches start up, quickly becoming debilitating. Once those hit, little can be done. Your muscles betray you, no longer under your control. A sufficiently pious priest may be able to purge the vine from your body, but they are expensive, and no one who eats the beggar's vine can afford such a priest.
So you see, people who have the wiggle eye are marked as having been reduced to eating the vine at some point. You asking someone with the condition how they came about it is asking them abouut their lowest point. It's asking them to tell you about the time they were at a low enough point that they had to risk the worst consequences of the wiggle to stay alive.
I hope that sates your curiosity.
Causes
Wiggle Eye (aka Medican Syndrome) is caused by overconsumption of the beggar's vine (clambraria mendicorum). Components of the vine build up in the body over time, eventually interfering with the nervous system and leading to the condition.
The amount that leads to the syndrome varies by species, with significant individual variation within species as well. The quickest confirmed case was with a gnome and occurred within a week of beginning to eat the vine. Bugbears tend to be the most resilient, and some have been confirmed to have lived on the vine for years without ill effects. Five years of consumption is the longest known period of consumption before contracting the syndrome.
Symptoms
Symptoms of wiggle eye progress from the characteristic eye tremor and get progressively worse.
The eye tremor begins with slight horizontal tremor, initially unnoticeable from normal physiological eye tremor. The regular side-to-side motion is the first indication. It can sometimes be accompanied by a more noticeable eyelid twitch, but this is uncommon.
As the disease progresses, the balance issues are often the first noticeable sign of a problem. The eye tremor becomes more noticeable, and it is enough to impact the victim's balance. Further progression leads to blurred vision, especially close-up vision.
Further consumption of the vine quickly leads to significantly worse symptoms. Intense, debilitating headaches are generally the next phase. The digestive system also begins to fail, and the victim gets progressively less nourishment from food. Muscles begin to atrophy, and the victim loses the ability to control their limbs.
Treatment
The only known treatments require divine magics from experienced clergy.
Prognosis
If the victim ceases to consume the vine at the first onset of symptoms, the disease can be halted at that stage. Minor eye wiggle is barely noticeable to the victim and has little impact on their lives.
Once the victim progresses to headaches, the prognosis is significantly worse. The victim often becomes unable to process food properly and will starve to death within weeks. In addition, even if the victim stops eating the vine, the symptoms tend to progress further. Few victims at that stage survive more than a year.
Comments