Windigo Psychosis

The Spirit of the Windigo affects both ends of the social hierarchy. Those at the top who are greedy and spiteful, and those at the bottom who are desperate and starving. He haunts people in their sleep. Filling their dreams with a desire to kill and eat other humans. Gnawing away at their sanity like a hungry animal.

"When the Algonquian people of North America have strayed from the old ways and especially displeased Kji-kinap, he sends Windigo to the land to teach the people a lesson. Windigo has always been a cruel teacher. He visits during the winter when food is scarce, and the people are weak from hunger. His lessons always bring death and suffering." -Algonquian oral historian on the nature of the Windigo spirit.

  The Spirit of the Windigo is omnipresent in the wilderness of the North Eastern United States and Southern Canada and is primarily active in the winter or other cold-weather conditions. During times of exploration or groups of people lost in the forest, there have been and will be instances of food supplies running out, failed attempts at hunting, or simply desperation. Where the only viable option for group survival will be to kill and eat the flesh of a party member to survive. The psychological effects of greedy or desperate behavior are what draws the Spirit of the Windigo to inhabit the body of a person. While all humans are suspectable to Windigo possession, individuals who exhibit greedy, materialistic, gluttonous, self-destructive, and or selfish behaviors are more likely to be at risk of Windigo possession. The Spirit of the Windigo can possess the body of an individual without causing a physical transformation for a time but will drive the afflicted into partaking in the act of cannibalism, the catalyst for a full transformation into a Windigo. Once a human commits this act, there is no going back.

The first physical symptoms of early Windigo Psychosis are a characteristic dramatic increase in appetite caused by the thyroid becoming inflamed. Inside the brain, the production of serotonin, the chemical responsible for tempering urges both moral and physical, will be sharply reduced. Most symptoms experienced by sufferers of early-stage Windigo Psychosis are mental. Even before transforming, the afflicted experience vivid nightmares, both auditory and visual hallucinations, and suffer from the delusion that they are going to kill and eat a fellow human even if other more readily available sources of food are present. Compulsive chewing of the lips and digits are the most common outward behavioral symptom that a person may be developing Windigo Psychosis. They will begin to show discomfort due to temperature. Claiming that they feel a burning sensation even in temperate weather and will instinctually seek sources of cold. Even leaving heat sources during blizzard conditions. They will begin to exhibit symptoms similar to Dissociative Personality Disorder, caused by communicating with the Spirit of the Windigo in their mind.

Early-Stage Treatment

Noticing the early signs that someone is developing Windigo Psychosis and acting quickly can not only save the lives of yourself and your party but also the afflicted as well. Once you have confirmed that the victim has indeed become possessed by the Spirit of the Windigo, it is vital that you get the afflicted out of the wilderness and into a heavily-populated area, such as a city or large town, as quickly as possible. Keep the afflicted under close watch while you evacuate, as upon realizing what is going on, the Spirit of the Windigo will do everything it can to force its host to attack, kill, and consume you or a fellow party member. The afflicted may have to be restrained as they will become more and more aggressive the closer you get to leaving the wild. This will also require a lot of willpower on the part of the afflicted to resist the Spirit of the Windigo's influence as hard as they can. Upon returning to civilization, the Spirit of the Windigo will leave the body of the afflicted and return to the wilds. Another potential cure was a ritual known to Alqonguian medicine men to exorcise the Spirit of the Windigo from the afflicted's body. However, few if any, still know of this magic in modern times due to the US and Canadian government's persecution of these "Windigo Hunters" in the 1800s.

Late-Stage Treatment

Unlike the closely related Chenoo, transformation into a Windigo after partaking in cannibalism is permanent. The only "cure" for a transformed individual is to grant the afflicted final peace by incapacitating them and removing their now-frozen heart. Even after removing its heart, the Windigo will continue to reanimate and attack until the heart is burned in a great bonfire, destroying its physical body. A hollow victory for this also frees the Spirit of the Windigo to possess another human.

Humanity Corrupted

As the Spirit of the Windigo is a perverse upheaval to nature's order, so too is the transformation of a human into its physical form. After committing the act of cannibalism, the afflicted will immediately undergo a slow and agonizing transformation process that will radically alter their biology over the span of two weeks.

Physical Changes

As the transformation begins, the production of serotonin in the brain grinds to a halt and the brain instead begins overproducing the stress hormone cortisol. Flooding the brain with it and causing the cells of the body to release glucose. The thyroid gland goes into overdrive. Grossly enlarging and overproducing hormones that control metabolism. This hyperthyroidism is possibly what is responsible for the Windigo's insatiable appetite. The pancreas is mostly destroyed by this inflammation and is another contributor to unending hunger. These hormonal changes travel to the hypothalamus, the region of the brain regulating hunger and energy homeostasis, and constantly stimulate receptors there to create hunger no matter how much food the victim consumes. The afflicted will feel a numbness in the feet and hands, as well as a dark discoloration of the digits and nose akin to severe frostbite caused by the severe increase in blood sugar levels. Leading to necrosis. The hair falls out early on and the melanin cells in the skin slowly start to die, giving the skin a pale, ashen color. As the transformation continues, body tissues will rapidly shrink as the body reabsorbs them in a futile gambit to maintain energy homeostasis, giving sufferers of Windigo Psychosis a skeletally thin physicality. The bones of the limbs experience an increase in lateral growth, but the musculature remains essentially unchanged. Resulting in intense growth pains that typically last for about a week and a half. The genitalia and mammary glands of the individual are reabsorbed by the body and the fully transformed Windigo is to be considered genderless. Approximately three days after possession, Windigo will begin to develop claws on their hands and feet caused by chondrocytes forming new cartilage cells that build up on the fingertips. This cartilage will eventually erupt from under the skin and continue to grow into extended proto-claws, causing the victim to lose their keratin fingernails as the new claws grow from the quicks. Fibroblasts strengthen the cartilage by reinforcing them with collagen. Once this process is complete the cartilage extensions will form new bone tissue called osteoblasts that will replace the cartilage pro-claws with hardened bone. Finally, a new layer of keratin forms over the new bone. Creating strong and sharp bayonet-like claws that can be up to 6 inches in length on the hands. The jaw of a Windigo will grow and become filled with grotesquely long teeth that rip open the edges of the mouth to accommodate the growth. The blood and other fluids inside the Windigo's heart will freeze into a solid chunk of ice. Which would usually result in immediate death if this were any other situation. Within the larynx, the vocal cords of a Windigo are strengthened and allow for precise control and the ability to replicate a wide array of sounds. At the entrance to the trachea at the back of the mouth, special membrane sheets form an ovoid valve that can be consciously dilated in order to control airflow. Effectively creating a second pair of lips inside the throat. Allowing the Windigo to retain the ability to use spoken language once it inevitably chews off its original pair on its face.

Mental Changes

Perhaps the most tragic outcome for victims of Windigo Psychosis post-transformation is the loss of most of their mental faculties. The latter half of the orbital frontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for morality, begins to see a flurry of activity early on as the afflicted processes what they've just done, and then a sharp reduction of the neural pathways four days into the transformation. As this reduction occurs, the afflicted will start to see fellow humans solely as food rather than companions and begin to act aggressively toward them. Unfortunately, due to close proximity, the afflicted's first victims are usually loved ones such as friends and family. This degradation of morality and compassion will continue until it reaches a point where heartless as it will sound, the sufferer can no longer be considered human. By the end of the two-week transformation process, the Spirit of the Windigo has consumed all of what humanity was left and gained full control over its host's body. A fully transformed Windigo loses all semblance of kindness and virtue or trace of the person it once was. While its humanity is gone, higher level cognition remains. Particularly the human capacity for cunning. A Windigo is smart, capable of rational thought, can strategize, and gains an unrivaled knowledge of its environment.

The mental symptoms of pre-transformation Windigo Psychosis are somewhat known to conventional science. It has often been ridiculed as a "false psychosis" with no current patients and been relegated to a tenuous legitimacy in the mainstream field of psychology.   Due to the ecosystem destroying capablities of a Windigo manifestation, sufferers of Windigo Psychosis are most often killed to prevent a transformation.   The most important takeaway from the Windigo is that it is much more than another spooky monster in the woods, but is a symbol of spiritual corruption, moral degradation, and greed that reflects real human anxieties even to this day. Windigo represents not only the worst that a human to do to another human being and ultimately to himself or herself but exemplifies other despicable traits. It is easy to understand the Windigo as a concept that can apply to any person, idea, or movement infected by a corrosive drive toward self-aggrandizing greed and excessive consumption, traits that sow disharmony and destruction if left unchecked. Having become symbolic for concerns such as environmental destruction, big business, consumerism, and addiction. As humans overpowered by greed are often the ones to turn into Windigos; it thus serves as a method of encouraging cooperation and moderation among the people who know of the creatures and the dangers associated with them.