L.T. File: 012:Pøùl dhët-The Madman
For centuries, as long as asylums have existed, there has been The Madman. The Madman isn't just a madman. He is definitively The Madman. An archetype more than anything else. Perhaps, and even likely he existed before asylums, but with the concentrated madness, he appears, but by the time anyone realizes, it's too late. He always shows up, bedraggled, in tattered clothes, late at night, knocking on the door, speaking of forbidden knowledge that he "can't contain." The attendants and management inevitably let him in, and seek to help him. As far as the insane, he acts harmless, and never actively harms those who do not try to harm him. Has been categorized as a low Vwù sphere danger. (see
He sits in his room and writes if given an implement to do so, if not... he mumbles to himself words that always seem just on the edge of understanding. Anyone who looks at the words cannot remember them afterwards, though in the moment, and afterwards have a feeling of opening their minds... and fear. The longer The Madman is there at the asylum, the more mad those patients there become. Some assume that the reason is due to the mental illnesses that are affecting them acting like a sort of immunocompromisation of the mind and soul. Those around him expand their madnesses, but also begin writing or mumbling as The Madman does.
The Asylums slowly drive the workers without mental illnesses of their own to violent madness, never having them harm the patients, but an increased agitation over time forces them to become frustrated in their daily lives, and reclusive, only interacting normally with their patients, and eventually they become obsessed with the Asylum. At some point of this, The Madman himself disappears. In the worst cases, the workers' madnesses and obsession force them to 'remove' other obligations. Strings of serial killings and animal mutilations follow so that the individuals can 'focus on their work."
Eventually, if no-one intervenes, the workers will steal and hunt, becoming animalistic in their need to serve the insane, while the insane find more and more ways to write if possible, using their own blood if all other options are expended. In the best cases, adventurers, or even better, the The Tranquil Shadows will be called. When this happens, The Madman inevitably disappears. The madness doesn't go away on its own, but with assistance from operatives and psionic resonance crystals, they can recover. All writings are collected by operatives or destroyed and/or scrubbed from existence. Attempts to decipher have damaged the minds of numerous agents, and have been considered a separate ṭṣøn sphere danger.
Records of The Madman go back as far as asylums or similar institutions have existed, interestingly, has not been encountered to date in nomadic cultures. Aulvi therapy procedures prevent this from getting out of hand, as members of the Tranquil Shadows are sent immediately to any location with circumstances meeting these descriptions.
Summary
I. OBSERVATIONAL NOTES — Compiled from 1100 (pre) - 99 (post)
Physical Description:
Male-presenting humanoid. Appearance varies slightly across centuries. Consistent attributes include pallor, tremor, emaciation, tattered garments, and fingernails worn to bleeding. Often barefoot. Smell of ink and mildew.
Behavioral Pattern:
- Arrives after dusk.
- Always accepted into asylum voluntarily.
- Immediately begins writing or muttering within first 4–12 hours.
- All text produced exhibits linguistic self-erasure — meaning is understood as profound in the moment, but unretainable.
- Containment is non-violent; The Madman never resists or attacks unless directly restrained.
- After period ranging 3–17 days, entity disappears. Disappearance event leaves residual psychic “hum” audible to sensitives up to 30m radius.
Residual Effect:
- Patients exhibit rapid psychic symbiosis: identical writing patterns, language loss, then blood-based script replication.
- Staff exhibit compulsive isolationism and hyperfixation on “care duties.”
- Within 2–3 weeks, institution function collapses.
- If unchecked, staff predation and “purity cleansing” begins (self-described by subjects as “service to the asylum”).
Post-Event Recovery:
- Survivors show gradual reintegration after 3–4 months of psionic therapy and dreamlight immersion.
- Long-term: chronic mutism, mirror avoidance, low empathy, partial memory gaps (esp. 2–3 days before event).
Note: Residual contamination can persist in ink, parchment, or any material that bore the writings. All matter exposed to the writings must either be incinerated via Dreamfire protocol 4A, or contained in vault obsidian.
II. EXCERPT: PATIENT FILE 5-VWÙ-4437-A
(Recovered from the Ashen Vaults of Caewin Asylum, c. 1437 A.R.)
The knock was soft, polite. The night attendant says he found the man in the rain, soaked through, muttering “can’t hold it anymore.”
We took him in. The patients liked him; he smiled, hummed, helped them with their meals. He said his name was “Pøùl dhët,” but when asked again, he said it differently each time.
By the third night, every patient was writing. Even the mute ones.
I read one page. I think I learned something, but the moment I blinked, it was gone. It hurt to remember it. The pain was like birthing thought itself.
He told me, “Don’t try to remember. You’ll only widen the hole.”
He left before dawn. I can still hear scratching from the empty ward.
— Excerpt from Dr. Maere Vashil’s recovered notebook (mental collapse within 24 hours of last entry).
III. OPERATIVE FIELD REPORT
Incident: Greywater Sanatorium Collapse, 85 (post)
Lead Operative: Serane- Dawn-Shroud, 2nd Division Dreamlight Exorcist*
Classification: Confirmed Pøùl dhët manifestation
Summary:
1:34 local — asylum perimeter breached by entity.
2:17 following day — patients begin simultaneous humming (recorded frequency 0.19 Hz sub-audible).
3:50 — entity observed within east wing writing upon walls with charcoal.
4:02 — attempted direct apprehension under resonant crystal restraint.
4:03 — entity smiles. Quotes unknown text: “The cage births the song. You will hum it too.”
4:04 — entity dematerializes.
4:05–4:20 — all personnel exposed to residual field begin automatic writing; containment squads deploy Dreamfire neutralization.
Casualties: (none) 14 injured (non-fatal), 2 permanent psychic scarring.
Recovered Samples: 1 (unreadable under normal or psionic examination Transferred to vault Obsidian)
Addendum: Operative Dawn-Shroud placed on 6-month recovery due to recurring dream phenomenon — “the walls are speaking, and they miss their writer.”
Addendum: Operative Dawn-Shroud recovery confirmed by therapists after 6 month check in. Recommended to return to field as soon as ready.
IV. CORRESPONDENCE — INTERNAL MEMO (CENSORED COPY)
FROM: Director Sashine- Onyx Wind
TO: Field Commander Eriq Aven-Veil
SUBJECT: Pattern Anomalies — 5-Vwù-4437
Commander,
The Madman’s recurrence correlates precisely with the founding dates of all major asylums. His absences match societal breakdowns in mental healthcare—periods when no centralized care existed. The pattern suggests not a man, but a metaphysical response to accumulated psychic imbalance.
We are looking at an archetype that emerges when compassion meets containment. The more institutions built to heal the mind, the more likely he is to knock.
Do not seek to cure him. His existence is the symptom, not the disease.
— Sashine–Onyx Wind, Director of Tranquil Shadows
V. FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT — SURVIVING NURSE TESTIMONY (SPOKEN UNDER DREAM CONNECTION)**
(Recovered from Khenra Asylum Collapse, transcript scrubbed post-interview)
“He was kind. Too kind. He thanked us. He said, ‘You’ve given me walls to contain the wind again.’
I didn’t know what he meant.
The patients started whispering the same lullaby, though they’d never met each other before. I tried to stop them, but the melody changed when I entered the room—it became enchanting
I still hum it sometimes. It helps me sleep. I know I shouldn’t.”
(Subject later underwent dream excision; residual contamination dormant.)
Addendum: Subject: human female, Adelaide Seiver, age 25. found to have killed her husband and two children while under the effects of psychic phenomena relating to The Madman, does not remember any, Therapists working to bring back memories and work through trauma after determining dormancy of psychic residue. -Sashine
VI. APPENDED FRAGMENT (UNAUTHORIZED DOCUMENT – ORIGIN UNKNOWN- OBTAINED FROM ZEVEMLYAN MERCHANT TRADER)
“He comes to take the madness home. We built him new houses, painted white, filled with the screaming. He only knocks when they’re full enough.”
— unsigned note, supposedly found beneath a desk in the ruins of the Hollowmere Asylum.
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