These illnesses affect how the victim perceives the world. For the schizophrenic illnesses, this distortion is often the result of brain damage or a severe chemical or hormonal imbalance (such as an overabundance of dopamine production in the brain.) When the brain is electrically imbalanced, distortions to perception are unavoidable.
[ Active Schizophrenia | Catonic | Disorganized | Size Distortion | Curing ]More of a chemical imbalance than a mental illness, victims of active schizophrenia suffer from hallucinations of all types. Visual hallucinations include seeing wavy lines and/or spots before ones eyes, objects being the wrong colour or texture, double vision, and things being too bright. Auditory hallucinations may include hearing voices, screams, breathing, and footsteps. Unlike dissociative hallucinatory voices, schizophrenic voices do not respond to conversation. Olfactory hallucinations may involve perceiving burning smells or spices. Tactile hallucinations involve the sensation of being touched, or being covered with crawling bugs.
The trigger for this illness is being in a stressful situation. If the panic check is failed, then the victim falls into a delusional state for 1d4 turns per intensity of the insanity. While the insanity is active, the victim is at -4 to initiative and -6 to any task requiring focus and concentration. An invocation that cures diseases will interrupt the psychotic episode, but will not cure the insanity.
A person with active schizophrenia is frequently aware that he or she experiences delusions, but is helpless to penetrate the false sensory input. Of course, there are worse things than false impressions: schizophrenics sometimes experience the inability to hear or see what actually is real.
In this form of schizophrenia, the victim falls into an inert, non-reactive state if a panic check is failed. This non-reactive state is different from sleep, in that shaking or any other kind of physical stimuli cannot rouse the victim. It is different from being in a coma, also, for the body of a catatonic individual can be set into any position, and it will stay in position. A catatonic individual is not limp.
A physician with at least 4 intensities in Herbalism or Chemistry can attempt to rouse a catatonic individual. Like active schizophrenia, catatonia is frequently caused by either brain damage, a structural weakness in the brain, or a severe chemical imbalance. An invocation that cures diseases will interrupt a catatonic cycle, as will the Song of Awakening. However, neither of these procedures will cure the insanity. A catatonic episode lasts for 1d3 hours per intensity of the insanity.
This mental illness has all the features of active schizophrenia, except that the victim cannot be reasoned with while the insanity is active. All actions are random. The victim's speech capabilities are rendered useless, as the victim can only communicate in jumbled collections of words that do not make sense (this is called "word salad" effect). The episode length, triggers, and interrupts are identical to active schizophrenia.
Victims of this mental illness tend to believe that they are either larger or smaller than their actual physical bodies. This has the effect of reducing the victim's dexterity by three points per intensity of the insanity while the insanity is active, and 1 point per intensity while it is in remission. There is no predictable trigger for this illness. It happens at most once per day and lasts for 1d4 turns per intensity of the insanity.
Victims of dissociative identity disorder frequently suffer the effects of this illness when manifesting an alter whose mental-self is not the same size as the primary personality’s physical body.
All of these insanities can only be cured through the methods discussed at the beginning of this section, and even then, it is a difficult task.