The Anapaest

Talpa Fatuus, also known as The Anapaest, is a promotion that the PC can obtain. The PC can choose either this promotion, or Heart in the Hole.

Taken directly from Black Crown
The Widsith Institute

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Common Name: The Anapaest (Talpa Fatuus) D.O.A.F.P.I.: //::\\1925LV Incubation Period: 72 hours

Prognosis

An infection of the eye, transmitted by contact with contaminated oils, usually animal, and usually whilst cooking ritual food.

Object of study begins with minor glaucoma, pressure caused by a tertiary infection leading to excessive pus mattressing behind both orbits. Every available bird-space is filled, giving the object a feeling of heaviness behind the eyes. Excessive head-nodding may be noted at this point by loved ones.

The next stage involves swelling and edema of the eyelids, leading to a folk-condition known as "Queenly Drapes". The eye takes on the appearance of bunched curtains or sheets, and the blink reflex becomes more and more suppressed.

Eventually the swelling will subside enough for most objects to open their eyelids again, though the sloughing usually begins at around the second week of infection. The eyes of the object of study will begin shedding layers of flesh and aqueous like a peeled vegetable, regressing in size and position to the back of the socket. Significant lens distortion will make normal sight difficult at times, if not impossible, and in some severe cases the lens can be flipped completely, giving the object a view of their own interior cosmology.

In these cases, the infected have reported a dizzying array of symptoms - the discovery of new celestials, of muscae volitantes revolving into new species of creature, of maps being plotted on the inner curve of the eyeball itself, and sometimes, a clouded sun which is considered to be at the very centre of the eye's jelly, but which may in fact be a huge, interior cataract.

A psychological component, due to pressure on the brain, has not been proven as of this worming.

Case Notes

Also known by the following common names (subject to regional variation and folkloristic disagreement) - "onioneye", "Haley's Squint", "lunking" and the "Diminishing Gaze".

Considered responsible for most savant theories of Hollow Earth.

Can be cured very simply with a poultice of herbs (grillow, creamhove, knach-is-laughing) applied to the infected area.

For extended study, see also "The Smoky God" by Willis George Emerson.

Trivia
An anapaest is a metrical foot used in poetry.