It's a setting for fiction and possibly RPG I'm developing.
me on /tg/ wrote: >>2365061
Emotions as a disease? Hm.
In that vein, any type of mental imbalance as a communicable disease.
Ironic, since it's nearly a central theme to a fiction series I'm writing (slowly)
Sigh. At risk of spoiling..
The year was a few million BC in the past.
There is an ancient intelligent disease called Oshunum Ajogun that changes the way in which a spirit processes illiaster (see Orishas religion; Oshun implies the stomach chakra), the malleable ambient living energy of ether. The essence gathered normally just by 'breathing' but these angel-like beings are infected, changed, and chaos breaks out.
A war against instability begins as traditional hierarchies of power are turned upside down since these changed spirits must now consume other spirit-beings to absorb their pre-digested energy, or risk becoming some boney, raging monstrosity like something out of a Beksinski painting as they digest themselves.
First the Sol system is cut off. Isolated. Quarantined.
Then the infection is prevented from getting through to a select few colonies, namely Earth and a few other planets.
Mars becomes a penal colony for still-sentient yet infected spirits.
The moon and some carefully watched regions near Earth are held as neutral grounds for potentially infected spirits, such as fey and some various mythological beings.
The Earth spirits get lucky as mortal life evolves in their little haven, and they use reincarnation as a filtering process to remove many other mental and etheric impurities. Perhaps someday, they pray, a cure could be found for the devils.
For now, there is only war as past lovers and friends are now infectious and mentally unstable foreigners seeking to crack open their egg of protection.
The year is now 3056 AD.
Earth is devoid of life thanks to the Grey Death and there is now an explosion of confused spirits once again within the haven area, unfinished and some times unclean.
Angels, named the Benu, solidify forces against the new threat... but they have taken far too extreme measures.
Preparations are made to wage war against older, inhumanoid forces just beyond the Oort cloud, and rejoin contact with the lost empires, but it is unknown which side fate favors within the Sol system.
At first I had been attempting a novelette, but after 3 rewrites of the first few chapters I've decided on some scattered one-shots in the same setting. Maybe if it coalesces nicely it'll become a book but in the mean time I'm aim lower.
How's that so far?
Pardon the delay, I hadn't actually written a synopsis for this so far until now.
>>2365302
People, as spirit or human?
I push the concept of Cartesian Dualism, really, but for this series a person is roughly defined by the presence of: (and I'll go dig up my notes to CP, rather than write this crap out)
1. humanoid head and torso with at least 1 eye, a nose, an ear, and a mouth. Perhaps less.
2. human torso with 7 chakra: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, white, each with its own directives and intake (unless changed by another force)
3. Seat of Ka, Heart of Chi, and Mind of Judgement; these are abstractions and can not be located specifically, but defined through interaction
4. The Black Naga (kundalini) which is mysterious near-universal cause of sentient suffering but also of potentially unlimited godhood (read: GAR Limit Breaks); located as an ephemereal living cadeuceus wrapped around the spine
The concept of OA infection (Devil Disease) is as follows; it's a humanoid virus. Many things in Sol aren't affected, but they don't want beings around that are. Likewise, there are more spirit-viruses than OA. Many, MANY more.
Think of it as like playing "Pandemic 2" with Oshunum-A as a virus that infects millions but doesn't DO anything.
Then, suddenly, it wakes up.
Entire continents and cities are suddenly pulled towards the urge to slay and devour the weak, helpless, and different, and every effort to cure the disease is thwarted by some kind of subconscious, subtle hivemind effect.
Not only that, but the spirits start sprouting blades and scales and RAGE when their lives are threatened.
It's your classic zombie story with a tweeeest.
So, yeah, there's reason for splitting a certain segment of incurable diseased maniacs away from the healthy population, but over time the infection goes asleep and devilkind form their own culture on Mars and beyond.