Disclaimer: The following document fragment is presented from an in-character perspective, it should not be taken as the truth of the setting.
Context: It was hard to pick out something that will let me post a matching pair this week. But here were are, the through-line between the two excerpts are things that directly damage a human mind. In this first text, we briefly consider cognitohazards and the grand irony behind them.
Cognitohazards.
Basilisc Patterns.
Killing Words.
And so on…
They have many names. And in some cases, there are taxonomical distinctions between them. Yet, at the core, they all work the same way. A cognitohazard binds a subconscious message onto a bit of text, a pattern or an image. This message then strikes at the perceiver through their mind, possibly with lethal consequences.
But let’s not discuss a literal killing word. More can be gained by examining a less barbaric deterrent. Blindness. What then would I need to do to craft an image that renders the perceiver blind, for a time of course.
First, I must delve into the consciousness grid and seek out the qualia of blindness. This becomes much easier were I to find someone who recently lost their sight. The more recent this event, the better. The fresher the experience in their mind, the easier it will be to bind.
From there, I shackle it to my image and let it loose back into the consciousness grid. Delicate willwork, the more carefully it is performed, the longer the pattern will remain potent, possibly for generations to come.
Then and only then, may I inscribe it. But here is the danger of cognitohazards. The one to create it is the one most susceptible to its power. Thus I must craft it without perceiving it, without thinking about it. To create and not think about your creation is an act of will — the source of their rarity.
And thus, the pattern can be placed and seen. And it will devour the perceiver’s sight, for a time at least.
When seen, the user’s mind will experience the imprint and make that qualia its own. It will blind itself, for no reason other than that it will be tricked into believing it is so. It inflicts no damage to the eyes nor the brain, and it is nothing but a delusion of the mind, a self-inflicted rejection of the world’s image.
And thus, you must understand, the killing word does not kill. It is the mind that imagines itself to die, so wholly that it becomes so.
And in this grand irony, it is divine.
Esoteric Musings... 