Madness

Madness is the measure of the sanity of a character in the face of the horrors that humanity encounters in this dark future. It is a reaction to things humanity was never supposed to witness, things that defy explanation, which will bend their mind until it eventually snaps. This threat might only be to the individual, if the Galaxy was not filled with horrors that are more than happy to make use of individuals whose minds are so shattered that they lack willpower to resist their control.

The average human maintains their sanity through studiously avoiding such horrors - the Imperium actively works to keep them ignorant of the things that truly gnaw at the mind, and through stimulant-laced foodstuffs keeps their mind fuzzy and pliant enough to not truly comprehend the daily horrors around them. An Agent of the Throne cannot afford such luxury - the war the Inquisition fights in the shadows requires their servants to be sharp at all times, even as they stare horrors in the face. No Servant of the Throne can be truly said to be a healthy individual, but their regular exposure to the horrors of the universe does make their minds better able to retain sanity in the face of them.

But no mind is ever truly immune to Madness.

Shaken

When an Agent is exposed to a horror that is too much for their mind to handle - they become Shaken: their mind is now reeling from what it has tried to perceive but cannot. It is not stress (something that most Agents live with daily), nor is it reflective of an individual’s mental health - simply, it’s their mind cracking as it is pushed beyond what it can comprehend.

Roleplaying Shaken is up to the individual - still, we strongly encourage players to avoid trying to replicate real world mental conditions, as such portrayals risk being insensitive to those who live with them daily (even if we do understand that roleplay can unintentionally replicate things without intent). To aid you, you will be issued with a brief before every event with suggested roleplaying effects should you acquire the Shaken status - this brief usually hints at the nature of the Madness effects that will occur when a character Descends into Madness.

Becoming Shaken can happen in a few ways:

• The call Dread in addition to its normal effects causes a character to become Shaken.

• You are instructed to become Shaken as part of a verbal cue given by a monster or a member of the Game Team. Or by a written instruction in the game environment.

• You choose to become Shaken. We trust our players to know what the mental limits of their characters are better than us; if you feel something in RP would leave -your- character Shaken, then you are free to become Shaken.

When a character becomes Shaken, then they remain so until they are able to perform Observances (as described in the Core Concepts section, under “Willpower”). There are methods to suppress the effects of being Shaken - but only performing Observances can truly remove it.

Though the condition is a purely roleplaying-driven one, it does come with the additional risk of Descending into Madness and gaining Madness while it remains active.

Descending into Madness

Within the character pack you will be sent before an event, you will receive two Madness cards - these represent permanent fractures in your character's psyche that they will have to cope with for the remainder of the event.

A character who has their Shaken condition suppressed by another character’s traits cannot Descend into Madness until they are no longer suppressed.

Shaken characters will Descend into Madness in a few ways:

• You hear the call Dread from a source other than the one that caused you to become Shaken, EXCEPT when the new source is similar to the first (For example, a character that was Shaken from seeing a Traitor Astartes would not Descend into Madness if they saw a second one, but would if they saw a Daemon).

• You are instructed to as part of a verbal cue or written instruction (from the game environment) given by a monster or a member of the Game Team.

• You willingly choose to. We trust our players to know what would utterly break their character and fracture their mind. In theory, if you feel an effect is so devastating to your character you are free to bypass Shaken and Descend into Madness immediately.

Upon Descending into Madness, a character should select one of their Madness cards and activate it. If you are in combat, you can choose to do it after the end of combat. Once you choose a Madness card, you are no longer are Shaken - the limits of your mind have been exceeded, and the mental fracture represented on your Madness card manifests.

If a character is unlucky enough to repeat this cycle a second time, then they would activate their second Madness card, and cope with both cards. Should a character reach a third cycle in the same event, please check with a member of the Game Team - there may be no additional effects, or there might be unusual consequences - damaged and unprotected minds are an irresistible call for many horrors of the universe.

The Aftermath

The Inquisition deals with madness on a daily basis, and, as such, has a suite of ways to treat it: the most popular are Mind Wipes. Of course, this is not an ideal method, as the process is neither surgical or precise, which can result in several other memories being wiped in the process, and, in turn, causing unforeseen personality alterations. Even then, a mind wipe is not necessarily permanent, as memories are not always annihilated, rather just suppressed, resulting in the Madness leaking back in. Fortunately, for most Agents, they don’t need this kind of drastic intervention… at least, as far as they can remember.

A character is considered to suffer from a Madness effect for the rest of the event, unless an ingame situation allows them to recover before the end of the game. At the end of an event, it is assumed that the character was given time to decompress, or undergo therapies, spiritual purges or even Mind Wipes in order to restore their mind to a (relatively) healthy state - this is to be decided by the player - the game team will not dictate the narrative of how your character recovers (we are always happy to give suggestions, but they will be no more than that).

However, we also recognise that players might feel incorporating a permanent RP effect into their character is something they would like, and have fun with. For this reason, you are free to decide that your character's mind is not restored following the game, and continue roleplaying the effect. In some cases, this may also be the basis of a very valid Scar, if you want to add a mental one into your character.