Animescence is, as far as I know, a rarely mentioned and hardly explored phenomenon in Fallen London. What I am wondering is, what its effect is on the "removablity" of the soul and whether or not it can be contained.
Soul trading is a thing. There are more than enough people running around without a soul. Should it thus not be possible to simply remove the "infected" soul without a replacement?
Building on that: We know souls can be kept in jars, but what about infected souls? If animescence is literally a burning soul, should it not be - and I am aware of how stupid this sounds - possible to "cure it" by extinguishing the fire through cold, deprivation of Oxygen, etc.? Keep in mind, souls should not be flammable in the first place. If it is a heat developing phenomenon, i.e. the souls just get hotter, removing it for treatment would still be viable.
Finally, how contagious is animescence? By what is it stopped? Example: Being intimate with someone afflicted is out of the question - but living on one ship seems to not be enough. Could it spread through glass?
Why is this important?
Hell.
Animescence eventually consumes the soul and its host, but the symptoms are not immediately visible. While devils don’t have a soul to suffer it, their daily trade are souls. Given how rare animescence is, there should be more than one devil/person who has never seen an animescent soul - which could result in entire warehouses (or wherever they stash them) going up in flames. Given how the war between church and hell is still very much alive, Animescence seems like a very "religious" attack. And there is, of course, "Fighting fire with fire."
Though I could just be lacking information I just haven’t found. shrugs edited by Jillius on 12/5/2016
One could imagine that removing a soul causes it to combust faster, or there is something inherently perilous about the process of Abstraction. Perhaps the main purpose of a physical body is simply a cooling mechanism for souls, the same way that Romans originally thought the brain was a cooling mechanism for blood.
The progression of the condition seems to be altered by the emotional experience of the afflicted, so I would assume that the fire is not purely of physical origin (although it could still have physical properties). It would be useful to know if Animescence is spread by contagion, or whether it can be "spontaneous." It could be psychosomatic, or memetic, and still behave like a contagious disease, to the extent that "inflamed passions" can be transmitted from a speaker to an audience. edited by PSGarak on 12/5/2016
In Zubmariner, there is an animescence patient thronged by foolish admirers hoping to catch the disease. And I think I remember some text from an animescence hospital in which you are addled by a moment of inflamed sensations and need to take a rest for your safety. So most likely it is contagious.
I believe it is contagious upon the death of someone who is infected. The nature of the burning of a soul, when considering just what a soul IS in this universe, is more likely to be like nuclear fusion/fission than a plain old fire. You aren’t going to put it out by dumping water on it or depriving it of oxygen. My theory is that Animescence is what happens when a soul attempts to undergo metamorphosis, but does not meet the conditions needed in order to do so.
In any case Hell likely already knows all about it and wants nothing at all to do with it. Devils know all about souls, they basically have a sixth sense about them; They’d likely sense that something is very very off about a soul presented to them that is infected with animescence. Plus extracting such a soul might just send the entire place up in a nuclear fireball when you remove it from the body that’s containing it, and likely catch animescence yourself in the process. edited by Addis Rook on 12/6/2016
[quote=PSGarak]One could imagine that removing a soul causes it to combust faster, or there is something inherently perilous about the process of Abstraction. Perhaps the main purpose of a physical body is simply a cooling mechanism for souls, the same way that Romans originally thought the brain was a cooling mechanism for blood.[/quote]This I would argue to be disproven by the Soul Trade: If it was so dangerous, Devils would not do it with such abandon as seen in "the Urchin and the Devil" card.
[quote=Mint Humbugs]The problem with removal is partially that it cooks people from the inside out. By the time you see the symptoms, there may be terrible organ damage from your organs getting baked by your soul. The heat might even spread to the rest of your body in a chain reaction of sorts.[/quote]Arguably disproven by Sunless Sea content: One reported case lived with animescence for some time with the disease, without lasting damage after being cured. Also, the person was apparently aware of her condition pretty soon. This would be in line with TheThirdPolice’s observation.
[quote=TheThirdPolice]In Zubmariner, there is an animescence patient thronged by foolish admirers hoping to catch the disease. And I think I remember some text from an animescence hospital in which you are addled by a moment of inflamed sensations and need to take a rest for your safety. So most likely it is contagious.[/quote]That’s particulary interesting in so far as it gives an idea of the transmission as well. I assume you have neither been bitten nor come into any other form of contact with body fluids? In that case it would sound a lot like catching the flu. If it truly is, then an animescent soul could in fact be contained in a glass without further threat of infection.
[quote=Addis Rook]
In any case Hell likely already knows all about it and wants nothing at all to do with it. Devils know all about souls, they basically have a sixth sense about them; They’d likely sense that something is very very off about a soul presented to them that is infected with animescence.[/quote]Difficult to say, there has not been any observed mention of devils and animescence. Further, I don’t believe their knowledge of the illness is too great, given the Elder Continents perticular circumstances as well as the fact that the illness consumes the soul, i.e. it never reaches whatever afterlife there is. One might compare it to the old "If a tree in the forest fell and no one heard it…" I would also argue that devils can notice soullessness, but not the quality of a soul while in the body. Their general modus operandi is to liberal for them to know what they’re going to get.
One of the Sunless Sea characters with animescence is a ship’s doctor, and she assures you that there’s no danger of transmission until the moment of her death. The other one says that she contracted animescence because she was in the grip of strong emotions when someone nearby burst into flames.
Keep in mind that doctors have only recently come to accept that many diseases are caused by very small creatures, and not by foul smells. These doctors may not know what animescence actually is.
[quote=PJ]One of the Sunless Sea characters with animescence is a ship’s doctor, and she assures you that there’s no danger of transmission until the moment of her death. The other one says that she contracted animescence because she was in the grip of strong emotions when someone nearby burst into flames.
Keep in mind that doctors have only recently come to accept that many diseases are caused by very small creatures, and not by foul smells. These doctors may not know what animescence actually is.[/quote]It seems there are conflicting informations about the spreading of the illness. But you are right, as of now, the medical knowledge is wanting, even among doctors, so I guess we’ll have to wait until new and definite information is implemented.