Mutation
What is Madness?
Section titled “What is Madness?”Madness is a value from 0% to 100% that represents how close a Beyonder is to losing their mind — and their powers — entirely.
It replaces the old Safe Mode system. There is no longer a way to simply “turn on” protection. Instead, every Beyonder must actively manage their Madness level.
Madness will gradually decrease on its own over time, but the recovery is extremely slow. Certain spells can also reduce it.
Two Types of Madness
Section titled “Two Types of Madness”There are two distinct types of Madness, and they behave very differently:
| Type | Description | Can it be healed? |
|---|---|---|
| Temporary Madness | Standard Madness gained from most sources | Yes — slowly over time, or via certain spells |
| Permanent Madness | Madness gained from specific actions (e.g. non-adjacent pathway switch) | No — cannot be treated by any means |
Your total Madness is the sum of both types. Even if you heal all your Temporary Madness, your Permanent Madness remains forever.
What can cause Madness?
Section titled “What can cause Madness?”There are several ways to accumulate Madness:
- Drinking a potion without completing your ritual
- Switching to a non-adjacent pathway (grants Permanent Madness)
- Being driven crazy by your own abilities (e.g. Hanged Man pathway)
- Being driven crazy by other players’ abilities (e.g. Visionary pathway)
- Overusing Spirituality recklessly
What are the effects of high Madness?
Section titled “What are the effects of high Madness?”High Madness doesn’t just threaten mutation — it actively impairs your abilities:
- Slower Spirituality regeneration — the higher your Madness, the slower your spiritual energy recovers
- Spell lockout — at sufficiently high Madness, random spells may become unavailable to you until your Madness drops
What is a Mutation?
Section titled “What is a Mutation?”If your Madness reaches 100%, this triggers a Mutation — a catastrophic loss of control:
- You will lose all your abilities permanently
- You will lose your pathway and sequence
- You will lose all your items
- Your stripped power may manifest as a powerful mutant creature that hunts you and nearby players
- If the mutant is killed, it may drop a Beyonder Characteristic of your Sequence
- You will receive a cooldown of three real days before you can become a Beyonder again