Demarcation

Demarcation was a mental affliction that could affect psionicists, but also others under certain circumstances, particularly in the Underdark.
==Acquisition==
Demarcation was a person's belief in their own false delusions in the face of all evidence to the contrary—a loss of the ability to draw a mental line that separates truth and perception. It was also described as 'self-deception'. To some, it was simply called 'madness'.
It could be acquired through a couple of means. One way of becoming sick with demarcation was to use psionic abilities to read the mind of somebody already suffering with it. Because of the nature of the illithid hive mind, that species was noted as being vulnerable to it. Especially persuasive people could charm and convince people that utter falsehoods were actually undeniable truths, which could also inflict demarcation upon them. Those with over-inflated egos or strong senses of pride in themselves could also delude themselves into a state of demarcation.
During the Rage of Demons, the magical influence of demon lords into the already-alien Underdark caused all sorts of mental illnesses in the sapient residents of the Realms Below, with faerzress radiation acting as a catalyst to strengthen those effects even further, potentially causing demarcation. In this form, demarcation was known as the Abyssal affliction.
==Treatment==
A powerful psionicist, or group of psions, were thought by some to be able to treat the disease, but this carried with it the risk of infecting any or all of those psions involved, and so was frowned upon as a treatment option.
Improving one's own self-discipline was also thought of as a potential avenue for treatment, especially if one could achieve the peak of mental and spiritual perfection in the process and gain the ability to experience the higher planes, as some powerful monks were capable of doing.
==Notable Affected==
* Drizzt Do'Urden came down with a very serious case of demarcation after encountering a pocket of demonically infused Faerzress on a journey through the demon-infested Underdark tunnels between Illusk and Menzoberranzan. He convinced himself that all of his friends, many of whom had been brought back from the dead, or had experienced longer-than-expected lifespans, were in fact deceased, and that their resurrections or long lives were all a ploy by Lolth to torture him by giving him joy, only to rip it away from him in the most brutal way possible.
==Appendix==
===References===
Category:Diseases
Category:Mental disorders