Random Onset Telepathy

== Biology ==
Causes unrelated individuals to share information, visions, skills and senses of each other. These people, known as Rotters, are linked together by a yeast infection (unrelated to Saccharomyces Demonica) that causes the halves of the brain to merge. Treatment is nonexistent besides violent lobotomy to separate the merged halves of the brain. 
R.O.T. is caused by an infection of yeasts in the Dalmer organism. It is not considered a demonic gift, despite its similarity. 
=== Birthing ===
At the beginning of a cluster’s rebirth, the parent visits each of the activated in the cluster then the cluster begins to experience severe migraines for a few days. The physics of ROT connection involve an intangible substance called Dreadnet, a psychic nervous system. This connection can be temporarily cut by ingesting blockers, disconnecting them from the Dreadnet and temporarily turning them into ordinary Dalmer again. 
It is unknown if any Rotter can give birth to a cluster or if it requires something to give birth to a cluster. A Rotter that is capable of birthing, can give birth to a cluster regardless of their gender and age and can give birth multiple times to different clusters. The parent's memories and experiences are also transferred to the Rotters in the cluster, in the form of a partial UC. This is why the parent of a cluster can resonate within it even after they die.
The biological children of a Rotter can inherit the same abilities as their parents. However, like any genetic disposition, it can skip generations and siblings of Rotters may not display ROT abilities. However, it is possible for siblings to be born ROT victims. The collective of clusters is known as the Call Network. 
== Abilities ==
After the activation, the Dreadnet, a psychic nervous system present within all Dalmer, becomes active and allows the ROT victims to telepathically and sympathetically connect to their cluster. This connection grants the activated in the cluster three main abilities. These abilities are visiting each other's minds, sharing knowledge and skills and the ability to possess each other in times of danger, and their psychic link. 
=== Visiting ===
Visiting is an ability only accessible by Rotters who have made eye contact or are in the same cluster. Visiting Rotters are mentally transported to the location of another Rotter, occasionally switching between both of their locations. 
Blockers can silence the Dreadnet within a Rotter and prevent visiting.
Visiting happens when Rotters mentally communicate with each other. Rotters are seemingly mentally transported to each others' locations and experience everything the other feels within that environment. Rotters communicate with other Rotters telepathically but often speak out loud when visiting another Rotter. Rotters can learn to communicate and interact with each other purely in their minds without speaking.
Visiting is done instinctively within a cluster, especially when they are in need of help. But visiting can also be done with other Rotters outside of the cluster. This is only after physical firsthand, eye-to-eye contact has been made. A Rotter can also learn to prevent visiting Rotters from seeing their environment. 
Visiting often works hand-in-hand with a Rotter's psychic link; utilizing both, Rotters can access any of the five senses through a fellow Rotter, allowing them to perceive the world around them through another Rotter's eyes. This also includes physical contact, such as with one another. It is not possible to visit a Rotter when they are heavily drugged or unconscious, but visiting is possible when the Rotter is asleep allowing Rotters to share dreams with one another.
Visiting is the most common method of interacting with a Rotter. However, it may not always be desirable. Hunters track clusters by making eye contact with a Rotter and visiting them to find their location. Then they track them down and kidnap them, forcing them to reveal the locations of the rest of the cluster.
Hunters are able to visit members of a cluster by proxy through a captured member. This involves inducing acute pain in a member of the target cluster while said member is connected to special equipment. This enables the perpetrator to sense the surroundings of one or more members of the cluster, as the perpetrator visits in the place of the painstruck victim. The connection is not permanent nor stable, and it is unknown if pain is the best way to reproduce the phenomenon. 
Rotters experience the following when visiting:
* Can only be seen and heard by the Rotter they are visiting.
* Can communicate with the Rotter they are visiting. Within a cluster there are no language barriers.
* Can feel the same sensations as the person they are visiting.
* Can share sensations with each other purely through the mind. 
* Can vaguely read the thoughts and feelings of the person they are visiting.
* Even if only one member of the cluster has established eye contact with another Rotter they can allow other members of the cluster to speak through them and communicate with that Rotter. 
* In special cases, Rotters visiting the same person can see and interact with each other, provided they are from the same cluster or have all previously made eye contact.
* It is possible for Rotters within a cluster to visit each other while asleep allowing them to share dreams with one another.
=== Sharing ===
Sharing is an ability allowing Rotters from the same cluster to share knowledge, language, and skills. All Rotters within a cluster have the ability to share with one another at will and sometimes incidentally without the borrower nor sharer being aware of gaining or lending knowledge.
The act of sharing is when a Rotter accesses the knowledge, language and skills of another Rotter. Sharing can only be done inside the cluster. In the case of skills, sharing allows a Rotter to physically control a fellow Rotter as they watch. Sharing can also be done by Rotters outside of the cluster through a procedure which involves lobotomizing the Rotter.
All Rotters within a cluster can not only share as a group but also focus their respective skills into one member of the cluster. Rotters have simultaneous access to all the skills of several members of their respective clusters.
Rotters are constantly mentally sharing with others in their cluster. Due to the constant sharing of abilities and knowledge between Rotters, the act of sharing could occur without the consent of the Rotters in times of great need.
Borrowers can perform sharing without the consent of the Rotter they are acquiring the needed skills from.
Sensing another Rotter's need or desire, borrowers can choose to be mentally present at another Rotter's location and either perform actions for the receiver or witness the receiver use the borrower's knowledge and skills. When receivers are in desperate need of aid from other Rotters, borrowers' may unintentionally share their abilities without full contact with the receiver. Borrowers, while sharing unintentionally, may mentally sense another Rotter using borrowers' abilities but may choose not to interfere with the receivers' actions.
When sharing takes place, the receiver may see the borrower present. If the borrower is not present during sharing, the receiver will use the abilities of the borrower while mentally appearing like the borrower Rotter. 
=== Psychic Link ===
Rotters within a cluster are mentally and emotionally connected. At first, the connection manifests as sensory input, where one experiences something with their senses that another experiences at that same moment. Gradually, their link strengthens to the point where they feel each other's thoughts, emotions and memories.
=== Telepathic radiation ===
Experiments on R.O.T. affected Dalmer show that brain dead dalmer retain telepathic abilities with their cluster. They gain the ability to emit massive amounts of radiation at random from one of the cluster members. This is incredibly dangerous and warrants the search and capture of the other cluster members.
When together, they can release the radiation in a precise area. The Dalmer tried to spread this ability to the general population, but it failed every time, resulting in death. In reality it is learned that these dalmer have had their animus removed, corrupted and replaced. 
=== Zombie control ===
Another ability is that people who suffer from ROT can control zombies. These specific zombies are lobotomized bodies dipped in vats of stimpacks for combat usage, they are known as combat corpses.
== Mechanics ==
Those suffering from ROT are indistinguishable from ordinary Dalmer but possess a dormant connection to their cluster that must be activated by a ROT victim outside of the cluster, referred to as the cluster's parent. Once the connection is activated every member of the cluster is “activated”. A cluster can be as small as 2 with no perceivable limit to the size of a cluster. Before this connection is activated ROT victims are, for the most part, ordinary with the exception of occasionally forming a psychic link to other victims via direct eye contact. However, these connections are not as strong as those who were activated and may not form even with eye contact. 
=== Census ===
ROT was such a widespread epidemic that the dalmer eventually incorporated it into their culture, developing an empire wide communication system. To do this citizens are required to look into a screen at the same time once a year, as a form of census and to keep the Call Network whole. Those who do not take the census generally have good reasons to not want to be on the grid.
=== Cluster ===
Clusters are groups of Rotters. Every Rotter is part of a cluster, which can be as small as 2. Members of a cluster are born on the same day at the same moment. 
A cluster has to be reborn by a Rotter outside the cluster activating their innate connection to each other, called birthing. Before this connection is activated Rotters are, for the most part, ordinary humans with the exception of occasionally forming a psychic link to other Rotters via direct eye contact. However, these connections are not as strong as the connections formed by "reborn" Rotters and "unborn" Rotters may form no connections. Rotters who birth clusters can give birth multiple times to different clusters throughout their lives.
Once established, the bond between the Rotters within a cluster builds up over time, to the point where members of the cluster can share and visit each other easily and understand one another despite speaking in different languages.
Each Rotter within the cluster can be considered one part of a larger whole. While all Rotters who make direct eye contact can visit each other, only Rotters within the same cluster can share skills, languages, and knowledge. Rotters communicate with other Rotters telepathically, but can learn to communicate and interact with each other purely in their minds, exchanging conversation and physical contact without speaking or touching.
=== Parents ===
Parents are the only Rotters that can mentally contact the entire cluster without being part of the cluster itself. This is limited, however, Rotters outside of a cluster can only visit and not share but a cluster's parent can communicate with their "children" with no language barriers. A cluster parent passes on a fraction of their memories, sense experience, and consciousness to the clusters they birth in the same way a physical birth passes on genes. Rotters who are neither members of the same cluster nor the cluster's parent can only visit Rotters outside their cluster once they make direct eye contact with them.
=== Eye contact connection ===
Eye Contact Connection (ECC) is an action that allows Rotters outside a cluster to share the same psychic link. This is activated through eye-to-eye contact. This connection may occur even before a Rotter is re-born. There is no limit to the number of connections a senate can form through eye contact. The eye contact connection may be undesirable. Hunters commonly use this connection to hunt targets.
Numerous cross-cluster links are established without proper and direct eye contact, however some kind of mutual glance is still needed. Quickly skimming through a crowd of people could be enough, should another Rotter be watching. Blockers prevent the formation of these connections.
=== Blockers ===
Blockers are a lab-created substance encapsulated in pills that, when consumed by Rotters, silence the Dreadnet within their bodies, closing them off from their cluster and other Rotters.
The origin of blockers is to allow Rotters to temporarily become ordinary Beings and wander the world as they did before their rebirths. While on blockers Rotters are incapable of communicating with other Rotters or forming new connections via eye contact.
=== Dreadnet ===
Dreadnet is a psychic nervous system that allows Rotters to connect with one another. It originates in a Dalmers beard, which emits a corrupted type of snow, leading to the two halves of the brain merging. 
Hunters possess technology that can trace a Dreadnet connection by administering a drug that causes acute pain so that once a Rotter is captured, they can locate any connected Rotters through that shared pain. There exists a drug that can temporarily cut a Rotter off from the Dreadnet called Blockers, rendering them unable to visit or share with any other Rotter.
=== The Call Network ===
The Call is a network of Rotters that communicate with each other to exchange information or resources. The Call network eventually became massive enough that the Dalmer officially adopted the system, calling it the calling ability. Originally, the Call Network adopted terrorist tactics to spread R.O.T. by birthing clusters in public areas, somehow bypassing the need for the subjects to be the same age. The side effects of these attacks were headaches, visual, tactile and auditory hallucinations, spiritual displacement and disorientation.
Category:Conditions
Category:Dalmer
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