God Cancer

God Cancer is the poison that fells giants, often through their own doing. As one ascends the power heirarchy, the threat posed by others diminishes. There are certain entities simply untouchable by those below, far and away stronger than their colleagues could possibly dream. But no entity is truly safe. There are two constants in the universe for those with the most to lose. The first is that there are always bigger fish in an infinite sea. The second is that you are never so powerful that you are not a threat to yourself.

God Cancer is not to be confused with a reality tumor, which is deliberately employed by a godform to ensure its survival.

## Overview

The mind of a godform is - or has the ability to be - a vast and intricate thing capable of bending much to its whims. Should that mind become feverish, feeble, or fall victim to a form of psychosis, it can turn on itself with disasterous results. In particularly bad cases this can re-write personalities, delete critical memories, fracture the mind into quibbling parts, or result in other, even worse outcomes.

While not a common affliction, god cancer is a phenomenon well supported by practical knowledge and experience. Many people picture a being able to create matter, re-write laws of history, and travel through time as a perfected entity; a somehow flawless construction who's strengths are a subset of some supreme balance within it. This is not true in the slightest. Power is not an indicator of flaw or lack thereof. Many who possess great abilities might be unstable in more ways than one, with unpredictable control over their feats, fixations that hinder them, or other elements proving their imperfect nature.

In addition to this, many upper caliber beings are naturally mercurial. They are unbound to physical form and do not need to place stock in a solid body, mind, or even identity. They rely on no rigid code of conduct for themselves save what they wish there to be. Some may distribute their consciousness across multiple puppet bodies, while others keep it self-contained in a single concept or form of their choice. Still others opt to sprawl it around as an intangible essence, literally filling available space with their thoughts. To such beings, any notion of perfection can be what they deign it to be. There is rarely one to argue whether you are right or wrong when there is nothing stopping whatever decision you make.

All of these options of body and mind are viable, but none of them are flawless or need to remain consistent. They further combine with the flaws inherent in any being to open the door for scenarios where bad impulse control, maladaption, or the wrong thought at the wrong time can do a lot of damage. Human brains might lack the ability to take an intrusive thought like "hurt yourself" and enact it, but for a godform without self-imposed safeguards, there may be no span of time between thought and action, or even any difference between the two. The complications are more problematic when one considers the subconscious or unconscious thoughts a godform might possess, as well as any residual sapiences they form while creating life, thinking about creating life, or just on accident.

## Forms of God Cancer

Most forms of god cancer are much like most forms of human cancer: unnoticed. A godform will have a harmful thought, turn against a part of itself, or bud a small, potentially dangerous new component within its essence. Shortly after this, the being will correct itself: the thought will dilute away, the damage will be repaired, and the invader from within quashed. The godform will move on with its life, blissfully unaware or aware but with no reason to care. Their sheer will and flexibility work in their favor in these instances, allowing seamless continuation and adaptation past the danger.

When sufficiently stressed, damaged, compromised, careless, unlucky, or (usually) a combination of these factors, a godform may contract god cancer that cannot be ignored. These episodes come with potentially deadly symptoms. Conflicting emotions may mutate into separate identities that clash with eachother and separate, pulling the being apart from within. Its body may be overriden by a strong desire to purge issues, but be unable to decide what the issue is and auto-cannibalize the base entity. The small germinated mind once so easily removed with the entity's natural powers now uses those same powers against it, spreading across its essence in an aggressive bid for survival and dominance. In all these cases and more the entity fights against itself or something that was formerly itself, making its conjured foe proportionally dangerous. This is the central facet that makes god cancer so insidious: it turns a being's own powers against it.

The many forms of minor and major god cancer are as varied as their hosts, which is to say infinite.

## Safeguards

Most upper caliber beings are not aware of god cancer any more than a monkey in a tribe is aware of mental illness. It is not an active enough threat to worry or philosophize about, and many go their whole lives without even the slightest trace of an episode. The most well-adjusted beings lay out an immune system network for god cancer without thinking twice; just one of the many wards, restrictions, and protections they might place on themselves to maximize survival. Those who do learn about god cancer often find it only reaffirms what they instinctively understood; putting into words what they "just sort of figured already."

It is possible to construct an immune network so full of redundancies, backup plans, and failsafes that god cancer becomes impossible on its own. It is also possible to construct this network without sacrificing the innate flexibility or transience so many ascendant creatures enjoy, and certain beings pride themselves on having done so.

## Examples

PT has had a complex relationship with this phenomenon.

- N Spider was a victim of god cancer sometime between his creation of the universe and present day, resulting in █ ███ █████ ██ ██ ███ █ "The Director"

- Though The Writer's personality is often airy and carefree, he is known to have specific and intense fears - among them the fear of warring with a higher power and the fear of warring with his own mind. Though he frequently presents himself as a mutable being oblivious to god cancer, he has taken great pains to structure his form in such a way that none of his antics will backfire on him ̶t̶o̶ ̶c̶r̶e̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶E̶d̶i̶t̶o̶r̶

- The Symbol causes God Cancer.

- TFWL Proxies are highly resistant to God Cancer, since they will never question or detract from their motives.