Warden’s Madness

Acute Violence-Induced Law Enforcement Psychopathy, more commonly referred to as **Warden's Madness**, is a unique mental affliction that emerged within elements of the Coalition of Intelligent Organisms' Galactic Police, specifically their Wardens and Megawardens, during the late Coalition Dark Age. Characterized by violent tendencies, irrational obsessions and paranoia, Warden's Madness has been the downfall of many great officers within the Galactic Police, and is partially responsible for the poor reputation the GP gained among some elements of the Coalition public.

## Discovery

The tendency for the upper officers of the Coalition GP to be ruthless and violent is not something that was considered particularly abnormal within Coalition society, even before the discovery of Warden's Madness. Though the GP had remained a smaller, somewhat passive institution for much of the Coalition's earlier history, the progression into the Coalition Dark Age demanded a larger, more militarized police force that would be able to suppress the growing dissent forming in Coalition border colonies and the lower layers of the Coalition Dyson Spheres. This law enforcement militarization, which entailed more violent acts on behalf of GP officers overall in the pursuit of justice, caught many of the Coalition's inhabitants off guard, as they had previously thought of the GP as a much more benevolent institution. This led to a violent retaliation from the Coalition's disenfranchised masses, which, in turn, led to further militarization of the GP. This vicious cycle, which persisted throughout much of the Coalition Dark Age, is what caused the GP to gradually evolve into the aggressive, highly-militarized organization they would come to be recognized as during the later portions of Coalition history, such as the Second Coalition Golden Age. Though the Coalition government was now able to quell dissent more directly and effectively, the changes they made to the GP had numerous unintended side effects, and the toll the GP's new behavior was taking on its officers started to become very apparent.

While it may have manifested itself several decades prior, the first official case of Warden's Madness occurred in a Chusumian Megawarden named Jal Tryane. Jal, though a very effective Megawarden by all accounts, began to show telltale signs of early-stage Warden's Madness around the midpoint of his career. He devoted himself more and more to fighting the newly-emerging Steel Syndicate, and began to grow restless at all times. He trusted his officers and fellow Megawardens less and less, withdrawing from his friends in the GP. With nothing else to occupy his time, he began to execute direct attacks on the Steel Syndicate by himself, against the orders of the GP Commissioner. Eventually, the Commissioner chose to exile Jal to an isolated mining colony on the fringe of Coalition space for 15 years, stripping him of his rank and taking away his GI-25 battlesuit. Jal spent only a single year on this colony, however, as, having been deprived of his ability to attack the Steel Syndicate, his condition progressed rapidly. He eventually convinced himself that he had to escape the planet and get his equipment back as soon as possible, or the Steel Syndicate "would win." In a daring move, Jal hijacked an ore freighter visiting the planet, killing everyone on board, and piloting the freighter back to his home base on the planet Lyloto. He was quickly caught by GP officers stationed on the planet and, once they had figured out exactly what he had done, promptly executed. Jal's behavior forced the GP Commissioner to address the problem concerning the violent tendencies of GP officers directly, and the acknowledgement of a new mental affliction characterized by behavior similar to that of Jal's was created, dubbed Warden's Madness.

## Symptoms

Due in part to a lack of funding, and a lack of interest in the question, the Coalition's scientific departments have never fully answered the question as to how Warden's Madness develops within the psyche of GP officers. However, there are several factors that can make a person more susceptible to the onset of Warden's Madness. Lonesome individuals, those that come from particularly troubled pasts, or those with preexisting mental afflictions are at a higher risk for developing Warden's Madness than individuals with better mental health, and, in the event they do develop the affliction, their symptoms progress much more rapidly than in other cases. Warden's Madness is known to progress in three stages, each more dire than the last. Stage 1 is marked by a withdrawal from administrative duties and a susceptibility to distractions. Though they are usually still amiable during this time, individuals with stage 1 Warden's Madness will become more distracted and may be unable to fulfill their administrative duties, resulting in possible expulsion from the GP. Some individuals will seek out greater thrills during stage 1 Warden's Madness, which often entails participating directly in police raids and operations, as a way of compensating for their poorer ability to concentrate, which can accelerate their progression into the second stage of the illness. Stage 2 Warden's Madness is where the more characteristic symptoms of the illness manifest. During this stage, an individual will become more paranoid, sleeping less often and lashing out at their fellow officers for trivial reasons. Violent tendencies usually emerge during this period, and often result in the individual becoming needlessly brutal and destructive during operations. Sometimes, an individual with stage 2 Warden's Madness will develop a strange obsession with a specific object, person or organization, and become absolutely committed to either destroying it, or capturing it. Jal Tyrane developed one of these obsessions himself with the Steel Syndicate, as did the infamous Ylyssa Kalypso after encountering Alek Leagr. Though these obsessions are often hateful in nature, there are situations in which an individual with Warden's Madness can become infatuated with a particular individual instead. A Megawarden known as Jeddek'Tul is a good example of this, as he developed Warden's Madness around the middle of his career and quickly became fixated on a notable privateer called Etoc Malia, going to extensive lengths to capture and imprison him on a prison satellite in order to make him his personal sex slave. The danger an individual poses to both themselves and to others in stage 2 Warden's Madness is great, so it is uncommon for individuals to survive long enough to reach stage 3. However, if they do, the consequences are grave. By stage 3, all of the previous symptoms of Warden's Madness will become even more pronounced, and the afflicted individual will begin to exhibit suicidal tendencies. This usually manifests in the form of extremely violent acts that put the individual at a significant risk of killing themselves inadvertently, such as detonating grenades directly next to them or dropping into a planetary incursion from low orbit. While only a select few individuals have progressed to stage 3 Warden's Madness, they have all left violent legacies in their wake, dying in notoriously spectacular and gruesome ways.

Even though knowledge of the affliction existed within the Coalition GP for millennia, no clear solution ever emerged to fix the problem. Debates over the exact nature of the affliction emerged due to the tremendous disparities between cases. Different people exhibited the symptoms of Warden's Madness in different ways, and while there were consistencies between these cases, their differences were too great to overlook. Some continued to doubt that Warden's Madness was even a real mental affliction, claiming the similarities between cases were purely coincidental. Later on, when Asul Evir, the creator of eighth generation Neurosynapse Links, went insane and committed suicide, many were quick to blame the increasing onset of Warden's Madness on him, claiming the use of Neurosynapse Links in the battlesuits of Coalition Wardens and Megawardens was interfering with their brain chemistry and triggering the development of the affliction. There was no definitive proof of this occurring, but the odd nature of ninth generation Neurosynapse Links, created by Asul shortly before his suicide, are suspected to have been partially responsible for the perpetuation of this rumor. During his time as GP Commissioner, Willam Helburg took a different stance towards the Warden's Madness problem. He bestowed more freedoms on Coalition Wardens and Megawardens, giving them more direct control over their officers and allowing them to participate directly in operations more frequently. His philosophy was that violence was actually meditative for those suffering from Warden's Madness, and that, by allowing them to brutalize their opponents without fear of repercussions, their symptoms would progress more slowly or even reverse. While these changes, known collectively as the Helburg Reformation, did increase the level of violence GP officers used during their operations, there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that it alleviated the Warden's Madness problem, ensuring this affliction would persist within the GP for the rest of the Coalition's history.