091 - Echoing Tarantism

Unnatural Phenomenon: Echoing Tarantism

Persistent belief spun into tradition fossilizes as the bedrock on which we build our societies. Even as it is left behind it echoes in the wake of new culture. Below the surface of our lives the invisible ripples of those who come before us sit frozen, waiting to be called up.

Tarantism is a type of mass hysteria localised in southern Italy in the 16th century, the idea that death from spider bite could only be avoided by frantic dancing. It is not the only kind of dancing mania, but it’s prevalence became steeped into local culture and eventually forgotten but persisted in the form of tarantella music. Other buried cultural detritus persists: the nursery rhyme “Humpty Dumpty” hides its origin as the story of a canon defending a town before being lost in a swamp in a story about an egg-king as do many nursery rhymes of the period. Contrary to popular belief “Ring Around the Rosie” is not about the plague but has its roots in earlier pagan traditions, and yet...

These things act as rich veins in the firmament of the collective unconsciousness, hidden beneath the sod laid down in our daily lives and giving shape to what comes after. During periods of upheaval errant (or purposeful) magickal discharge can bring them to the surface. Modern day witch-hunts after political and social unrest are one potential example, the evil ultimately the responsibility of its perpetrators but spurred by careless release of magickal energies. Anti-vaxxing could be another example, the impulse of ancient mistrust lodging itself in a vulnerable mind and resolving as a modern-day superstition. It's more likely that both are tragically mundane in origin but they show what is possible. Negative examples of this phenomenon are far more common than the positive or at least manage to propagate more easily, which probably says something very unfortunate about humanity as a whole.

In practice this effect is a minor compulsion lensed through long lost cultural baggage which manifests as a rank 5 stress check on a relevant meter to push away the intrusive thoughts. People with a stronger and less in-tune sense of identity are less vulnerable: reduce the rank of the check by 1 for those without any failed Self notches and by a further 1 for each relevant passion or obsession that is contrary to the impulse. Additional protection subject to being culturally divorced from the source is up to GM discretion. Typically it scatters randomly among the local population, ricocheting between up to 1d10 individuals before it peters out or until someone fails their check or gives in. Any persistent behaviour after the initial impulse has nothing to do with the phenomenon, it’s just people rationalizing their psychological inertia.

Some cabals will try to take advantage of this effect by deliberately channelling their energies towards causing a cultural landslide to expose what’s underneath, this can be hazardous for them since the techniques usually require you to metaphorically stand directly in the danger zone. It also requires either fortuitous history or the ability to fake it. Deliberately “salting the mine” by spreading urban myths about the antiquity isn’t just a way to give whatever you’re selling a pedigree, false beliefs about the past can be just as virulent as real history.