Karakhai Aberrations
Karakhai abberations are the monsters stemming from the supernatural result of Karakhai (shark men) warping physically and mentally after a lengthy torturous imprisonment.
Due to the way that most sharks' gills function, they have to keep moving forward to keep oxygenated waters entering their gills. In short, a shark must move forward constantly or die.
Karakhai, also known as shark men, are not physically required to keep moving forward. They can breath just fine standing or floating still. That said, karakhai do not like to stay still. They philosophically believe they need to keep moving forward in order to live full lives.
Karakhai are intelligent free willed mortals that can and will choose to remain still when it is advantageous to do so such as waiting out a threat or setting an ambush, but choosing to stand still and being forced to stand still are two different things. Karakhai will literally die in captivity within two weeks.
A karakhai that is imprisoned or bound will rapidly lose strength of will and physical health, normally developing lesions and internal bleeding. If magical healing is periodically applied, a karakhai can theoretically be kept in captivity indefinitely. This will quickly drive a karakhai into terrible madness.
Past the point of madness, a karakhai will physically mutate into a new generally un-sharklike, non-humanoid outer form that reflects their inner madness. It is unknown why this occurs, but many blame the spiteful foul magics of the goddess Taedi who most karakhai hold in contempt though Taedi's core worshipers blame Bellusk, Goddess of Sharks, for this transformation saying she forsakes and abandons any karakhai weak and cowardly enough to allow himself or herself to become imprisoned rather than fight to the death like a proper shark warrior.
Symptoms
It is unheard for mutated karakhai with this condition to become smaller but some retain their same basic mass in a different shape. Others grow grotesquely large as they ensnare more prey and increase their mass slightly after every meal.
They commonly take the form of a fish or other aquatic life that occurs naturally in the seas, but in a hideous and unnatural way that exaggerates the most terrifying and unwholesome aspects of the natural animals, often with enlarged eyes and teeth or gratuitous spikes and other potentially dangerous adornments.
By the point of physical mutation, madness might be a mercy as a karakhai cannot fully comprehend or even physically feel their digits melting away as their limbs disappear or morph into tentacles.
As their physical forms warp and change into something unrecognizable from what they once were, karakhai abominations often develop new mental powers such as telepathy or telekinesis.
Prognosis
Madness is certain. Mutation is near certain though a rare few karakhai abberations can physically pass for a normal karakhai.
A karakhai abberation may retain their intelligence or they may be reduced to bestial instinct. Whatever form the madness takes, a karakhai so afflicted longs to hurt others and make them suffer as s/he suffered. Karakhai will develop physical forms and new powers representing their personalities and the form their madness took during their torturous imprisonment.
There is no known way to cure and rehabilitate a physically mutated karakhai aberration. Most karakhai (and other Scaraquans moderately sympathetic to a suffering karakhai) choose to "cure" karakhai aberrations by putting them out of their misery.
Epidemiology
Most karakhai would rather die than allow themselves to be taken captive and even most of the karakhai's ardent enemies would not go through the time and effort needed to create new karakhai abominations.
That said, Scaraqua has a few sadists and nihilists who think that the seas can use some more exotic monsters.
History
Long ago, Yardenah, a scheming ojiongo hardline worshiper of Taedi who was a powerful theurgist finally turned the table on her long-time rival, a Karakai Khan named Syliria and managed to not just defeat her, but capture her.
Originally her plan was to imprison Syliria and watch her die, but out of sadism she wanted to see if magical healing would let her prolong Syliria's pain and suffering, unwittingly creating the first Karakhai Aberration.
Yardenah kept Syliria bound for roughly a year and showed her prize off to her sociopathic friends among Taedi's most sociopathic worshipers.
Syliria physically morphed into a mutant angler fish with telepathic powers. Eventually the monster-that-was-Syliria was able to use her telepathic powers to trick Yardenah allowing her escape and destroy her tormentor. Then she swam into remote waters to terrorize random Scaraquans swimming in her vicinity for decades to come before a merfolk adventurer managed to take her down.
Cultural Reception
Karakhai fear this sort of transformation worse than death.
Karakhai can be surprisingly forgiving of those who kill other karakhai, especially if it was in fair combat, but they have no no mercy for Scaraquans who willingly inflict this on karakhai, even hated rivals. They will go to great lengths to destroy villains who willingly and willfully create such monsters and they will usually try to put karakhai aberrants out of their misery.
Most other Scaraquans view the practice of creating karakhai aberrant as morally reprehensible, even if they don't like karakhai. Not all Scaraquans are so high-minded, but even if someone has no moral qualms of torturing a shark man like this, they probably see no practical reason to do so. There is a lot of risk for not much gain.
It is no mean feat to imprison a karakhai in the first place. It is hard enough to kill a karakhai, it is much harder to capture a karakhai alive. as most karakhai will fight to the death to avoid imprisonment.
Karakhai aberrants are very hard to control over even direct and while all are incurably mad, most of them remember the person or persons responsible for their suffering and seek appropriate vengeance so deliberately creating karakhai abberations is not a safe idea.
There are some underwater pyschopaths and nihilists that think Scaraqua needs more sea monsters not fewer and they think deliberately shaping these monsters is a good idea.
Entry for Under the Sea Flash Challenge
Type
Supernatural
Origin
Divine
Cycle
Chronic, Acquired
Rarity
Extremely Rare
Affected Species
Thanks for taking part in the unofficial challenge! Creativity: 5 Verisimilitude: 4 Presentation: 4 Shark-people are always cool, and it’s nice to see that this article is well-connected to their culture. That being said, there are some issues with how the flow of information is structured in the article. You start by telling us about sharks, which isn’t really related and could just be condensed into “unlike sharks, Karakhai are not required to”. We don’t start reading about the actual condition itself until the third paragraph, which I think is a bit late. I think you might be better served by opening the article with a brief overview of what the article will be about - hook the reader with an enticing concept. Other parts of the article could use some punching up to really sell the body horror angle. Instead of telling us they are hideous and unnatural, describe it. Instead of writing that they rarely keep their hands and digits, describe how their hands melt and reform, how their fingers rot off and leave way for squirming tendrils, how their arms twist and elongate into impossible, broken shapes. Formatting wise, there are some headers you could skip to make it look a little neater. The information under Treatment and Hosts & Carriers could probably be inserted into other parts of the article, or are redundant. Epidemiology doesn’t seem like the right title for the information contained under it. Some images, quotes, columns would do a lot to spice up the presentation, and if you aren’t using more of the side panel, consider putting the content into the full width footer instead. Finally: there’s no information about why this happens. Why does madness lead to mutation? What attempts are there to find a cure or rescue those captured? What are the storyhooks here, for us to read more about?
Creator of Araea, Megacorpolis, and many others.