One of the phenomenons exclusive to Fragile Dreamscape, causing mortals to be turned into monsterous beings (often representing their warped self) under certain circumstances. For the most parts of the world, they're seen as dangerous monsters known to hurt and kill the mortals.
They were first sighted during the Grieving World era, and they're often a target of researches/studies.
Cause
During the Fragile Lands era, various great cracks occured onto the world itself, making the physical essence of the world itself—Concentrated Memories that were parts of the world itself—seeped out. Attempts to seal the cracks were made by Vi and Genofi at first, but it's something akin to endless labor that made their existence hang on a thin line. Whenever a crack is sealed, another one occurs.
In a nutshell, it's caused by a mortal's shattered sense of self, combined with being exposed to Concentrated Memories. Think of the situation like this: a mortal's self is represented by an unfertilized egg. Being exposed to Concentrated Memories is akin to fertilizing the egg and letting the embryo—the Behemoth—develop. Once the egg is cracked by self-shattering events, a Behemoth comes out. (Note that it's still very possible to develop symptoms of this phenomenon, if your sense of self has already been broken years ago and you ended up being exposed to Concentrated Memories later on.)
But more often than not, said Behemoth would be very young by the time they hatched, and they would still cling onto the broken eggshells. At this stage, this would mean a person who's affected by this phenomenon would still be able to turn back to their original self.
Unless you're somewhere nearby the world's cracks, you don't really have to worry about turning into a Behemoth. Measures to prevent world cracks from occuring are often tightly secured in larger cities.
Becoming a Behemoth is usually something that happens later on during life. If one is said to be born a Behemoth... it's very likely they were born within places with heavy Concentrated Memories.
Symptoms
This phenomenon turns mortals into monsterous beings—a twisted amalgation and a physical manifestation of their shattered sense of self and memories. Their appearance of their Behemoth form purely depends on case-by-case. It's also possible for your Behemoth form to change, most often by memory alteration/loss.
The transformation almost always happens involuntarily, most commonly triggered by heavy stress. They often lose control of themself once they've transformed into one, and they often don't recall what they've done during this form—almost as if someone else was controlling them. If it's still possible for them to revert back to their original form, they'll often revert back through exhaustion.
Any injuries that got inflicted on their Behemoth form will reflect in their original form, too.
The Behemoth's behavior can be quite chaotic and uncontrollable, seemingly driven by extreme emotions and needs. Most commonly, they're driven by fear and the desire to protect themself. But once a person has reached the stage where they couldn't revert back
Tidbits here and there
- yeah you can keep this symptom hidden. though for more obvious symptoms, good luck.
- usually viewed with a stigma