Tuberculization, as we understand it here, isn't merely a biological process; it’s the lingering residue of temporal fragmentation. It began not with bacteria or fungi, but with moments – fractured instants of extreme emotional resonance, colossal technological failures, or cataclysmic shifts in consciousness. These weren’t simply events; they were resonances that bled through the fabric of reality, creating pockets where time itself became… pliable.
The earliest records, preserved on obsidian shards recovered from the Silent City of Veridia (a place now perpetually shrouded in a violet mist – coordinates lost to the echoes), speak of "Nodes." These were points of intense temporal distortion, radiating not only an unusual luminescence but also a palpable sense of disorientation. Individuals who lingered too long near these Nodes experienced what we now term “Tuberculization” - their bodies subtly altered, layered with echoes of moments from other times.
"Silas was a cartographer," the entry begins, scrawled in an unsettlingly fluid script. "He charted not land, but memories – attempting to map the subconscious landscapes of dying men. He became obsessed with the 'Crimson Cascade' event, a forgotten war fought amidst fields of synthetic roses, and vanished entirely. Subsequent analysis revealed traces of his existence within the walls of his study - not as he was, but as he *was* during that horrific battle, overlaid upon his present form. A perfect example of Tuberculization’s insidious nature: layering experience onto being."
Our understanding of how Tuberculization *works* is, frankly, terrifyingly incomplete. It’s not a simple matter of physical contamination. Instead, it appears to be a process of chronal sediment accumulation – tiny fragments of time itself that adhere to organic material. These aren't visual; they exist primarily as distortions in perception, shifts in the flow of causality, and, ultimately, physical alterations.
The key element is resonance. The more intense the original event, the greater the amount of chronal sediment generated. It’s hypothesized that certain materials – particularly those with a high degree of ‘temporal inertia’ (rare earth metals alloyed with crystallized sorrow, for example) act as catalysts, accelerating the process.
The Obsidian Archive, located beneath the perpetually storming peak of Mount Cinderheart, is our primary repository of information on Tuberculization. The archive’s custodians – known only as the Chronomasters – maintain a delicate balance, attempting to contain and categorize the accumulating chronal sediment. Their methods are… unorthodox. They utilize ‘Temporal Dampeners,’ devices that generate counter-resonances to disrupt the flow of sediment, but these are unstable, prone to catastrophic feedback loops.
The progression of Tuberculization isn't linear. It’s a chaotic dance between decay and accretion. We have identified several distinct stages:
A failed attempt at reversing Tuberculization, Project Nightingale involved the extraction of chronal sediment via focused sonic resonance. The results were… unstable. Subjects emerged not healed, but *augmented* - their bodies riddled with temporal anomalies, capable of briefly manipulating localized time fields. The project was swiftly terminated, and the surviving data remains classified.