Darrell J. Pursiful

I mentioned a while back that magic in the Caretaker Trilogy takes a toll on a person’s free will. The more powerful the magic, or the more frequently it is used, the less freedom the user has.

I came to realize after the fact that at least some of this toll takes the form of tendencies that might be seen as in some way neurodivergent. This realization came through conversations with my neurodivergent daughter about her own experiences and those of her ND friends.

I remember explaining to her that, the more magic Rune uses, the more detached and flighty he becomes. He’ll either become hyper-focused on something or get quickly bored and move on to someone else.

“Oh,” she said. “Like ADHD.”

I think my verbatim response was, “… Yeah.” Then, pressing my luck, I explained that when Rune’s sidekick Brack uses too much magic, he becomes overly controlling, needed everything to be just so.

“So, OCD,” dear daughter said.

I promise you, I had no intention of going down this rabbit hole. I had already worked out most of these effects based on classical alchemy, both Eastern and Western, and how it associated the classical elements with certain traits of temperament. (A lot of my early worldbuilding was based on a nice popular article on the five elements in Chinese acupuncture) But not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I’m grateful dear daughter suggested this further line of reflection.

So, if you want to keep score, here are how the various classical elements affect someone who dives too deeply into them:

• Air: ADD/ADHD. Inability to regulate focus.
• Earth: Depression. Loss of passion, failing to see the point.
• Fire: Mania. Restlessly move from one thing to another.
• Metal: OCD. Control every variable to the nth degree.
• Water: Bipolar. Strong, unpredictable emotional ebbs and flows.
• Wood: BPD. Emotionally reactive, prone to rage and aggressive outbursts.

Most of this will never see print, but some of it does in Dead of Night.

The night gets darker on July 1.