Xolkriśgir

Xolkriśgir (literally "colour fear" or "chromophobia") is a widespread superstition in many Coscivian cultures that colour photography has damaging psychic or supernatural effects on its subjects. Xolkriśgir has created an enduring taboo against colour photography in Kiravia and, to a lesser extent, among Coscivian minorities in other parts of the world.

History

There have been intensive efforts in anthropology and deep philology to understand the cultural roots of xolkriśgir. These have focused on topics such as the ethno-metaphysical significance of colour in Coscivian culture, aniconist movements and mores in Coscivian history, and the sinister associations of mirrors in Coscivian mythology, folklore, and literature. While no fully explanatory theories have yet emerged from this research, it does begin to elucidate the sensitive cultural context surrounding colour photography.

The Primóra Incident

Xolkriśgir was first documented in 21064 when Marcel des Vespasiennes, a Burgundian photographer and early pioneer of colour photography, visited Primóra to demonstrate his technique to a meeting of the Hanoram Society of Gentleman Daguerreotypists. The audience was aware ahead of time that des Vespasiennes would be taking colour photographs and was, by all accounts, calm during his lecture until he displayed some examples of his work, at which point several members claimed to be ill and politely took their leave. Five members of the Society volunteered to pose for colour photographs after the lecture, which took several days to develop. None were known to have reported anything unusual during this time, though one of the subjects, a shipping insurer, never returned to the Society and went mysteriously missing several days later. However, when the first of the subjects, pipegrass merchant Rutilus Semperviren, was presented with the photograph of himself by des Vespasiennes, he began to scream uncontrollably. Semperviren was removed from the premises and treated with the highest-quality Daxian opium available, which succeeded in calming him, though after he emerged from his medically-induced trance he would continue to be laconic and low-affect until his death four months thereafter. Two of the other three subjects, according to their own letters and the accounts of their family members, were overcome with dread upon seeing their likenesses in colour. Although they retained their composure better then Semperviren, they suffered from "the most baleful night terrors" and acute lethargy for months, and underwent marked changes in personality and behaviour that appear to have persisted for the remainder of their lives. What would later become known as the classic symptoms of xolkriśtívandisuvantohābur presented most acutely in Xiaroskur Fordelorean: [to be continued].

The Primóra incident was chronicled in the Primóra Moon and other papers in the major coastal cities, and was a topic of some public excitement in the city for several months, although...

-Did not start to become a known thing until colour photography became more popular -Violent resistence

Manifestation

How xolkriśgir manifests itself and how it is understood vary somewhat. Lonergan and McCall (2011) find that while some details of how people understand xolkriśgir are common to a particular demographic or geographic region, most appear to be idiosyncratic, suggesting that chromophobia should be approached not as a "folk belief" transmitted by oral tradition within a community, but rather as a modern mass-cultural phenomenon or protracted moral panic that spreads and replicates itself through informally learned behaviour. Differences in how individuals believe the malign influence of colour photography "works" extend to its ascribed effects (e.g. whether capture of the face is the essential mechanism to cause deleterious effects, whether the subject must pose voluntarily in order to get psychically rekt), how it is accomplished (e.g. whether the act of taking the photo does it, or it needs to be developed), and its finality (e.g. whether the effects are permanent or can be abrogated by destroying photographs of the afflicted person or through any kind of folk-ritual).

There are multiple gradations of xolkriśgir in terms of how definite or vague one's beliefs surrounding colour photography are, and how dangerous one believes it to be. Toward one end of the spectrum, many believe that colour photography brings on death, annihilation, or zombification. Others may not go as far, but still find it dangerous and unnatural and believe that it has some other less drastic and more vaguely defined supernatural effect on the subject. Toward the shallow end of the spectrum, a great many Coscivians who do not actively fear colour photography may believe it is in some way unhealthy, or at the very least find it unseemly or distasteful.

Sepiatone photographs do not trigger xolkriśgir, and xolkriśgiróx people are generally not bothered by colour photographs of inanimate subjects.

Xolkriśtívandisuvantohābur

Xolkriśtívandisuvantohābur
Pronunciation	impossible
Specialty	Subarctic medicine
Symptoms	Depersonalisation Derealisation Self-negation delusions
Usual onset	Rapid
Duration	Months to lifelong
Causes	Colour photography Cultural taboos
Risk factors	Coscivian ethnicity
Treatment	Aqueous ethanol
Prognosis	Poor
Deaths	At least 70

Xolkriśtívandisuvantohābur, meaning "Colour-photographically induced catatonia" (a closer, but less medically accurate translation being "colour-photographically induced dementia") is a psychiatric culture-bound syndrome that appears in reaction to awareness of colour photography, and is experienced exclusively by people of Coscivian cultural origin.

The psychological symptoms of 'classic' or 'typical' xolkriśtívandisuvantohābur include rapid-onset psychotic depression, soon accompanied by depersonalisation and derealisation. The chronic stage of the condition is characterised by delusions of self-negation similar to many forms of Cotard's syndrome, with patients believing that they themselves are dead or otherwise no longer exist. Somatic symptoms typically include chronic fatigue, catatonia, and loss of affect. Loss of appetite and some form of mutism are also common.

Prevalence

Sincere xolkriśgir is most common in rural areas of inland Great Kirav, especially the Western Highlands, Coscivian communities in the more southerly parts of the Eastern Highlands, and also South Kirav. It is also common in Æonara, and Moonlight Cay. It is much less common in Sydona but persists in many rural areas. Xolkriśgir correlates positively with age and distance from the ocean, and correlates negatively with income, education, and population density.

-Geographic and demographic distribution of the superstition

Implications for Public Policy

One of the most visible effects of xolkriśgir on public policy is that headshots featured on photo ID documents such as internal passport and international passport photographs must be in black-and-white. This often causes trouble for Kiravians travelling abroad or interacting with foreign businesses, who may require that identity documents feature colour photographs.

 -Governmental and religious efforts to combat the superstition.

[The Technicolor bombings]

Official portraits of all Stanora Delegates are rendered in black-and-white as a matter of course. Andrus Candrin was the first Kiravian Prime Executive to embrace colour photography, in contrast to his immediate predecessor, Irasur Mérovin, who had stated on the record that colour photographs "kúnta thá glixélnuir" ("make [him] uneasy"). Candrin's successor, Adheritus Ilkaśvar, opts for his official photographs to be black-and-white, but permits colour photography in the Kroveniren Hall press room.