Xolkriśgir: Difference between revisions

''Xolkriśgir'' was first documented in 21064 when Marcel des Vespasiennes, a [[Burgundie|Burgundian]] photographer and early pioneer of colour photography, visited [[Cities of Kiravia#Primóra|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].

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 {{wp|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 any part of the body "counts" or just the fa e, 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).

Many people who do not believe that colour photography erases one's mind or soul may still believe that it has some other less drastic and more vaguely defined supernatural effect on the subject. Others may not believe that colour photography has supernatural effects at all, yet still view it as unseemly or improper.

 

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===