Fear
This design document is currently completely unimplemented in Ephemeral Space.
You should not expect to find anything listed here in-game just yet.
Tracking issue:
Fear is an emotion which represent an internal anxiety or strong terror response to something dangerous or frightening. In gameplay, it serves as a combat disincentive that simultaneously extends combats encounters while incentivizing fleeing.
Fear arises most naturally as a response to pain, mostly from being attacked. Characters with certain traits like Phobias may also experience fear as a response to being nearby specific triggers. Consuming various chemical depressants--commonly, alcohol; uncommonly, sedatives and benzos--can help reduce fear, although it naturally deteriorates over time.
Effects
As a general condition, fear worsens combat capabilities while improving movement speed. Melee damage and weapon accuracy drastically declines while movement speed rises, making escaping from a general attacker easier. At high levels of fear, characters begin to stutter while speaking and may struggle to physically fight at all.