Akh: a Thought Cabinet in Fantasy RPGs

If I post this and three other articles, I'll have posted an average of one blogpost a week, which would hearten me a bit.

 When Disco Elysium came out in 2019, it was broadly admired and, as though it were a Fromsoft game, many OSR bloggers tried to adapt its marquis mechanics to ttrpg form. In imitation of the game's "thought cabinet", you see games with psyche slots, mental inventory, and similar schemes. These attempts contend with natural obstacles posed by the difference of the medium. In D&D, you aren't choosing from a menu of options but forging your own way, and there's nothing stopping you from deciding to be a communist or a racist or sad about your wife leaving you. Fantasy games also often struggle to portray ideologies that are as compelling or intricate as real-world viewpoints, and your improvised table game is not (and should not) be as tightly-written as one of most respected games of the past ten years.

I recently upgraded from a chromebook to a laptop that's allowed to run steam, so I'm playing through Disco Elysium for the first time, and like a chump I've fallen down the same rabbit hole as all those other hapless bloggers. But this time it will go well. It will be sleek and unobtrusive, and if the DM forgets to keep inventing new thoughts for the cabinet, that will be okay.

Procedure
When a PC comes into contact with an Akh, a living thought, they may process (or must save vs processing) it. The Akh might be a conviction, a troubling fact, a piece of a god or hero's mythic cycle that can be relived and re-experienced, or anything of that ilk. Akhs are non-material but can be shared through discussion, or picked up off a dead man. While processing it, you normally have a penalty to endure. After you gain 1000 XP (by whatever normal means), you finish processing the thought, and gain a bonus (and/or maybe a penalty). Rude Akhs can make you save with favor or succumb to some impulse, but this should be rare. They're mostly problematic treasures, not over-complicated penalties. Getting rid of an Akh should be tricky.

d12 Akhs
Name: penalty/bonus/notes
1. The Sun is Dead: Take double damage while in sunlight/Eating fresh corpse meat restores 1 HP/-1 reaction with Saver Heol and his children. An Akh enjoyed by giant hounds.
2. Past Lives: -2 initiative/Gain the skills of a masterful shepherd/patient and appreciative.
3. Time's Arrow: save with favor to kill a person or destroy something valuable/sacrifice this Akh to undo an action within your sight/cannot undo the deeds of Saver Heol or Ptamose/decisive but thoughtful
4. Ism: -2 reaction/+1 reaction with officials of your nation, and the Ism Akh will butt in frequently to nudge you towards institutional success/forget all foreign or subnational languages. Bold and proud.
5. Slaves Never: cannot flee/learn to use the bow. If you can already use the bow, gain the Ironmonger class's Blood Eyes./Humble and proud.
6. Setizour: Fail all saves with magical amulets/+1 MD and learn the spell Cloak of Shadows./This Akh butts in a lot and is a coward.
7. The Piercing of Gael: -2 to ranged attacks/if you can use a bow, you can fire with air time. If not, the next time an arrow would reduce you to 0 or fewer HP, you ignore all damage from it./When you pass through a hive's main gate, eight small wounds in your chest open, which the devout find charming. Apprehensive and awestruck.
8. Broadmindedness: -4 charisma/you may speak with gibbering plants and get +1 reaction with them/gibbering plants are not very informative.
9. Geomancy: Cannot see anything not touching the ground/Attain knowledge of kastromancy/upon internalizing, save or immediately begin processing the Ten Slaves Akh. Matter-of-fact
10. Orb Quest: -4 to all handful acts if not holding an orb in your offhand/+1 MD when holding an orb in your offhand. Calculating and strident.
11. Ten Slaves: Deaf to everything more than 15' away/The tap of your foot can detect if something is a trap/There is a vague sense that you owe these slaves an awful lot if you find them. Tense and eerie.
12. Ye Mighty: Take double damage/Gain prima vedex for all extinct cultures./Decent but sanctimonious.