Saurian Degeneracy Syndrome
Ironic, won't you say? By trying to create a more pure and more potent bloodline to keep their legacy powerful, they were their own harbringers of doom, in the end.
Transmission & Vectors
As a congenital cycle, transmission of the syndrome transfer to offsprings once insemination started.
Causes
The main cause was the regular cases of inbreeding among the Serpentfolks , especially in the case of the Mesmer subrace: Since, thanks to their gift in magecraft and mesmerism, usually were given few opposing forces to take the reins of serpentfolk-dominant groups and settlements. This gave them a rather strong advantage in political power. However, as most desired to keep their legacy strong, many clans of mesmer serpentfolk started to authorise unions only between their own subrace. As such, most unions became under political interest, trying to breed an even stronger generation of potent spellcasters. This functionned for some time, but the untrustworthy nature of the serpentfolk made them start to thin the possible companions to breed with. Over time, many clans tried to make alliance together and soon, inbreeding became more prevalent, similar to the situation of royalty between Humans way later.
Decades and decades of a thin gene pool started to show it's horrible backlash over time and the genetics became distorted. Some developed symptoms later, but at some point, it reached the point that it could be seen even on newborns.
Some other source claims the genetic collapse was created as a curse by one of the goddess of the Serpentfolk pantheon, as it was against her edicts to regulate the bloodpool, claiming serpentfolk prosperity would happen of renewal and changing their cycle from time to time (implying crossbreeding with other species to develop possible new capacities), and not by trying to create a concentrated pool of power. Many mesmers vehemently opposes this vision and tries to censor it, as the power of the church was deemed strong in the past, and they believed this propaganda was made by some power-hungry paluas that wanted to sabotage their image among the clergy.
To this day, nobody was able to fully confirm this theory.
Symptoms
Most common symptoms are:
- macular degeneration
- skin/tooth decay
- dementia
- high probability of tumors
- hemophilia
- limb or vertebrae deformations
- speech impediment
- in most heavy cases, a tendency to cannibalism
Treatment
There was no known treatment or ritual that was found to cure those affected by this condition.
One attempt at switching an inflicted serpentfolk to another body was attempted in desperation by one of the royal clans. However, Shassiz the Deranged, a strong oracle, carried on it's madness which was triggered by the condition in the new body. In such a failure, most scholars decided experimentation was too costly and demanding for the chances of results.
In some cases, young noble serpentfolk that were showing development of the degenerative disease were placed into stasis coffins, in the hope a cure would be found later, or at least postpone it's effects for a while, if the necessity of having one afflicted family member was the last resort to keep bloodline privileges.
Prognosis
The condition will eventually become fatal, or least seriously impeding for the victim, leaving them in a state of dementia or paralyzed. The condition may proceed faster or slower depending on the victim's genetics and overall fortitude, but most cases will reduce a serpentfolk's lifepan to 30 years max. Victim of this degeneracy where also prone to react violently to fleshcrafting or any attempt to alleviate their body symptoms, creating either tumors or abnormal limb transmutations, if they survived the neural shock of such body transformation.
Affected Groups
Serpentfolks only. Higher cases among the Mesmer subrace and members of high authority.
Prevention
The saurian degeneracy syndrome can simply be avoided by serpentfolks breeding with another specimen that is distant enough in the gene structure.
Cultural Reception
Those presenting signs of this syndrome would be considered defect and unfit to the 'mighty and perfect serpentfolk race'.
It was not uncommon for member of the family to commit infanticide if the symptoms were unveiled at a young age, and families would go to many lengths to justify their death from another source. If some rare cases the victim wasn't killed, if the degeneracy looked more physical like a tumor or skin decay, ointment and even cauterisation or other means usually left for torture were used to mask those impurities. Some would even inflict this trauma on themselves from fear of reprisal and death or exile. The jaggi that set their hands on a degenerate serpentfolk would sometimes use those in their arenas as a fear factor for other slaves to fight for. Some were also used as expendable first-line shock troops to scare other races.
The spike in cases among the mesmer was one of the cause for the serpentfolk's end of reign as it stirred even more blood feud and zizany between clans, which would sever their power to maintain order, causing rebellions to skyrocket, leading to their near-extinction by the hands of those they ruled as lesser races.
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