Umbral Plague
When the Shades spilled out of the Capital, so too did a terrible disease. The Umbral Plague, as it became known, swept through the land wherever the Shadows went, bringing death and torment along with it like no other sickness has done before...for this disease does not infect the living, but the dying. It sweeps through entire towns and cities without anyone even realizing they've contracted it...save for the weak. It infects the animals first: giving them purple and black lumps of discoloration and eating them from the inside. Then it's the children, the elders and those of weak constitution who become bedridden. Their bodies shrivel in pain, morphing into rotten husks over the course of a few weeks. Before their death, the infected are filled with a mindless rage and they begin to scream and claw at their beds with whatever strength they have left until their deaths. But that is not the end, for after death, their transform and mutate into Shades, gaseous beings of hate who join the Shadow hordes and tear apart settlements from the inside, then escape and move on to another settlement. This is the fate that befell the Capital and shall befall countless towns and cities after it.
Transmission & Vectors
There are many ways to catch the plague but the most common is through contaminated water, blood coughs and close proximity to the infected (via the air). The disease becomes contagious almost immediately after its contraction, though the sufficiently healthy are still immune.
Causes
Shades or other members of the dark hordes carry it with them wherever they go, like a poisonous air. This is what infects the water, the trees and the animals, slowly spreading to the feeble-bodied, turning them into corpses that will one day join the dark hordes and repeat the vicious cycle.
Symptoms
First there are terrible chills and one's own blood threatens to freeze. Then the infected begin hacking up blood constantly for the next few days. Slowly, one begins losing their eyesight and sees the world in a gray haze until they reach the end, and enter a mindless rage. They howl, scream and claw with all the strength their rotten bones have left in them. Within a day, they'll be dead. A few days later, the body will have already decomposed and a new Shade birthed from it.
Treatment
Very few healing spells have had any effect on the infected, and the ones that have are costly, unable to be performed through simple transmutations. As a result, becoming infected is a surefire a death sentence. Some are killed early, to spare them from later agony and suffering, their bodies thoroughly burned so as to not birth Shades.
Prognosis
Within the first day, the infected begin to feel chills. By the second they are bedridden and their body has begun rotting form the inside. By the third, they've begun to cough blood. A week later and they are already on the verge of death. By the eighth or ninth day, the screams have begun. They won't survive the tenth day.
Sequela
Animals will often turn into mutated, aggressive versions of their old selves. Their bodies will often be shriveled or swelled, with thick purple veins and parasitic growths everywhere. For plants, a similar process occurs, though they don't last long in that state. For an adult human or humanoid, the most likely outcome of the disease is for their bodies to turn into a rotting, shambling mess that often decomposes within hours. In this state, the infected can feel nothing but rage and will lash out at anyone or anything they can. This would be dangerous, if nine times out of ten, their bodies would be too broken to even walk. A much rarer, and terrifying outcome is for the infected's body to disintegrate after the tenth day. Should this happen, they will turn into a Shade: an incorporeal, shapeshifting being of pure shadow and hate--the most dangerous member of the dark hordes and namesake of this plague.
Hosts & Carriers
Nearly every living thing is able to carry the plague, consciously or not. For most, they'll feel no symptoms and may spread the disease for about a week after contagion, but for anyone sufficiently weak, the disease will tear through them. These groups include: most animals, young children, elders, the sickly and those with weak constitutions. It's extremely rare, though still possible, for an otherwise healthy adult to contract the disease. These cases almost always result in the creation of a powerful Shade.
Prevention
Few healing spells have had any effect at halting the plague and the ones that have are very expensive. So for the most part, simple quarantine measures have proved themselves to be the most effective method of prevention, although these are often extremely difficult to put in place given the vast majority of infected are healthy adults who will never show a single symptom and spread it without ever knowing they carried it.
Cultural Reception
Ever since its rise, the Umbral Plague has become a terrifying bogeyman to rival even the Shadow hordes themselves. The brutality of an infection has terrified the populace so much that it would just take a couple of infections to place a town in a panic. Unfortunately, the victims often become feared and ostracized from society, which only worsens their condition as some are driven out of their homes in a futile attempt to contain its spread.
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