Abhartach
Abhartach manifests as an inability for a magical creature to generate Foyson, expanding vast amounts of energy to maintain themselves, but bleeding off life force nearly constantly. Abhartach are driven by a single-minded obsession to gain Foyson from the most immediate and powerful source available - the lifeblood and essence of other living creatures.
Abhartach will act with singular purpose, to kill and feed on others, regardless of their victim's status or past relationship. Unlike Fear Gorta, which hunger for physical nourishment, the foyson-craving Abhartach are capable of acting with some level of restraint, putting on guises of civility and planning efficient ways to drain their victims.
Transmission & Vectors
The transmission of the curse has long puzzled scholars, with affected individuals appearing in remote locations, often without recorded contact with prior outbreaks. Similar to the curse of the Garwaf, once the condition was unleashed into the world, it continued to spread, even if prior outbreaks are successfully contained. Unlike the Garwaf, who seek out the deep hidden paths of the Faewylde, no such connection between the Abhartach has been observed, although many theories have been posited.
Victims of the Abhartach who are not killed, but are drained of their foyson entirely have a higher potential to rise as Abhartach.
Causes
The ultimate cause of the curse is unknown, emerging with the Sidhe chieftain Abhartach into the world from a lost necropolis, but continuing to spread even after his death, drained victims returning from near-death to begin their own carnage.
Interactions with the Voids-Between-Worlds, such as the Isfont or Gagneg Bleed are the most widely accepted cause of the curse, although the specifics are hotly debated.
Symptoms
As they lose the ability to generate their own foyson, affected individuals will begin to act erratically, prone to fits of aggression, lethargy and extreme hunger, visibly wasting away, appearing to grow frailer and weaker as they expend their power beyond their means. At the same time, they begin to see the foyson as others as an enticing aura, ultimately drawing them in to kill and drain others in a violent fashion, most typically draining their blood directly. Quenched, they are able to return to their original appearance or better, wield powerful arkane and copious amounts of glamour. The process repeats, the inhibitions against killing dramatically decreasing with each draining.
Abhartach are capable of draining foyson from other, lesser sources, sustaining themselves. They are often surrounded by dead insects, wilting plants and stale food, a trend that continues around cairns and burial mounds of the creatures, allowing them to rise once more to continue their feeding.
Treatment
Once the condition manifests, a creature will continue on its course until it is slain under a particular set of circumstances. Even if defeated and buried, slain Abhartach will rise again, renewed, the next night, drawing from the lifeforce of the insects, plants and soil around them. To date, there is no known treatment or cure.
To be fully killed, an Abhartach must be decapitated by a sword carved from an old-growth yew tree.
Prognosis
Death is the likely outcome, although this can be forestalled by feeding or hibernation, drawing in foyson from lesser sources.
Affected Groups
The Abhartach can manifest in any magical creature, including Boermerzh, but is most commonly observed in Korrigan. Hoseguéannets are the most commonly affected, but any magical creature with the ability to manipulate and process foyson can become Abhartach.
The Finfolk represent a unique variation of Abhartach, a large, stable population of corrupted merfolk with similar inability to generate and process foyson, while draining vast amounts to maintain excessive levels of glamour.
Epidemiology
Despite its wide spread and severe effects, the condition itself is exceedingly rare, rarely spreading beyond a few individuals in an outbreak, with groups of four or five being the most commonly observed maximum. Single cases, or double ones, are by far the most common.
History
Abhartach the Cruel
According to Sidhe legend, the Abhartach curse began with a rí ruirech of the same name from the Clan of Murias who entered into a war with Cathian, the chieftain of Clan Falias. Finding himself outmatched in Arkane power, the chieftain constantly sought out new sources of Foyson to bolster his resources. Faced with defeat, he broke into an ancient tumulus, delving down to seize its forgotten power. No one knows what found him in the graves, but he emerged, maddened and frothing. The Chieftain slaughtered his Ambaxtoi and fed on their lifeforce, turning his attention to the armies of Falias, attacking with immense power and ferocity, beating back the larger army with ruthless bloodletting, cutting down any he found, friend or foe and adding their foyson to his. Soldier and civilian fell to his rampage, until he was cut down in a duel with the Cathian. The next night, he roamed the battlefield again, his strength renewed, cutting through the Falias camp and the streets of Murias. Again, he was cut down and again he rose, spreading his destruction further and further. The Cathian, unable to kill murderous demon, sought out the wisdom of the Death Goddess Ivinenn, who gave him guidance and a sword of yew wood, which he used to finally kill the creature once known as Abhartach.Spread
Though Abhartach was killed, his curse lived on, spreading through Emain Ablach and the Fortunate Isles, before arriving in the Armorican Peninsula and Kornôgel.Cultural Reception
Once slain, an Abhartach is buried upside down in a burial mound capped with a large menhir, the base of the tumulus surrounded by a ring of sharp thorns.
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