Blight

Can't see it. Can't smell it. First sign you got it is when your flesh starts falling off.

— Sencha, Blight-Tracker

Blight is the name that the denizens of Araea have given to radiation and radioactivity. It is poorly understood and the term loosely applied, mostly known by the symptoms that follow blight-poisoning. As such, the moniker of Blight is sometimes given to things that merely inflict similar symptoms. While dangerous to humans, there are a number of creatures on the surface that have evolved to make a meal out of this venom.
Anything can be Blighted: an area, a weather, an item. The words "Blighted" or "Blight-tainted" are applied equally to thinks thought to hold the dangerous disease-thing.

Blight Trackers
There are those who make their entire living from know where and when Blight is located, and how best to avoid it. These are called Blight-Trackers, experts in recognizing the signs of Blight and hired as guides to navigate around one of the most dangerous hazards of the surface.
Read more about Blight-Trackers

Blighted Winds

People in Araea don't quite agree on what exactly Blight is. Some think of it as an invisible miasma, a gas that causes sickness and death. Others believe that it lingers in shadows cast on the surface and others still think it is the sun's light that cause it. They do know that it can be found in water, in metals and in the continent-spanning dust storms that roam across the Surface.
Blight comes to Araea from the skies above the Surface and deposits of Blight-tainted metals. There are few places on the surface entirely free from Blight, but in the lands frequented by humanity the levels are tolerable. The denizens of Araea have built up not exactly an resistance to Blight, but can suffer through its debilitating effects and mutations without perishing.

Season of Storms
During the unpredictably occurring Season of Storm, Blight flood the world of Araea as the skies turn strange and colorful. This cosmological event is even less understood than Blight, but with the Blight it brings most consider it a terrible time and omen.
Read more about the Seasons of the Surface

Blight World

Most of the Surface belongs to the Shrouded Lands, entire continents wreathes in lethal radiation and murderous storms. The deeper into Araea one descends, the less Blight there is. It is uncommon but not quite rare in the Outer Shell and exists only in solitary instances in the Inner Shell. There is no Blight in the Far Deep.
As such, its effects are mostly keenly felt on or close to the Surface. Explorers always have to be wary of the invisible venom, while entire cities have disappeared when the winds have shifted and Blight have fallen upon their homes. To those who live in the Inner Shell, it is more distant and sometimes believed to be just another exaggeration of the Surface. Like many of those exaggerations, it happens to be true.

Blightomancy
Just because something is incredibly dangerous to everyone around it doesn't mean that mankind has not attempted to turn it into a weapon. Some few, mad theurgs use Starsteel and blight-tainted objects to force Blight to show itself as brilliantly shimmers of light enabling them to employ it with their Thaumaturgy.
The 'Blightomancers' are very rare and there are no elders among their ranks. While the power they wield is some of the most destructive among all Theurgs, they are no more shielded from Blight than their victims.
Read more about Thaumaturgy

The Surface

The Surface of Araea is a blasted wasteland, a mix of barren deserts and frigid glaciers. It is a brutal and dangerous world, explored only by the bravest or most desperate. Here, more than any other realm of Araea, Blight is an ever-present danger.
Read more about the Surface

by Rock Cafe.info

Flesh Re-Made

Mutations are not uncommon afflictions in Araea. Most are minor, a few warp the poor soul so cursed beyond normalcy. Other than industrial pollutants and magic mishaps, Blight is the most common culprit in causing Mutations.
Read more about Mutations

The Atma On Blight

The Medikari of Atma believe Blight to be a uniquely destabilizing force for the body's internal equilibrium. It throws everything off the way it should be. While most things are afforded simplistic characteristics, such as hot or cold, dry or wet, Blight is given its own designation entirely. Treatments include diet, draughts of mercury and draining the Blight from the body through bloodletting. When all else fails, the Medikari sometimes use Blight as an attempt to cure other illnesses as a way of restoring balance by giving it a solid reshuffle.
Read More about Atma - the Science of the Balanced Body

The Deva on Blight

The doctors who follow the theory of Deva believe that Blight a poison that disrupts and destroy the inner works of the human body. Mutations and tumors are considered diseases by themselves, while Blight-poisoning is afford broad and vaguer terms. Treatments include charms and crystals that are thought to drain away the Blight, surgery to remove tainted flesh and mutations, and time. Like most toxins, Blight will pass on its own. Much like small doses can make an antidote, so too do the Deva experiment with inoculating their patience from future suffering by exposing them to what they believe to be harmless doses of Blight.
Read more about Deva - the Art of Healing