Death's Dawn

Death's Dawn is a well-known and terrifying disease, causing immense pain to sufferers and with a high lethality rate if not caught quickly.

Transmission & Vectors

Death's Dawn is primarily believed to be a bloodborne disease, though it can be transmitted by other fluids.

Causes

The primary cause of Death's Dawn is the introduction of raw magic into the bloodstream, which can occur either through birth complications or other contact. Death's Dawn is a sadly common disease for parents who have difficult pregnancies involving demigod children.

Symptoms

Initial symptoms include fatigue, nausea, headaches, tingling sensations in extremities, and chest aches. Later down the line, vomiting, fever, and hallucinations are increasingly common.

Treatment

If noticed quickly enough, the raw magic in the system can be removed with targeted magic by a demigod. If not, surgery and blood transfusions are often required. If treatment is delayed, the effects become quite severe, and organ transplants may be required.

These are all modern innovations. In the past, and in its first appearances, the only option were to hope a demigod noticed the signs and could help you.

Prognosis

If caught quickly enough, there will be few adverse effects, except perhaps being more susceptible to other blood-based conditions. If not caught or operated quickly, the result will almost certainly be death, or in the best case, paralysis and organ failure.

Affected Groups

Death's Dawn has a high occurrence rate in the mothers of demigod children, and a high rate in Stolisian children due to accidental ingestion of raw magic. It does not, however, affect demigods at all, perhaps due to their immunity to raw magic or that they already have raw magic in their veins.

History

Death's Dawn had seen mild appearances since the 800s, but really made a showing in the 940s and 50s in Divinice, being responsible for the deaths of thousands. Amongst the infected was Crown Prince Samson and King-Consort Sorin in 946 and 951 respectively. In this event, it was localised only to Divinice and Stolis Island, with only a few cases noticed outside of the region.

It has appeared intermittently since then, with a major resurgence during the 'Demigod Drought' from 1256 to 1285, this time with a far more global reach but also with far more science able to aid the sufferers. Nowadays, it can occur randomly in many places, but has an unfortunately high occurrence rate in eastern Stolisia, where the raw magic has infested water supplies and food stores. The same applies to the Black Lake region of south eastern Divinice.

Type

Magical

Origin

Magical

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity

Uncommon

Affected Species

• Humans