Sanguine Embrace

Transmission & Vectors

Sanguine Embrace is transmitted via blood. The myth is that a person with the Embrace must suck your blood from your neck, and inject you with their own as if some sort of venom. This is inaccurate. Any transmission of blood can pass the Embrace from one person to the next.

Causes

The exact cause is unknown. It is thought that this plague was designed by someone to create a ravenous army. Once corrupted blood enters the blood stream, it will begin to replicate and the condition will expand.

Symptoms

Symptoms are light at first. Fatigue is the most common early effect, followed by excessive thirst, hunger for salt, then pain in the joints. Once the pain in the joints begins, the transformation aspect of the disease has begun. This marks the end of the first stage of symptoms.
During the second stage, hunger and thirst begin to become more prominent. They change from a generalized thirst and desire for salt to hunger for meat. This hunger for meat becomes nearly insatiable rather quickly, but is followed by pain in the jaw and mouth. It is at this stage when the elongated canines begin to appear on sufferers. Due to the sensitivity of the mouth, they tend to suck on cooked meat rather than eat it during this time. Their sense of taste and smell begins to heighten, then the sense of sound and touch. Soon after this, within a day or two, they begin to become irritable and susceptible to rage.
This marks the third stage. Generally, this stage comes with the first attack. Rage overwhelms the sufferer and they lash out at someone nearby. This varies from person to person but always ends with blood. Upon seeing and smelling the blood, the Embraced will be drawn to taste it. Upon drinking their first blood, the thirst and hunger become driven to that and it swiftly becomes an addiction.
The third stage continues with bouts of memory loss after incidents of rage. Lucid moments between fits will become rarer and rarer. Each loss of memory also includes small changes in the body, slowly transforming the sufferer into something more monstrous and animalistic. Claws, digitigrade feet, wings, and the like are all documented but it seems to vary from person to person.
The third stage can continue indefinitely with proper access to a supply of fresh blood and a lack of incidents of memory loss. However, at this stage each loss of control is worse than the last. Eventually, there is one loss of memory that does not recover, and the person is lost - becoming a sort of feral ghoul.

Treatment

Officially, none.

Prognosis

A vast majority of sufferers become feral ghouls within a year of contracting the disease. A few dark souls who are willing to prey on others have been able to stave off this fate for longer. Only a handful of people have gained reliable control of the disease and held back the final stage for more than a few decades - though those that have do not seem to age.
It should be noted that becoming a feral ghoul does not kill the patient. They can continue to transform and grow in power, becoming more and more dangerous as time goes on.

History

While the Embrace is rare, it is well known. This is in part due to the legends surrounding it and one very public outbreak. Early in the Modern Era a powerful Feral Ghoul attacked a small town, and this led to a large swath of death and transformation. Eventually, the Temple Penitant was forced to set fire to the forests around the town and burn the entirety of the town to ensure that the disease was stopped and the ferals in the area were wiped out. This was the last known major outbreak, but the Temple has since become the first stop for those that suspect a person has the disease.

Cultural Reception

Almost every culture fears members of the population that may have the Embrace. Almost every culture has trouble with the violent responses that people have to the possibility of this outbreak. Suspected sufferers are very often accused and burned at the stake - even for suspicions rising from small things like an overuse of salt.

Type

Magical

Origin

Magical

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Extremely Rare