Epidermarbor

A step beyond epidermodysplasia verruciformis, epidermarbor is a magical disease where someone goes from a regular person into a tree.

Transmission & Vectors

Epidermarbor has only been known to transmit orally, through consumables contaminated with the magical disease. It is not infectious outside of this.

Causes

Consumables containing the material of a carrier of the disease is ingested continuously over the period of six months, when the symptoms begin. As it is difficult to tell when a tree has once been a human being, it is nearly impossible to keep the contaminated byproducts out of public access. Unfortunately, this manifests usually through the use of medications that contain certain tree byproducts (both natural and processed medicines). It is thought the same would be said of food derived from those trees, but it is less likely that someone will continuously eat the same food for six months or longer, while it is very likely depending on what the medication is used for.

Symptoms

• lethargy
• desire to be outside
• stiff joints
• scaling of skin
• turning into tree

Between the appearance of bark growing in place of skin and the difficulty of moving one's joints, the infected are compelled to leave their jobs, family, without warning. They wander, usually into forests, before their transformation becomes completely obvious. Then they lay roots down and become indiscernible from a tree.

"Perhaps they wish to return to their forest. They have become one of the many. They walk as fast as they can, as far as they can, hoping to reach their progenitor. If we found this forest, perhaps we could avoid this unfortunate circumstance in the future."

Petra Lakatos in Musings on Improper Magicks

History

While the true beginning of this condition is unknown, magical scholars have come up with the most likely path the curse has followed to make it to modern day. It is believed that in researching some sort of spell to do with flora, that a powerful magician managed to infect a small town of people or a small grove of trees with incomplete magic. Whether beginning from humans or from trees, from then all it took was humanity's tendency to gather resources from their environment and the long period of time it takes for the disease to take root to obscure how it was transmitted.

by eberhard grossgasteiger

Type

Magical

Origin

Magical

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Extremely Rare

Affected Species

• Human

Life Sentence

Even for those who are discovered to suffer from epidermarbor before they wander, this disease is fatal. The best magical medics of any era have attempted to find a way to reverse the effects to no avail. It is thought to be torture to keep those afflicted from finding their way into a forest to take root and finish their transformation.