Withering

With the Awakening, there came many issues with people absorbing the mana that was reintroduced into the world, there was one such incident that piqued curiosity of the researchers in New Haven. A new condition arose that affected the older generation where with newfound strength and awareness, there came a more pronounced aging that dried the skin and made the body breakdown faster than what age could normally do to people.

Transmission & Vectors

The condition cannot be normally transmitted even though several open studies have been conducted in attempt to copy the infliction.

Causes

Though many cases that this Withering has shown to come up in are connected to those Awakened, there are cases with older people near the area where a Door opened and they were injected with an influx of mana which started the process of the Withering.

Symptoms

The signs of Withering have shown to be the drying of the skin from a more tougher leather to feeble paper like feeling, with the fading vitality, the effected persons seem to grow temporarily stronger than even other Awakened people.

Prognosis

From the current studies in New Haven, it has shown that when contracting the Withering all that have been recorded have eventually died due to the loss of mana that persists even after death, staining the area for sometime after. This loss of mana has shown to be from the near constant release of the energy from the body, which is what allows it to imbued with greater strength than normally found in most Divers and normal humans. This increased strength is the main cause for the body's increased rate of decay which leads even after the inevitable death of the inflicted.

Cultural Reception

When the infliction was found in several survivors of Impact Down, people embraced them and called for a celebration when they believed their old can get stronger and perhaps live longer given the newfound strength. Though this view spread like wildfire, it was quickly doused with the first of many deaths.

Type

Magical