The Hazmanoc Pathogen

The Hazmanoc Pathogen is a debilitating disease that only affects Elementals. It causes those infected with it to slowly loose their elemental powers and die. No one is quite sure how it came into existence, but it has popped in and out of Cycadian history at least three times, killing many people and then disappearing for a while.

Transmission & Vectors

It's an airborne disease. It's infectious at all stages, but most specifically the first.

Symptoms

The Hazmanoc Pathogen manifests itself first as what feels like a mild cold and a slight difficulty in using one's elemental powers. As the condition progresses, the patient quickly looses the ability to use and control their powers, occasionally leading to floods, fires, or malfunctioning of electrical equipment, but mostly to a complete lack of power and the benefits that come with them. The patient's cold steadily worsens and there's a lot of vomiting and a steadily increasing fever. The hallucinations come next, and lead to loud, terrifying and sometimes violent outbursts and patients often have to be sedated to prevent them from causing harm to themselves or others. The final stage of the pathogen is marked by the patient going comatose and dying suddenly in their sleep. Once the disease has reached the final stages, it is incurable.

Treatment

There is a cure, but the instructions and things needed to synthesize it have been lost to time, harsh weather conditions, and areas where people have been infected with it (the virus has a long lifespan). Not to mention it's extremely expensive and difficult to make.

Prognosis

Because of how difficult the cure is to make, you're very likely doomed if you contract it. If by some miracle you can get access to the cure, then you have to act quickly. You can only cure someone if they're in the first three stages of the disease, any later and they're doomed to die.

Sequela

If you manage cure yourself in the first stage, then congrats, you'll still have access to your elemental power, though it might not be as powerful or easy to control as before you got sick. If you manage to cure yourself in the second stage, then you're likely never to regain control or use of your power and the benefits that come with them unless you're really lucky. If you take it in the third stage, then you're never going to regain your elemental power and the benefits with them and you're definitely going to have issues with your brain.

Affected Groups

It only affects Cycadians and Samarlinians

Prevention

Space suits and disinfectant help, but there's no vaccine and the best way to avoid contracting it is staying away from people infected with it, those who've been near people infected with it, and areas where it's struck.

History

The first recorded outbreak occurred in the mountain city of Darke, in the Middle Territories. It killed nearly the entirety of the population before the city was locked up to prevent further infection. It was forgotten to time and no records of it survived outside of the ones in Darke. The second outbreak happened when an archeological expedition uncovered the city of Darke and accidentally exposed themselves to it. Thankfully, the outbreak was contained to just the archeologists, but none of the archeologists survived. There was a huge funeral for all the archeologists, who couldn't be brought home, and no one forgot that outbreak. There was a lot of interest in developing a cure, especially after the journal of one of the archeologists mentioned that there was, but none of the efforts got much of anywhere. The third outbreak took place years later in the Three Worlds War because a certain evil telepathic dictator was an idiot with time travel and accidentally brought it back with him.

Type

Viral

Origin

Magical

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity

Unique