Rotten Spots

Rotten Spots is a rare condition that is mainly known in the Ventsea island. It is caused by contact with one of the native plants of the island and causes extreme itchiness with rapid necrosis as well as other symptoms like blue spots. It is a harsh condition that leaves death or heavy scarring on its victims and works fast.

Causes

Caused by skin contact with a substance secreted as a defensive mechanism by the plant named Bleeding saffron. The condition cannot be obtained in any other way and can be better or worse depending on how strong the substance is.

Originally, the substance was only found in the Bleeding saffron but people have started making venoms with it. And same sort of people that are doing venoms and toxins with it, have started exporting this plant outside its native location, whether to experiment on more venoms or because some people offered money for the plants.

Type

Chemical Compound

Origin

Natural

Rarity

Rare

Affectes species

Aquatilis, Dracolis, Terrelis

Portrait of a sad woman with her hand on her face by Darina Belonogova

Symptoms

The condition's first signs are the blue spots on whatever part of skin it has been in contact of the substance barely an hour or so after contact. The places tend to be extremities (legs, arms, and less commonly, tails and wings). These spots get immediately itchy.

After a few hours (or a day for the lucky) the itch persists but it cannot be temporally calmed by scratching in the place. This happens because the blue spots contain certain chemicals that destroy the synapses of the sensory neurons in the location and the brain gets confused.

In most the cases, the itching can still be temporally calmed with scratching, by scratching in the same position but in the mirrored place of the body, for example, if left lower arm is itching, one must scratch the right lower arm. Tails are a tricky place to get the blue spots on as no place in the tail seems to be able to calm the itchiness, unless the person has two tails which is highly rare (caused by mutations).

A few days later (or a week if lucky), the skin dies around the blue spots, followed by the muscles, bones and sooner than later the whole part of the body. If left untreated, the necrosis will spread around the body and will cause a slow agonizing dead.

Treatment

There are two ways of treating this condition, none being painless:

• Cut it out - only possible when the spots are located on an limb.
• Burn it out - burn individually each one of the blue spots, being carefully to not let its chemicals splash to healthly skin. Can only be done before the first signs of necrosis.

Both treatments are dangerous on their own, being able to cause infections if not dealt with properly which would only worse the person's health.

Baker fueling his woodfire oven by DDP

Woman covering her face by Dmitry Ratushny

Prevention

When entering the Ventsea island one must be well covered with clothes, the more shown skin, the higher the possibility to be affected by the Bleeding saffron's venomous substance.

When reaching a safe place (a place that has been confirmed to be free of the saffron), the clothes can be changed carefully, making sure no substance falls to the skin and if any falls, it has to quickly be cleaned with water. The contamined clothes must be cleaned before being used again.

Scales can temporally protect the skin from the substance (because its more goo than liquid and takes a bit to move around) but should be cleaned as soon as possible once reached a safe place. Skin that has either been covered in clothes or be left exposed should also be cleaned as soon as possible, in case the substance has managed to go through the clothes.

There are warnings about leaving the safe spots of the island uncovered everywhere, both for travellers and inhabitants. At the verge of the safe spots, there are also walls with doors that have guards on them, to stop clueless people to enter the jungle unprotected.

Epidemiology

Most of the infections happen in the Ventsea island during late spring to mid autumn, when the plant causative of it blooms. It mainly affects careless travelers and people entering the jungle in a rush. Nowadays, prevention is really important on the island and thus the yearly cases of the Rotten Spots decrease year after year a bit more. Deadly cases on the island are incredibly rare as people learned to be extremely perceptive on first signs of the condition both on themselves and other people.

While they are a small quantity (although they are slowly growing to be more common), the worse cases of this conditions happen out the island, where the plant has been illegaly exported or its toxins have been used on people.

Aquatilis are the species with least amount of cases of this conditions, as they mainly live underwater, out the reach of the plant, but not the toxin. They also are the species which know less about this conditions, causing dead to be highly probable when contracting Rotten Spots.

Dracolis are quite knowledgeable about this condition (although not as much as Terrelis) and contact with the toxines does not mean they immediately get the condition, thanks to their scales, but once they get it, it is more painful than others to treat it through burning as first they have to pluck their scales to be able to reach the blue spots and then burn them.

Terrelis are the species with more cases, both for not having some sort of protection (other than clothes) and because they are the main species living in Ventsea island. They are the most knowledgeable about this condition but also the ones exporting the plant to other places and making toxins with it.

Elves

Elves have a hard time with this condition because their bacteria. The bacteria will quickly go to attack the blue spots on the elves' skin, which causes the chemicals in the blue spots to act quicker and in a wider area and thus the necrosis advances much quicker. Elves tend to only survive the Rotten Spots if they cut whatever body part is infected.

Information

Because how dangerous this condition is, people from the island try their best to share their knowledge about it as much as they can. Because Ventsea island is used as a stop in long sea travels, people try to have information about it everywhere on the island in as many languages as they can. False prevention ideas are badly seen and if someone is underestimating the condition, people will let them know how bad it is.