Skyrmin Fever

Written by Bunnyflop

"Skyrmin Fever", named after the city state of Skyrmin, was a disease once widespread throughout Eradin. Initially widely, especially among peasantry, believed to be caused by witnessing great injustice, it was actually a fairly contagious parasitic disease caused by the Javlin Antworm native to Thythr. It has been eradicated since then, mainly due to extraordinary efforts by scholars of the Amad University who used their institution-owned Divine Harvest to create a cure, White Acid, to be injected orally, which cured most of those transmitting the disease.

"Not long after our first battle against Skyrmin scum, a fever befell our comrades in the field. Dozens of our men, even their wives and children, fell ill. It began mildly, a few neurotic outbreaks, some fights, a bunch of deserters. We thought it was a losing army's lack of morale; until to our horror, the infected men's eyeballs bulged out of their skulls, and their veins grew out of their necks like some kind of abomination. Not too long until they fully ceased being men and became rabid beasts, growling, nary an intelligible word coming from their mouths. It could not have been a coincidence: this was the enemy's unholy doing, and our Thythryn warriors would make them regret what they had brought upon our villages."

Ythr van Chytonur in "The Collected Chronicles of the Great Peasants' War"

Symptoms

Any being, human or nonhuman, to be befallen by a Javlin Antworm, will remain asymptomatic for up to a month. That made pinpointing the true origin of the disease decently difficult. During this phase, the Antworm, which usually has entered the host body as a grub or larva, will grow, hatch, and make its way through the victim's inner organs to the neural network. That is usually the spine, even though some cases.
After the asymptomatic period, the first major phase of the fever begins. It is characterised by irrational anger, frustration at minor grievances, and often a rapid change in personal views, ideology, and moral stances. Commonly, the victims start abandoning causes, attacking their dearest friends or even leaving their spouses. In this stage, the disease is still seldom diagnosed, and often attributed to other factors.
The next stage is the second major phase of the fever. During this time, physical mutations begin to manifest. An infected person's eyeballs begin to engorge, often growing past the size of their eye sockets. In some cases, they are prone to falling out. Their veins, especially the ones in their neck, expand and dig their way out of the victim's skin, leaving them exposed to weather conditions and predators. Affected people appear severely disfigured. Veins across the victim's body follow suit, though usually not to the same degree. In this stage, it is outwardly obvious that the disease has kicked in; but a cure is difficult, even using White Acid.
In the last, often fatal stage, the disease is incurable. Victims lose their remaining human soul and any resemblance to feeling, living beings, often merely spouting unintelligible groans and turning to cannibalism for sustenance. Their unbridled rage is now their only motivation, carelessly attacking anything and everything in sight. The physical mutations increase to an extreme, making it easy to fatally damage their bodies as their veins are openly exposed. If this stage does not result in death, which is very rare, the victims continue living in this state as monstrous cannibalistic corpse eaters. Usually, they band together with others affected, which makes them a reasonable threat.
Though they do not pose significant danger to a guarded settlement or well-armed individual, them being prone to hunt in packs makes them easy to overpower their victims by sheer numbers. Even then, the beasts' might lies not in their ability to hurt an enemy or survive a hostile encounter, but in the extreme risk of contagion even after death.

Infection and transmission

Without an infected host present, one can fall victim to the Skyrmin Fever by encountering larvae or grubs of the Javlin Antworm. They enter their victim's body through nourishment, hiding in fruit, or rarely, other food items.
Infecting oneself through contact with an already infected person is significantly easier, as a parasite that lives inside a host multiplies hundredfold and, once ready to find its own host, crawls across the active host's body waiting to transmit to any creature in the vicinity. If the host dies, which is common, all mature parasites leave the victim's body and seek to find any creature to infect immediately. As even in the second stage of the disease, the parasite had already multiplied by about a few dozen, it is more or less impossible to neutralise a host without also exposing the surrounding area to a dozen-fold of mature parasites, which makes the Skyrmin Fever an especially dangerous and contagious disease.
Fortunately for those who seek to defeat an infected while also preventing further transmission, the parasites are vulnerable to fire. Thus, a reasonably effective way to dispose of any contagious material would be to kill a host, and immediately burn the entire area before any of the parasites can escape.

History

Contrary to its name, the Skyrmin Fever did not originate from the city of Skyrmin, but from Thythr. Thythryn peasants attributed the disease to the Skyrmin legions, which at the time invaded and forcibly settled the country during the Great Peasants' War. They believed the fever to be artificial weaponry by the Skyrmin military, which was later brought up in the war trial against the Skyrmin defensive forces despite being known to be untrue at that point. Unbeknownst to them during the first outbreak was that Skyrmin soldiers also suffered from the disease but were quickly brought behind enemy lines for quarantine, while the defending Thythr army could not afford redrawing their men. That only further instilled the belief in the fever being of artificial origin, as enemy troops were never seen infected.
Due to war confusion, the disease was categorised only a year later, at which point large portions of Thythryn peasants were already infected or dead, and famine consequently rolled over the country. It was first called an epidemic by the Thythryn High Council in a political effort to rally their people further against the Skyrmin invaders. The war seemed lost for the Thythryn defenders. However, the First Upheaval of Mantis happened just as the war seemed decided. The Thythryn main college, Amad University, was the first place to conduct the difficult steps to construct a Divine Harvest. Specifically, Amad University subdued Yami, the Scholar, the then-former Goddess of experimentation, knowledge and mental effort.
Her Divine Spirit caused Thythr to turn the tides of and win the Great Peasants' War, and also constructing a cure for the Skyrmin Fever; White Acid, that was subsequently deployed to the entire country.
As of the year 105, Skyrmin Fever has been contained. Rare outbreaks still happen around border regions and spread into neighbouring lands and the wild; tales sometimes talk about packs of wild animals being infected, however no human or nonhuman settlements are known to combat the disease currently.

Transmission & Vectors

Javlin Antworm (Parasite)

Causes

Javlin Antworms; larvae, wild, or from an infected host

Symptoms

Physical deformities: engorged eyeballs, external veins, ripping skin. Mental symptoms: Rage, anger, sudden change in personality and values.

Treatment

White Acid is the only known cure.

Prognosis

Fatal unless treated

Affected Groups

Any living being

Epidemiology

Any amount of infected livestock, wild animals, or edible plants can cause an outbreak. Usually colder climates are more susceptible.

Type

Parasitic

Origin

Natural

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity

Uncommon