Black Scourge
The Black Scourge, the Blight, or simply "the curse," did what centuries of warfare and treachery failed to do: wiped out billions of lives in months, felled empires and kingdoms, and put the fear of the gods and nature back into the hearts of men.
Symptoms
In animals and plants, the Blight latches on to them, steaming and smoking, withering them away to charred, blackened skeletons. The land turns black, the soil gritty, and even bodies of water turn into inky liquid.
In sapient creatures, like humans, the Qoh, or the Vir, it begins with black bruises appearing all over the body, extremely painful and dry to the touch. The veins and arteries turn black, along with the blood inside. The eyes are the first things to go, liquidating into a black sludge and running down the face like tears. Next comes the vomiting, more black sludge. It gets worse and worse until all that comes is dry-heaving. Lastly, the hair falls out, and the fingers and toes turn black (like frostbite) and fall off, shriveled and cracked. An agonizing death follows, and after death, the curse burns all of the skin away, until all that's left is a black skeleton. This all takes place within a span of days, hours if the afflicted is lucky.
History
The Blight began in Quinli, when a group of well-meaning scholars in Nantwich took their magical experimentations too far, misplacing some variable in the magic "equation" and unleashing the darkness upon not just Quinli, but Eyila as a whole. The curse spread quickly, devastating cities and natural landmarks alike. Doctors on the coasts tried desperately to come up with a cure, but the darkness descended on them before they could create anything –– not that there was anything they could do.
It was in Quinli that the curse remained, isolated, for awhile. A few tendrils reached into the water, turning it dark as well, but didn't venture further. Eventually, though, some human explorers from Iklaroth found their way to Quinli, and discovered the Blight. Curiosity being in their nature, they tried to study it, even stepped foot onto the black sands of Karr, and were promptly infected by the curse. They quickly left, declaring Quinli a "Fractured Land," and deeming it unsafe to return.
Within years, the curse reached Iklaroth's southern shores, decimating the settlement of Woodhaerst first. It devoured Iklaroth even faster than it did Quinli, and through the ships of the humans fleeing to Iklaroth's sister land, discovered Amalar. From there, it was only a matter of time until the empires there fell.
With nowhere else to go, the Blight settled. The lands it affected cooled, grew somewhat safer, though some places, such as Nantwich, remain fractured and deadly. Plant and animal life began to return, and those sentient beings who survived, began rebuilding.
Survivors
Very few Qoh survived the Blight. Most of those who did fled Quinli before it reached them, but there were some who found that they simply didn't die. They became infected, veins turned black, bruises appeared, the inky remains of their eyes streamed down their faces, they endured the pain of vomiting black sludge, and their hair fell out, but their fingers and toes remained, and they kept their lives, though they lost the ability to reproduce. Not many remain, and those who do, hide in shadow as the Sightless Ones. The Vir and humans who survived, on the other hand, made full recoveries, and retained their ability to reproduce. Many saw this as a gift from the gods, and a punishment upon the Qoh for creating the Blight in the first place. However, there were some Vir and humans who survived the curse, but were not so fortunate. Their brains and bodies were twisted into unrecognizable, scarred forms, and they became known as demons. They haunt old battlefields and places where the Blight is still most dangerous, and it's said they also hide in the mountains as scouts, trying to find a path to Rustad.Other Names
Blight
Curse
Treatment
None
Type
Magical
"I saw nothing but death, and now, I see nothing but darkness."
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