The Silence

"The Silence" is the name given to an ancient plague native to the jungles of southwest Khelegan. It was first named and described in ancient documents dating to the founding of Targos, c. 500BTC.

A much more recent outbreak of the Silence in the late 17th century ATC contributed greatly to present-day knowledge of the condition, which has not been observed since.

Transmission & Vectors

The virus is transmitted through the breath of those infected, gaining this ability within one day of contraction, and usually one to three days before the host is aware they are infected.

Symptoms

Within two to four days of contracting the virus, a host begins to lose the ability to speak, their voice simply fading away over a further two or three days. Ancient sources attributed a host of maladies to the illness as well, however records from a much more recent and better documented outbreak describe no such additional symptoms.

Treatment

Myriad potential remedies and supposed cures have been described, with the most common involving various heated herbal concoctions; none of them has ever been conclusively proven however, and the evidence of their efficacy is purely circumstantial.

Prognosis

Once the afflicted has fully lost their voice, the virus either becomes terminal within two days, wherein the victim's throat rather suddenly begins to swell, closing off their breath; or the host begins to heal, reaching a full recovery within days. On average, two out of every three who contract the illness succumb.

Sequela

All reliable records on the Silence indicate that once someone has survived the last, typically fatal stages of the virus and begun to recover their voice, the illness appears to become dormant; no known cases of recurrence in, or contraction from, a survivor of the Silence are documented.

Affected Groups

Though those more susceptible to illness are naturally more likely to contract the Silence, there seems to be no detectable pattern in who survives and who dies; old, weak, and infirm are just as likely to spontaneously recover as the young and apparently healthy are to succumb.

Hosts & Carriers

No one definitively knows who or what was the original host of the Silence. It is believed that it was transmitted to humans first through the bite of the parasitic Blood Spider, a small spider native to the southern Khelegaian jungles, which feeds on the blood of any red-blooded creature. Where the Blood Spider, which is itself unaffected, first acquired the disease is a mystery.

Epidemiology

Relatively close contact among a large number of people is required for the Silence to spread quickly, leading densely populated and/or highly social settlements to be at greatest risk for larger-scale outbreaks. The virus runs its course somewhat quickly, and is detectable within a few days of transmission, so rapidly isolating an afflicted area is generally effective at limiting its spread.

History

Ancient Legends

The first mention of the Silence comes from some of the earliest documents in the Targotian language, dating to very near the founding of the city of Targos itself around 500BTC. In these writings, the ancient Targotians speak of the coming of a dread plague some century or more earlier, when their people still lived "...across many rivers, far to the south of this place". Some of these same records also mention a nearby people, different from the Targotians and fearful of the sea, who were also afflicted (see Asa).

The Zendylite Outbreak

In the late 17th century ATC, an expedition from the Zendylite Empire, sailing out of Targos, explored down the southwestern coast of Khelegan to the Bay of Sharassa, landing temporarily near the Unnamed River. Upon returning to the southernmost regions of the Targotian Colarchate of the Empire, the expedition made an emergency landing to seek healing for a number of their crew, who had mysteriously become ill during the return voyage, and of whom several had begun to perish abruptly, suffocating to death suddenly as their throats closed up.

As the virus began to spread rapidly through the close-knit fishing communities at the end of Imperial territory, authorities in Targos were alerted to rumors of the sickness ravaging their southern lands. Recognizing the description from the old records, the Colarch of Targos ordered the immediate quarantine of the affected areas, with all measures to be taken to avoid any contact with the afflicted populations. Though hundreds died in the outbreak, the rapid response limited the scope of the event, and likely spared the Empire a more severe pandemic.

Cultural Reception

The Silence is remembered by both the Targotians and the Tanaari with fear, with the range of the latter ending far short of where the Great Khelegaian Desert slowly gives way to the southern Khelegaian jungles. Both peoples have ancient stories speaking of how their ancestors, long before even the great Targotian Cataclysm, fled the lands of their birth, which were being ravaged by a deadly and tenacious plague.

Type

Viral

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity

Rare

The Nefarious Carrier

by Grimbjorn Gregersson (Photographer) w/ LunaPic.com

The small, parasitic Blood Spider of southern Khelegan is believed to be the main transmitter of the Silence to human victims.

Societies/Cultures Affected