Styrskin
Styrskin, known in Nioa as the Gorgon's Revenge, is an aggressive and magical form of leprosy. While its origins are disputed, it is widely considered to be a kind of endemic curse that now spreads naturally through the ingestion of tainted water or compromised bodily fluids. Giant and giantkin such as goliath appear unaffected by styrskin.
Transmission & Vectors
Styrskin is transmitted through fluids. Water and other liquids tainted by those afflicted by styrskin can carry the curse, but it is most often transmitted through repeated exposure to bodily fluids such as spit, sweat, pus, blood, semen, and vaginal fluid.
Note that traditional styrskin takes time to take effect and is different from the rapid petrification seen in the curses imparted by cockatrice, basilisks, and gorgons. Those curses are transmitted a variety of ways, almost always at range and through a manipulation of the Ethereal Plane.
Causes
Styrskin is believed to be magical in origin, perhaps even divine. It has been attested throughout Holos since the Second Intermediate Period, though it is widely believed to be much older.
Symptoms
The disease begins as a stiffness of the joints. Then small scabs appear on the patients's skin that seem to calcify. Removing the scabs only causes them to grow and for the calcification to acclerate, turning from a calcium-based substance to one closer in composition to stone. By the time these scabs are detected, it is usually too late for magical treatment. The scabs slowly spread throughout the body, impeding motor functions and damaging nerves until the patient can no longer feel their extremities. Late stage styrskin results in near complete impairment of mobility, the loss of one's vision and olfactory senses, and then eventually organ failure. However, this process is long and can take anywhere from 3 to 25 years.
Treatment
The common cure disease spell cannot fully cure a patient. At best, when used early, it causes slight discomfort and causes the scabbing to retreat. At worse, when used on late stage cases, the spell causes the stony epidermis to contract and shred whatever musculature or organs are underneath, causing severe pain and catastrophic damage to the body. The spell remove curse similarly has no effect, though it does not cause any physical damage. Instead, it simply cannot find a single target to remove said curse as the disease is too endemic to the Material Plane to be plucked and banished to the Ethereal Plane.
One cure has been noted in some ancient records. It requires the combining of crushed gorgon eyes with the basilisk blood to create a kind of antidote that can be added to a salve and rubbed on the afflicted areas. Multiple courses of treatment are required to render this method effective, and both ingredients required are exceptionally rare and difficult to obtain.
In Varangia, it is said that offerings to the Ordning can cure the disease, though not Styr, as he apparently is indifferent to the affliction and will utilize those who succumb to the disease in the construction and ornimentation of the Ysgaard.
Prevention
Individuals who wear amulets or charms that ward off curses and diseases are immune from contracting the disease. However, such charms can not be attuned to retroactively to prevent the advancement of the condition once it has been contracted.
Water containing the curse can be treated to prevent it from spreading, though the process is not widely known.
History
Mortal records mention styrskin going back centuries, to at least the Second Intermediate Period.
In the Early Sundered Era, it is said that the dwarven rulers of the Varangian Range prayed to Styr for the Varskogan invaders to be striken with the disease. Legend tells of Styr heeding their prayers only after a chieftain called lightning down on a sacred mountain during a battle, cleaving a portion of a cliff from the mountain's face. The chieftain returned to his village only to find everyone inside slowly petrifying.
Recently, a major outbreak of the disease gripped the Holy City of Jeharoa. It is believed to have been brought to the region by the soldiers of the Pilgrim States, specifically Varskogan mercenaries from Varangia. A hospital was set up to harbor those afflicted by the curse known as the Leper Moat during the reign of Queen Sirylla in 342 SE. The disease continued to spread under the reign of her successor, King Baldwin and her grandson, the young Prince Galeran I is rumored to have contracted the disease from his father.
During the Second Pilgrim War, tensions between the afflicted of the Leper Moat and the government of Jeharoa led to the conscription of those mobile enough to perform certain tasks. They were charged with creating and maintaining weapons and city defenses. The Leper Moat itself was subject of an attack by the Kobold sappers under the direction of the Grand Army of the Dragon's chief engineer Harrachi. The lepers rallied against the kobolds and drove them out of the city in a heroic charge, losing only a handful to the Qartagonians. In recognition of their bravery Queen Theodosia I decreed they be named a chivalric order and charged with the continued defense of the city.
Comments