King's Touch

Transmission & Vectors

King's Touch is caused by making physical contact with a gold-colored fungus that grows under low leaves in tropical forests. It can also be transmitted via physical contact with an infected creature.

Causes

The gradually worsening condition is caused when the fungus' spores find purchase on the fur, hair, or skin of passing creatures as the creatures brush against the fungus. Microscopic hairs on the spores latch onto virtually any surface and are incredibly difficult to remove.

Symptoms

As the spores begin to settle into the creature and develop, the point of contact develops a golden fuzz. The fuzz spreads slowly over the surface of the creature's skin and through its fur/hair, but it also spreads down into its body. As the infection worsens, the fungus consumes and replaces the organism's tissue with its own. Eventually, the entire body will be converted into a soft, golden simulacra of the infected creature. The host of the fungus feels no pain, but a constant and aggravating itch at the edges of the fungus' spread. They also obviously have a total lack of feeling where the fungus has consumed and replaced its mass.

Treatment

If the point of contact is washed vigorously and thoroughly immediately upon contact, the spores can be removed. However, if given a chance to take root, the fungus can only be removed by cutting away the infected area (e.g.: amputating an infected limb).
Some attempts at burning the fungus have proven successful, but only in the early stages of the infection, as the deeper the fungus spreads into its host the harder it is to kill with simple application of heat without killing the host outright.

Prognosis

Unless one of the above treatments is employed successfully, King's Touch is always slowly lethal.

Affected Groups

King's Touch only affects animals.

Prevention

Reducing the amount of exposed skin when traveling through low brush is the only effective means of preventing infection with King's Touch.

Cultural Reception

Those infected with King's Touch are openly shunned and avoided because it so infectious. Anyone suspected of having touched someone knowingly infected is usually treated in a similar manner, though not always as aggressively. In some cultures, the host is cast out entirely. In other more accommodating cultures, and if the infection is still in its earlier stages, the host is quarantined and treated carefully. Even in these cultures, however, if the infection spreads too far or if treatment fails, they are either killed preemptively, cast out, or given enough provisions for a few days and allowed to find an isolated place to die.

Type

Fungal

Origin

Natural

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Rare