Bluewave

Overview

The Bluewave condition is an infectious disease, originally considered a plague. It first appeared after the tidal wave, which destroyed Crúor for the first time, had retracted and left a lot of water and corpses in its wake.

Naming

The illness got its name from the tidal wave itself and the way the bodies of the dead changed their colour to a slightly blue hue. But that was not the worst; the worst was that a victim of the Bluewave would cough up blue mucus, coming from the airways and the lungs. Sometimes blue-ish spots appear on the skin, looking like strange bruises.

Course

The Bluewave illness presents itself in the first stages as a flue. Coughing, sneezing, clogged nose, fever, shivers of cold and heat. One has probably caught a cold in the wetlands or was in closer proximity to bodies near a massive area filled with standing water.

The first two or three days after the incubation period feel and behave like a regular cold or flue. It can be treated, but the healer has to assess the right illness and not just "it is the flue". After a few days the bruises start to appear, and one gets weaker day by day, mainly caused by the burning fever, draining the body of resources and energy.

Then the coughing gets worse, at some point it results in coughing fits, which do hurt, can wound the airways and make way for the infection. Now the Bluewave starts to rot the flesh, mostly airways and lungs. If one sees blue spots of tissue coming out of their mouth, they still have time to react. Strong potions have to be administered, but the window for treatment is a small one and is closing fast. Inhaling vaporised herbs is a good way of driving the Bluewave back.

A day or two after the first blue tissue particles appear, blood follows because the flesh is finally rotting for good. Also the skin is changing its colour to a faint blue. This is the point of no return. From here on the healer can only ease the suffering or, if the patient wants it and the family agrees, end the suffering.

The dead are cremated, their ash distributed somewhere on the fields. The heat of the fire normally kills the infection for good. Before the body gets cremated, everyone has to wear protective gear, because the infection still lives on and is still infectious.

Treatment

When treated early enough, one can get rid of the Bluewave like a normal flue. The requirement for this is that the healer knows about the Bluewave and taking a closer look.

Normal treatment starts with healing potions, herbs, and painkillers. If the disease is already burning up the body, the stronger potions need to be administered, combined with stronger herbs and incense, accompanied by painkillers as well.

The more drastic way is to sedate the patient and cut them open, to treat the lungs from the outside with herb-infused incense. This is the last option, because it is dangerous and it can be useless.

A magical healer could cast healing spells, but the Bluewave is behaving like a normal flue, so the healer needs to add a few more parameters to the spells to get beyond the "cover" and treat the real infection. This is the most effective method, but it requires skill and knowledge from the healer to actually navigate to the core of the illness.

Surviving - a blessing or a curse?

Depending on when one has been cured from the Bluewave, the effects are not noticeable, mildly inconvenient, or life-changing. Being short of breath from time to time is a well-known long-term effect of Bluewave. If the infection did not attack your airways or just for a really short time, one might have problems to breathe from time to time, mostly when the air is more humid than normal. But if the infection spread to your lungs and started to rot away the tissue there, it gets worse. Short of breath, not being able to breathe in general, or just in very short huffs. It also feels like some giant is compressing ones lungs with their fists, not releasing them anytime soon. They are also drained of energy day by day, without the hopes or the possibilities to recover from Bluewave.

Some would say it is a blessing to survive the Bluewave. Others rather would have died in hindsight than to endure the continuous after-effects.

A Plagues Tale

"I have seen my share of illness. Plagues, infections, battlefields and medical tents. Bluewave is not so different from a plague anyway. It behaves like the flue, but kills the body similar to the plague. It is a nasty way to go. Not as the Crystal Vein Syndrome, but being tormented for a few days and then go out in a coughing fit, spitting out part of your lungs... no, not a good way to go. Aside from dying of old age, there is no really good way to go, if you think about that. Luckily Bluewave is, despite being highly infectious, contained and is only found when various factors apply, so there is not a high probability of it infecting the whole continent."

— Healer when interviewed about Bluewave

"Well, either you get me some Multiuse Potion or my collection of herbs. And the incense, we need to whip up some smoke to drive the Bluewave away. This is some nasty stuff... no no, not the Ironblood, bring the ... the uh... yeah, that, the Mintvein, that's the one!"

— Healer with a student