The Sneezing Death is a not-so-rare disease caused by a normally harmless butterfly, the White Shutterfly. Yeah, some kind of a not-so-funny researcher thought it was a good idea to name this small butterfly the way it is named.
Anyway, the very harmless butterfly has small scales which will get loose over time and hover through the air and are getting transported by it. If they reach your nose, they settle in deep inside the paranasal sinus and stay there, making sneeze to a horrible death when not treated.
Once the sneezing starts, it will never stop. Most patients sneezes three or four times per minute, others the same amount in an hour or in a second with breaks between the sneeze periods. It gets worse over time so that the patient is sneezing rapidly and doesn't get a break until something vital breaks inside the body. Mostly the smaller veins in the nose, starting with nosebleed until the patient sneezes so often the body doesn't get a break, pressure is building up, more and more veins break with the brain eventually reaching the climax, building up enough pressure to break the - most likely now developed - aneurysm, causing death.
A simple and very effective method: clear your paranasal sinus with salted water. Inhaling hot steam may help with the sneezing itself, but to flush out the scales you need salted water. Do it three times a day over the course of a month. If the sneezing persists do it again.
After all scales are gone out of your paranasal sinus, you are healed. You have to be careful with "normal" sneezing like from a cold or a chill wind (your veins might be a little bit sensible so they might break again), but besides that and the scales are gone, the patient can live as before.
There is no real aftermath, most of the bodies (including all races here) can heal the damage and tell the tale of how they almost sneezed themselves literally to death.
Hello Nemo, glad you survived the Sneezing Death. A very humiliating way to go, I have to say. We would love to see you return and welcome you in the Caves of Joy or one of our dragon cafés where tiny copper dragons keep you company, heat up your tea and flambé your desserts. An advice of security: do not anger our Dragonborn or step on a shiny blue puffball shroom. Both actions are not advised. :)
Nice fun and small article, great for a quick entertaining read. I was wondering, why is the curability only 90%? Is the salt treatment not 100% effective? Another thing that would be great to learn is how the discovery of the cure came about.
It is the most effective treatment to day. And to answer the question in short: no, it is not 100% effective, some scales might stay in your system and cause you trouble. (And some people think they are only sneezing and when they went to a doctor, it was too late, but that does not count) Oh, I figured if you have a blocked nose or a fever or a cold in general and do the inhaling, why not recreate a different, more fluid solution? I would say some poor soul was desperate enough to actually rinse their nostrils with salt water and shared their discovery. But thanks for the headsup, I'll add it later down the line. :)