The Creeping Shadow
Aka, The Shadow Plague
"'How is it out there in the city?' Asked the loyal servant of Alusche. 'Hell, hell I tell you, how could the gods allow this to transpire?' The servant looked away 'I do not think they did, how this happened does not matter anyways, you know it is your fate to die too.' Alusche looked at the massive lump growing on his arm 'I don't care at this point, I have lived long but I was hoping my kingdom would have lived just a little bit longer,' Alusche wheezed, 'Get me a glass of wine before I go.' But the servant was already dead."The Creeping Shadow is the name of the plague which killed an estimated 50,000,000 people across eastern Rena. It was planted by The shadow legion within the city of Casrea as a means of mass sacrifice. Though since those who participated in the ritual to create the magical disease died in the process, they may never know what hell they unleashed onto the world. It was characterized by huge, massive, swollen, lumps all over the bodies of its victims, filled with cancer, gangrene flesh, bleeding, pustules, and sores. The only way to stop the plague was to stop it from spreading for at least a year, this was accomplished through the creation of the Sacred River river by high priest Taneris. For many months all of Rena hid wherever they could, scared that a single floating skin cell could spread the disease onto the other side of the river.
-An excerpt from "The Death of Casrea," by Nalan Xelis
Transmission & Vectors
The Creeping Shadow can be transmitted simply through contact with contaminated cells. Since it is created by extreme lasting disruption and vibration in the magical weave and is sustained by living things, the disruption can be spread to any other nearby life. Skin cells and bacteria from the wounds of victims can easily fly through the air instantly spreading the disease to most who are touched. Any amount of blood flowing in the water supply will contaminate the water, making it dangerous to anybody who drinks the water. It is essentially impossible to stop through any non-magical means, and conventional dispel magic effects only work so well. Though if it does not find new hosts for a long period of time, the weave can repair from the intense magic, permanently killing the plague.
Causes
The Shadow Plague was created and planted in the heart of Casrea when through a feat of epic magic by The shadow legion, the horrific curse was put onto the king. It spread quickly, nearly killing all life on Rena with the intent of sacrificing hundreds of millions of people to Shraenire. Since it is inherently magical it can survive in any condition as long as it finds new living hosts, and is not dispelled or anti-magic'd before it spreads.
Symptoms
The symptoms of The Shadow Plague include but are not limited to:
-Fever, Heatstroke, Hypothermia, Hyperthermia, Internal burning, Internal freezing
-Cancer, Brain cancer, Breast cancer, Liver cancer, Heart cancer, Bone cancer, Most other types of cancer
-Sores, Cysts, Boils, Internal bleeding, Bruising,
-Coughing, Sneezing, Puking, Accelerated waste removal
-Blindness, Hearing Loss, Stroke, Schizophrenia, Dementia, Memory Loss, Brain Damage, A variety of mental and personality disorders
-Blood clots, Heart failure, Organ failure, Heart arrhythmia
Do all these symptoms seem a little bit too much for one disease? If that's what you were thinking, then you would be right. All of these many symptoms are caused by the extreme unpredictability created by unstable effects on the weave, like the plague itself. Much like wild magic, it is essentially random how the plague will kill you, just know that it will kill you. After a while these effects will culminate in massive lumps, sometimes growing to the size of pumpkins. These lumps are essentially places where all the effects of the plague are coming in full force and where the magic is most unstable in your body.
-Fever, Heatstroke, Hypothermia, Hyperthermia, Internal burning, Internal freezing
-Cancer, Brain cancer, Breast cancer, Liver cancer, Heart cancer, Bone cancer, Most other types of cancer
-Sores, Cysts, Boils, Internal bleeding, Bruising,
-Coughing, Sneezing, Puking, Accelerated waste removal
-Blindness, Hearing Loss, Stroke, Schizophrenia, Dementia, Memory Loss, Brain Damage, A variety of mental and personality disorders
-Blood clots, Heart failure, Organ failure, Heart arrhythmia
Do all these symptoms seem a little bit too much for one disease? If that's what you were thinking, then you would be right. All of these many symptoms are caused by the extreme unpredictability created by unstable effects on the weave, like the plague itself. Much like wild magic, it is essentially random how the plague will kill you, just know that it will kill you. After a while these effects will culminate in massive lumps, sometimes growing to the size of pumpkins. These lumps are essentially places where all the effects of the plague are coming in full force and where the magic is most unstable in your body.
Treatment
As with most magical, devastating, kingdom-destroying plagues, The Creeping Shadow is completely incurable except for by magical means. Though since the highest priest in the land was the first to be affected, nobody except a god could possibly stop it. Anybody who has ever gotten to the middle stage of having The Shadow Plague has died, even the demigods of Casrea were not immune. The Creeping Shadow can only die when all its available hosts are used up.
Prognosis
After contracting The Creeping Shadow, it will quickly start causing cancer all over ones body. In this first stage, it is nearly impossible to tell without the use of magic that one actually has The Creeping Shadow. Once it reaches the second stage after about a day, it's too late. In the second phase one will know they have contracted the plague because of extensive coughing, sneezing, deification, cysts, and sores forming on their body. The third phase is the final and most deadly stage of the plague, all the symptoms start coming in full force as huge dark lumps of internal bleeding, cancer, boils, and other symptoms of the plague start growing all over the body. These massive lumps are hot-spots where the magic of the plague is extremely unstable, causing huge amounts of damage to one area.
Affected Groups
Unfortunately for life, The Shadow Plague affects all people no matter what. Anybody short of a literal god is susceptible to it. Even the four titans, in theory, could be killed by the plague. Its power to affect all people no matter what, through its inherit magic, is how it killed all the demigods of Casrea, and all the people of east Rena. The plague essentially has the power to collapse and interrupt all complicated systems and structures, aka, life and things that used to be alive.
Hosts & Carriers
Prevention
If you are nearby anywhere that the plague is at all or are simply on the wrong side of the Sacred River, there is no way to survive. With the plague being possible to spread by only a few cells it is completely unavoidable. After the plague started, people across what would soon become Tonkir, Rena, and the Darklands started flocking to every person who could cast dispel magic on them. In order to avoid the plague spreading, nearly every available spell caster at that time was busy casting dispel magic and anti-magic zones on everything which could be contaminated.
History
The Creeping Shadow was first planted by The shadow legion, after creating it through the use of epic magic, on king Alusche of Casrea. It quickly spread through the entire city, killing all the people and all the demigods of Casrea. Alusche was very powerful and even though the plague was planted on him first, he was still the last to die as he watched his entire kingdom fall. After decimating all of Casrea, it spread throughout eastern Rena, on the wind, across the grass, transmitted by every animal around. The plague may have destroyed all of Rena or possibly even all of Laeriss if the Sacred River had not been created by high priest Taneris of Lenesel. This mass sacrifice of people was a great atrocity by The shadow legion, with the sole intent of freeing Shraenire. It is unknown if even the people who planted this plague knew just how many tens of millions of people they would kill with it.
Type
Divine
Origin
Divine
Cycle
Chronic, Acquired & Congenital
Rarity
Unique
Affected Species
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