Blood Sweats

"What wrong with that man?" the little girl ask her mother, seeing a man stumbling around in the alley. "I don't know, dear, lets see if he's needs help." as her mother headed into the alley with her. As she got closer to man she called out asking if he needed help. The man turned to the sound of her voice, the mother screamed as she saw the droplet of sweat cover the man visible skin. Quickly she grabbed her daughters hand and rushed out the alley screaming for the guards.

- Witness account of finding an Blood Sweat infected

Transmission & Vectors

Transmission of the Blood Sweats happens when a person comes into contact with an infected patient or encounters a Bloodphage that they come into contact with. A carrier will not be contagious until they begin to express blood-filled sweat from their pores. Research has shown that this terrible affliction had signatures of Aether attached to what was once a harmless bacteria that a humanoid body could resist.

Symptoms

The patient suffering from the Blood Sweats will go through multiple stages of increasing worse symptoms. These symptoms progress over a period of roughly 3 weeks.

• Stage 1: Swollen glands, fever, excessive sweating
• Stage 2: Memory loss, bouts of hearing and visual loss, impaired cognitive abilities
• Stage 3: Uncontrollable bleeding from pours and tear ducts, coagulation of blood over the skin, death, Bloodphage spawn

Treatment

If an infected patient is able to seek treatment before the disease has progressed to Stage 3, they have a ninety-five percent chance of survival. The patient must first be isolated completed then a representative of the Otemus Arcanium must be contacted. Upon arrival, the patient is strapped into a bed. The Arcanist perform the spell known as the Blood-curdle which forcefully ejects all the infected bacteria from the patients pours and gathers it in a specially enchanted container built to hold and isolate the resulting Bloodphage to be destroyed later by the arcanist. Although an excruciatingly painful process, the patient's life will be saved. There were attempts to use the same treatment on patients in the third stage however it always resulted in the patient dying in horrible agony. In about five percent of patients the Bloodphage has mutated and is unrecoverable by the arcanist. Every mutation is different and engineering a cure also takes more time then the patient has.

Prognosis

There have been only been two possible outcomes after contracting Blood Sweats. The patient either seeks help and goes through the recovery process or the disease progresses to its full expression at which point the patient dies and a Bloodphage is spawned from the blood of the deceased.

Hosts & Carriers

Any humanoid has been seen capable of being a host for the infected bacteria. No natural resistance has been found for the virus yet.

Prevention

There is no one prevention other then avoiding contact with a Blood Sweat patient and avoiding contact with a Bloodphage and immediately reporting either to the authorities.

History

The exact history of the evolution of the Blood Sweats is unknown. Researches have run batteries of arcane, divine, and alchemical tests on the infected bacteria. All that was found was a corrupted arcane formula that had bonded with a generally harmless strain of bacteria that is found living in humanoid and animal bloodstreams. The unaltered bacteria will sometime cause mild cold-like symptoms which usually runs its course in a few days. Hypothesis centers on it's creation during the many arcane experiments during Chained Rebellion to find a way to harm the elves indirectly and decrease their number they would have to battle.

Cultural Reception

A person infected with the Blood Sweats is immediately detained on diagnosis and help is given if possible. If a patient is found in State 3, the immediate area is quarantined and arcanists are brought in to cordon off the area and prevent the escape of the eventual Bloodphage spawn.

Type

Magical

Origin

Magical

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity

Uncommon