Mountain Sick

Mountain Sick is a terminal illness of the mountains of Kakon, principally the Kentror Mountains. It is characterised by an increase in hatred and malice, and eventually leads to a complete loss of sanity. The disease has been the plague of Kakon since prehistory, and has no known cause or cure.

Transmission & Vectors

Mountain Sick is contracted by prolonged exposure to altitudes and depths of the mountains of Kakon. It usually requires roughly three decades for the disease to take root in an individual or population. However, once it has manifested in an individual or population, it is terminal for that individual's or population's lineage.

Causes

There is no known cause of Mountain Sick, despite centuries of research and experimentation. However, a prevalent theory leverages The Dying Birth. Based on this myth, the world is merely one of two continents formed from the slumbering bodies of two Great Dragons, the Solwoln; one Good and the other Evil. Kakon, in this belief, was formed from the body of the Evil Solwol, generally understood to be Aefan. As such, the Kentror Mountains, being the heart of the continent, are particularly imbued with the malice which the Dragon had within its own heart. This theory bears some weight considering the mystery of the disease's origin and its percieved incurability, which aligns with the metacosmic power of the Solwoln.

Symptoms

Mountain Sick is almost entirely manifest in the mind of the infected. Although it is unknown what happens in the mind of someone in the late stages of the illness, it always presents as a powerful hatred and insatiable desire for bloodshed. Infected maintain the use of their reason, and can conduct high-level thinking tasks throughout their prognosis. However, their ability to understand alternative viewpoints or feel empathy for those outside their own in-group is wholly non-existent. This can lead to someone in the late stages of the disease conducting violent raids on a perceived enemy with expert tact but no remorse, despite their target being innocent.

Although not agreed-upon by the general medical community, Mountain Sick has been known to manifest physical symptoms, specifically in the eyes. According to reports, sufferers from Mountain Sick will appear to develop a dullness, almost opaqueness, in the eyes. Although this has been used to diagnose Mountain Sick, even in its early stages, it is not a useful metric as there is no tangibly recorded change in colour, opacity, luminance, or any other properties of the eyes of an infected person.

Treatment

To date, there is no cure for Mountain Sick, but there are treatments that can slow or stop the prognosis. Once someone is diagnosed with Mountain Sick, they can be treated by being removed from the mountains and brought to where they can breathe sea air. This will slow and sometimes stop the disease from advancing, but the person must remain by the sea permanently. Prayer to good deities or spirits is also known to help, and clerics (particularly Aethanist clerics) can work to slow the advance further through channeling their deities directly.

Legend holds, however, that there is a cure for Mountain Sick. Of course, this cure lies in the mountains of the mythical continent Kaloson, which allegedly is formed from the body of the Good Dragon. It is for this reason that many Ethelan excursions have been made in search for this lost continent.

Prognosis

In the early stage (a period of roughly three years), an infected person will begin to notice loss of temper with increasing frequency and severity. They may appear to get furious over small things in their lives, and even start to show symptoms of a dislike or distrust of certain people groups different from their own. These symptoms are controllable, and often the infected and their community may feel it is nothing more than situational irritability (e.g. fatigue, hunger, mountain environment, lack of air, etc.). If an infected seeks treatment in the early stage, they may stop the prognosis altogether and lead a completely normal life, save for a worse temper and some occasional grumblings which will need to be apologised for.

The intermediate stage is usually when a person is first diagnosed with Mountain Sick, if they ever get the chance to interact with someone who is not in the mountains with them. During this year-long stage, their small outburst will start to turn violent and seemingly uncontrollable. The person will stop apologising for their growing hatred for other people, and will start openly defending their cruelty and prejudices. They turn insular and refuse to interact with people outside their own in-group unless absolutely necessary. For mixed-race families, this is usually the point wherein the family unit starts to collapse and a couple that once loved one another will resent one another as enemies. If an infected person seeks treatment in the intermediate stage, they are doing no more than prolonging the inevitable. Treatment during the intermediate stage is often prescribed either out of a person's desire to say farewell to loved ones, or a hope that a cure is found within their lifetimes.

By the final stage, a person is completely lost to the illness. They turn wholly violent to anyone outside their in-group, coupled with a fully fleshed-out rationale for their hatred. If a person reaches the final stage on their own, they will sometimes seek out others like them, or become a violent nomad. If a community is infected together, they will often form into raiding parties with the soul purpose being decimating the communities around them. By the final stage, there is no treatment besides death.

Affected Groups

Mountain Sick affects anyone who spends considerable time in the mountains. However, certain groups are particularly susceptible. Most notably, those races whose homelands are in or nearby the Mountains (such as Orcs and Goblins) and those races whose lifespans allow them to spend a considerable amount of time in the mountains without much sacrifice (such as Elves and Dwarves).

Prevention

The best prevention for this disease is by being careful of how long one spends in the mountains, chiefly the Kentror Mountains. Considering the length of time it takes to contract the illness, this sort of preventative measure is fairly easy to accomplish, especially for shorter-lived mortals. However, for older-living mortals and those whose homelands are in the Kentror foothills, this can be difficult.

Aethanist clerics have made great strides in developing an effective abjuration spell for defending specifically against Mountain Sick for Imperial Troops stationed in the Kentror Mountains, particularly for the occupying the Orcish Utamaii homeland. However, this spell -- which remains a top Ethelan military secret -- is deeply intensive and requires constant attention on the part of both the clerics and patients involved.

Type

Supernatural

Origin

Divine

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired & Congenital

Rarity

Uncommon