Faithlessness

And when I walked out onto the veranda, there was standing little Aruto who said to me, "Daddy, I don't want to pray today." I rushed him to the closet and locked the door so that his faithless thoughts would not infect others. But it was only a matter of time before Rita and half the maids had succumbed to the illness. I, not long after, began to have similar thoughts: church had become a baneful activity and I wrestled with prayer day in and day out.

-- Diary entry of a Quiaties Nobleman

In the lands south of the Sullymindre, the gods of Mensonodia, Helenaphe, and Luiza are served by innumerable priests. A lack of religious fervor among the congregation is taken very seriously and so when people began to display an apprehension toward their faith, an epidemic was offered as the explanation.

Origin and Cause

How the viewpoint of a "sickness" originated is unclear since agnosticism and even atheism had existed throughout the Mindreland for a thousand years. But during the mid-1500s, religious intolerance was on the rise and the Holy Church of Helen was on its Bloody Campaign to root out disloyalty in even the smallest of townships. For those of questionable faith, it made perfect sense to claim sickness or dementia in these dangerous times.

Historical Progression

The term was first recorded around 1551. Families concerned with their older children skipping weekday church or seminary turned to the doctor-priests. Most waved away the issue as a passing phase and were of the opinion that, "the gods would speak to them soon."
Soon, adults confessed of their own spiritual languish to confidants. These rumors reached the ears of the town priests who met to debate the causes of this wave of lacking faith. Some blamed the emerging cities along the Sfithifurd River while others pointed at migrants from lands to the east and west. Of course, none were ready to point to the looming influence of the bureaucratic Church of Helen. The idea of sickness was presented by Abe Noquies at a meeting of towns held in Sepita in 1552. Thus the disease of the faithless was born.
From 1552-1560, doctor-priests went grim-faced from door to door asking things like, when was the last time they had gone to church? and were they in need of spiritual advice? Those who admitted to their faithlessness had their temperatures checked and their tongues pressed, were given restorative herbs and read to from their bible of choice. An estimated 80,000 people were recorded as having shown signs of the sickness.
Some "severe" cases were interned at the local clinic (if the town had one) or church (if they did not). There was only one recorded death, Isoell Metejo in 1556, who, prostrate in his hospital bed with fever and rattling chills, cried out the name of Mensonodia and expired.

Ridicule from the Outside

Outside the region, the disease was met with scrutiny by the religious and areligious alike. Doctors in Cantra, Pfinsk, New Oriole, Meysie, and other smaller towns and cities agreed that the sickness was a sham and that the symptoms were hypochondriatic.
Around 1559, a fair number of false practicioners from within and outside the region journeyed to play the role of priest-doctor in hopes of making easy money. These falsifiers inadvertently helped to end the "sickness" by turning the peoples' fears of faithlessness into accusations of it. Dissidents of the sickness grew in traction and influence and by 1562, the disease of the faithless was all but forgotten.

Legacy

Stories still persist of the sickness though exaggerated by time. Even in modern-day medical pamphlets from the region, anecdotal attention is given to an unnamed sickness which "manifests as a swelling of the tongue, a lethargy of the brain, and a general abhorrence for prayer and the holy."

The sickness

In the early days of the sickness, a local doctor or priest was most likely to attribute faithlessness to someone exhibiting obvious symptoms such as excessive sweating, vomittig, fever and chills, panic attacks, or general anxiety. Likely a great deal of mental health issues were mislabeled in this way. As time went on, more pointed questions were used for diagnosis such as a person's opinion of their god and their church or when was the last time they had prayed.
Caring for the sick varied widely. Those who showed severe symptoms were treated appropriately with restorative herbs, rest, and fresh air and sunlight. Special spiritual instruction was offered to combat the mental component of the disease which included readings of inspiring passages from holy textx, remote seminary, and deep meditation. Depending on the town (and sometimes on the very priest or doctor), charms and trinkets of faith could be used heavily or discarded entirely on the pretext that they were a crutch to true belief.

Type

Mental