Krez'Dahal

Krez'Dahal, or The Mark Of Death in Common, is a highly infectious, nearly incurable disease that affects any sentient creature. It is considered the deadliest disease in all of Ruten, with a single case of Krez'Dahal on a continent often being considered significant enough reason for the surrounding continents to completely cut off any travel or even exterminate every living sentient creature in the affected area.

Transmission & Vectors

Krez'Dahal targets solely sentient creatures, transmitting itself through a magic-based process that causes all creatures affected by it to instantly infect any other sentient creature within 20 feet of it. This makes the early stages especially dangerous, as a single carrier entering a populated city with very little symptoms can nearly instantly infect the entire city through the disease's ripple effect. Notably, corpses do not continue to pass on the disease and non-sentient undead are immune to it and cease to carry it in death, regardless of whether or not they were capable of carrying the disease in life.

Causes

The cause of Krez'Dahal is mostly unknown, though some scholars believe it may have to do with forbidden research of sorts, due to its mental properties.

Symptoms

Stage one happens immediately after being affected by the disease, and manifests itself as a black, flower-shaped mark on one's chest just above the heart.
Stage two manifests between 24 and 48 hours after the initial onset of the disease, and causes severe vomiting, violent bowel losses, boils, weakness, dizziness, and bleeding from the eyes and ears.
Stage three manifests between 24 and 48 hours after the manifestation of stage 2, and causes the spontaneous explosive shattering of bones, blindness, numbness of the tongue, and near complete loss of movement.
Stage four happens within one day of the manifestation of stage three, and is the final living stage of the disease. In stage four, the afflicted creature suffers complete brain death, followed shortly by cardiac arrest. Creatures without hearts still die, seemingly without cause.
Stage five is the true final stage of the disease, with the disease carrying over to the soul of the creature. The disease results in rapid loss of soul matter, causing the soul to become a Soel within several hours. This is the only stage of the disease that can be cured by simple means, with the soul needing to submerge itself in a body of water located on a good aligned plane.

Treatment

While no known medical treatments can cure this disease, divine intervention and the Wish spell have both been proven effective at removing the disease from hosts, though the latter has only been able to remove it from up to 10 hosts.

Prognosis

Outside of the disease being cured with a wish or divine intervention, both of which cure the disease in 100% of all cases, there is a 100% fatality rate to the disease.

Sequela

All symptoms of Krez'Dahal can be immediately recovered from upon being cured, with the exception of the black flower mark which fades to a faint brown and is unable to be removed by any means outside of removal of the skin completely in the affected area.

Hosts & Carriers

There are no known carriers outside of sentient creatures.

Prevention

No form of prevention for Krez'Dahal has proven successful, outside of staying out of the effective range.

Epidemiology

Due to the incredibly fast nature of the disease, tracking the travel and starting point of it is extremely difficult, if not impossible.

History

Only one case of the disease exists in current history, speaking of an outbreak on the island of Lish which resulted in the entire island's population dying off in less than a week.

Cultural Reception

Due to the violent nature of the disease and the extremely quick transmission, carriers of Krez'Dahal are extremely feared.

Type

Supernatural

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity

Unique