Feral Curse
The feral curse is a genetic mutation present within all kendani. The greatest fear of an unfortunate race, it lies dormant within the host until they reach any age between 50 through 70, in which it will eventually "activate" itself and begin slowly turning the host into a haze beast. While hard to detect at first, the mutation's effects quickly become clear after its first phase, in which the mutating kendani become more animal-like than they already are. Once it awakens, there is nothing that can stop the host from becoming a haze beast. Even death will do nothing but speed up the transformation process, regardless of how the kendani was killed.
All kendani are doomed to a gruesome end. The only thing they can do is enjoy the years they are blessed with and hope that the mutation activates as late as possible.
Causes
The feral curse is a genetic condition that all kendani are born with. While it is dormant for most of their lives, it "awakens" once the kendani is anywhere between ages 50 to 70.
Symptoms
Varies depending of the current phase of the mutation.
Treatment
Nothing, not even death is able to stop the feral curse. Once it activates, there is no way to avoid fate's grasp. The death of the host will only mean that they become a haze beast a few seconds later, regardless of the fact they were meant to die.
Prognosis
The feral curse has four phases.
Phase One: The afflicted kendani experiences occasional, yet painful headaches. This can be easily mistaken for other sicknesses, making it hard to detect whether or not it truly activated.
Phase Two: The kendani's animalistic traits become more prominent. Fangs may grow larger and wilder instincts resurface at random, making the afflicted more aggressive when in this manic state.
Phase Three: Intelligence and other cognitive abilities begins to deteriorate, including but not limited to memory loss, speech pattern becoming more broken and simple, and possible hallucinations.
Phase Four: The mutations begin to finalize and the afflicted kendani is shortly turned into a haze beast through a quick, violent transformation.
Affected Groups
Kendani that are anywhere between ages 50 through 70 will have the feral curse activate within them eventually.
Prevention
The only way to prevent the feral curse from activating is to die before it activates itself. Should the host die at any point after the mutation surfaces, they will turn into a haze beast almost instantly, no matter what the state of the corpse was.
Cultural Reception
The kendani themselves see the mutation as a curse brought upon the race for rejecting the use of selenite, thus the name. Those with the activated form of the feral curse are exiled into the dead zone, where the haze beasts reside. The people of Aestus, namely the Sunstone Empire, are wary of the mutated kendani but refuse to commit genocide just to ensure their safety. They do, however, hunt down the haze beasts along with the rest of the continent to keep everyone safe.
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