Earthfever

The happenings on the island of Avalonia can be affected by many things. The world, albeit medieval, is more connected than one might think. A butterfly flaps its wings once on one side of the globe and that will bring a mighty storm to the other side of it. Most often, the world is the most vulnerable to the whims of weather. There are many omens associated with that and occassionally it leads to the falls of regimes and structure of many regions.
Earthfever is a name for period of extreme droughts and crop failures that result into prolonged periods of famine. But it is not caused by only hot weather. It is most usually combination of factors that join together like a big avalanche of misfortunes and can destabilise whole nations. The worst one in the history of Avalonia happened mere 7 years ago, when bad weather in the spring and summer resulted in such low yields that those combined with sicknesses of the cattle resulted in massive rise in crimes, diseases among people, deaths of starvation - particularly the vulnerable such as children and the elderly - that wouldn't stop for years as people were unable to preserve enough food for the harsh winter that would follow. On several occassions, historians noted that even the court of the king didn't have enough bread to offer its guests.
This period of time is marked with great sadness and there are little to no families that wouldn't lose someone dear to them during those trying times. Some say Earthfevers are a punishment of the Icons, some say they are the curses of forest witches that grew mad, some consider it a failure of the ruling noble class not being honorouble enough to provide for their people. No matter who is right, Earthfevers are regarded with fear and terror.