Blackout

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El Apagón es una enfermedad de aparición repentina que afecta mayormente a societarios de las razas de escamados, sedosos de agua y segmentados de cualquier sexo o edad, siendo más propensos aquellos de entre 20 y 45 años.
Es usualmente mortal si no se trata.

Síntomas

Las personas afectadas por esta enfermedad comienzan a manifestarlas con fogonazos de frio extremo, que no están acompañados por ningún cambio en la temperatura corporal. Este frío no se calma con abrigo ni baños de agua caliente, ya que parece que la capacidad de sentir correctamente la temperatura está directamente afectada.
A su vez, en esta primera etapa, la persona suele estar muy alerta, y ser incapaz de conciliar el sueño. Este período de insomnio suele durar alrededor de dos a cuatro días, luego del cual la persona comienza gradualmente a entrar en un estado de letargo en el que su cuerpo comienza a consumirse. Es común que la persona quede postrada, sin energías para moverse, y sus músculos se consuman velozmente, a la vez que los fogonazos de frío continuan. Eventualmente el cuerpo de la persona es incapaz de mantener los órganos en funcionamiento, y la persona muere de falla orgánica múltiple. Usualmente, el plazo de la enfermedad es de entre dos y tres meses.

Tratamiento

En el año 3002 E.Alz, esta enfermedad que anteriormente era casi invariablemente mortal quedó relegada a una inconveniencia gracias al descubrimiento de que una mezcla en base a la planta de Niño de Espinas contraaresta los síntomas en su totalidad. Si el paciente consume este brebaje en forma diaria, será capaz de pasar el curso de la enfermedad en su totalidad. Inclusive, en caso de no tener suficiente medicina, la dosis puede reducirse, haciendo que la persona pueda cursar la enfermedad con síntomas menores de frío y debilidad.
Sin embargo, la cura acarreó consigo sus propios problemas: En aproximadamente uno de cada 100 casos (o más, en el caso de mezclas mal manufacturadas) el consumo de este medicamento causa una condición aparte, conocida como Thorns. Esta condición es casi el extremo opuesto del Apagón, y genera calor, sueño, y arranques de violencia incontenibles, pudiendo causar que la persona afectada ataque hasta a sus seres más queridos. Esta posibilidad es, sin embargo, tomada como un mal menor, ya que no es mortal, y si la persona es correctamente contenida, puede cursarla sin secuelas (físicas) en cuestión de semanas.

Secuelas

El Apagón es casi invariablemente mortal sin tratamiento. En el caso de aquellas personas que lo sobreviven, o que recibieron dosis demasiado bajas del medicamento de Niño de Espinas, las secuelas más notables son una enorme pérdida de tono muscular, dificultad para conciliar la temperatura percibida con la real, y en ocasiones problemas crónicos en los órganos.

"yes, sometimes the cure is worse than the disease, but not this time, my love. Please take the medicine..."

Blackout is a terrible wasting disease with sudden onset that affects societarians of scaly, waterland silky and segmented subspecies of any sex or age, though it is more common in those aged 20 to 45 years old.
The disease is fatal if left untreated.

Course of the Disease

Symptoms

The onset of blackout presents with the patient feeling sudden flares of extreme cold that are unrelated to their body temperature, which remains stable.
The perceived cold cannot be calmed by clothing, hot baths or room heating, as it seems that the very ability of the body to perceive temperature is directly affected. The cold flashes persist through the whole duration of the disease.
During this first phase of the disease, the person appears very alert and unable to achieve sleep.
This period of insomnia lasts for about 2 to 4 days, after which the person gradually loses energy and becomes lethargic as their body starts consuming.
The person will eventually become bedridden and devoid of the energy to move. Their muscles will consume themselves rapidly, until eventually, the body of the person will become unable to maintain the internal organs functioning, causing the person's death by multiple organ failure.
The disease usually takes between 2 and 4 months to kill their patients.

Treatment

Blackout was almost invariably fatal up until the year 3002 E.Alz, where the plant thorn child was found to be able to cure it completely when procesed into a special concoction.
Daily doses of the thorn child potion can completely cure the disease in about one to two weeks, with progressive improvements in the patient's condition.

Reduced dosage

A suddenly stopped, incomplete course of the potion may not be enough to overcome the disease and cause the patient to go back to wasting away, but a reduced daily dose can prevent the patient's death and reverse the disease's progress at the cost of leaving some physical sequela as long as its administration is continued until the patient's recovery.
For this reason, when a shortage of the potion's ingredients is anticipated, carers may choose to reduce the doses of the medicine and risk sequelae, to avoid a failed course if the ingredients run out while using the entire dose.

Sequela

Blackout is almost invariably lethal without treatment.
The few people that survived on their own and those that received too small doses of thorn child potion were left with high loss of muscle tone, difficulty perceiving the ambient temperature correctly, varying degrees of chronic fatigue and occasionally chronic issues on their organs.
People that were treated with the correct course and amount of medicine are expected to have a full recovery.

History

Stunveldt Island by Naelin

Dhalmain Island by Naelin

Traces of blackout's history can be found up to two centuries ago in Stunveldt in reports and stories of people "wasting away" while suffering from unjustified extreme cold. The disease was sporadic and rare, so it wasn't thoroughly investigated.
During the year 2999 E.Alz a series of cases began expanding from the dense jungle at the centre of Stunveldt at an unprecedented rate, and by the next year had taken the entire area and moved to their close allies on the island of Ruh.
The disease decimated both countries for two years until a kid in the first stages of the disease was found to feel better after accidentally ingesting the leaves of a plant from the small white jungle at the south of Stunveldt.
The curative properties of the plant were quickly investigated and the plant was extensively harvested on the small patch of white terrain, and imported from other white forests in Dhalmain and Thaur Island when its numbers started dwindling in the island.
By the end of 3002 E.Alz the epidemy and its expansion were controlled, and the number of affected people rapidly decreased until the numbers came back to easily manageable sporadic sprouts.

Thorns

The cure for blackout carried its own problems, as the medicine has serious, although temporary side effects in around 1% of the patients.
The intoxication caused in these cases is known as thorns and has symptomatology almost opposite to blackout, causing hot flashes, sleepiness and in some cases fits of uncontrolled physical violence against anyone on the patient's line of sight.
Thorns disease has caused the deaths of several people due to the extreme violence that the sufferers experience against their will, and with that came the serious psychological sequela from the trauma that hurting or desiring to hurt loved ones caused.
These risks, however, are considered a minor evil compared to the death sentence of blackout, as thorns resolves on its own and leaves no physical sequela. Once thorns was better understood, healers were able to prepare better concoctions that reduced the chance of intoxication, and to devise methods to control the enraged patients better and avoid traumatic experiences.

Labour of Love by Naelin

Type

Bacterial

Origin

Natural

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity

Uncommon

Affected Species

• Waterland Silky Societarian
• Segmented Societarian
• Scaly Societarian