The Diseases of Magic

The Diseases of Magic simplified

The Diseases are by definition a feature of the magic of The Lost Lands that was not intentional at all. For the magic was never designed for Mortals to use or truly anyone who is not blessed with eternal longevity. To explain the diseases is explaining how people aren't supposed to consume kegs of alcohol a day. More you use magic the more your soul is strained, for the magic essentially is casting energy from your soul outside the body, and changing it to suit your own needs, and because mortals bodies and souls are not truly "eternal" eventually your soul slowly withers because the soul is nurtured and repaired inside the body, and the magic slowly fills the withered parts of the soul. And one would slowly experience the side-effects of magic slowly replacing the soul and body of the afflicted. Before the world understood this, The Diseases at one point were a large problem for the world's governments to keep control over. However eventually the Diseases were mitigated and sorcerers have "cycles" of magic use and no use which they use as to prevent the horrible fates that could happen to them. These cycles vary widely, from 3 months use to 9 months no use to a 6 month use no use policy. Often enough the kinds of magic that require the rougher cycles are the most rigorous schools of magic such as The School of Pain, which when the magic was sanctioned was only allowed 3 months of active magic use in total due to the nature of the magic. Though other then that few Schools of Magic have rigorous cycle times, most sorcerers use 6 months on 6 months off. Another school of magic that has the same cycle is "The School of Change" mainly not because their disease is so horrendous, its that it is so easy for your soul to wither when you use your magic all the time outside the body. However, some powerful wizards who have a good grasp of the soul have cycles of only 3 months no use of magic. There is one School of Magic however in which cycles are optional, that being The School of Enchantments and Curses, for you could have a "soul purifier" which essentially is a crystal that is autonomous and a golem that can rip out your soul and leave it with a connection with you mind and body so you don't truly die and purifies it. These are expensive and only one use however so they are quite rare outside of The School of Elements.

The Disease of Elements (fire)

The Disease of Elements is a disease that was very rampant and as a result has created species of golems throughout the world in humanities and other's attempts at creating a slave army. The Diseases turn you into a spirit that overtime finds material and slowly builds itself up and eventually splits in two, once it grow to a certain size, which is quite rare. For this example, you overuse fire magic per say, you start as a small floating flame and the more flame you absorb you slowly form into a child-size flame golem. Though these are the smallest golems, they are the most violent and fearsome. And due to their size they are harder to hit. The disease begins when after using a fire spell at all a feeling of burning in your ears or any other cartilage or extremity no matter how cold or how much you change your own condition. Often nowadays this is the stage in which the disease is cleared before it escalates due to handing yourself in. In the case a sorcerer either does not notice the signs or ignores the signs, they eventually notice their fire ability is stronger and far more potent then before and in rare cases a different color. At this point in time it is considered to late for the sorcerer is on a escalating power trip and begins to overuse their own magic overtime the disease after increasing the afflicted's fire ability eventually quiets down on the physical side and is focusing on re-wiring the mind and soul of the being to have a soul that is based on fire and fire alone to fill in the withering gaps in a soul. And then after the re-wiring is finished of the soul is finished fire begins to fill in the gaps of the withering soul. Subsequently the body burns from the inside out from the change and the sorcerer being alive the entire time (because their body and soul were rewired to fire) is painfully turned into a fire spirit that could become a fire golem, mind you this process is very sudden and fast, but the sorcerer can still feel it until he is pure ash.

The Diseases of the Elements (water)

The Diseases of the Elements as the name implies is not confined to only one element but multiple. One of these is water, the Disease of Water is a magical disease that begins like all the others do, abusing the sorcery that they were gifted with. To cut it short, the disease begins with a strange sensation of feeling wet when you really are not, at this point like with most other disease the soul gets purified at that point and no more disease. However if the sorcerers either ignores the side effects or really somehow does not notice them the disease slowly progresses to the point where instead of their water ability increasing it would be as if whenever they touch something it has no affect as if their hand is "splashing over the surface of objects" though while their body is not completely liquidated yet this is when it gets real and their on the staircase to hell essentially. At this point you would need more then a soul purifier to fix your soul. And the final stage of the disease is the most horrifying one, as you soul slowly weaves itself with water to fix the strains of the soul when overusing magic you become quite literally liquidated and eventually become apart of the water cycle for eternity until your soul breaks (which is quite rare), or you slowly build yourself as a water golem in the oceans and become a sea-monster for pirates and mercenaries to hunt, or you become apart of an underwater aquifer and get control of your own shape and surface as a being of water, which are hunted like any other oddity of nature.

The Disease of Elements (wind)

Out of each of the disease apart of The School of Elements the most unique and rare disease is the disease of wind. Instead of becoming a golem or apart of the water cycle and such, you instead become a body of wind that never dissipates. The first stage of the disease is always feeling and "seeing" a breeze, for example your own robe starts to inflate itself with wind when its windless, you feel a chill of wind and your inside, as if the wind is following you. The second stage of the disease is the wind that you feel slowly cut you up from the inside, often enough this is the point in which most wind sorcerers look for help, because feeling wind is a common thing for them and is usually looked over by most people afflicted with the Disease. When the second stage is ignored and the final stage of the disease takes place, the wind taking place of the soul in attempt to repair it from withering ends up cutting the sorcerers body from the inside, eventually there entire body is diced and cut up in a flurry of wind and they turn into a wind spirit, these spirits have a notoriety for pushing mountain climbers off and causing bad luck.

The Disease of Elements (Earth)

The Earth variation of the Disease of Elements is quite a painful one, though the rarest due to how blatant it is still quite dangerous. The first phase of the disease begins with dirt seemingly dropping mysteriously from your skin, sometimes even valuable metals drop, and many sorcerers confusing this for good fortune do not contact any help at all, however some do realizing that should not be happening and are subsequently treated. The second phase of the disease is known as "Statue Joint" while many confuse Magical Disease or "Soul Withering" for statue joint, most of the time this is when sorcerers tend to realize something is wrong. Though if they refuse help there soul, withered begins to be replaced by the element they practice, which in this case is earth. Eventually when their soul is majority taken over by their magic their joints that by this point have stone and rocks jutting out slightly begin to spread across the entire body until they become covered in stone, eventually most of these golems retire and become apart of mountains, who can be awakened and cause havoc. Out of all the golems, the Earth Golems are considered the most intelligent and relaxed out of all the golems. However many travelers mistake that for friendly.

The Disease of Enchantment

The Disease of Enchantment is the name of the disease given to those who practice The School of Enchantment and are afflicted with "Soul Withering" otherwise known as The Diseases of Magic. The end result of overusing Enchantment magic is becoming an undead husk. This process begins when the sorcerers enchantments are far more potent then before and far more tiring to do a piece of work. For example, if not afflicted one could say do 6 or so enchantments in a day while someone afflicted could scarcely do 1. The reason for the afflicted enchantments being stronger is that as their soul is slowly being withered, they slowly lose the sense of restraining on an enchantment, therefore as a result their enchantments have more energy and power in them, at the cost of the Enchanters soul. The second phase is when the body slowly decays and turns brown, now at this point most Enchanters would of sought help, but by some chance if they didn't then overtime their entire body would husk and slowly and painfully become an undead abomination, nicknamed a "Husk".

The Disease of Curses

This disease, which is commonly found when a user of curse magic strains them self is quite rare and hard to spot, because the nature of their magic doesn't necessarily require them to constantly have soul energy outside the body to wither, which is the cause of diseases in the first place. But what we do know is that the user who has used to much of their own magical ability slowly cannot hold or contain any magical energy anymore, essentially overtime destroying their own magical ability. The phases of this disease are not well known.

The Disease of Nature

This disease of magic, if overused will overtime slowly turn you into a part of nature, either a freak of nature "cyborg" or a tree itself. By overusing your own affinity for nature per say your soul slowly adopts towards that state, therefore overtime you become a part of nature quite literally. The first phase of the disease begins with your mind loving nature, almost to an unnatural love for it. By the second phase most of the afflicted only want to be in nature and by the third phase are completely engulfed in it.

The Disease of Change

The Disease of Change, the disease name given to the magical disease that afflicts the users of The School of Change. Out of all the Schools, The School of Change has the highest rate of being afflicted with a Disease of Magic. Due to the nature of the school, using your own energy to alter things around you or make things from soul energy, that soul slowly withers outside of the body, therefore because this school of magic relies on the soul energy outside the body, they usually have Soul Purifiers with them as a standard just in case they need it.

The Disease of Pain

The Disease of Pain, complementary to the School of Pain is a disease for a magic that has been outlawed and disgraced, what is known from the ancient records is that overtime the one afflicted by the disease slowly begins to be addicted to pain so that their magic is more potent and so that they themselves have more power. Besides that, it is rather unknown.

The Disease of Summoning

The Disease of Summoning, complementary to the School of Summoning is a disease for a magic that has been outlawed and disgraced. What is known about it however is that the disease slowly created portal on the afflicted's body until they become a walking portal, which according to historical records were used in The Great Terrors. Though due to the obscure nature of the banished schools, it is highly likely that this was very embellished and has changed over the years.