Spirit Sapped

History

During the sporeal outbreak in the year 129, where the blue-white fungus known as Ghost Fungi emerged from underground and spread across the eastern plains towards the mountains, a strange illness began to be recorded. Any adept magic user who was exposed to the fungus for an extended period of time felt a waning of their magical powers.
Called ghost fungus for the colour and the otherworldly way the spores acted. They floated on a breeze that none could feel and passed through solid matter until they hit something organic and alive, whereupon they would sink into it and infect it. Many s desperately wanted to study its properties but once the illness was discovered none would risk themselves or their livelihood.

Symptoms

The spore would get into their body and get stuck in their magical pathways, clogging them up and stopping the power flow from their wells. As time went on, they would get weaker and weaker until they could not channel magic from their well at all. The stronger the practioner the longer it would take to succumb to the illness. This corresponded with reports from the afflicted that they could still feel their magical potential but could access none of it.

Treatment

The spores themselves resisted all arcane attempts to clear or destroy them. They left the fungal spread that ravaged many of the food farms for the country to the magically uninitiated to deal with. Eventually being stopped when the source of the accelerated spread was found and destroyed. This didn’t help any of the afflicted magic users. The ghost fungus is still found in caves underneath the eastern part of the nation and can still infect any that have the misfortune to encounter it.
In the year 310, during the discovery of the s, they found bacteria that fed on magical energy. s experimented with the bacteria and found it could clear out the pathways blocked by the ghost fungus, allowing the afflicted to feel and use their magical power again. People treated would only discover a slight dip in their power level, but they agreed that it was a small price to pay for a cure.