Necrotic Decay Syndrome - NDS
Necrotic Decay Syndrome, or NDS, is a terminal condition that is characterized by the typically slow decay of one's body.
All Tyrethians are made up of two important components: living matter, the building block of all life, and life force, the magic that holds the building blocks together. NDS occurs when the life force is in a state of rapid decay, compared to what it experiences over hundreds of years of typical life. Typically, those with NDS have a short time to live, anywhere from a year to a few weeks.
Symptoms depend on where the condition is orgininating from, such as memory loss when it starts in the brain, and paralysis when it begins in the legs.
Transmission & Vectors
It is unknown if NDS can be transmitted to others, but from past cases it seems unlikely.
Causes
The current theory of the cause of NDS is the ancient cave that it seems to have come from. Nobody has returned to the cave and nobody knows how its spreading without its orgin location. The theory is that NDS is a leftover condition that was left here by the former inhabitants of Tyreth.
Symptoms
Early stage symtoms typically include numbness in the orgin area, slight pain, discomfort, and a decrease in magical ability. Mid stage symtoms include loss of limb function, difficulty breathing, loss of speech, hearing loss, inablity to taste, and loss of connection to the magical plane, resulting in loss of magical ability entirely. Late stage symtoms include blindness, visiblity of organs, leaking blood from nonexistent wounds, memory loss, paranoia, and hallucinations. End stage symptoms include seeing the dead and finally, a death coma, in which the patient falls into a coma and dies in 30 minutes to an hour.
Treatment
NDS is currently uncurable.
Prognosis
The condition usually starts with a key symptom, which depends on where NDS starts in the body. These can include things like memory loss, difficulty breathing, loss of limb function, and even loss of senses. The next state is the worsening of the first symptom and the addition of one to two new symptoms. The third stage typically starts with blindness and ends with a coma. By this point, all patients have died within the hour.
The entire process is extremely painful, for both the patient and their loved ones. The patient will experience vast amounts of pain as their body is torn apart from the inside and as their organs are exposed to air. Family members will experience pain from seeing their loved one's body slowly decay until their oragns begin to fail and they ultimately die.
Affected Groups
The only races immune to NDS are Agnor and those with divine powers (gods and angels). The Hexalith have not been exposed to it yet.
Hosts & Carriers
It has been observed that no Tyrethian flora or fauna are able to carry or transmit NDS.
Prevention
Theres a few old myths that speak of praying to certain gods for protection from NDS, but these myths are thousands of years old and the gods themselves have stated that it's generally pointless to pray for protection as the gods don't have control over NDS.
History
The first recorded case was from 1536 AG, when a cave explorer found an ancient city underground. After spending a year in the cave system, he returned to the surface. He died 3 months after coming back to the surface, and his family soon followed him to the grave.
Another important event was the town of Murta, which was totally wiped out. The cause of death for the entire town was suspected to be NDS, as the bodies were decayed and smelled of rot far sooner than they should have.
Cultural Reception
People who have died from NDS are remembered by their loved ones and praised for being brave if they didn't kill themselves during the second or third stages of the condition.
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