It is unfair to say the great plague swept the lands of Velucia. This implies it started in a location and moved out from there. Its more accurate to say the great plague blanketed Velucia. The onset happened in parallel in nations and cities across the world. It began slowly, Its first victims were either extremely young or extremely old. Newborns around one year and younger began to cough violently, as well as those nearing their natural life expectancy. The coughing grew worse, seeming immune to all forms of medical and magical treatment. Within a week or so of its initial onset, the victims began to struggle to breathe, quickly losing all vigor and being confined to bed rest. over the next two days, they grew increasingly pale and then, within an hour of their demise turning a pale shade of violet. The disease was termed "Lavender Sickness" shortly thereafter both for the color those afflicted turned at the time of their departure and for the rootlike structure of the veins that could be seen beneath the pallid skin.
In total the first occurrence of the plague lasted around 20 days. The sickness did not spread as some contagions do, there was no outbreak of mass panic, mostly sorrow, and confusion. Many wept for the loss of their elders and many more for the loss of newborns. It is worth noting at this time that there also coincided a large number of premature stillbirths, though how the babes could be infected but not their mothers is beyond reasoning. When no further outbreak occurred in the weeks to follow, we thought ourselves lucky and past the point of concern. The second coming happened 16 weeks after the first.
The disease came again suddenly, affecting children to the age of 3 and a significant portion of the elderly. It ran the full course of symptoms in a total of 9 days, 3 days faster than its predecessor. 10 weeks later, the third wave hit, and with it, the panic. Children up to the age of 8 fell ill quickly and those into their 60's began showing signs. This was a much larger portion of the population and people began to panic. Many began all numbers of ritual, sacrifice and grizzly acts in an attempt to stop the plague. Some considered a test from the gods, killing animals in their names. In smaller communities, people thought it a curse enacted upon a household, often someone who had lost a newborn during the first wave. I did not witness any of this firsthand, but the stories I have heard chill me even now. Frantic and costly attempts were made with medicines, giving doses that constituted poison, though considering the alternative, mayhaps it was kinder. All forms of magic were attempted to cleanse the disease, though none proved any success. I have heard of people trying fire, freezing cold, drinking poison and all number of deadly attempts to remedy the disease. As of yet, it has a mortality rate of 100%.
With the fourth wave, Magic of all kinds began failing to work. Not just magic failing to treat the disease, but of all sorts. Mages, clerics, outlanders, it did not discriminate. All with a sufficiently powerful source to cast magic found themselves unable to do more than perform the most basic of spells, and within a few days, even that failed them.
Each wave narrowed the living age range. the fourth took my mentor, the fifth took my mother, the sixth took my wife. By the sixth wave, nearly two years had passed from the initial onset. The time between each shortened, as did the duration from symptoms to death. The time between waves five and six was a scant 15 days with the disease running its course in 3. Its been 10 days since the sixth occurrence, and I have already begun to cough. I have decided to write down what I can, while I can. If anyone yet lives after this to read my words, know the signs described herein. There is no cure we have found, but know that we tried all that we could.
-Dorial Jessim, Apprentice Medicant, Age 31.
In the panic that came with the fourth wave, people began to flee their villages. Some left because the number of bodies was too much to deal with, others because they hoped the magically inclined in the larger cities could save them. Nations began to contract and the Erritian empire eroded in an instant. When the fifth wave hit it created a new wave of problems. Those that had flocked to the cities proved too much to bury in a timely manner after the previous wave. It was then that the ritual burning of the dead in massive pyres began. By the time the seventh wave ran its course, the world was gripped in a state of confused madness. Looting, raping, suicide, and destruction filled the cities. Some barricaded into their homes, hoping to just outlast, others turned to cults and doomsayers who promised deliverance. So horrible was their fear that when, after 4 weeks, and no eighth wave had hit, people failed to notice. It took some groups around 5 weeks after the seventh week to come to their senses, and others it took close to 10 to be convinced that the plague was truly over.
It is impossible to adequately convey the amount of knowledge lost to the plague. Mages are an overly secret lot, often choosing the pass their secrets on verbally or to encode their spellbooks in layers of obfuscation. When they died untimely deaths, followed by their apprentices and students, much of spellcraft and arcane arts were lost. This is to say nothing of the towns, legends, and culture that perished as a result of the mass exoduses and dilapidation following the years after the plague. In total, it claimed almost 90% of the humanoid population and has permanently altered the face of Velucia. Even 100 years after its happening, no one is sure as to why it started or ended. 50 years after its end, magic began to return to the world, and with it, all numbers of mysterious forces and dangerous creatures.
Despite all this, the humanoid races of Velucia lived on, some thriving, and many more struggling to survive in a world that constantly threatens their very existence.
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