Rephaim Virus

The Rephaim Virus was a Maker project, designed by Tzarakh, to weaponize life itself. The initial test failed, resulting in the recipients losing all sanity and self-control, and the first Rephaim were born. Tzarakh was exiled, but stole the last vial containing the virus before he left for the Upper Reaches. In a little more than a year, he would return with an army of mutants, now calling himself the Consumed One. The worst war in the Vortex's history, the Rephaim War, would ensue.

Transmission & Vectors

The primary vector of the Rephaim Virus are Airborne Strains, swarms of spore-like creatures that seek out other life and merge into their bodies, contaminating them with the Virus.
A full-fledged Rephaim can spread the Virus in a similar manner to a rabid animal.

Symptoms

Over the next couple hours an afflicted becomes increasingly violent and aggressive, often with bizarre mutations rapidly growing on their body. They start hearing voices (directives from the hive mind), and eventually give themselves in entirely to the hive.

Treatment

There is no known way to wrest control of your body back once the hive mind, although there are some cases of the connection to the hive mind being severely weakened by stopping the mutation process before it's completion. There are very few medical facilities in the Vortex capable of curing the virus, however top hospitals on Caldryas are researching a more effective cure, or even a vaccine.

History

Seekers have deduced that the earliest projects that resulted in the Rephaim Virus's development began around two hundred years before the Rephaim War.

Type

Parasitic

Origin

Engineered

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity

Rare