Frozen Bite

(...) For those who come from the north and from the highest of mountains carry with them the most cruel of diseases, especially those affected by the magical bite of an Ice Lion . If they are not treated in a couple of days or weeks, the effects of this bite can be deadly. In the past no cure was known for this terrible condition but nowadays this disease can be cured, either by the most experienced sorcerers or by doctors.

— Maximus the sage in his book "About Magical Diseases", ca. 290 AP

Overview

Frozen bite is a magical condition or disease provoked by the bite of an Ice Lion . If not treated soon it can be fatal. This type of condition is common of humans and elves that got too close to an ice lion but it can also be found in animals like Snow Dragon . The first "cure" to this disease was discovered by the Snow elf wizard Tilmuldur Finesky around 700 BC when, after many experiments and treating also victims of frozen bite he not only discovered a cure, using a "melt" spell but also came to the conclusion that this disease was not contagious.
Almost a thousand years after Tilmuldur, an Ikarian doctor and sage called Maximus the Sage, also called as Maximus of Tanuvia, created a potion with similar effects to the spell of Tilmuldur, that was capable of curing Frozen bite.

Description and Symptoms

Of course, despite the terrible pain and the latter symptoms, consider yourself lucky if you somehow manage to survive the attack of such a feared magical creature. Despite the pain the victim experiences now the worst is yet to come. 1 or 2 days after the patients are bitten by the ice lion, small blue dots start to appear on their bodies, changing both shape and place for a couple of days. After this ice will begin to grow over their skin, forming even icicles. This, of course, will make the patient experience a burning sensation similar to touching ice for a long time and of course it would burn the skin below the ice and also he or she will be so cold that no fire, no blanket can warm him up. If ice covers a limb completely, then the patient is lost and will die in a matter of a day or two. The entire process is painful and terrible to witness. A torture that sometimes makes death even seen as a relief.

Treatment and cure

Once a victim of frozen bite is rescued it has to be immediately transported to either the nearest Snow Elf settlement or to the nearest Blatian or Oronai city (as the realms to the West of these nations don't have the knowledge of how to treat Frozen bite), where surely an skill medic can cure the victim with a potion.
Snow elves would first put the wounded on a bed and would immediately cast an "Sleeping Spell" so that not only put the patient into a deep sleep but also ease the pain for a short period of time while the sorcerer use his magic to cure him. The process can last between 1 or 2 hours depending on the stage of the ice in the patient. If the patient arrives with the body only covered by the blue dots the sorcerer applies the spell on each dot until it disappears (something that usually is instantaneously). However, if the patient arrives with ice already formed over the skin, then the sorcerer has to again cast the spell on every part of the body covered by ice and melt it until it reaches the skin, in this process the process last much longer.
The process is almost the same if the patient is taken care by a Blatian or Oronai doctor. According to the book "About Magical Diseases" by Maximus the Sage, widely used by Blatian and Oronai doctors, what a doctor has to do first is to administer a cocktail of various medicinal herbs that eases the pain of the patient. It doesn't put then into an sleep state but at least they don't suffer as much pain as they were suffering from their wounds and the ice. Then the doctor soaks some cloths with the potion and put them over the ice until it completely melts or, if the patient only has the blue dots it prepares an special version of the potion that is drinkable and then makes the patient drink it. It has to be said that drinking such a potion is not very pleasant, patients who recover from this disease are very happy with the results but they describe the taste of the potion as drinking wine mixed with very spicy pepper, and the sensation after drinking it as if your skin would melt due to an incredible heat. This sensation last for a couple of minutes until the blue dots completely disappear and it can be unpleasant and sometimes a bit painful but not as the one experienced by the ice burning your skin.

Blatian doctors curing a man who suffers from Frozen Bite (Blatian miniature of the 6th century AP) by Callyxtus

The treatment is vey effective with almost 98% percent of those who arrive to the home of an snow elf sage or a Blatian hospital cured from this disease. This cure has also been applied to small animals like dogs, deer and baby Snow Dragon with great success although adult Snow dragons require not only to be immobilize to be cured (something that is very difficult) but also they need higher dose of the potion or require consuming more magical energy to cure them. Overall the discovery of these two cures for such a horrible disease has save thousands of lives of adventurers, traders and shepherds alongside the Albine Mountains where the higher numbers of Ice Lions can be found.

Type

Magical

Origin

Magical

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity

Rare

Affected Species

• Elves
• Dragon Birds
• Snow Dragon
• Half-Elves