Elfblight

An End to Eternity

"It is with a heavy heart we advise all travelers to avoid elven villages until such time as we can determine a viable treatment and cure for the disease. Already, most villages have chosen to close their territory and use lethal force on those who try to enter."

— Report Excerpt

Elves are known to lead long lives, though few are told exactly how long this can be. According to some stories, there are High Elves older than the Empire. However, in recent decades there has been a strange series of cases where entire elven communities become sick and die within the space of a few moons. Many of these places have been investigated for foul play, and yet nothing definitive has been found aside from some records from the community elders and healers speaking of an illness. It supposedly spreads quickly and is highly resistant to magical healing. As it seems to have a higher chance of death when elves are infected, the name given to it by humans of the Empire is "elfblight". While the origins are unknown, there are a number of details which have started to become clear once investigation started.

The following information is distilled from many reports taken down by healers working in accordance with the Order of Letters.

• The Course: First of all, the disease begins with a cough and fluid building up in the lungs. Coughing relieves this symptom, but inevitably shortness of breath will catch up and render the infected bedridden. Bodily functions start to break down rapidly, and within two days the infected will die. The curious thing is how non-elves will not experience the symptoms as severely, with the coughing expelling most of the fluid and keeping them from a downward spiral.
• Carriers: While non-elven individuals are spared the worst of the disease, they still will spread it to all around them. Some reports indicate this can persist for nearly two moons after they recover from the worst of it. Referred to as "carriers" in the reports, it was highly recommended to avoid contact with elves if it might be suspected one has elfblight.
• Persistence: As noted previously, those infected with the disease have been able to spread it for a long time after they have stopped showing symptoms. This is also true of the dead, as reports indicated the funeral rites of elves allowed the disease to end communities swiftly. It is also suspected the disease lingers in the air, an invisible miasma which can still infect the unsuspecting.

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Spoiler

Beginning and Ending

"We believe we have tracked down the first known case of a community destroyed by elfblight. Use of divination magic was inconclusive in parts, but we believe this has to do with adventurers who were recently traveling through the Sebilian Jungle. Perhaps they found something there, or they were found-"

Report Excerpt

The Sebilian Jungle is a wild place where many things live, and disease can be a constant danger. This is well-documented, to the point where adventuring parties traveling through the jungle are advised to plan for a week of remaining outside a city or town to avoid problems. It is believed the serpentfolk are partly to blame, cultivating diseases as a means to cull life they believe is not worth continuing to exist. Some of these diseases have only been encountered a handful of times, lending some weight to the idea they are created instead of natural. Given the resistance to magical healing and the swift spread, elfblight has been considered as such a disease.

Records tracked the course of the epidemic to Sevilan Island, where an adventuring party defied those practices. Rather than remaining outside the ferry stop, they traveled into the city and took a ship north. During this time, the disease was already spreading through parts of the island city and to ports in the north. Sevilan Island did manage to close travel and reports of the disease stopped before the end of the year.

Within the Empire, the Order of Walls proved useful by helping keep the port cities closed while healers worked tirelessly to ensure the population did not have many deaths. Myrisia reacted with more panic, but powerful magic was used to remove traces of elfblight before it could spread too far. It was the independent cities in Helenic which proved to be an issue, as they were not prepared for this. Elfblight spread through Helenic, and from there back into the Empire.

Currently, the disease has been contained to the Sanguine Province and southern Helenic. However, the mere existence of elfblight has made diplomatic relations very difficult to maintain. Healers elsewhere have balked at using the extreme methods used in Myrisia, as arcane magic still bears a heavy stigma. Alchemists have worked on an herbal remedy which is looking promising at preventing the infection from progressing to severe stages, yet it is uncertain it can be useful for worse cases.

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Type

Bacterial

Origin

Magical

Rarity

Uncommon

Affected Species

• Elves