Stained lungs

Origin of Floating Cities, part 6

"... Those of Areners who decided to stay close to their old home, the now oversaturated Aren Hillside never expected how bad of an idea that would be. You see, back then, people didn't know that the air itself can become oversaturated. Once that became known, not only they, but many other groups all around Urnketh had to move to safer areas quickly if they wanted to live more than a few years more. It caused a lot of riots in many places. And as you know, my student, lately it seems like there are fewer and fewer safe areas left..."

For a long time, it was believed that living close to the oversaturated areas, places where Color is too strong, doesn't come with any complications as long as one doesn't enter the contaminated area. Even the research facilities serving different governments reported so, and the few naysayers were treated more like conspiracy theorists. And yet, the rise of the ones suffering from exposure to the contaminated air cannot be ignored anymore.

Cause

Turns out, that when air passes through an area contaminated by oversaturation of Color, small particles floating within it might also become oversaturated and float out of the affected area. While short exposure to them doesn't cause any problems and the amounts of Colors contained within them are negligible enough that one's body neutralizes them on its own, it is a long exposure (such as when one lives close to the oversaturated area) that becomes dangerous. Especially when the amount of Color absorbed by the body overwhelms one's capacity of Color nests to store or neutralize them. At that point, a Color nest might burst and slowly start to oversaturate one's organism.

Symptoms

Part of why the disease was so hard to discover was that many of its symptoms are really similar to other, more common diseases. The first symptoms include feeling tired, fits of coughing, and itching in the throat. These symptoms show up only once in a while and as such are mostly ignored. As months continue, the itching spreads to the lungs and there might be some small difficulties with breathing, but still, those things still manifest quite rarely. Next, if the exposure to the contaminated air continues, after months or years, and the condition is still untreated, a sudden serious symptom appears. The coughing fits become near constant, and there is a visible discoloration in the coughed-out saliva of the same Color as the oversaturation that affects the air.
Once the coughing with Colors appears, the sick person doesn't have long to live. At this point, their lungs are contaminated to the point where Colors spread through their body and it is only a matter of time before the mutations common to oversaturation) as the sickness turns into it.

Type

Magical

Origin

Magical

Rarity

Common

Affected Species

• Smeltspark
• Beteclaw
• Rockwing
• Human

Press here to reveal a secret message

"Tell me, friend. Do you really believe that no researcher has ever tried to check if the air around the oversaturated areas is unsafe? So what happened to those who did? Let me answer you with another question. Who can create oversaturated areas just on a whim with their endless Colors? Who would benefit the most from enclosing people within those contaminated cages? That's right, the same people who should be getting rid of the contamination as this world chose them to do. And yet, they do nothing. Worse, they live luxurious lives, ruling over us, and ignoring their call.
That's right. The Witches."

Prevention and treatment

There is one simple way to avoid this sickness and that is to stay away from the contaminated air of oversaturated areas. As long as one does this, there is no chance to contract the stained lungs.
As for the treatment, this one is the same as treating oversaturation. Unless it reaches the farther stages of oversaturation, it is possible to drain away the Colors from the body and heal the affected Color nests. If physical transformations start to show up, treating this condition this way will leave visible scars.