Infernal decay
Infernal decay is a disease which affects only Tieflings. If let untreated, it eventually leads to death.
Transmission & Vectors
No one knows -mainly because no one has bothered to do enough research on the topic- if the disease is actually transmitted in some other wat than being born as a tiefling. Some say there have been cases of lesser born drows and mixed blood slaves acquiring the disease, but there is no clear record on such things. The problems of lessers slave races and mixed-bloods have never been of the interest of drows in general.
Causes
The cause for infernal decay is not entirely clear, because the drows observing it happen in tiefling slaves have not been too interested about why it happens. Most logical guesses would be both physical and mental stress or sudden exposure to strong magic, which both might cause the tiefling's infernal heritage to lash out of control, which eventually if let untreated, leads to death. At least that's the most plausible theory so far.
Symptoms
First common feeling of sickness; weakness, unwellness, unexplainable fatigue, brain fog and memory problems. The symptoms slowly get more severe. The pouts of confusion deepen and last longer, sometimes hallucinations and/or echoes of the tiefling's fiendish heritage might get through. They might think they are someone else, perhaps even someone who have died and they do not recognize where they are anymore. They might become aggressive or completely stagnant, hardly responding to any stimuli. Eventually they wither away, and they do not die normally but when they die, they suddenly burst into hellish flames and burn quickly into ashes. Thus resurrecting them becomes impossible.
One of the earliest symptoms is also the most notable: the eyes of the patient start to cloud up. The color of their eyes dim, like filled with grey fog and eventually the color of their eyes is completely gone. Sometimes the color of their skin, hair and horns also begin to fade into ashen grey, but it doesn't happen in every case.
Treatment
Many treatments are not known for the disease itself, but there are ways to ease the symptoms. One of the most promising treatments is to introduce a powerful magical artefact of divine origin and keep it close to the patient. It is thought that the divine, good-aligned magic could battle the turbulent tiefling blood and calm it down, but there is no clear evidence on this treatment working, either.
Prevention
The only way to prevent the disease, from the slave owner's (drow) point of view, is to isolate the one infected, in case the disease spreads somehow. One could also say that treating their slaves better would also do the trick, but the past slave owners did not usually care about their slaves. No, as the amount of slaves has dropped after The Turbulence, people have started to take better care of their own. It might be because of that, or maybe because of some other reason, that the frequency of the disease outbreaks has longened; they do not happen as often as they used to, so people has began to forget about the whole disease. It is also good to note that th eamount of tieflings in general has fallen in The Underdark, so the amount of those who could even be affected has also fallen.
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