Magsa

Magsa, a disease related to infestation by Magellite Worms, is a severe and potentially fatal sickness held to be responsible for the collapse of the Empire of Ganjapur after its late entry into The Rending War. According to the historian Miri Eshkahar and others, magsa was engineered by scientists in the Empire of Basat in order to destabilise the neighbouring Empire of Ganjapur and prevent it from formally entering the brewing conflict between Basat and the Empire of Keshwar.

Transmission & Vectors

Magsa is transmitted by the parasitic Magellite Worm, a form of roundworm that commonly lays its eggs in the intestines of host organisms, which are then excreted and spread via untreated water. Magellites are unusual in that their hormonal influence on a host organism's immune and nervous system is so profound that infected individuals are rapidly overwhelmed.
According to the theories of Miri Eshkahar, magellite worms were not endemic to the area of Ganjapur where the first cases of magsa were reported in the early years of The Rending War. Xe's major papers on the transmission of magsa suggest that outbreaks in northern Ganjapur were not traditionally hospitable to animals that commonly carried magellite worms.
Traditionally, magellite worms are found in tropical species living in the long belt once occupied by Turat and the the southernmost reaches of Ganjapur. The particular geography of Ganjapur, Miri argues, with two divided northern and southern sections, meant that movement of species and humans between the two was relatively unusual. Xe also claims that at the time, although tropical in habitat, magellite worms and magsa outbreaks had not been reported in southern Ganjapur when the disease became an epidemic in the northern provinces. Finally, xe has pointed to the epidemic geography of outbreak hotspots along the Basati–North Ganjapur border as indicative of conscious infection on the part of Basati agents.

Symptoms

Early symptoms, including diarrhoea and vomiting, are quickly superceded by neurological symptoms in strains of magsa in outbreaks starting with those recorded in the early stages of the Rending War. Infected humans were described in documentary accounts discussed by Miri as being particularly lethargic but also prone to unusual hallucinations that shared strikingly common features. Miri has theorised that Basati scientists may have used kata infusions in order to mutate the magellite worms they used, hence creating both striking neurological similarities between patients described in surviving accounts.
After experiencing symptoms more typical of cholera and other waterborne diseases, infected individuals in northern Ganjapur then began to relate hallucinations, lethargy, and symptoms of an extreme depression. Some individuals became convinced that they could predict the exact date of the end of the world, which resulted in the appearance of a number of small cults around Ganjapuri local deities, pleas for sanctuary, and mass movements out of villages on the border away from Basati territories.

Type

Parasitic

Origin

Engineered

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity

Rare

Affected Species

• Humans