The Twisted Scourge

Origin

Frothing blue slime from its lips, the thing lurked in the bushes. Deep azure eyes feverishly eyeing the prey of the spotted creature. The hyena let out a gurgling cackle, spitting a turquoise ooze out from its maw and blisters as it lounged.
It was a mangled creature with seemingly half its face burnt off and a rotting agape in the side from which bare bones protrude. Yet it fought with twice the fierceness of any living creature.

Burning Biomass

The sickness dubbed the Twisted Scourge is a plague directly tied to a corrupt compound of the Blood of Angels, which is naturally found within the Orincian Plains.
Within its impure unrefined form, the plague starts with burning away the flesh and skin on its victim like an acidic compound would. Before eventually reacting with the essence of the victim causing it to be neutralized by a fashion.
When the Scourge melds with the essence of the infected, it ceases to cause harm as the putrid ooze starts to pump like an organ of its own.
As a consequence, the infected are granted incredible strength, longevity, cunning, magical enhancement and full pain tolerance at the sole cost of their immortal soul. Rendering the mind and spirit all burnt out in favor of a ringing crazed insanity. An insanity which only seems to affect the emotional and moral intellect of the sick. Causing them to still at times be deviously clever.

Spread and Infection

The Twisted Scourge spreads through direct contact with blood and slowly transforms it into the thick blue ooze which stands as the core of the disease. For this to happen, a not insignificant amount of the plagued substance needs to come in contact with the blood or it will just have an acidic effect that causes bad burns but nothing worse.
When someone is properly infected though, there is no cure to the disease as it would mean completely transfusing the blood of the victim. An act which would not only kill the donors, but the person in question as well since the ooze circumvents the grievous wounds caused by the acid.
The only way to properly cure a victim would be to perform an amputation on the infected limb. If possible. If not, while crude the solution is a bullet to the head. Generally caused by the victims themselves choosing death above insanity.
While there is no cure though, there exists an antidote. Using the refined substance, a religious order of Orincia has transfused their blood with the purified Blood of Angels. Granting them a more limited increase to their prowess though also with a limited detriment of their psyche. Turning them arguably crazy but still sane. With the bonus of immunity to the Scourge, as their blood now scorches it away.

Cleansing

Without a true cure to the Scourge, all victims go through a special kind of burial tailored to cleanse the body and soul of the dead and put their loved ones at ease. As the Scourge has an odd divine component to it, cleansing the dead through holy magic does not work so the ritual was developed by counsel from Zarkanii alchemists.
Through bandaging the bodies with an oil drenched cloth, the features of the dead remain visible through the wrappings in a sort of mummifying act. The burials then start by alighting the corpse with a flame of the purified substance that burns away all the ooze.
Through this act, the grieving sing hymns and tales of remembrance to the dead. Usually led by the person who put down the infected in the first place. Be it a family member, a military officer, a holy man or others.
While it might seem unfitting that the killer of the victim partakes in the mourning, it has significantly lowered the mental duress of those forced to pull the trigger on family and countrymen. That they are reinforced in the knowledge that they did what was right and also all they could to save the souls of the dead. Though also grant a worthy farewell to the passing.

Credits:

Created by Tonarus
Art generated with Midjourney