Living Lesion

Borne in hatred.

"Martha took her brother to their grandmother's, not believing me when I said I only did what I must. I'm staying here alone, now. I was...compelled to stay behind. I deserve. Its will was being imposed upon me. The thick, black ichor crawls over the surfaces of my home, as if a vile malaise has been brought upon it. Martha had said she couldn't see the movements, that it was just mold; But as I surely live the thing moves. It does so even now, crawling ever so slowly over my wife's decomposing corpse, the axe she gave me still embedded in her chest. These movements are nearly imperceptible, but it is encroaching upon more and more of my home each day. Like an infection, slowly advancing though the stone and wood like an unstoppable army. I can't leave. Not after what I did. I deserve this." - Entry from an unknown author, from a journal found in a purged home.

A vile disease that can infect and desecrate your home, a courtroom, or even a battlefield, the Living Lesion is a condition that takes over and warps a location, twisting it into a dark simulacrum of itself until it devours it whole. It is a magical condition that occurs when an act of pure hatred has taken place, especially in cases against one's own family.
Unfortunately however, in some rare cases, the Lesion can stay dormant for years at a time, nesting in a location until something triggers it and causes it to metastesize throughout the affected area. Even less frequently, if the offense is too great, the Lesion can stick around for years, or in one particular case, decades.
Once the infection takes hold and consumption begins, the only feasible options for treatment are to either purge the location(s) in question, or to leave until the consuming of the area is completed.

Signs & Symptoms

The best known symptoms of a Lesion outbreak are the characteristic black smudges that form most commonly in the corners of the rooms where the act was perpetrated. These smudges appear as if they are mold or some other substance, but if an attempt is made to remove them, the process has a chance to speed up exponentially. In the majority of outbreaks, the process is relatively slow, taking days or weeks for a single home to be entirely consumed. If the Lesion becomes aggravated, however, days can turn into hours or, in a handful of cases, minutes. 
The only known case of an individual holding back the consuming tide is, when preparing for the vile act that would transform him in to a lich, Viktor Gharlbrand placed wards and protective sigils all about his palace, making him as prepared as one could be for the potential of an outbreak.

Cause

The Lesion may be brought into existence when an act of extreme hatred is is perpetrated, especially in the case of inter-familial conflict. Unfortunately this is the extent of most people's knowledge into the Lesion. Those well versed in the history of Eld Perelaia and the actions of the treacherous Gharlbrand will know that extensive research was done over the Legion following the Scattering, when Gharlbrand sacrificed an entire kingdom, causing the largest Lesion outbreak that has ever occurred, encompassing several thousand miles of land. Elders of the family tend to bring up stories of the Lesion whenever sons or grandsons begin bickering, using it as a cautionary tale so that they don't meet the same fate.

Diagnosis

While early on the Lesion can appear as if it were a fast-growing mold, when consumption begins it will be all too obvious what has taken hold.

Transmission

The Living Lesion is spread through hatred. Intense acts of hatred and anger can cause it to manifest, slowly taking over wherever it forms.

Treatment

Once the Lesion has taken over an area, there are only two real options. Firstly, you can let it run its course, losing whatever the Lesion had taken over to consumption . This not ideal, as it can result in a substantial loss of property. For the other option, you can have the perpetrator of the act repent before Adar, and have the entire area purged by a Bishop. Unfortunately, if the offense is too great or if it is not done in a timely manner, the spread of the Lesion will slow, but not cease. At this point you can either let it run its course as before, or, in a sick twist of fate, feed the guilty party to the Lesion itself. If fed, the Lesion will shrink until it disappears completely.
If left untreated, the Lesion will consume the area it has taken up residence in, leaving a taint behind that lasts years. The only way to clean the taint from an area that has been consumed is to burn it with a Blessed Flame, a flame that has itself been blessed a priest, as well as consecrating the area itself.
If the structure or location in question is made of stone, the stone must be taken out of the structure, broken and ground up, and blessed by a priest. This dust must then be sprinkled throughout the structure by a priest, praying as he walks the area.
An area that has been burned or cleansed in this way is said to be purged.
If any individual comes into contact with this taint, the body part in question will painfully wither away into nothing. The withered area, once it has run its course, is sealed. If they fall into it completely, there is no chance for survival.

Prognosis

The Lesion spreads at an unknown rate. If watched, unless fed directly, it will seem to not move at all. If it is unwatched, it can progress as quickly or slowly as it deems necessary. There is much that is not understood about it at this time, and unfortunately not much can be done to attempt to test it in a controlled environment.

Prevention

Not much can be done to prevent the Lesion, as it does not yet consistently appear. However, some peoples believe a totem of sandalwood kept on your mantle will keep away the aura of hatred that seems to allow the Lesion to take root. Another method for prevention commonly practiced in the Nadhorod Basin is the cutting of the right thumb, and using it to make the Mark of Adar on the door.

Cultural Reception

Areas being consumed by the Lesion are feared and avoided across the board by all sane individuals of any species or race that know of the disease. Not much is understood about it by the average citizen of Oscana, but the basics of the cause is known. If an individual's or a family's home is stricken by the Lesion, they are generally shunned, judged by their neighbors for their apparently terrible thoughts or actions.

Hosts And Carriers

Any location or structure where an act of great hatred has taken place can cause the Lesion to manifest. Most typically it happens in an area where those involved have a deep-seated history of death and strife. Battlefields and graveyards are common locations for Lesion outbreaks, but they are not much more common than older homesteads and courtrooms. It seems hatred has no borders.

Epidemiology

The Living Lesion is not contagious in the traditional sense, but can be spread between buildings if the aura of hatred that has taken over a building bleeds over into another. This tends to result in a feud between the person who allowed the Lesion to come forth in the first place and those effected, causing further damage by feeding into the hateful aura.

History

A legend still told from the time of Eld Perelaia tells the story of how the Lesion was created millennia ago by the eldest child of a well respected farmer. The man, angered at his younger brother's success and his own failures, broke into his brother's home in the dark of night and took a mattock to all seven members of his brother's family. He moved methodically throughout the home, room by room, until all the members of the family were disposed of. Then, as if that weren't vile enough, he went back through and began mutilating the corpses with the mattock, leaving nothing left that even resembled a human.
Instead of leaving the home afterwards, he preceded to stay there for a few days, taking care of the animals and fields, making it seem to potential passersby that everything at the house was as it should be. At night, before sleeping, he would work in the cellar, digging a deep hole in which he placed the remains. He also killed and buried the horses, to make it seem as though his brother's family had left the area. He cleaned up the house as best he could, and left. His worries, with the mattock, were all buried 10 feet under the ground.
The home, it should be noted, was built upon an ancient battlefield. This area was called the Red Plain, named so for the large amount of blood that was spilled during the battles here.
The eldest child proceeded to his own home for a few days, then went to his father's house. Once there, he told him that ht thought his brother's family had up and moved away. He hadn't seen nor heard from him in days. There was no one there, and the horses were also gone from the stables.
His father was surprised. Their farm was successful. Very successful. Why would they just up and leave without saying anything? He headed over to his son's house to see for himself. He was horrified at what he found.
His son was no longer there, what much was certain, and neither was his family. What was there, however, was an abhorrent stench, seemingly coming from the cellar. As he made his way around and opened the cellar door lighting a lantern as he went, the disgusting, humid gust of air that was released was almost enough to cause him to drop it down the stairs.
Inside the cellar was a most dreadful sight. Spreading from the center of the room was a black pool of thick, viscous liquid. It reached out around the room, tendrils enveloping the walls like veins along an arm. The room itself seemed to sag all around, as if the walls and ceiling were made of loose skin. The dark pool seemed infinitely deep, and if you stared long enough it seemed to move, as if it were sucking you in. He was backing up the stairs when the axe hit him in the back of the head, turning everything he saw into a black pool forevermore.
The eldest son laughed kicked his father's body down the stairs and into the pool, knowing that he'd now get away with his crime. What happened next, however, he did not expect. Whatever had taken over the cellar was not going to let him leave. The pool of black ichor surged around the body and began rapidly expanding, shooting pas him on the stairs and closing the door to the cellar with a loud slam.
When he turned around, he saw the entrance to the cellar totally consumed by blackness, even the light of his father's lantern showed no detail other than pure dark. He clambered about the room as the tendrils groped for him, trying to find a way out of this abomination he had brought forth into the world. He would never see the light of day again.

Notable Cases

A

Type

Magical

Origin

Magical

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Rare