Gossamer Stone
The Oreads, a species formed of stone and earth, are known for their strength and durability. Gossamer stone, or colloquially "pumice skin", greatly diminishes that durability. This illness appears to follow family lines, and is believed by many to be a generational curse due to some ancestral misstep.
Transmission & Vectors
This illness is transmitted through geneological lines and has never been shown to be transmitted to another. The illness is also exclusive to the oread species and has not been shown to develop in partial lineages dissuading many clerics and healers from believing in the mythical curse.
Symptoms
During the teenage to young adult years, an oread's stone structure will begin to lose form. Pockmarks will develop across their stone skin, leading to a dust not unlike dandruff in other species. As they age, these pockmarks will continue to deepen, creating miniscule tunnels deep into the body of the oread. These internal cracks greatly diminish the durability of the oread leading to significantly more broken appendages. By the age of 30, the oread's own weight can lead to breakage causing them to be bedridden or require assisted movement.
The effect, while debilitating, has not been linked to any cognitive concerns.
Treatment
If recognized early enough, the disease can be slowed through restoration magic though this merely delays the effects. With constant care, an oread can expect to still be bedridden by no later than 50. Assisted movement via wheelchairs or magical weight reducing items can also be used to allow for a relatively high level of self care.
Prognosis
The illness will continue to develop even with treatment. The physical degradation will eventually lead to the death of the patient, though most die from complications before this.
Prevention
The only prevention method discovered is to not be pure oread. Families with the trait are more likely to romance other races. Most mixed-ancestry oreads can find this disease in their familial histories.
Comments