Southlander's Disease
"Like a black tide, a miasma rolled in from the South, and the whole Empire of the Rhumnarians was struck with such death and rot not seen since the wars against Nix. For years, the land was seized with pestilence and terror, before the plague left as swiftly as it came."
Transmission & Vectors
Southlander's Disease is an airborne pathogen, capable of persisting in the air for up to a day, and on surfaces for over a week. It is capable of spreading through waterways and other fluids for several days, but ceases to be effective after that point.
Symptoms
Early stage symptoms involve light-headedness, soreness of the muscles, and sneezing; mid-stage involve vomiting, lethargy, nausea, severe coughing, and insomnia; late-stage involve fluid build up in the lungs, coughing up blood, vomiting blood, severe dehydration, diarrhea, blindness, paralysis, brain damage, and finally death.
Treatment
A variety of medicinal herbs are prescribed, most rich in nutrients to help the body fight the disease. Smoking a special blend of Taback is often prescribed as well, to smother the miasma with smoke (this special blend is highly aromatic, and involves some of the same herbs used in the consumed medicine). If this fails, a thorough cleansing may be performed using magick, to identify and kill the cause of the disease, or to remedy the symptoms that most often lead to fatality. In more recent cases, simple teas have been effective at keeping the symptoms to a survivable level. No true cure exists for this disease.
Prognosis
The first stage of the disease is easily mistaken for a mild allergic reaction or just some irritation of the throat, with the more severe cases requiring the victim to sit and focus on catching his or her breath.
The second stage is characterized by more obvious signs, leaving the victim bed-ridden and vomiting; the victim uncontrollably coughs and sneezes in lengthy fits that often cause them to faint from exertion. It is not uncommon for a victim to experience minor seizures in these fits; and their head will need to be turned to the side, as vomiting often follows the fits.
Should a victim be unfortunate enough to enter the third stage, he or she will undergo torment enough to make a hardened veteran weep. Blood will pour out of the victim from any orifice it finds, and will rupture the eyes in many cases. The constant fits will seize the body completely, and induce paralysis. Finally, after exhausting all blood, and causing all limbs to go stiff and numb and to turn black, the disease will kill the victim.
Sequela
The effects on a survivor of the disease vary, depending largely on how well they were treated and at what stage the disease reached before they recovered. If a patient received proper treatment in the first stage, he or she will lead a normal, healthy life, and likely never catch the disease again. A survivor of the second stage may suffer some minor respiratory problems for many years, but might recover in time if they take the proper measures. A survivor of the third and final stage, however, is likely to suffer permanent damage to the brain, eyes, or respiratory system. Blindness is common in this group, as the blood vessels in the eyes have been irreparably destroyed from high blood pressure. Many survivors of the late stage also suffer from permanent paralysis to varying degrees, or become completely immobilized, and die later of asphyxiation, as their weakened lungs struggle to move.
Affected Groups
All individuals are susceptible to Southlander's Disease, but the young and elderly are at particular risk of death, as are those with existing health problems or weak bodies.
Prevention
A person who has contracted the disease can prevent its spread by covering coughs and sneezes, and by refraining from spitting in public or dumping a spittoon into a public space. A healthy individual can take measures by engaging in proper maintenance of hygiene, particularly by washing his or her hands and face frequently.
Epidemiology
The disease often breaks out first in high density populations, especially at centers for commerce. If not contained, the disease soon spreads to the rest of the population, and anyone coming and going from the area is likely to carry the disease with them; this leads to an epidemic within mere months, and a pandemic within a year.
History
The first recorded case, as the name suggests, was in Southland, properly named "Südhland." The first true victim is unknown, but the first documented victim was a blacksmith in a rural village. The villagers had pitched together to pay for a physician to come, as the man was the only smith they had, and he had helped most of them at great need. Unfortunately, the physician was unable to help the man, and he himself caught the disease and brought it back to his own town, where it spread further.
Traders who came upon the town caught the disease, and it began to spread along trade routes, reaching every corner of the Rhumnarian Empire and beyond. In colder lands, like Lindon and Nördhland, the spread of the disease was stifled, but it flourished in the Southern provinces of the Empire. Like fire, the sickness quickly ravaged urban populations, leaving the streets and ditches packed with filth and corpses. Bodies were hauled away by the cartload, businesses shut down and never reopened, and the Imperial Palace was locked up, and was silent until the malady passed.
Once the plague did begin to end, it ended as swiftly as it caught on, and none knew how or why. As the end came, however, it was revealed that the Emperor, his successor, and his successor's successor had all been cut down by the disease, and a war for succession began withing the very streets of Rhuma. That war was brief, but it shattered the legitimacy of the Emperor in the eyes of the provinces he governed from his palace, which led to yet another civil war that resulted in the decentralization of power in the Empire; this ultimately would lead to the complete fracturing of Rhumnaria, and the eventual end to the Iulian dynasty as a ruling family.
Cultural Reception
In the largest outbreak, which ravaged the Rhumnarian Empire, the disease was perceived as one last curse upon the Empire by the Daemon King, Nix. Since that pandemic, the disease is feared above all others, even though most are fully capable of surviving it; those infected with it are so fearful of spreading it that they quarantine themselves, some to such a fanatical degree that they die of thirst or hunger before the disease has reached its more critical stages.
Type
Viral
Origin
Natural
Cycle
Short-term
Rarity
Rare
Affected Species
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