The Blue Shadow

The Blue Shadow was one of the most terrible magical diseases that have ever fallen upon the peoples of Eridania and, despite being totally exterminated, is still remembered with much pain and sorrow by all the inhabitants of the planet.
It was a magic plague, created by Lady Dark just a few years after the birth of the Daughter of Light, in an attempt to exterminate both the child and most of the sorcerers on the planet. Its main feature is the blue spots that begin to take the body of the infected, in addition to that it infects only people (mainly children) who possess the gift of magic. At the time of its emergence, the disease was incurable and led to the death of the carrier within a few days.

Transmission & Vectors

The disease spreads mainly through the air, but can also be contracted by the individual when coming in contact with contaminated water or food, as well as with objects poisoned with this plague.

Symptoms

The main symptom of the disease appears on the skin of the infected person, who begins to take on the color of blue, especially from the hands and feet, which are channelers of magic, and then gradually spread until they take over the entire body of the individual.
Other symptoms are: failure to use magic, high fever, nosebleeds, weakness, severe pain in the hands, sudden blurring of vision, frequent fainting, and paralysis of hands.

Treatment

The exact cure recipe that was found was never revealed by the Council, as they feared that if Lady Dark knew the materials used, she would be able to improve the disease and spread it around the world again. However, it is known that such records exist and are carefully guarded and well protected in case the disease arises again.

Prognosis

The disease is undetectable in its early stages when it is still feeding on the magic of the infected. Then, on the second or third day, the infected begin to feel weakness and dizziness, and perhaps some flaws in the use of magic from time to time. On the fourth and fifth day these failures become larger and more frequent, the infected begins to suffer from terrible pains in the hands and the fever begins to take over. On the sixth day, the weakness is unbearable and the use of magic causes pain too strong to bear, and it is then that the blue color begins to appear on the skin. After the appearance of the spots on the skin, these grow faster and faster, and the infected begins to suffer with illusions, convulsions and sudden blindness. The symptoms then become more and more violent and the blue spreads until it covers the whole body of the infected.
The disease consumes all the magic of the individual in its early stages, and the appearance of the blue spots already denotes the gravity of the situation, because from there the disease begins to feed on the life force of its host, leading to death.

Sequela

Even though it was cured, some of those infected who were already in very advanced stages of the disease never fully recovered. Many were still suffering from the terrible pains, others were forever trapped in the illusions brought by the final stages, and some still remained with the terrible blue spots on their skin and lost the gift of magic forever.

Affected Groups

The illness affected only people who were born with the gift of magic, and was stronger in children, for they had not fully developed their gift.

History

Eridania went through a long age of peace, for the League had been defeated once again by Council forces, and Lady Dark had returned to the shadows. The Asteris family, the heirs of the goddess Ninfena, had made the great Eridanian kingdoms thrive under their rule. And in the midst of this happiness, Serenya, queen of Luxcis and granddaughter of Isis, conceived the child who had long been prophesied as the savior of Eridania, and gave her the name of Lucia.
And that it happened. The silence of the island of Ancalys was broken, for Lady Dark had returned from her exile to wake up her Shadow Army and form a new League of Darkness. The hammers in the dark forges worked day and night, making themselves heard to the distant shores of Dhar Darom and Aqualö. The Council met fearfully, and the White Army was armed for a new round of the confrontation the people called the "Shadow War."
But of all possible alternatives, none came close to conceiving what Lady Dark was actually planning. She had returned as soon as she heard of the birth of her nemesis, and was dedicated to destroying her before she became a threat that could not be stopped. In all her years of exile, she had sought out the most terrible creatures and the most evil plants, collecting blood and poisons. With these materials and dark magic, she conceived the evil plague, and gave it the blue color, for the prophecy said that the child would be born with blue eyes, and Lady Dark wanted the disease to be seen as something created to destroy the Daughter of the Light.
Then she summoned all the giant bats of the island of Ancalys and bathed their wings with the cursed dust. And from the mountains of the island, Lady Dark summoned a terrible storm, one that Eridania had never seen in its existence, and this storm covered the world with its shadow. And then the bats flew through the black clouds, and the poisoned rain fell upon all kingdoms, and Lady Dark delighted with the terrible pain that her plague would cause to all the peoples of the planet.
In the days after that terrible storm, thousands of sorcerers fell ill, but most of those affected were children, as they had not yet fully developed their magic. The sorcerers and magic scholars who remained unscathed devoted themselves day and night looking for a cure, but it seemed impossible to obtain, and the Council feared that Lady Dark's plan would come to fruition, for with the fall of sorcerers she would be able to destroy Eridania once and for all.
Hope seemed to have died when Queen Serenya communicated with immense regret the death of her daughter Lucia, and so Lady Dark had gotten what she wanted. But Isis found a way to save the little girl, for only her body had been destroyed, not her spirit. Isis put the spirit of little Lucia Asteris inside a star, and made a unique spell, which can never be repeated, for the star's energy and magic to reconstitute the child's body and strengthen it, so that no plague could infect it again . It would take thousands of years, but when the body of the child was fully reformed, the star would fall from the skies and the hope of the free peoples of Eridania would be restored.
Many died from the plague, but a cure was found. Many lives were saved and, to destroy that terrible disease once and for all, the Council summoned the griffins and dragons of Eridania and bathed their wings with the cure. A new storm was summoned, and the beasts and the winds did their work, purifying the lands of Eridania from that terrible disease.

Cultural Reception

All the victims of the Blue Shadow are remembered with much regret by all the peoples of Eridania, and monuments were built in all the kingdoms to honor them. The Council declared the day of death of Lucia Asteris as the Day of the Fallen, where all the people of Eridania go on pilgrimage to the temples of the goddess Ninfena to pray for the souls of those who died not only for the plague but also those who lost their lives in the fight against the League of Darkness.

Type

Magical

Origin

Magical

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity

Rare