Rot Plague

The Rot Plague is the infectious essence of Kasmir, the Rot. It is the pale death, that strips mortals of their souls and minds while leaving their bodies behind as plague-spewing puppets. It draws energy from the world into the wretched abominations of the Rot, and it leaves destruction where it goes. It is the plague to end all things, to strip the world of agency and meaning.

Transmission & Vectors

The Rot Plague spreads in its most basic form through water - drinking or having significant exposure to infected water is the main way it spreads. The saliva and fluids of the infected, in turn, infect water. The infected are stricken with terrible thirst and seek out water sources to infect as a default behavior when mindless. 
The transmission of the Rot Plague varies based on strain. Strains do not mutate like a traditional disease - rather, they are created by Plague Engines, which drastically alter the vectors and effects of the plague.

Causes

Fundamentally, plague is the extended presence of Kasmir, the Rot - it is a divine, apocalyptic influence manifesting as ethereal microbes. This is why it cannot mutate without a Plague Engine, and how it can erase souls.

Symptoms

For the first week, the Rot Plague manifests with easy-to-miss flu-like symptoms: sneezing, coughing, fever, nausea. The most plague-specific symptom is the intense thirst. 
For the second week, things vary depend on how treatment has occurred so far. For those with great medicine and care, the second week continued to be similar to a flu - but, with intense fatigue, strange hallucinations, horrific dreams, and a detached emotional state. For those with bad medical care (like most peasants), the second week is a sharp turn towards the worse. The person begins to lose time, feel increasingly distant, and sleep at odd times. They begin to lose sensation, motivation, memory, and awareness. Over the week, the traditional sick symptoms begin to vanish, as does the infected person's ability to feel pain. This is not a sign of the person overcoming the illness, but rather a kind of sedative effect imposed by Kasmir, the Rot to allow the terminally ill to drift painlessly into oblivion. The disease generally takes its victims by the end of the second week. 
Those who survive generally see a quick recovery over the start of the third week. 
Many places generally see the Rot Plague as being mostly the second week - that is when the obviously magical symptoms kick in.

Treatment

Food, water, shelter, even temperatures, and rest are the most important things. A healthy immune system and a safe recovery period are vital. Malnutrition is a killer here (once again predisposing poorer folks). Given the immune factor, immunocompromised, young, and old people are all more likely to die. 
Another element here is a kind of environmental plague exposure: drinking more infected water, eating infected food, or otherwise further exposure to infection empowers the plague. 
Kilusha is the only currently-known medicine that reliably works. Healing by Paladin magic may also work, but that needs more testing.

Prognosis

Those who succumb to the plague are erased from their own body. Their nervous system is entirely converted into a magical Rot-adjacent substance, which remembers the host's memories and personality but is most certainly not the host. The soul of the infected is banished into whatever dark place those species without afterlives go to - and also seem to resist resurrection. It is possible those souls are destroyed forever, though a true resurrection spell hasn't been tested yet. 
The puppeted remains of the infected ambiently seek out water sources, but otherwise simply loiter about until given instructions. Infected answer to anyone's instructions, but prioritize the instructions of the most powerful Plague Warlock that has issued orders. Orders can be repetitious. Plague warlock orders can also include chained complex orders that include basic self-maintenance and mimicry of being uninfected, though this mimicry is extremely basic and easily detected even by total strangers - the infected seem to parody and exaggerate their former personalities in a stilted and robotic way, perhaps drawing more attention to their fakeness than just shuffling about normally would. 
Those who survive the Rot are not unaffected. The Rot lives within them forever, connecting them to Kasmir, the Rot and whispering in the back of their minds. Survivors are haunted by the Rot, which shows them devastation in their dreams and forever severs them from feelings of connection and normalcy. Survivors can live good lives, but they will never forget or leave behind their experience. Indeed, survivors will be made acutely aware of the end of the world and their smallness within it. 
Survivors can, if they let the Rot into their hearts, become Plague Warlocks. It is unknown if Survivors remain contagious. It is unknown if Survivors can be unbound from the Rot.

History

Starting in the year 2014/2015 ME, the Rot Plague began to be released into the equatorial oceans by Kasmir, the Rot. Whatever island Kasmir is originally from may have experienced the plague earlier, but the experiences of the isolated island are currently unknown. 
For 1-2 years, the Rot Plague was just an underwater disease, localized to a handful of isolated reefs and migratory aquatic populations. It was when Kasmir began his campaign of destruction in 2016 in Makal that things began to hit the larger surface world. Kasmir targeted Kingdom of Orpora and the Eastern Makal coast, down to Vikasha.
Between 2017 and 2020, the Rot Plague began spreading across Ekraht and into Southern Izekra.

Children

• Vermin Rot Plague

Origin

Divine

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Unique