Heartburn

Transmission & Vectors

Saliva, Bodily Fluids.

Causes

A bacterium that feeds off the host's life force and the ambient magic the victim comes into contact with.

Symptoms

Heartburn, or “Ardor Cordis” is a dangerous and oft-fatal magical disease, though it can be treated. Often mistaken, in early stages, for Hearteater and Heartsfail, it is distinguishable later by its particular glow. Heartburn is, unlike the mundane form, a rather precise and chilling description of the disease. Starting as uncomfortable heat around the heart, Heartburn gradually increases its seeming temperature… but only with regards to those cells it directly affects. With this magical temperature, it heats, burns and calcifies the outside of the heart, eventually halting all movement, causing death.

Treatment

Despite its ominous names and symptoms, however, Heartburn can be treated, and regularly is. A combination of cooling potions and charms, using such things as Frostcaps and Icy Gelcaps as main ingredients are highly effective at lowering the magically heightened temperature, killing off the infecting bacteria. In rapidly advancing cases, the recent development of Heartsnakes has proven a boon, and deaths to this disease are so rare as to be practically unheard of in the present day.

Affected Groups

Mortals

Cultural Reception

Considered by some Healers to be a human version of Agni’s Fire, Heartburn seems to be transmitted via fluid contact - saliva and blood, most commonly. Due to this, its not uncommon for partners to be affected together, and a number of magical plays make reference to starcrossed lovers slowly dying of Heartburn, as well as a number of comedies centring around the revelation of a husband’s adultery when he is mysteriously afflicted.

Type

Bacterial

Origin

Natural

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity

Uncommon