Chimeric Plague

The chimeric plague was created by the chimeric lord as a means to spread his control over the forest. Before this plague emerged the worship of the chimeric lord was only limited to a few fanatical cultists. However, after the plague started it quickly spread to rival the other forest deity. The plague can spread to both beasts and humanoid creatures but the beasts were only intended to spread the plague.

Transmission & Vectors

There are three known ways for the plague to spread. The first and most common way for the plague to spread is through a bite of an infected beast specifically through their saliva. Even thou this way is the most common it does not always succeed.
The second is contact with infected blood. This can be as simple as contact of blood with the skin. However, if the blood is injected into the body through consumption or wound the transmission is more likely.
The third and only always successful way to spread the plague is through magic. The magic can be only done by humanoids as the beasts lack the necessary abilities. The caster does not have to be infected by the plague to infect others by this means. Even though this way is always successful it was rarely used even before the chimeric lord's death.

Symptoms

The symptoms are slightly different between beasts and humanoids.
Symptoms of beasts:
For the first few days, the beasts show increased aggression and pain thresholds. The beasts are infectious even in this stage. After a few days, the beasts start to show signs of mutation. Growth of horns, elongated fangs, and claws for example. Eventually, more mutations will develop including the growth of bone spikes on different parts of the body, and additional limbs or tails not necessary from the same species. Around fifty percent of the beasts that reach this stage die due to the mutations. The ones that survive will have their aggression increased even more and suffer further mutations which may even change the bone structure of the creature.
Symptoms of humanoids:
The humanoid does not exhibit any visible symptoms for some time. However, they experience visual and audible hallucinations. In these hallucinations, they are tempted by the chimeric lord to accept his gifts. Their blood is also not infectious at this stage. After they accept the gifts the humanoids start exhibiting either mutations similar to beasts or symptoms identical to lycanthropy.

Treatment

The plague was treated by the Children of the Northern Forest through magical rituals. These rituals were originally very complicated and rather expensive to perform. Due to this, the beasts were not treated but rather put down and humanoids were treated only in the early stages of the disease as the treatment was easier then.
During the forest war, the rituals developed, and the plague started to be widely administrated.

History

The plague started to spread a few years before the start of the forest war. It rapidly spread over the forest. During the war, the treatment developed to the point where it could be widely distributed. After the war ended, the chimeric lord was defeated, and the source of the plague was destroyed the forest started to recover. Eventually, the disease disappeared. The disease however reappeared in few isolated incidents in recent years.

Origin

Divine