Three Season's Wasting

It which takes everything.

"I remember when I was a boy, my father was larger than life. He had arms the size of tree trunks and stood at least a head taller than all the other adults. I knew there was nothing he could not do.
It all started when I saw him stumble for the first time. Then, that was the first summer he didn't pick me up. We didn't think anything of it then but by autumn he couldn't stand and by winter he was gone.
To see a man that strong brought low like that was perhaps the most difficult thing I have ever experienced. I know he was frustrated with his own faltering capabilities. He sat tall until the very end, even when his body wouldn't move, he stood tall in his heart."

Less Than A Year To Live

Once the first symptoms of the wasting present themselves, the affected person will be dead before three seasons have passed. Worse than that, they will slowly lose the ability to move and even - near the very end - to speak. It first takes away comfort then livelihood and then it steals dignity and finally life.
To the people of Breharan it is considered one of the most crushing conditions. Other diseases are often contagious, some aren't even deadly, and those that are don't take as long. Worse still, the cause of the wasting has yet to be identified. There is no known cure so all of the affected's loved ones can only wait for the inevitable as they watch the person they care about slowly get worse.

The Wasting in Writing

The story that plays out in the lives of those with the wasting and those around them has been copied into the pages of books for over a hundred years. It has a reputation in writing of being the romantic disease - it is even sometimes called 'The Lover's Curse' - and has killed many a character in a romance novel.
Some of these fantastical depictions of the condition are quite accurate but that is not an easy read. In most cases the disease is shown only in the same way that a distant friend might see the condition progressing, even though it is the focus of the story. These novels are often panned by critics for toning-down the impact of the wasting.

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Old Article

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In-Progress Article

This article is being worked on, perhaps not at this very moment, but it is being worked on.

Buying Time

There are many stories of people who find themselves in the lands of the fae and disappear for a season, a year, a decade, or more. To them it always felt like only a moment.
Many people think that if the fae will take someone under the effects of the wasting that it will stall the progress of the disease but no one has managed to test it. People must also consider that if they manage to make the fae take them, what will happen to them after they return. Will there be a cure? Will their family still even be in the same location - if they are alive at all?
Some affected say that even if there isn't a cure, they would pause their time if they could return only to see their children all grown up, even if only for a little while.

"I will become a skycaptain one day and I will take my ship out further than anyone has gone before. I will spend every last breath I have searching but I will find the cure, I know that is out there. When I return, what happened to my mother will never happen to anyone again."

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