Rabid Soul

Inside the carnival cage swayed a humanoid monstrosity. It had arms and legs like a human, a forward facing head with places for eyes, nose, and mouth. The arms were a little too long, the hands stretched with vicious, gnarled claws. The mouth bared a double-row of flesh-rending teeth. The eyes glowed an uncanny shade of purple-red in dim light, but showed opaque and white in full light. At rest, it swayed and jerked uncannily, never really still but still not seeming truly alive.

"What even am I looking at?" asked Lucifer in horror.

"We were hoping you knew," the carnie said and smacked at the ghoul's extended claws with a club.

Transmission & Vectors

A soul can become rabid one of two ways: a human can contract the physical virus through bodily fluid contact with an infected human, usually through blood or brain matter spatter or saliva from bite wounds. Alternately, a soul can become infected through contact with another infected soul via bite wounds.

Human infection begins as flu-like symptoms eventually progressing to physical death and an apparent reanimation of the physical body. An infected human's soul passes to Heaven or Hell as per usual redemption rules at the moment of the body's death and reanimation, but remains infected upon arrival and is able to infect other souls.

If a human dies of causes other than the infection, they do not reanimate unless their soul becomes infected through other means. If a soul of an already dead human is infected, the body will reanimate regardless of physical decay or length of time dead.

Causes

The virus which causes the rabid soul condition was an accidental manufacture by humans in an attempt to weaponize rabies.

Symptoms

Infected humans show signs of physical infection around the entry wounds which progresses as blood infection: red streaks along veins, swollen and tender skin, etc. Once the virus reaches the brain (30 minutes to 5 days, depending on the distance of the wound from the brain) the infection manifests as severe fever and delirium. Fever increases until brain death occurs, at which point the body dies, the infected soul is released to the afterlife, and the body reanimates.

Infected souls manifest swollen, feverish skin around bite wounds and flu-like symptoms (including fever, thirst, nausea, vomiting, vertigo, and lack of appetite) for 2-4 days before succumbing to the delirium and physical transformation that accompanies full ghoul status. Fully rabid souls become physically warped, grow long, vicious claws and teeth, and will mindlessly attack anything they perceive as still being alive.

Treatment

There is no known treatment to stop the progression of the virus in humans. Reanimated humans can be destroyed by beheading and incineration.

There is no known treatment to stop the progression of the virus in infected souls. Rabid souls can be destroyed by extensive damage to the brain and incineration.

Prevention

Cremated bodies are immune to reanimation and their souls are protected from the rabid status.

Type

Supernatural

Origin

Mutated

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Extremely Rare

Affected Species

• Constructed Soul
• Human