Dire Silence
The Dire Silence, also known variously as the 'Great Plague,' 'The Silence,' and 'The End,' was the plague (or set of plagues) which plunged the world of Generica into chaos and presaged the beginning of the current New Generica Period. Nebulous in its origin, but nonetheless devastating and widespread in its impact, the Dire Silence caused all the major societies of the known world to collapse - save, that is, for isolated pockets of civilization like High Hedgemont.
Transmission & Vectors
The exact mechanism by which the DIre Silence spead has never been clear, even to sages and physicians contemporary with the disease whose written testimony survived into the present day. The current theory among scholars at the High Hedgemont University is that the Dire Silence was environmental, rather than contagious, and may have had something to do with the altitude of the affected population centers. Records show that contact with low-lying settlements was lost first, then settlements further up slopes, and finally those (like High Hedgemont) nestled among mountain ranges. Travelers during the peak of the pandemic were treated with the usual suspicion afforded to potential disease carriers, but there is no evidence in the record that merchants and innkeepers who still chose to deal with them contracted the disease any sooner than the community in which they resided.
Causes
Some theories suggest that the Dire Silence was some sort of miasma that rose up out of the sea, hot springs, or caverns beneath the earth, perhaps as a result of some kind of shift in the climate. The years following the first cases of the Dire Silence were marked by colder, cloudier conditions across the known world, causing widespread crop failures and famines that accelerated the breakdown of social groups. Some have even speculated that the Lunars might have had a hand in the Dire Silence crisis, with conspiracy theorists positing that they flung a meteor at Generica that cracked open the earth and released miasmas that slowly choked the world. In any event, the exact cause of the Dire Silence remains unknown.
Symptoms
The Dire Silence causes fatigue, vertigo, and labored breathing which, in susceptible individuals, progresses over the course of 3-10 days to coma and, eventually, death.
Treatment
The Dire Silence struck communities so quickly and ubiquitously that pre-New Generican physicians were unable to formulate a treatment, let alone a cure. Bed rest and maintaining high morale were associated with better outcomes, but only marginally so.
Epidemiology
Almost every sentient species in the known world was affected in some way by the Dire Silence, though some species proved more resistant than others. For example, the mothfolk and various hengeyokai subspecies proved remarkably resistant to the effects of the disease, though some among them still succumbed. Affinity for arcana, particularly transmutative magic, was correlated with improved odds of survival across all species.
Around 5% of each given population center demonstrated some level of resistance to the effects of the Dire Silence beyond that offered by their species. These individuals either felt no effect as their fellows succumbed or, more commonly, experienced diminished symptoms but later recovered. Tales abound of sole survivors awaking to find themselves alone in a silent town, then taking to the road in search of refuge and the company of other survivors. These groups typically became the caravaneers, raiders, and roving bandits of the post-collapse world, though many also chose to settle down in an attempt to rekindle the communities they had lost.
History
The Dire Silence emerged first in coastal and low-lying communities and spread across the face of Generica over the course of only a few short years, with incidence rates peaking around 34 months into the pandemic. Though infection rates slowed greatly after around four years, survivng communities in the higher altitudes were still being struck down by the disease up to a decade later. Year five of the pandemic coincided with the beginning of the so-called Frozen Decade, a period of unseasonably cold temperatures and overcast skies which, in concert with a drastic reduction in trade and the number of farmers healthy enough to work their fields, caused widespread famine that exacerbated the societal effects of the Dire Silence.
Whether it was because all vulnerable populations had died off, there were no more witnesses to report new cases, or the environmental phenomena that caused the disease had subsided, there have been no further cases of Dire Silence recorded since the ten year anniversary of the first known infections.
Type
Physiological
Cycle
Short-term
Rarity
Common
Affected Species
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