The Burning Light

Transmission & Vectors

The primary transmission seems to be through sunlight, however if the blisters open, the blood can become a means of transmission at well. There are technically five stages to the Blinding Light plague, but it often occurs so rapidly there may as well be two. 

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First Stage: After the plague began, moon elves caught in the rays of the Sun would find themselves unusually sensitive to it, struggling to open their eyes against its suddenly harsh light. Prolonged exposure would cause their eyesight to become hazy, but retreating to the darkness usually relieved it.

Second Stage: Within a few days, exposure to the Sun begins to burn the afflicted rapidly, forming painful blisters where the light touches. At this point, afflicted begin to decline rapidly. Now it may be transmitted between people too.

Third Stage: Even after removal from the Sun, the pain continues to grow as the damage is already done, the burns continue to spread as if still in the light. A fever often develops at this stage but it's unclear if it is really a fever or just a side effect of the spreading burns.

Fourth Stage: The eyes fade to a milky white color, rendering the afflicted permanently blinded. This generally happens when the burns cover a majority of the body, this can happen in a few hours or several days.

Fifth Stage: Should the light touch them again, they will reach a zenith of pain none should know before succumbing to the sweet release of death. If left in the light, their bodies will then crumble to ash.

Causes

It is unknown how exactly the Burning Light came to be. Best guesses are that demons from 4th Sector weaved a sickness and poisoned the moon elves with demonic energy, and also attempted to poison the other elves. It is believed that the Sun Elves and Eventide Elves being more directly blessed by the Ancient Sun were immune to the Blighted Light. However, communication between the moon elves and eventide elves proved that some eventide elves did in fact succumb to the plague.
The plague reached its heights during summer when Terra got the most light. Life was hardest during this time due to the limited amount of time safe outside of their darkest hideaways. By the grace of the Ancient Moon it seemed to die down during the winter, enough for brief excursions in the eventides even, if one were so bold.

Symptoms

Physical:

• Fever - Significantly increased body temperature, touching them can feel like putting your hands near a fire or other heat source
• Burns - Caused by sunlight exposure and continues to spread after Stage 2 
• Blisters - Burn locations spawn painful blisters 
• Light sensitivity - Causes physical pain by any light source 
• Declining eyesight - Often starts out as hazy eyesight and eventually progresses to full blindness
• Paralysis - By the last two stages afflicted become so consumed by pain they become unable to move

Mental:

• Increased pain sensitivity - People seem to feel more pain, afflicted who had a reputation for enduring pain well seem to crumble rapidly under the pain, some of this is self-reported
• Increased light sensitivity - Patients begin flinching at light before others register light being created
• Disorientation - Afflicted are often confused by where they are and get confused when performing basic tasks prior to paralysis
• Muddled thoughts - People eventually become unable to string basic sentences likely due to pain

Treatment

The details of treatment have been lost but what little survives is as follows.

Darkness

As soon as it is realized som████████████n afflicted, shroud them in darkness as soon as possible to slow the progress. Do not bring them in contact with any light. Rely solely on ██████████████d work carefully. The darkness seems to be beneficial to the afflicted by soothing their li█████████████y and slowing the progressi███████urns should it get to that point.

Moondrinker Rose

Take the petals of a moondrinker rose and ████████████o form ████████ Apply to blisters and burns ████████r maximum affect. The moondrinker rose ███████ burns and can ███████████ pain. It can also help blisters go down. Steeping the ██████ of the moondrinker rose and having the patient ████████ can also be helpful. Never ingest the ███████f the rose or their healing properties will turn against you.

Pure Water

Pure water blessed by the Ancie██████████ems to be beneficial as well. The water seems to ████████he fever when ███este███nd gen████████ing of burned areas seems ███████ce the spread of them too. When steeping t████████s of the moondrinker rose, blessed pure water is ideal for maximum effect. Make sure to keep any open blis██rs regul████████sed as this seems to keep the pa███████████████████████████████table.

Prognosis

Prior to the development of treatment and eventual cure, which has tragically since been lost, the prognosis was grim. While there were cases of people never developing past the first stage by strict avoidance of the sunlight, these were few and far between. Once your eyesight first became hazy, it was essentially a guarantee of a painful death. 
With the development of treatment and eventually a cure, prognosis finally began to improve with first at least a painless death, followed by progression being slowed then eventually stopped. Prior to the cure being finished, they managed to fully halt the progression enough to let them go outside during eventide and return to somewhat normal society and light. However, going into the sunlight could restart the plague's progression. 
When the cure was finally finished, the plague was finally halted. The blisters would fade away and the burns would fade to scars. The blindness does not fade or improve but it will not get worse. However, the damage to society was done and moon elves are almost fully nocturnal now and are generally fearful of being outside in the sunlight for too long. Many younger moon elves are willing to go out in the light, but it is easy to be overwhelmed by the societal pressure.

Prevention

During the height of the Burning Light's grip on the moon elves, the only way to prevent infection was to stay out of the sunlight. Early attempts at prevention included attempting to fully cover one's self but even the slightest amount of skin showing would result in infection causing this method to be dropped early on. Some members of The Order of the Moon attempted to create travelling bubbles of shadow but seeing out of the bubbles and making them mobile proved to be difficult. For a time there was talk of the moon elves going underground to avoid the light but thanks to persistent efforts from Kir (later Kandetreath) a spell was developed to provide permanent protection from the shadows in a given area.

Cultural Reception

The first case was scarcely noticed, once wasn't a concern, twice was a coincidence but from there panic began to grow and spread. Prior to the Burning Light moon elf society, while primarily active at night, stretched across dawn and dusk to trade and build relations with their elfkin. They preferred the cool darkness of night but traversed the day to explore, gather, and trade. When the Burning Light came that all fell apart. Attempts were made to work around the plague, avoid the deadly light and continue as they had, but it proved impossible. Even the slightest exposure could seal their fate. Children were fed tales of the deadly light to keep them away from it, their activity shrank until they wouldn't emerge until the sun had fully set beyond the horizon.
The shamans, priests, and priestesses of the Order of the Moon were the only ones willing to approach the afflicted, in a desperate attempt to heal them. The sick were often shunned out of fear that they too would catch it. Some willingly entered the light when a loved one became ill, unwilling to go without them. The hardest ones were the children. Thanks to community efforts it was rare for a child to become ill, but it would happen once in a while. The adults, especially the eldest, they could handle the pain longer before breaking down if they broke at all. A long life teaches you many kinds of pain. It was silently endured with whispered curses or muffled gasps before being forced down. Even when the mind began to go with the help of the Order of the Moon the afflicted could go into a sleeplike-trance like normal. It never stopped the pain, if anything it was worse with nothing else to focus on, but it silenced any outward expression. When a child became ill, it was all the Order could do to make it swift and painless, with nothing to compare it to, nothing they had endured before, they suffered the most.
After all they had seen, the moon elves shun the day entirely, even knowing it is now safe. The tales of the Burning Light are whispered in hushed voices and to see a moon elf outside their sanctuaries is rare and seeing them in the daylight is even rarer. Once a thriving and social people, the moon elves have retreated into their sanctuaries away from the world, away from those that might seek to do them harm. Away from the Light.

Type

Physiological

Origin

Magical

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Rare