Bazhlat

Bazhlat, or "Grandmother's gaze" in Dryzhky, is a nonspecific affliction that many people who live in the Shardscape realm of Ztavsk believe to be caused by the unwanted and evil gaze of a mabnyë or witch. The name is derived from the euphemistic title Tobray Bazhya, "Kindly Grandmothers", used by the Ztavayë people to refer to the mabnya out of a superstitious belief that so much as invoking the word "mabnyë" or "mabnya" is tantamount to calling the attention of one of those powerful and wicked women to oneself.
The Ztavayë superstitious belief in the power of the Tobray Bazhya is so strong and pervasive that while the Tobray Bazhya are known to be capable of casting evil hexes and curses to ruin the lives of mortals, their mere attention or gaze is enough to cause bad things to happen to the person who has caught their attentiohn. Bazhlat is the umbrella term used by the Ztavaya to refer to the phenomenon as a whole.
"Bazhlat" is often unhelpfully used to refer to sudden-onset acute conditions in otherwise healthy people. Bad luck, stomach aches, diarrhea, constipation, fatigue, melancholy, apathy, depression, mania, headaches, infertility, suicidal ideation, impotence, difficult pregnancies, natal fatalities, and a whole host of other things are attributed to bazhlat. The list of symptoms that could be caused by bazhlat is so long and broad that most of the time, anything bad that inexplicably happens to a person is explained away with a single word: "Bazhlat."
As a condition born out of superstition, there are a variety of superstitious ways to cure and prevent bazhlat. Every region has its unique tonic, cure, or token, and every household has its own spin on those recipes. People swear up and down that their preferred method works every single time. In the north of Ztavsk, particularly, people pay a hefty price for what is known as a Soapwood Token that is said to protect against bazhlat.