King's Madness

XX, also known as the King's Madness, was an epidemic attributed to an unknown disease, that affected the West Island and some cities of the Southern Continent in the mid to late 4th century AFS.

Famous patients

The disease gained it's common name from its most well-known victim, King of West Island Elderoak the Mad, who was suspected to have suffered from it.

King Elderoak is remembered from his erratic politics, persecution of opposition members, cutting diplomatic ties with the mainland city states, and an early attempt of establishing an autocratic kingdom on the West Island. Some contemporaneous sources descibe him suffering from symptoms of mental disease, but refrences to it are much more common in later sources, leading some to suspect it was rather a later attempt to blackmail him after his assassination.

Causes

The madness has been commonly attibuted to spirit possession. An example of this is old in The Mad King and the Spirits of the Zeribian Graveyard, where young Prince Elderoak wanders to the graveyard at night, and is consumed by a demon disguised as a friendly Zeribian boy.
However, some scholars have noted have noted a curious correlation between the madness, and Black Years' Plague pandemic of 418-430 AFS, noting that those affected by the madness seem to have been survivors of the Plague in their early childhood. Thus it's possible that the symptoms represent late neurological effects of the Plague, rather than a separate condition.

Parent

Black Years' Plague