febricantium, proto-ghoul fever
Febricantium was a horrific disease that caused devestating damage during the First Age. It was very annoying to dragons but it was very deadly to non-dragons.
It is believed by some scholars and more academic-minded necromancers that Febricantium is a direct predecessor to ghoul fever. It was a more deadly and more contagious facsimile of ghoul fever.
Transmission & Vectors
Those bitten by proto-ghouls could contract Febricantium, but the majority of those suffering from the condition were exposed via tainted water supplies.
Symptoms
Smaller creatures have their flesh turn black or grey and necroticize. Death comes from organ failure as their bodies rot from the inside out. Those who managed to survive are never as hale as hearty as they were before without extensive magical healing.
Dragons experienced a few weeks of awkward fluctuations of body temperatures with alternating fevers and chills. This weakened the power and reliablity of their breath weapons and also induced a lot of vomitting.
Treatment
High level Purification ●●●● was the only known treatment that worked on the infected.
Healing ●●●●● was required to heal the systemic organ damage of survivors back to their previous level of health.
Prognosis
Febricantium could affect almost anyone but it affected smaller creatures much more severely than larger creatures.
Febricantium killed kobolds within days with approximately a 99% mortality rate for those who didn't receive immediate magical healing. About 5% of these victims rose again as undead (and carriers to the disease).
Febricantium killed giants with about a 60% mortality rate for those that didn't receive magical healing within less than a fortnight. About 20% of these victims rose again as undead (and carriers to the disease).
Febricantium killed only a tiny percentage of dragons and most of those who died had pre-existing health issues or malnutrition. Most dragons recovered after a couple painful vomit filled weeks.
Affected Groups
The disease afflicted dragons, giants, kobolds and others in different ways.
It seemed only mortals were fully affected by Febricantium, beasts seemed to be immune, but a few intelligent animals could serve as carriers.
Hosts & Carriers
Usually the disease spread via contaminated water, but the condition did create murderous undead creatures known as "proto-ghouls" which could spread the disease directly to new victims via infectious bites or indirectly because they would be contaminate water tables after being destroyed and decomposing.
-Magnati, independent necromancerby Eron12 with Heroforge"Some historical references to febricantium speak of 'proto-ghouls', an undead creature no longer seen on Scarterra. They have fallen out of favor not because of some inquistion to destroy the secrets of their creation but simply because necromancers stopped wanting to make them and therefore stopped teaching their apprentices how to make them. No doubt these creatures once had a fancy name in Draconic, but the original name is forgotten so they are are referred to as 'proto-ghouls' when they are referenced at all.Supposedly, they were similar to modern ghouls in form and function, but they were physically stronger but weaker in their sensory capabilities and didn't have an ounce of cunning. While modern ghouls are sometimes difficult to control, the so called 'proto-ghouls' were impossible to control. A necromancer had to create them near the dwellings of her enemies and then flee from their own creations. This might have worked in the First Age when most necromancers had wings, but would not be worth the risk now."
Prevention
The ancient dragons irradicated the disease by burning infected areas (and people). More forward thinking dragons realized contaminated water supplies were spreading the disease more than anything else.
It was discovered that contaminated water cleared up on it's own after two weeks, so the corpse burning did stop the spread. Purification ●● was enough to clean water early. So could boiling.
History
Febricantium was very deadly to most non-dragons, it didn't do much more to dragons than induce lots of vomitting.
It did inflict devestating casualties on the dragon's thurekal and a great deal of bystanders that were not directly affiliated with the ancient dragons.
Two things kept Febricantium from spreading to all of Scarterra and driving numerous races to the point of extinction. First, the disease had a very short incubation rate and killed mortals very quickly, which limited the spread. The disease sometimes created undead revenants that could spread the illness further but these undead creatures were not stealthy at all and were easy for dragons to find and burn.
Second, dragon rulers implemented very strict quarantine measures, killing many infected (or suspected of being infected) and burning the corpses with fire. This is the first time in known Scarterran history that a quarantine was enacted to contain and combat a disease.
Between the disease itself and the quarantine efforts, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of mortals perished. Given that the First Age had many mortal races created now lost to history, it is likely that Febricantium is responsible for multiple extinctions.
Ghoul fever is believed to be a legacy of Febricantium. It's not clear whether Ghoul Fever was a mutation or adaptation of a surviving sample of febricantium or if some necromancer merely followed the basic formula. Ghoul fever is less deadly variant of Febricantium, but arguably more contagious because it has a longer incubation period and subtler intial symptoms.
Cultural Reception
The brutal purge enacted by many dragon kingdoms to curb the spread of Febricantium was never forgotten. For generations, dragon academics debated on whether or not the quarantine behaviors were reasonable. Whenever dragon kings and queens took drastic action, comparisons were drawn to the Febricantium purges, sometimes favorably, sometimes unfavorably. One lesson we can draw from our forebears is that an ounce of prevention is a worth a pound of cure. It is important that rulers be vigilant against any potential contagion. It is also important that rulers maintain good relations with the Nonagon, if only because they collectively control all Purificationists and that is most surefire way to stop contagions without collateral damage, assuming the number of infected is relatively small.."-Gorisonad the Wise, scholarly dragonKovenoth AI Headshot by me with Midjourney"We can only speculate on how and why Febricantium came to be the pandemic it was. Many blame Greymoria, but I believe Maylar had a talon in this. At this point it is idle speculation. If a dragon with first-hand experience of Febricantium wrote down his or her experiences with the disease, no such written account survived to the current era. There are over a hundred surviving records with indirect references to Febricantium. Most of what we know of the disease comes from piecing together the second-hand references.
Type
Magical
Children
Origin
Magical
Cycle
Chronic, Acquired
Rarity
Rare
Cover image:
by
me with Midjourney
Good job overall, I think the next step is to step away from the basic formatting and try to get a little more use out of your sidebar and maybe use some columns in the article.