The Spellplagues Outbreak

Urgent missive from Thurkand to the free city of Dorralia.

If you are receiving this, close your gates and do not come to save us. More than lives are at stake now.
If the novel spellplague spreads to all settlements on Noria our race may go extinct again. We have ordered isolation and sealed the entries into the mountain, but for the past months people could leave freely and may have carried the spores with them already. Do not make the mistake of waiting too long.

— Beginning of the first official document mentioning the Myconic Plague

The first outbreak of the Myconic Plague

The myconic plague, sometimes colloquially called spellplague, and its first outbreak mark the most lethal incident in the history of all of Focis. Over less than twenty years, human life went extinct because of the plague and the dwarves narrowly avoided the same fate.

Origin

The myconic plague, as the name suggests came from fungus spores, but more importantly, there was a specific chain of events that resulted in the release of these spores:
The Dwarves of Thurkand, a prosperous Mining city deep in the Razortooth Mountains, were expanding into deeper parts of the mountain in search of new deposits of copper and silver. Eventually they stumbled upon a group of caverns in the far deep of the world. In it lived a colony of sentient fungi. When the dwarves set to clear the caves to establish new tunnels, the fungi retaliated.
At first it seemed that the spores they emitted only caused a minor sickness, but after a while it became apparent that they harbored something far more insidious. By the time the healers caught on, it was already too late to quarantine the miners. First slowly, then quicker and quicker the infected began dying and it became apparent that nearby human settlements in contact with Thurkand were faring even worse.

Symptoms

The infection began slowly, those who were hosts only showing slight discomfort in joints and fingers. Over time though a slow acting, but seemingly irreversible necrosis began spreading from the extremities inwards. Eventually, as the necrosis reached the torso, the body began failing, unable to counteract the damage to the body. Death came slowly and painfully once vital organs shut down.
Mystifyingly none of the commonly used magical ailments seemed to help. If anything they offered momentary reprieve, but after a short while, the necrosis returned with even greater speed. Anything the healers attempted to halt the progress of the plague only seemed to strengthen it.
Eventually the truth was discovered. The Myconic plague feeds on magical energy, which the body produces latently throughout all cells. If healing magic was used to speed up recovery, it only fed the plague which spread more quickly. Additionally, it meant that species such as dwarves, who were made by the stargods, or humans who had a natural talent for magic unrivaled in other species, were especially vulnerable. An infected human often only had several weeks to live, with the last days spent in agonizing pain.

The Outbreak

Due to the novelty of the plague, Thurkand failed to contain the spread of the disease. Via traderoutes and travellers, the plague spread around the globe before any warning could reach uninfected in time. In the end, all human life was extinguished throughout Noria. If small enclaves of humans did survive, they lacked the means to sustain their survival and within one generation none were left.
The dwarves barely escaped death by returning to their roots. They transferred the few survivors to new bodies not made from flesh and thus could escape their second extinction. The elves were more resilient to the plague, being from this world, but many of the infected cultures suffered from mass infertility after the infection. Finally, the orcs were as the only population spared. Magically apt orcs suffered some losses, but most of them were protected by the hand of their god Tai'San.

There is nothing we can do now but hope. May the Starmother have mercy on us and the souls we extinguished forgive us. The doors will stay barred. We don't deserve salvation. This will be the last recorded message by Dorik, Thein of Thurkand.

— End of the first official document mentioning the Myconic Plague