The Scourge

A virus that has rapidly grown into an epidemic, the Scourge is presently causing panic across Earth. Notably, it is not reported anywhere else in the Commonwealth.

The first case was in London and then at other cities around the world. All of which had their own portal hubs. The Commonwealth has implemented a quarantine on areas where the Scourge has appeared and is ruthless in keeping those regions under tight control. Districts have been closed off and movement is limited. Whilst harsh, these methods have it seems slowed the spread of the virus. The Commonwealth is also ensuring that reports of those the Scourge has infected claim to see a mysterious figure with antlers clad in a fur robe, smiling at them, are discredited and are dismissed as fiction by the media.

Nonetheless, people are beginning to panic. Worse, they are questioning if the Commonwealth is doing everything it can to protect them. They are beginning to doubt the Commonwealth is as all powerful it claims itself to be.

Symptoms

The means by which the Scourge is passed from the infected to new hosts is unclear. Even the sophisticated medical science of the Commonwealth is perplexed at its virulence and nature. Even some nobles have been affected which should not possible owing to their enhanced immune systems.

The virus ravages the victims body and mind, weakening them as their organs shut down. The mortality rate is estimated to be 80% high and potentially growing. The best doctors and scientists are working around the clock, desperate to determine how it is spread and how to combat it yet the Scourge defies their efforts. It defies convential analysis and changes its structure frequently. This had led some to speculate it is, for want of a better term, mystical in nature.

Biological Warfare

It is not too far of a stretch of the imagination to see magic utilized in this way. Whilst Earth is remarkably weak in magic the worlds beyond the portals are not and the myriad Shamans, Druids, Wizards and other mystics of those more savage worlds have proven magic, or something close to it, exists. And has the Commonwealth not created its own form of magitech? The fusion of magic with technology to create machines and weapons that are otherwise impossible such as the Aether Engines that power the immense locomotives of Otherworld or the terrifying Sky Fortresses?

And if the Scourge is indeed a magical creation or as some would call it a curse, who unleashed it upon the Earth?

In spite of the Commonwealth's best efforts to suppress the truth, its control of Otherworld is slipping. The subjugated peoples of the worlds beyond the portals are beginning to stir, chafing at the chains the Commonwealth has kept them in for two centuries. Whilst militarily the Commonwealth is strong, it is still largely human and a virus is an ideal way to strike back against an enemy.

Commonwealth intelligence believes the Scourge to be a creation of the Resistance, the organisation that has agents and cells everywhere and is responsible for numerous terrorist attacks and assassinations. If any organisation could create the Scourge and find a way to unleash it upon Earth, it is the Resistance. Thus far, the Resistance has not claimed responsibility. Neither have they said it its not their doing.