Matters of Unnatural Disease

Diseases have afflicted mortals since the earliest epochs of Awakened existence. The first settlers of frigid northern reaches suffered from coughs, fevers, and numbing, while the southerners basking in sunlight were plagued by insects, sweating sicknesses, and hideous rashes. In those times, disease was a product of mortality’s imperfection. In response, mortals created remedies for themselves by concocting cocktails of strange herbs, mineral waters, and the blood of local fauna. Across the world, mortals of different character and disposition tackled these universal ailments with novel and remarkably successful means. The Aemar were the greatest in this ancient art. Their populations were most liberally spread throughout Qadal, and they suffered acutely from the diseases which festered in every known biome. Other races either possessed a hardier disposition or possessed a closer connection to their Eshanic protectors. The Etayen, for example, made little effort to devise mundane cures for ailments which potent doses of Eshara granted by Atûn could cure within moments. The Daorhu were much the same. As time progressed, however, Aemarda was well served from their centuries of medical exploration. They settled environments of every manner and largely ousted their competitors. It was only in the Ascension era of Etayen exploration and colonization that Aemarda encountered an opponent which disease could not beat nor clever remedies allow them to out-survive. The result was that disease, while still a significant obstacle to Aemar growth and prosperity, became a secondary concern, relegated to matters of wise-people rather than communal despair. In time, the Etayen recorded and interested themselves with the remedies discovered by their colonized neighbors. This was one small domain where the wisest scholars of Qadayen matters bowed themselves before lesser peoples.
After the death of Atûn, Vojûnic power broke forth and swept across the unsuspecting world. As known, this power is a diluted form of Eshara which binds itself to the physical world. It lingers and increases in the same manner as Eshara as a result. Vojûnic power pools and coalesces in remote and deep places, growing in potency as the magnitude becomes greater. In significant enough quantities, this power derived from Eshara breaks beyond the natural properties of that former source and corrupts in malign manners. The worst byproduct is the unpredictable effect Vojûn applies to the mortal body, commonly manifested as diseases beyond the capabilities of conventional medicines to heal. The remedies about which the Aemar prided themselves during the Awakening and Ascension era, crafted among numerous cultures in inhospitable lands, now meant nothing at all. The disasters of the Weeping Era adopted a new capacity for terror. A new breed of sickness began to over mortal races, taking on primitive names such as the Wrath, the Pale Blight, and the Fading which remained until modernity. What defense did these unfortunate souls possess? Nothing. Vojûnic power continued to increase and seep forth from the ground, infecting the wilderness as a hideous miasma.
Throughtout the tempestuous Weeping Era, brave scholars of immense erudition sought to catalog the myriad ailments wrought from Vojûnic power. It was an arduous process resulting in numerous fatalities, yet over the centuries a disjointed but formative collection of literature began to appear. The problem, however, was the disparate nature of uncovered knowledge. In Othos, thinkers in the archive of Karnast recorded the manner through which Vojûnic power meshed with and corrupted the blood, thus spreading infection throughout the body. Elsewhere, in the Ezondaorasyalar of Everos, the Daorhu realized that timely intervention of Eshanic power was sufficient to purge Vojûnic poison from the body, yet in turn discovered the great expense attached to it. Southward in Everos, the fellows of Gledgast charted the natural flow of Vojûnic power and determined the most active environments for that power. In those times, however, information did not travel. Mortals continued to perish from Vojûnic ailments, which served to increase the incredible suffering of that cursed era.
When the turmoil began to subside in the mid-1000s, the collective understanding ov Vojûnic power increase as previously open then shut lines of communication became available.
By the 2000s, a general understanding of Vojûnic disease was acquired by common people. In the foremost civilizations of the world, exhaustive lists were created to catalog symptoms and cures. A small selection of the most infamous illnesses will assist in comprehending their severity.