Its Incarnadine Virulence

Its Incarnadine Virulence
Origin	Blood, of sorts
Titles	Glorious Rot, Inferna Pestis, Hydra Plague
Names	{{{names}}}
Aspects
Owner(s)	SRN)

Its Incarnadine Virulence is a plague. Literally, and along with that literally, figuratively. Once a mere ordinary virus, one day, it infected and killed a weakened Long. The rest is awful, awful history.

Description

History

Its Incarnadine Virulence was a mundane plague. Nevertheless, it was a terrible one. Carried through the air, it rampaged through the Histories, reaping a gleeful death toll of millions. Perhaps it would have stayed as that, mindlessly slaying till the ages turned and a vaccine was developed and it brought to the verge of extinction, but some foul alignment of the fates intervened. As a terrible war and crisis enveloped the Mansus, as gods died, the Virulence found a Long. As their body and mind were wracked by the mad confluence of power unleashed by that terrible disaster, a single speck of virus slipped in. As the virus took its first taste of Long, it began its first terrible steps to ascension, developing a lethal strain laced with elder power. It ate its first host from the inside out, and they died wracked with horrible pains and horrible enlightenment.

Principles

Its Incarnadine Virulence is without any principles of its own. Rather, each of its strains develops and absorbs aspects from its victims, growing more lethal, virulent, and powerful with each Long or Name it claims. A thousand different strains exist, interbreeding and competing with each other. Together, they are an Hour, but one eclectic and shattered, with a thousand minds. Perhaps, one day, they will unite, and its Incarnadine Virulence will claim its fullest title as the plague of gods.

Strains

Scarpox

Principles:

Patient Zero: <Some Knock Name>

Scarpox enters through a sacrament of opening, infesting a wound and ensuring it does not heal, it will not close. Instead, it feasts and it opens. Nothing, on the surface, appears abnormal about the wound; it does not fester and it does not rot. But it grows, and eventually, it spreads. The victim is decorated with scars, slowly dividing and opening them as they deepen and widen. Mere nicks develop and grow into deep gouges resisting all healing, all treatment. The victim is slowly torn into ribbons from the inside out.

The Finest Madness

Principles:

Patient Zero: Master Gibbet

The Finest Madness, of course, touches both the body and the mind. Once infecting its victim, it overcomes them with Fascination. It begins with the occasional, easily-ignored brief flash of light or shape in the distance which in days progresses to delirium and entire new worlds of wonders and light. This madness consuming the mind, however, is merely the prelude. As the insanity rampages through the victim's mind, it begins to run rampant and tear itself outwards. Flesh and bone warp and reshape, new organs and new limbs forming. This plague may not necessarily take a victim's life. But as their body changes into an unrecognizable mass of flesh and their world descends into colours beyond light, they may wish it had.

'Consumption'

Principles:

Patient Zero: Insatiable

'Consumption' is the plague of the feast. Its gluttony and its vitality. Victims commonly take two forms. 'Consumption' engenders an all-consuming hunger that only grows as the sickness progresses. Mere unaccountable peckishness turns into a roaring, devouring hunger that 'burns' ever second the victim is not eating. Failure to sate it hollows and rots the victim, reducing them to skin and bones, then ashes in a matter of days as they fail to eat and are eaten in turn, from the inside out. Yet for those capable of satisfying that voracious appetite, the disease fills them with life. Muscles pump unceasing, the mind is sharpened to a razor-point. They rampage, impossibly fast and strong and consumed by no other thought than their appetite.

The Change

Principles:

Patient Zero: "The New Leper"

Little is known about the person known as "The New Leper" but for their name and their role as the incubator of the strain known as the Change. Formed in very specific circumstances from the Transduction of Scarpox and the Finest Madness, the Change shares elements of both. Victims begin mutating and warping horribly, but a conjunction of the Knock and Lantern provides a certain clarity of mind in the delirum, and many retain their sanity. They also develop a certain control of the mutation of their flesh, being able to induce scars to excise unwanted parts, harden their skin, or even grow chitinous claws and fangs. Some, those who retain all their lucidity, can use it to change faces, bodies... identities. Although extremely rare, the Change is, among the scholars of the Virulence, one of the most worrying strains of the Virulence. Not only is it the fusion of two strains into something completely different, it is a strain that does not slay its host, but uses its host to claim more victims through their festering claws and teeth. This shows a terrifying foresight in the Virulence, a foresight that may be the first stirrings of a unified mind...

Worship

Cult

The Virulence is worshipped by few madmen, at least few uninfected madmen. Those who have been struck by some lethal strain of the Virulence, too, are in little mood to worship their slayer. Those, however, who have found accord with their disease worship the Virulence on occasion, but in a disorganized, nonstandard manner. Rumours circulate among the scattered remnants of Suppression Bureaus of something whispered, however, of a 'Chant of the Twined Plague'. While that remains a rumour, the implications and shadows of conspiracy worry...

Mark

1. Latency: The Virulence: That latest bout of illness; I feel something remains of it
2. Dormancy: The Virulence:
3. Infestation: The Virulence:
4. Corruption: The Virulence:
5. Rampancy: The Virulence:
6. Accord: The Virulence:
7. Ending:

Servants

Carriers

"The New Leper"

'Am I so ugly that you could ever shun me?'

"Dr. Hydra"

'I can introduce you to so many new friends!'

Items

Influences

You certainly don't want any of these.

Books

• The Notes of Dr. Anthas
  • Description: A bundle of papers hastily bound together in dreadful handwriting. It describes the inexplicable malady afflicting a Mr. L_____y
  • Start: Mr. L_____y first came in with a mild cold, seemingly resistant to all conventional treatment. By the second day, he was comatose. By the third, half Dr. Anthas's team was too.
  • End Text: Dr. Anthas's security measures become more and more extreme until abruptly, the notes end. "It has found a manner of spreading throug..." are the last few words. The last page seems burned
  • Gives: Nothing good.

• Report 12-R: Bioweapon Feasibility Testing
  • Description: In great desperation, a nation whose name you do not seem to recall begins to pioneer the use of the mysterious plague afflicting their capital against an invading army...
  • Start Text: Initial deployment is promising. The vectors have proven highly unstable and difficult to control, but we have managed it. Already their advance is beginning to slow...
  • End Text: If there are gods, preserve us. What have we done? What have we done?

• All your Little Creepy Crawlie Friends
  • Description: In this colourful, brightly illustrated book, "Dr. Hydra" tells the reader all about the wonderful thing that could be living inside you right now!
  • Start Text: Your Creepy Crawlie Friend is so very helpful and kind! It's always with you to help you; it won't mind...
  • End Text: So invite it in today, pay its little due! Or it will come for you, and your time will be through...

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