Embo'v
-Afflictions-
Affected Races: All (Excluding Url and Kelinfolk)
Contraction: Blood, bodily fluids.
Mortality Rate: N/A
Origins: N/A
Treatment: N/A
-Symptoms-
Slight flu with blood cravings for lesser infection.
Ghoul like tendencies.
Coughing blood.
Body changes to appear youthful.
Sudden bursts of paranoia and animalistic insanity.
Growth of bone crown on head.
Heightened hearing and sense of smell.
Teeth grow sharp and claws replace nails.
Eyes turn crimson with blackened eye whites.
Withering of floral plumage for Yanar.
-Intro Summery-
Embo'v, sometimes referred to as "mock-void possession", is a strange, magic-powered blood curse, yet is nothing like its cousin, the sanguine curse. Embo'v is primarily a blood spread disease that causes vast physical changes to its host. Embo'v, while its method of spreading is extremely well established, is not very infectious as it requires a lot of the infection from the host to enter the victim before mutation begins, otherwise Embo'v appears as a mild flu that makes the infected feel vampire-like cravings for a week or three. Once infected the victim will gain animalistic features and feel the pressure of paranoia as they constantly hunt for their new food source - flesh. Currently there is no known cure to the Embo'v curse but Dulofall infected individuals have been found to be immune to it, leading scholars that the curse is linked to the void or the exist. Being publicly known to be infected is not encouraged, as most societies reject the infected and most of the time the infected are executed to protect the public from their unwanted ghoul like hunger.
-History-
The history of Embo'v is rather short in comparison to other afflictions within Aloria, having no known origin to tie to it nor has it ever been documented in past empires in history. The Embo'v curse was first discovered in the late spring months the year after the Lo occupation aboard a trade ship heading towards Regalia. The ship had just done a large trip from Jorrhild to Fenderfell and was heading to the capital to stock after stocking at many different islands and outposts along the way. During this voyage the captain had taken a liking to a young, bed ridden maiden in Fenderfell and had secretly kidnapped her in order to get her medical attention within the capital. The travel lasted for about two months before finally arriving at the waters around the Regalian isles, the captain went into the room of the young maiden only to find her missing and the room a mess. Now with a head of paranoia, the captain docked at the Regalian harbour to have the guards search the ship upon arriving. As they searched, the guards found a woman in the lower decks and brought her on land, horrified at the girl's figure. Her skin was ice and was covered in claw marks where she has cut herself, her posture was that of a terrified child and her face and voice were soft like that of a siren. The guards acted quickly and took her and the captain into custody. The girl was examined and branded as void possessed for the next few months until guards found her again in a dark ally, feeding of the dead flesh of an Orc she had killed along with several children who all shared similar characteristics, the guards acted quickly and managed to retrieve the body and capture one of the children. It was not until a guard tried to feed this captured child some porridge did the world learn of the Embo'v curse when the guard was brutally wounded by the child and fell ill to a sanguine like flu. Since then the Embo'v curse has become a growing fear for the public within slums.
Since discovery, Embo'v has been found all over Aloria and has become a fearful disease for its people. The most well recorded incidents with Embo'v infected people are the appearances of "Maiden Embo'v", who had the first recorded infection, within Regalia and her acts of gore-filled horror within the slums, creating a mockery aimed towards the emperor and Ailor supremacy, despite her being an Ailor before infection.
-Physical Characteristics-
Physical changes are a rare occurrence for Embo'v infected individuals as it requires the infected to have ingested an extremely large amount of bodily fluids from an already infected person to show these properties. Firstly the infected will begin to feel burns in their chest which are followed by coughing up blood. This will continue for about a week, around this time the infected patent will experience sharp pains in their head and fingers, like something cutting its way out of their flesh and will continue for about a month when a complete set of claws and a bone crown have finished growing on that patient. During the process of growing claws the infected will begin to feel like their skin stretched and boiled, as this pain increases the infected will begin to take a more youthful appearance of themselves, making them more attractive and less threatening to look at. By the end of the second month the infection will have finished taking its hold on the person infected, turning them into a being ready to begin feeding on the flesh of others.
Yanar also seem to be able to catch Embo'v but instead of a bone crown and claws they grow a type of bone-like wood to take its place. Yanar also loose a lot of their floral plumage if they have any. They also seem to grow a higher immunity to Dulofall, this is yet to be tested but could lead to a cure for both of the feared illnesses.
-Mental Characteristics-
Embo'v infected individuals also gain some extreme mental changes. Once infected, an individual will become very weary, as if they are scared of an unknown force. These sudden strokes of paranoia make an infected individual easily identifiable to the public so most hide themselves from others and become lonely during the process of full infection, the person will feel more and more frightful as the weeks go by as the pain kicks in. During this time the patient will also begin to feel sudden urges of cannibalistic hunger and bloodlust towards others and if not met will go into a full animalistic hunting spree, as if they had become a beast until that hunger is clenched.
-Infection Mechanics-
- Embo'v can only truly infect a person who has taken in at least one litre of bodily fluids from an infected individual. Any less and it cuts full infection by 98% and it becomes its passive, blood hungry flu state and dies off within a few weeks.
- Embo'v cannot infect animals nor can they become carriers, all but bats which when infected turn a bright red in colour and seem to only eat scraps off of dead animals.
- People with the sanguine curse can catch Embo'v but people with Embo'v cannot catch the sanguine curse, as Embo'v overpowers the other no matter what strand it is.
- Infection cannot occur with Kelinfolk or Url.
- Outside a host, the infection becomes powerless. This means that it is not possible to poison water or food with Embo'v as it is defenceless outside a suitable host and dies off in minutes.
- Kissing, licking, sneezing, coughing and other means of physical contact that share bodily fluids can all be a way to infect someone but the only true way to spread Embo'v is blood consumption due to the large amount of liquid required. Other than that its a 50/50 chance of coming down with the lesser flu type.
-Trivia-
- Since her arrival in Regalia, Maiden Embo'v and the people she infects are the only Embo'v to set up a stable system in the world, leading people to believe she is getting help from another force. This is yet to be proven right.
- Embo'v infected individuals seem to use pork as a substitute to the flesh of others when they cannot hunt, since it is recorded that the flavours of it and human flesh are very similar.
- Young men have often been found trailing behind Embo'v infected women due to their shy, scared nature and beautiful looks. Serving as a lure for the infected to either find protection or their next meal.
- Shender when infected have in some cases been found to start producing large amounts of oil on their skin, no scientific evidence has been tested to prove anything on this.