Difference between revisions of "Dominion Era/Di'Ridhalna"

Latest revision as of 16:55, 15 February 2016

Dominion Era Tretallë
Bone Elves
Istfet, The Strangers, Invaders, Deathriders
Imperial Standard of the Tretalleri Dominion
Land of Origin
Continent of Origin	Termalttë
Homeland	Teýrivellë
Capital	Ifatallë Cselvë
Racial Lore
Language	Tretalleri
Characteristics	Tretallë (Characteristics)
Culture	Tretallë (Culture)
History	Dominion Era
Government	Tretallë (Government)
Military	Tretallë (Military)
Stats	Tretallë (Stats)
Racial Relations
Allies	None
Enemies	Elledynnë
Neutrals	None

During the Dominion Era a strange disease began to appear sporadically in the Tretalleri villages that bordered the Desolation that surrounds the Shrouded Peaks. Despite the efficacy of Nynasë in treating other diseases, the Stonecurse, in particular, seems to be utterly unaffected by it. Nynasë does not even ease the symptoms of the Stonecurse, which it does for most other diseases, such as Di'Wirenë, the Withering, and efforts of imperial Dominion physicians have proved fruitless in treating the disease whenever it does appear.

History

The first documented case of Di'Ridhalna is in Y.D. 8337, in Thirë Lotar, a town that was wiped out in the 88th century of the Dominion. The records show that it was during the seventh day of the first length of the Highest Moon of the Season of Light that the woman, Learra a'Namman, passed away after battling the Stonecurse for a hundred and fifty years. The record also indicates that Learra was 134 at the time that she contracted the Stonecurse, a few weeks after a Stonewurm attack destroyed one of the village's farmsteads that was run by a woman only written of as Anra Mela.

The case of Learra was used as the basis for the name of the disease, when further instances occurred after Y.D. 8337. Each instance, according to what little documentation there exists of the disease, happened a short period of time following a Stonewurm attack, except for a few notable exceptions. Because of the unnerving correlation with Stonewurm attacks, the disease was called the Stonecurse by the Grand Rookery in Y.D. 11021, at which point 27 individual, seemingly-unrelated instances of the disease had been recorded and confirmed.

Of course, prior to the case of Learra, the Stonecurse had been a figure in local folklore for many thousands of years. Tales of the disease that seemingly did nothing but slowly turn a person's limbs into unmoving lumps of flesh, like stone, had been passed down through oral tradition. These stories were never taken seriously by people in communities that lived further from the Desolation, as the supposed 'cases' seemed to turn up at random, with no apparent correlation whatsoever. To the people of border villages, however, the Stonecurse had been a very real shadow looming over them for a very long time.

The only reason that Di'Ridhalna was recorded in Y.D. 8337 was the fact that an unnamed passing imperial physician had elected to stay a few weeks at Thirë Lotar, with no other than Learra. She was witness to the early onset of the Stonecurse, and realised that perhaps there was some merit to the legends. She left when Learra's condition stabilised, but her instincts guided her to return to Thirë Lotar some ten years later. Upon returning, she visited Learra and realised that the Stonecurse was a very real thing.

The Grand Rookery was of a different opinion, and it took the imperial physician the opinions of five other imperial physicians, whom she personally took on a journey to Thirë Lotar, as well as a further three years of written correspondence and pestering, before the Grand Rookery changed its mind and gave the imperial physician the funds necessary to make proper observations and treatment for Learra.

It is said that Learra and the imperial physician wed thirty years after first meeting and that the imperial physician was driven to the brink of madness trying to treat her wife of the disease. The Grand Rookery asserts that the relationship between Learra and the imperial physician that attended to her case was strictly platonic, despite any records of that particular physician having been lost to a fire at the Imperial Physicians' Guild in Y.D. 13620. The Grand Rookery strongly disavows the matrimonial narrative as highly unprofessional, although the story has remained a fixture in the legends of the region.

Zaver a'Radan

One of the strangest recorded cases of Di'Ridhalna, Zaver a'Radan did not even live in a town bordering the Desolation. He lived in Thirë Tharanë, fifty kilometers from the closest patch of Desolation. However, this did not prevent Zaver from contracting the dreaded Stonecurse in Y.D. 10065, and for many years, it was not entirely understood how he managed to contract it when there had been no Stonewurm attacks anywhere nearby for well over three centuries. Because medical knowledge until Zaver had been entirely convinced that the Stonewurms were an inextricable part of the story of Di'Radhalna, researchers that came to examine Zaver were thoroughly at a loss to explain why he contracted the disease.

As a result of the uncertainty surrounding Zaver, the Grand Rookery released a public advisory that extreme care should be taken when going about one's daily business, as it seemed, at the time, that Di'Ridhalna could strike at any moment. For a few months, much of the Dominion was in a panicked frenzy because of the announcement. Settlements close to the heart of the Dominion, in particular, regularly reported false positives for Di'Ridhalna due to the paranoia surrounding the disease. A stiff leg or neck was, in the worst of cases, blown entirely out of proportion by the individual affected, with many people falling into despondent states due to simple cramps.

It was not until a formal inquest was launched into the circumstances surrounding Zaver's disease that the Grand Rookery came to the conclusion that Zaver had, indirectly and unknowingly, visited the site of Stonewurm activity some two months prior to contracting the disease. Zaver had ventured up north in search of elk and happened upon the ruins of Thirë Lotar, where a Stonewurm had reportedly made its home. The report of the formal inquest did a lot to assuage the fears of towns living closer to the border, while it did very little to settle the heightened emotions of towns closer to the heart of the Dominion. However, as time passed and none of the reports from deeper in the Dominion turned out to be true cases of Di'Ridhalna, the public fears dissipated.

The case of Zaver is of particular interest as he married and had children prior to dying at the age of 310, 220 years after he contracted the disease. This fact gave some insight to the Grand Rookery, which declared, after a few more generations of Zaver's family line, that the Stonecurse could not be passed on through lines of descent.

Dalan a'Oren

Yet another strange case of Di'Ridhalna, Dalan a'Oren contracted the disease at the late age of 273 and only had to live with it for 40 years before dying of Di'Ridhalna in Y.D. 13402. Like Zaver, Dalan did not live in any areas considered "at risk" by the Grand Rookery. However, it was quickly discovered that a routine hunting expedition had killed a Stonewurm over a river and left it there to bleed out. Dalan lived in Thirë Daraj, downstream from where the Stonewurm had been attacked, continuing the correlation between Stonewurms and the Stonecurse.

Dalan's case lead to the suspicion that Di'Ridhalna progresses in proportion to a person's age, as all other cases prior to Dalan had been with individuals between the ages of 80 and 150, and all these individuals had lived well into their third century, the disease progressing slowly. Furthermore, the Twin Courts, in Y.D. 13378 legislated that Stonewurms, if hunted, must be killed well out of the way of any running bodies of water, preferably within the Desolation.

Signs and Symptoms

One of the first signs of the onset of the Stonecurse is the cramping of one's lower limbs and hands. This generally fades after a few days, but over the next few weeks the skin on the soles of the feet become somewhat scaly and, in some cases, stony. The feet progressively lose sensation over the next year or so as the patch of skin with the strange texture gradually grows and takes on a darker and greyer hue. As the disease progresses, the lower half of the body becomes covered in this strange-textured skin, progressively losing sensation until such time that the person can no longer walk without aid. The loss of sensation gets worse and worse until the afflicted's lower body is entirely paralyzed. This process can take a hundred years before completion, at which point the afflicted becomes confined to a bed.

From then on, the disease begins to attack the upper limbs. The arms fall victim to the very same progression of symptoms and loss of sensation and mobility. The individual afflicted by the Stonecurse dies when the Stonecurse reaches the heart, which grows weaker and weaker until it stops beating altogether, although by that time, the victim has already long since lost consciousness.

Upon death, none of the signs of bloating and decay seem to affect the victim's corpse. In fact, for the longest time, there was no way to conduct autopsies on the bodies of the deceased. The strange, scaly and stony layer that develops over a victim's skin was impervious to Dominion technology until Y.D. 20403, when a super-strong variant of Elledtrillë was developed by the Grand Rookery. In Y.D. 20420 with a scalpel made of the recently-discovered Elledtrillë variant, imperial physician Natran a'Damë exhumed the corpse of one of the recent victims of Di'Ridhalna and performed an autopsy on it. The autopsy led to the discovery that the scaly layer atop the victim's skin stretched tendrils through the skin and into blood vessels and nerves, which is responsible for the gradual loss of sensation and eventual paralysis.