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

Revision as of 05:59, 15 February 2016

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.