A disease is a particular abnormal condition that adversely affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism. They are a particular abnormal condition that adversely affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism and is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that are associated with specific signs and symptoms. By a medical stance alone, there are roughly four main types of disease: infectious diseases, deficiency diseases, hereditary diseases (including both genetic and non-genetic hereditary diseases), and physiological diseases. Diseases can also be classified in other ways, such as communicable versus non-communicable diseases. Much like on Earth, Elysium is home to not only Flora and Fauna, but also a plethora of disease and pestilence both benign and catastrophic. For humans alone, there are thousands of known diseases, ranging from common conditions like the flu to rare genetic disorders to Pandemic causes.
The exact number of diseases is difficult to determine precisely as new diseases are discovered almost everyday, and the classification of diseases can vary highly based on different criteria. Combine that with the other diseases that infect flora and non-human fauna living on the planet and there could be as much as 100,000 different diseases.
And yet of all diseases known on the planet, only one seems to strike the most fear in the hearts of the denizens more so than others.
History
The history of the Esugrað plague is one of both mystery and tragedy.
Even throughout the years following it’s discovery, it is still generally unknown as to how it came to fruition. Known as the Old Lord’s Curse by many, Ground Zero for the Esugrað Plague belongs to a large section of land known as Terlam Esugrað. While it’s true name now remains lost to history, Terlam Esugrað originally consisted of a Citadel, complete with a large ruined castle and surrounding Village, a swamp filled with thick mud, and a cavernous snow area filled with massive ice crystals.
While it is not certain when exactly the land became as it was, many believe that it was during the time period known as the War of Succession. Prior to the War of Succession, wars between the Huldu and the Men of Arkael have been long and bloody ones. Following the destruction of the first "true" city built in Arkael built by the men sometime during the beginning of the First Age, Darham, many small city-states and tribes were in constant conflict with one another – a time referred to historically as the "Age of Warlords'', and a time where a consequence of incessant warfare, famine and plague, would eventually lead to a third of the collective population dying.
During the later years of the war, Supreme King Luric from the north, whose prior historical accounts continue to elude history, during the years of 1E 103-108, began the aggressive expansion campaign now known as the Shalepeak Conquests, which would culminate into the First Empire of Men in Arkael. It is thought the destruction of the once thriving city of Darham is what started Luric's campaign to become King. Within a span of Five years, Lord Luric was able to raise an army, one strong enough that through sheer force alone, had managed to subjugate the numerous nations under what would become the continent's first empire. However, as Luric became more of a tyrant in his later years, he took no wives who would inherit the throne incase of his passing, and any bastard children he may have sired did not step forward to claim the throne after his disappearance.
The result of this became another bloody few years during a period of time known as the War of Succession for the Great Throne. The Great Throne, was a throne that was forged at the order of Luric who conquered six of the seven independent kingdoms of Arakael and unified them under his rule - the seventh kingdom would later join through an uneasy alliance. The throne was allegedly forged from the 1,000 swords that had been surrendered to Luric in his conquest by the lords who had offered their fealty lest they temper his wrath.
The Great Throne was the tipping point for the War of Succession. Because the King had sired no children, the Throne became the center of a violent battle of "Capture The Flag", with many believing that he who succeeded in winning the battle against all the other nations, was permitted to sit upon the throne and become king of Ar’kael by right of war and not blood. However, during the time of the War of Succession, there had come a point in time in which Terlam Esugrað itself had become a ground zero of it’s own. Fearful of the rise of invasion by violent neighboring kingdoms fixing to take over and add his kingdom to the collection of subjugated land, the King, desperate to save his rule and his subjects, sent out a desperate plea to his Court Wizard, pleading with him to find ways to protect the lands by any means necessary. To create traps that would lay in wait, that would consume the armies that came to end this once prosperous land.
As a result, the Wizard took desperate measures. What had resulted from this was said to be Rogue magic, twisted and gnarled, taken from some far off plane of existence; someone's last ditch attempt to save his home from invaders, only instead he had doomed them all to a fate worse than death. Hundreds of the enemy and friendly soldiers alike had fallen and were infected by these things as they had fed, and those people spread over and around the kingdom before becoming more Esugrað, and within mere weeks the bargain that had defended the kingdom had ended it.
During the middle half of the War of Succession, a champion soon seemed to have emerged. A lord from the east, Lord Guiraud who, much like his predecessor, cared nothing for the inhabitants of the land. His rule, brutal and tyrannical, Lord Guiraud took Casian by force in less than 3 months, during which he too used slave labor to construct great walls surrounding the castle that he had hoped to make grander in the coming years. However, neighboring Kingdoms soon became aware of the Plague, and while Guiraud began his short-bloody reign with no interest in the “petty issues”, those who held great guilt for what they had done and for some, what their actions had allowed to happen, performed yearly burnings once they found out how effective fire was at beating the remnants back, in the hope to keep it manageable, to keep their penance from becoming someone else's. For a while, it worked.
The tales that swept the land even years after the war kept people from traversing those cursed lands, leading it to go dormant from lack of food. Except when the new war had begun many many years later, and the land once again got the taste for blood, a kingdom never kept its promise.
Instead they looked at this Old Lords Curse as a Blessing, a way to win the new war. They allowed it to go unmanaged until it was too late, to the point it got strong enough that even flame could not beat it back.
It has become not a tool, but a King's folly once more.
The Hungering
The Esugrað Plague, also known as The Hungering, is a highly contagious disease, causing mutations to the body of the infected, It is one of the most interesting, yet also the most complex and difficult things to explain on the planet of Elysium which often says a lot about it given that the planet itself is already chalk-full of weird and wondrous things that are hard to describe. Once believed to be an old legend in the Lands of Elysium, few know of the true nature of this disaster. All in all what is known is the Esugrað Plague is a dangerous sickness that is said to be capable of eating away life like a vicious plague. It corrupts men and beasts who come into contact with it, deforming their bodies and eating away their wits, driving them to madness and causing them to act more like demons instead of creatures.
Coming in multiple forms of various shapes and sizes, Victims of the Esugrað Plague are wildly aggressive forms who seemingly have no goals outside of murdering every living thing in sight and transforming them in order to make more of themselves. All strains of this Plague have "Super" variants, which are generally faster, stronger, and more durable. Super variants of any strain are easily recognized by the distinct black or dark brown color of their flesh, with more menacing, glowing eyes and some are also seen to "drool" a constant stream of maggots from the host's mouth. Charming The sole purpose of all Esugrað Plague victims is to acquire more corpses to convert and spread the infection. They are believed to be the heralds of humanity's ascension by certain Fanatics and individuals suffering from Plague Dementia, but on a more practical level, they are simply the extremely dangerous result of what happens when someone can’t leave well-enough the hell alone.
Biology
A strict understanding of the Biology of the Esugrað is often hard to come by even in the most prestigious of colleges. This is often because victims of the Esugrað Plague are extremely vicious making normal means of study of live subjects to be extremely difficult; they are immune to almost anything such as poison and sleep gass’, many break out of their restraints regardless of strength, and upon death many simply degenerate into what most would describe as an "organic soup", non-viable for most forms of testing. However, that which can be tested can give one a broad sense of idea as to what this plague actually is. From what is known, the Esugrað Plague is caused by a Pathogen of unknown origin that in many cases can turn into what is known as a “Rapid Response Disease”.
Rapid Response Disease, or RRD simply means that under variable circumstances, the process of infection and full transformation is extraordinarily rapid, and predictably violent, occuring within a few minutes to almost near seconds depending on conditions. During this process cellular functions go into a sort of self-destructive overdrive, generating new biologically active compounds which are then metabolized by reanimated flesh to fuel further mutations. Bones are broken, put together in new configurations, or reshaped into entirely new forms. In some cases, cell’s might merge with non-native cells and create chimera-like beasts consisting of the mashing of multiple species at once into one singular entity. However, RRD does not occur in all forms of infection, and for many, it appears that RRD is simply a reaction to certain stimuli, IE the need for rapid transformation in dire situations where taking time and effort to perfect a new form is not as vital where as protecting the new host is or a high rapid infection rate is needed.
In cases where RRD is not present, living victims who come into contact with the pathogen typically do not undergo transformation unless it is inserted directly into their bodies, IE wound entry, digestion; in which case they will undergo a gradual transformation. Common changes in those infected by this plague often include the deterioration of flesh (which for many often also gives an illusion of longer fingers), reduction or removal of skin and muscle tissue across much of the body, and the exposure of the organs inside the abdominal cavity.
However, many researchers often disagree whether or not a host can actually be considered clinically “Dead” despite the violent trauma many bodies sustain. Being anomalous, not much is known about how infection truly works on the body as many things seem to contradict one another. For starters, no one knows how infection truly works; plague victims were once thought to be undead creatures which originated from the strange powers exhibited by the infection, which in it’s early stages causes paranoia and hallucinations to all but a precious few living beings infected with it, which leads them to engage in strange behavior or driving them to such madness they end up violently attacking each other. Upon their deaths, their corpses are then thought to be reconstituted or repurposed by the infection, then broken and twisted into something else in a violent and improvisational manner.
However, this theory had since been discredited as during one such attack those gifted with the power of necromancy soon discovered that, horrifically one might add, those infected are not actually dead at all and thus could not be controlled.
Another hypothesis brought forward included that of the infection being of a parasitic variety, that it is instead an insidious infection that robs its victims of their Humanity transforming them into near-mindless decaying shadows of their former selves, with this theory aided with the discovery of large Hiveminds. Through an unknown biological process, the infection takes over their host's body in a variety of different ways. The host upon infection will then undergo physical as well as psychological changes, presumably induced through chemical means.
Although the mutations vary between each variant, common changes include the deterioration of flesh (which for some also gives an illusion of longer fingers), reduction or removal of skin and muscle tissue across much of the body, and the exposure of the organs inside the abdominal cavity. In addition to being infected by said “Parasite”, the parasite itself will then begin to take orders from a much more advanced variant called a Hivemind, which through chemical and infrasound signals will instruct the infected to perform various tasks if needed, even down to a cellular level: If the Hivemind commands it, the meat is reordered, shifted, and repurposed. Finger bones become claws, arm bones become blades, stomachs become acid sacks. Skulls become reinforced battering rams ect ect..
Whatever the case may be, infection is still not properly understood and may well never be. Throughout the years many researchers strong enough to withstand the mental beating it takes to even study these creatures have found no concrete explanation about why they do what they do and how they exactly do it. Those of a more mythological thinking, have even started to believe that the infection/parasite that creates these victims is actually not native to the planet at all, with one possibility being that they are actually adapted to parasitize some yet-unseen creature on their native world, one which creatures on Elysium, mainly humans/humanoid, simply happen to greatly resemble by unfortunate coincidence. This is often supported by the fact of reports of Victims attempting to infect training dummies, which would indicate that the resemblance is indeed a visual one, as opposed to, for example, olfactory.
However, this may also be an oversight as well. Victims themselves share a form of collective intelligence that allows them to act in a coordinated manner; this shared consciousness originates from the Hivemind which controls signals and broadcasts information and orders to the smaller victims. All Hivemind deliver long range infrasonic sounds used to communicate with smaller variants of themselves. However when out of range the intelligence of a Plague Victim becomes less coordinated and more frantic like. Many will wander aimlessly, almost passively, with no real destination, until they are aware of a new victim to kill that they will immediately engage.
When a victim is killed/captured it is either infected and forced through the short yet destructive process to become a Plague Victim or is used to fuel the Hivemind/Hive by way of “contributing” to the immense amount of “Biomass” which the Hivemind will thus feed on and become larger and more stronger thus allowing its strength over the residing denizens of the hive to becomes stronger over a much larger radius. Essentially the larger the Hivemind, the stronger it’s connection with all surrounding victims.
In fact it’s often hypothesized that if a Hivemind reaches a specific size, the connection to victims can reach hundreds of miles. Or in the case of multiple Hiveminds, the strongest and largest “Alpha Hive'' will give commands to all smaller ones which will then in turn pass them on to Victims, essentially working like a coordinated mass of Telephone wires or satellites, each bouncing back information from one Hivemind to another, keep all neighboring Hiveminds in the loop. In fact the connection between Hiveminds and hosts can become so strong that if one was to damage or even kill an lesser Hivemind one, then the connection between them all would get jumbled, Victims would become severely uncoordinated, and for some may even die similar to the process of a ant/bee colony losing it’s queen should a Alpha Hivemind be killed.
Typically the Esugrað Plague pathogen is assumed to be of the Parasitic Variety or at the very least a Viral Bacterial Infection. Parasitic infections often cause intestinal illness, with symptoms like diarrhea and vomiting. But they can also give you itchy skin rashes or infect other parts of your body, like your brain or lungs. Examples of bacterial infections often include whooping cough, strep throat, ear infection and urinary tract infection (UTI). Examples of viral infections include the common cold and flu, most coughs and bronchitis, chickenpox, monkeypox, COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS.
Symptoms of the EPP are not well documented due to the rapid nature in which hosts can change in a short given amount of time. However in hosts that don’t change instantaneously, and symptoms are usually documented as follows:
Stage One: Early Exposure
Within hours after exposure, whether it be through infestor’s or injures from late stage infected, Humans will begin to exhibit strange behavior and flu/fever like symptoms These Symptoms include but are not limited to
-High Grade Fever- 100/103 degrees fahrenheit
-Dry Itchy skin/rash like symptoms
-Anxiety/Extreme Paranoia
Stage two: Infection
If the infection wishes to take it’s time and properly “cook” a victim, it can take anywhere between 2-3 days for it to take control of it’s victim brain and motor function.
These Symptoms include but are not limited to
-Dark Spots/Sores on the Skin
-Delirium and Tactile Hallucinations: Victims who exhibit these symptoms are already at the mercy of the parasite and the influence of the hive-mind and are in turn displaying the psychological effects of the influence of said Hivemind attempting to communicate with its new host, which can vary to include acute depression, insomnia, personality shifts, vivid hallucinations, obsessive or violent behavior, extreme paranoia, and other schizophrenic-like symptoms. Depending on the person, these symptoms are different and happen more quickly, depending on the length of the exposure to a Hiveminds signal, length of which they’ve been infected or the psychological state of the subject. If the affected individual is already in an unbalanced mental state, for example, due to unresolved personal issues or emotional trauma, the dementia will more easily push them over the edge.
Stage 3a Late Stage Infection
By this stage, those who have been infected have been significantly devolved into rotting, malnourished, grotesque lepers due to the pathogen. The majority of victims at this point are covered in severely infected rashes with pus seeping out of them, as well as others appearing to be unhealthily underweight to the point of being skeletal in appearance. Other physical deformities range from some members having bloated foreheads, while others have all of their veins in their eyes snapped and rendered bloodshot.
But you may be asking yourself; why hasn’t the body mutated yet/or has taken such a long time to mutate?
Well you can either thank your immune system or chastise it for continuing your suffering.
Inside every living creature, there is an ingrained desire to survive. Our brains will do anything to survive even under the most dire of circumstances even if the end result is killing the body in a last ditch effort such as with high fevers or such.
In response to infection, you can always count on your immune system to spring into action and defend you. White blood cells, antibodies, and other mechanisms go to work almost immediately to rid your body of foreign invaders, sometimes so efficiently you may not even notice you were feeling sick in the first place. Indeed, many of the symptoms that make a person suffer during an infection—fever, malaise, headache, rash—result from the activities of the immune system trying to eliminate the infection from the body. However, pathogenic microbes challenge the immune system in many ways; viruses make us sick by killing cells or disrupting cell function.
In response, our bodies often respond with a fever (heat inactivates many viruses), the secretion of a chemical called interferon (which blocks viruses from reproducing), or by marshaling the immune system’s antibodies and other cells to target the invader head on. Many bacteria make us sick the same way, but they also have other strategies at their disposal. Sometimes bacteria multiply so rapidly they crowd out host tissues and disrupt normal function. Sometimes they kill cells and tissues outright. Sometimes they make toxins that can paralyze, destroy cells’ metabolic machinery, or precipitate a massive immune reaction that is itself toxic.
Within your body, your immune system can respond to infections one of two ways. One white blood cell known as the Neutrophil is tasked with finding and eating bacteria that it comes across and the Eosinophils which is tasked with destroying cells infected with viruses as well as parasites. However, in the presence of a bacteria or virus or even parasite that can multiply much quicker then the immune system, it would not take long to break the body down as it attempts to fight and win against the attacker. It can be assumed at this point that the immune system numbers are dropping as well. Without a strong enough immune system, the Bacteria/Parasite will overrun the body. Which in the case of early-stage Esugrað Plague pathogens is exactly what it wants. The slow die off of cells allows for it to have time to mutate, grow, evolve, adapt and soon have enough strength to change what is already there.
Typically regardless of stage, all infection outbreaks start at a source, known as the Infestor.
The Infestor, is the very first stage to the Progression of the Esugrað Plague.
Similar to a Queen Ant to a colony, a hive-mind must first create workers. In order to do this, they must create Biomass in order to make an environment conducive enough for their needs. In order to do that, the Hivemind will infect and will use any available biological matter—or, at least, any animal tissue—to grow.
This process is actually very similar to the reproductive behavior in Ant’s. When Queen ant’s first begin to form a colony, the females can selectively fertilize future eggs with the sperm stored to produce diploid workers or lay unfertilized haploid eggs to produce drones. The first workers to hatch from a nesting Queen, known as nanitics, are weaker and smaller than later workers but they begin to serve the colony immediately. They enlarge the nest, forage for food, and care for the other eggs. Similar to Ant's, the Hivemind's first instinct is to create a suitable environment to grow. Once this has been established, it must then create what is known as an Infestor. Infestor’s are tasked with, like their name suggests, infecting anything around them with the Esugrað Pathogen, in order to provide workers for a Hivemind. Typically Infestors can occur in different forms depending on what the Hive uses or what is generally in the vicinity. If it's mostly animal’s, then the creature produced will appear more “animalistic” by nature, often running or flying or just taking an all terrain approach to life. From there, the task is simple:
as much as you can, infect what you can, fuel the hive and watch the chaos bloom.
Speculative timeline of Hive Creation:
1
Infant Hivemind Forms (process unknown) and starts creating biomass via the breakdown of any organic material to start the creation of a suitable nest
2
Enough organic material infected with the virus produces the Infestor. Infestor becomes the sole way to quickly convert others into victims, thus creating more forms to spread the infestation.
3Infection spreads, creatures either become hosts or are used to make biomass in order to strengthen the hive.
4
As Hive strengthens, the Hive Mind becomes stronger. From here what happens afterwards is speculation but it is thought that the Hive will continue to consume and consume and eat and eat until it is large enough to perhaps take over an entire planet.
Utterly devoted to their cause, The Cultists unfailingly worship their deity, even when threatened with death. Fear only makes them worship harder
Throughout the world of Elysium, many religious sects that have popped up often swear allegiance to those they deem of a higher power. And while many are charitable, and worship gods of benevolent nature, in the case of many Cultists, those in which they extend a hand and offer servitude too, often involve demon lords, or archdevils, leaving most to conceal their loyalties to avoid being ostracized, imprisoned, or executed for their beliefs. Despite this however, of all the Cultists who have gathered throughout this land, there are actually a very select few whose fanatical devotion and worship is so great that they have received a "Great Blessing" by their New God.
Such is the case of The Church of Unification.
The Church of Unification, also known as Cultus Carnis or simply the "The Children of the Hunger/Flesh'' are a local organization in the lands of Ar’kael, that reside in the Ghost town of Terlam. A religiously crooked secret society of doomsday zealots that hide beneath their facade of a legitimate religion, they are one of the main antagonists of the Roads of Elysium franchise and are a primary source of struggle for most of the games. With a long history that often resorts to murder, kidnapping, torture, and other acts of violence to meet its needs, they are responsible for the many dilemmas that the protagonists of the series face, and the cause of much of the pain and suffering many who have the misfortune of crossing paths with them go through.
While the history of the Church is generally unknown due to it’s highly volatile nature, while first seen as an insane religious sect filled with psychopathic zealots, it was revealed that much like others under the heel of the Hive, that they were indeed once innocent sane people, who were overwhelmed and driven to madness by the Hiveminds presence and control also known as “Signaling”, after accidentally having wandered into Terlam as a pilgrimage during the very early years of attempted containment of the region.
Apparently noticing the great influence a local reverend had on the people, the Hivemind, which while still weak at the time was still highly influential, infected the Reverend and a select few others, who ended up forming what would soon be known as the “Church of Unity”. This “Signaling” as it was called, also soon morphed into what was known as the ”Unicity Gospel”, whose words claimed to hold guidance and enlightenment and were recorded down in frantic scribbled notes by the Hive’s new “second in command” (The reverend) who in turn devoted himself as a new prophet, and was spoken to the Fanatic’s and himself by "God" (the hivemind) itself. Under the influence of the Hivemind, the followers of the Church of Unity are maniacally devoted and loyal to their leader and the word of the so-called God they speak of. Most of them are completely insane and cannot seem to tell the difference between reality and fantasy anymore, or even at the very least the simple task of right and wrong, a dire result of the influence of the Hiveminds' signaling.
Beliefs
For the Church, the idea of becoming one and “Uniting” with their god to the extent of which is similar to an insect colony is the utmost goal:
. . . .Ants work in a colony as one superorganism. They do what is best for the colony. Rather than use the colony for the good of the individual, they sacrifice their individual gain for the good of the whole colony. When one ant goes astray, the colony responds to correct it. There are scouts, foragers, guards, and fighters, and some even work in sanitation, removing waste from the colony.
But all the ants exist to serve the needs of the whole colony. . . . . . .without the scouts and foragers, there would be no food. The scouts find the food and bring back news of its location so the foragers can go out and collect it. Without the guards, there would be no protection for the eggs. They ensure life for the next generation of the colony. Without the fighters, there would be no defense from invaders. In many ways, ant colonies represent an entire society. By working together, the ants build an entire thriving community. . . .
For the Church, the protection and preservation of the Hive is of the utmost importance. Because of the Hiveminds signaling, the Church has become nothing more than a part of the hive; the Church protects it, feeds it, nurtures it, and even most recently, helps to attempt to spread its “Influence” (virus) across the continent. The Church does this by performing devious and heinous acts of violence, often resorting to brainwashing, kidnapping, drug trafficking, child abuse, acts of violence, torture, and even murder. Most of the cultists are innately violent, and will immediately attempt to murder those who either do not share in their beliefs or simply may prove a danger to the hive.
During the events of Roads of Elysium, efforts of the Church of the Flesh to spread the influence of the Hivemind had nearly doubled. Their continued feeding of the hive using kidnapped civilians had caused it to grow exponentially. But in addition, they had also moved on to methods and tactics involving bioterrorism attacks; infecting followers and captives and turning them into ticking time bombs.
This method was a relatively new practice unknown by the guild. Basically accumulating into a slow methodical burn, eating the flesh of a victim suffering from the plague or at the very least the actual biomass produced from the hive was able to turn people but at a much slower rate then direct infection. Upon eating the highly tainted flesh of a victim, the virus would begin to spread through the guts and intestines’, slowly converting the victim from Team Human, to Team Mutant, with the organs eventually ceasing to function at normal capacity, similar to taking the gas tank out of a car, thus sending the victim into a state of constant starvation with nutrition no longer coming from any source. Disturbingly, these processes can go on without the person ever knowing, but over time however, they will continue to decline, with any or all higher thinking being switched over in the brain's attempt to convert to pure survival. Basically, infection this route is a steady one: when a human ingests Plague flesh, this tainted flesh begins to kill off their internal organs one by one and take them over.
As a result, the victim will eat whatever they can in order to sustain themselves, but with the organs already working at only half capacity, they will find themselves becoming more and more ravenous, but will also still feel the gradual decline of their body, as they still have their nervous system autonomous, thus allowing them to think and act like normal people even if their organs aren’t gonna be for much longer. At this stage of infection, they can still speak and communicate but appear greatly emaciated. This loss of muscle is thought to be the result of the body breaking down any form of “food” it could in an effort to stay alive even with a basically non-functioning digestive system.
Overtime, their vital organs are attacked internally by the infection, slowly mutating themselves until the infection finally reaches its peak with the victim still unknowing. Because illness onset may be delayed for hours to days, it increases dispersal, in this case the victim may seek medical care or be offered and in doing so run the risk of changing in a public spot. Which was exactly what had happened in the World Market in Arcana during the events of Roads of Elysium.
Conflict with the Golden Order
In the beginning, back when Terlam had first become ground zero for the plague during the years of the War of Succession, neighboring kingdoms who cared for the situation and knew the dangers such a thing as the Esugrað Plague would bring, made a pact with one another. Every year, the Kingdoms pooled their soldiers together and would begin to perform yearly burnings in order to keep the Plague at manageable numbers and stop it’s spread. As the years went on, this group of Soldiers became known as the Paladins of the Golden Order: a coalition of warriors, knights, paladins and clerics who dedicated themselves to the understanding, containment and hopefully destruction of the Plague.
With the help of the Paladins, an Exclusion Zone was established surrounding the territory of Terlam, set as a restricted area dedicated to the research and development of weapons against the Plague. However as the years went on, the emergence of the Cult of the Flesh had begun to complicate efforts. Thanks to propaganda, trafficking of infected individuals and deceit amongst even members of the Golden Order who defaulted to the Cult, The Church influence had spread far beyond their Homebase of Terlam. As of the events of Roads of Elysium, The Church has gained a significant foothold in their pursuits and goal to expand the hive's influence; in the three years following before the events of the game, the efforts of the followers of the church to weaken the military and favor among the public doubled. Already stuck in a long-standing conflict with Paladins of the Golden Order, over the destruction, suppression, and hoarding of information regarding the Hivemind and at times the direct violence toward the hive in an effort to suppress it and keep it manageable, influence of the Cult began to spread.
Additional Trivia
-It has been observed/implied on at least two or more separate occasions that Reavers do not bother with already-dead prey, preferring, if not insisting, that their victims be alive. Why the reasons for this are still unknown, it is believed that fresh flesh is better suited to house the plague then rotten decayed flesh, as the virus does not have to put too much energy into reviving/reconstructing dead flesh. However the disease is highly adaptable, and with its high adaptability, many are fearful about the potential for a "Host Hop" should the virus find decaying flesh more entertaining to mess around with.
-Despite not being native to the planet, Elysium is not entirely so helpless against the virus. While it is unknown as to why, Animals and creatures all react to the Hive differently. While many refuse to even go near it leaving much of the zone as an ecological disaster with no native wildlife, those with the ability to set things aflame seem to be instinctively inclined to burn it.
While many intelligent species have claimed over the years that this is simply because of survival, as they aren't “stupid to the situation,” regardless of their reasonings for doing so, as result of this almost instinctual need, Dragons, salamanders, firecats, etc are all attracted to the zone, and have actively been known to burn back the corruption that festers the land, allowing for it’s proper management. In fact there are even tales of random dragons protecting people from this by coming out of nowhere and burning zones whenever someone is unlucky enough to get swarmed.
In fact, many flame creatures are revered and Mother Fire, or Gaia Fire as it is normally referred to, is either flat out worshiped or at least in the iconography of MANY of the people in the surrounding area, due to the benefit they bring. However this has often led to problems for many creatures as well, as the area has slowly become nearly a hotspot for poachers despite the dangers present. Poachers in these areas poach fire cores, fire bladders, or certain parts from these beasts, many of which fetch a high price on the market. It has even gotten to the point that due to their help in beating back the infection, a whole sect of rangers completely dedicated to protecting these creatures was formed and without legit reason it's even close to illegal to kill any of these creatures.
This however never stopped the Cultists and their ensuing propaganda against the Paladins of the Golden Order, with many fire breathers, (Mostly Dragons) under intense scrutiny, especially when they began rumors of the Paladins protecting “Killer Beasts” who have gotten away with killing humans. This however, stemmed from the already heavily debated tactic enacted by the Paladins of burning the infected in order to prevent the spread, as conventional weapons don’t always do the trick when putting them down.
