Because of the topics covered in the last few chapters, I can finally start giving more general info about curses! Yay for no longer having to be secretive about the cause of illness in [redacted]. xP
Below is an overview of Curse illnesses, including the names of some curses, their rarity, how they are spread, and how outbreaks are managed in the Zone on a country level. I'll get into more detail later about specific illnesses and their symptoms and prognosis, as long as that curse doesn't play a major role in some pre-planned future fic.
Enjoy the lore noms below the cut!
Overview:
Ghost illnesses are often spiritual plagues/curses passed on through energy and not through ectoplasm. Because ghosts don’t breathe, something being passed through energy is like something being airborne. Something going through ecto is closer to it being like fluid based, like bodily fluids: saliva/sweat/urine/feces/ect. Many of the most virulent ghost plagues are spread by energy, allowing it to move through the Zone like a wildfire with little slowing its progress.
In an ordinary ghost, it resolves on its own in a few weeks of feeling malaise as long as you rest. Though some especially vulnerable ghosts(children, otherwise ill, ect.) need medical aid in order to recover. And of course, none of the vulnerable inanimate objects(liminal objects) have immune systems. They can contract a curse and not be able to remove it on their own, their spirit stricken “evil”. In that case, human intervention can purge the “negative energy” from the object and return it to its former self. These purifying rituals were traditionally undertaken by spiritually active members of a community, often found in priesthoods, shrine maidens, temple attendants, ect.
Immunity:
In general, this is how immunity is passed between ghosts:
After encountering an illness and recovering, their cores produce sub-fluctuations/sub-oscillations in their energy signature that act to repel the illness/curse, similar to how living things antibodies neutralize viral or bacterial invaders. This eventually slows plagues to a stop, as herd immunity causes the R0 to fall below 1 and the plague peters out naturally.
Because of how natural immunity works, ghosts who have recently recovered often attend to the still ill, helping them recover much quicker. This is especially helpful in the case of children or chronically ill, who can have trouble clearing an infection on their own. To this end, ghosts have adapted the typical method of sharing energy done between one energized ghost to another to most effectively clear an illness. This requires closer energy contact than just sharing some of your energy, and so is not usually done with strangers.
However, between family and friends, it’s quite common. It’s like giving someone a long hug if they feel under the weather. The cuddles could be platonic, familial, or romantic, it all depends on the persons involved and just signifies affection and closeness.
Example of Immunity in Action:
Dr. Airmid came over to help Technus feel better, since she’d caught this curse years back, although the amplitude of her signals are much weaker now that so much time has passed. Danny's visit does a lot to perk Technus up, even without consciously sharing energy because he’s just radiating a bunch of antibodies as he’s nearly(though not totally) mended. His system changing his ecto-signature is why he got so tired all of a sudden.
A Few Common Illnesses:
Whispering Panic
Love's Longing
Olive Pox
A Few Uncommon Illnesses:
Rictus Grasp
Frosttouch Breath
Hearthstone’s Heat
A Few Rare Illnesses:
The Decay
The Pale Lady
The Black Rider
Outbreak Phenomena:
The chances for any of these to form an outbreak depends on a number of factors, chief among them: the number of potential hosts. Some illnesses can only afflict certain sub-variations of ghosts. Others, prey on those who are essentially immunocompromised with cores that are already infected with other curses.(opportunistic infectious curse behavior) Still others have disease progressions or infection vectors that prohibit or repress the growth of outbreaks. The most serious of curses have outbreaks that are brief, not because of lack of hosts, but because of severity of symptoms. They burn through the potential hosts and avenues of infection too quickly to sustain permanent presence in an area. (An infamous example of this is Stranger's Skin.)
Assuming a curse does not have a long-term reservoir, and liminal objects often served this purpose historically, and that immunity is temporary(common in the least serious curses) then outbreaks can be tracked in waves and even predicted. The most ardent followers of Eulas include doctors, surgeons, and ghostly epidemiologists. If not cloistered in the temples of Kunnzkapp, they are most often found in major cities in the largest countries throughout the Zone. There is a large contingent in Kingdom Drazi, as a trade hub it seems more than the typical share of migration of potentially infected beings. And as the country is the most urbane in the Local Zone, it also possesses the highest being density, far higher than is common anywhere else outside of the country. As a result, most of the recent outbreaks have started in the Kingdom, especially in one of its many port towns. From there, disease specialists can trace the spread across traveling vessels and caravans to all of their trading partners. This makes inspections of goods and people heading into and out of Kingdom Drazi of the highest priority to national security, involving disease efforts. Multi-regional collaboration is the norm in this case, and supersedes all other treaties involving freedom of movement, of goods and people, or the need to be renewed be new signatory members at the crowning of new leaders.
This position was pioneered by a combination of the leaders of Kingdom Drazi and Malproksime Frostiĝinta .
Treatment of, and deterrence of spread for, curses are handled on a case by case basis for every known major curse common in the Local Zone. Additionally, there are groups of well funded researchers in Malproksime Frostiĝinta who study the development of novel curses, curse types, or resurgences of extinct variants. All other major research is pursued by the acolytes, incarnations, and servants of Eulas, though there is much crossover.
