Witchplague

Witchplague is a living weapon created by Dr. Alban Hearst in attempts to enact genocide on the Witch population. Early strains created by the Camarilla resulted in a black rope-like disease that acted like a parasite, rapidly infecting a Witch and eventually taking over her vocal cords. This was first exhibited by Khalida in "**Up is Down**" when the witchplague reached her throat, resulting in random erratic workings. These early variants were highly dangerous and even deadly, but slow-acting enough for powerful fixers such as Raelle to heal.

However, later strains were even deadlier as they even became contagious, and even actively hunts to infect witches, and is much faster than the early strains. Infection could occur just from touch instead of injection, which early strains required for infection. Because of the later strains being too fast and contagious, healing the infected person becomes almost impossible as touching cannot be involved.

## Different Strains

Each strain of the Witchplague evolves or devolves different abilities, all with the same goal, kill the infected witch. There were possibly more strains of the witchplague, but these were the ones that were shown on-screen:

### Strain 1

Strain 1's only victim that was shown was Khalida

It seems this was the first variant of the witchplague. It was stated this strain was extremely slow and even took weeks to spread. However, it seems the plague would temporarily speed up the process if any attempt was made to heal the infected individual. Strain 1's vines seemed very thin. Strain 1 will put the infected individual into a coma until they either die or are healed.

When the Strain 1-infected individual dies, it will stop spreading around their body.

Strain 1 was exhibited in two episodes: Up is Down and Mother Mycelium.

### Strain 2

Strain 2's only victim that was shown was an unnamed little boy from the Tarim.

Strain 2's vines look exactly the same as Strain 1's except this strain seems even faster than Strain 1, even when no witches are attempting to heal. Just like Strain 1, Strain 2 puts the individual into a coma until they either die or are healed.

Strain 2 is much faster than Strain 1. It seems it will kill the individual in hours instead of weeks like Strain 1 did. It is however still slow enough for fixers like Raelle to heal.

Strain 2 was only exhibited in one episode: Witchbomb

### Strain 3

Strain 3's only victim that was shown on screen was one of the Biddies.

The vines still look exactly the same as Strains 1 and 2 except it is much faster. It kills in mere seconds, as shown with Alder already aging after the Biddy was infected and killed. Although this strain spreads quickly around the witch's body, it will stop spreading once the individual is dead.

Strain 3 seems too fast for fixers like Raelle to heal.

Strain 3 was only exhibited in one episode: Witchbomb

### Strain 4

Strain 4 had multiple victims, the Spree at the restaurant in a flashback from Willa Collar. All of the spree except for Willa were infected. It seems one of the Camarilla was there and threw an orb/grenade that spread spores containing witchplague in it, touching every witch in the room (except for Willa who narrowly dodged it). Upon contact, witchplague spread on every witch in the room and killed everyone is seconds. Willa Collar was the only survivor who was not infected.

The vines now look much more thicker, darker, and have more volume to them compared to Strains 1, 2, and 3.

The witchplague no longer places the witches into a coma, simply because of how aggressively it spreads around the body and how fast it kills.

The witchplague from this strain onwards is now ***contagious***. Touching can now pass the infection to anyone who attempts to interact with an infected individual, however, it does not seem to be attracted to or actively hunt witches yet, as once the infected individual dies, it will immediately stop spreading around the body just like the previous strains.

Strain 4 was only exhibited in one episode: Of the Blood

### Strain 5

Strain 5 had multiple victims, General Sharma, General Sharma's attendant, Raelle Collar, and Willa Collar

Strain 5 seems even smarter than before. The vines are now even darker, thicker, and have more volume than Strain 4. It now has the ability to lie completely dormant until a witch is near. This was seen in the case in the train incident where General Sharma's mug was contaminated and she had no idea until it was too late. Her attendant tried to push it out of General Sharma's hand to save her, but ended up accidentally touching the plague in the process while General Sharma touched it too. It seems to silently spread over to any part of the witch's body and latch on to spread even faster and spread like wildfire in their proximity.

Strain 5 was also the same strain Izadora had used to test out in a glass tank. Using her blood, the plague drew itself to the blood and consumed it, growing bigger in the process

The plague no longer stops spreading when an infected individual dies. Instead, when they die, it will **continue** to spread even further from their dead body to try and infect nearby witches. This was seen in the case with General Sharma and Willa Collar.

Just like Strain 4, Strain 5 is highly contagious.

Strain 5 was exhibited in 3 episodes: Brianna's Favorite Pencil, My 3 Dads, and Irrevocable.

### Strain 6

Strain 6 had multiple victims, An unnamed Army girl, and all of the remaining Biddies

Strain 6 acts exactly the same as Strain 5 except this time it spreads **extremely** faster once the plague spreads from the infected individual, and the plague no longer waits for the infected individual to die to spread further. This was seen when the Army girl started puking out witchplague while she was still alive, and the plague from one of the Biddies sprouted out and infected all of the other Biddies while they were still alive. This is what caused all of the Biddies to be infected so quickly (Anacostia and Alder had narrowly dodged this due to one of the Biddies shielding the plague from them to take her instead; had that not have happened, Anacostia and Alder would have likely become infected.)

Strain 6 was exhibited in 2 episodes: Mother of All, Mother of None and Revolution, Part 1.

### Strain 7

Strain 7 is a very unique strain. Strain 7 had multiple victims: Penelope Silver, and many Army soldiers on Fort Salem

Strain 6 actually does not kill the Patient Zero of the strain. It will lie completely dormant within their body until witches are near. Then it will tremendously sprout out of them, making them almost look like an octopus, allowing them to spread it to many other witches in their proximity, while still keeping the main host alive to do so. Another thing Strain 7 will do is hinder the patient zero's awareness, even after they have sprouted to infect all of those around them. This was seen with Penelope as she was blissfully unaware of what she was doing even though she looked like a giant black octopus.

Unlike all of the previous strains, Strain 7 is actually a bit easier to cure for those who are infected (not the Patient Zero) since it is considered one organism. If you can separate the Patient Zero from the others infected, you can cure everyone else at the cost of killing Patient Zero.

Strain 7 was only exhibited in one episode: Revolution, Part 1

### Strain 8

Strain 8 had two victims: Alban Hearst and Blanton Silver

The witchplague no longer naturally attacks witches, since strain 8 actually resides within Penelope Silver, who is capable of deciding who she wants to infect. In this case, she infected Alban Hearst to eat him from the inside-out and infected her Dad with the witchplague to eat him.

Technically it's not even "witchplague" anymore but it still looks like it.

Strain 8 was exhibited in one episode: Revolution, Part 2