Chimeric Plague

The **Chimeric Plague** is a phenomenon that occurs in children at birth, where they are born with intricate green birthmarks resembling Life's Great Rune and have inborn talents for life magic from birth. The plague inevitably ends in the chimeric carrier losing control of their immensely powerful magic and mutating and warping any living thing around them.

## History

About three centuries ago, the first instance of the Chimeric Plague was recorded. It is possible that cases were appearing even before this date. It has been noted that the first recorded case of the Chimeric Plague occurred only a few decades after the discovery of Life's truename, when Primordial Life was awoken by the Collector. There is only ever one chimeric carrier at any time, and as soon as that carrier dies, a new one is soon born. These births are seemingly random, and since it is impossible to inform every rural village of the dangers the Plague poses, they may never know of the dangers until it is too late.

In Vash, the first and only case of the Chimeric Plague happened two hundred and seven years before the modern day, over a hundred years since the first case of the Plague. It arose in a boy named Iras, who's parents were shepherds who lived outside of the city. He was born with an intricate green birthmark on his chest that resembled a warped, misdrawn version of the Life Great Rune, the sign of a chimeric carrier. Seventeen days before his fifth birthday, he lost control of his life magic, resulting in his death and the chimerical mutation of everything around him. The Plague wasn't widely known at that point, and they hadn't realized what had been going on.

After exhausting herself trying to heal Kendal, Alinua confronted Primordial Life and demanded to know what Life wanted. Life revealed that each occurance of the Plague was an attempt by Life to understand what she had become.

## Symptoms and Consequences

Chimeric carriers are born seemingly at random, appearing all over the globe, although there is only ever one carrier alive at a time. When that one dies, a new one is born shortly after. A chimeric carrier is easily recognized by an intricate green birthmark somewhere on their body, as well as an inborn talent for life magic. While most young mages grow into their power, chimeric carriers are able to perform incredible feats of life magic before they can even walk or talk. Chimeric carriers are capable of channeling nearly limitless amounts of energy from birth, and show a startling amount of instinctive control, being expert healers and encouraging plant growth on massive scales within even the years of their life that they have. Their power grows with breakneck speed, and in only the first few years of their life, they are capable of inducing madness and mutation in those around them.

Inevitably, the chimeric child loses control. While there is theoretically some threshold where they would have learned enough control to keep up with their increasing channeling capacity, no carrier ever survives until that point. When the power is released, a massive wave of raw, untempered life energy is unleashed. The chimeric carriers themselves never survive this process, but the greater danger comes from the mutated victims of the event, who have been mutated horribly into insane, aggressive chimeric shadows of their former selves. These chimeric victims roam the blasted land, attacking whatever and whoever passes through the region.

Many attempts have been made in order to stop the plague before it starts. Sealing rune tattoos seemingly have no effect; they prevent the carrier from accessing their magic, but never from chimerically overloading. The mutations caused by the plague are so thorough that they are not able to be reversed in any meaningful way.

Alinua had assumed she had the Chimeric Plague, but she never reached the point where she lost control of her magic. Her birthmark is a perfect copy of Life's Great Rune, as opposed to the distorted versions seen on others.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The Chimeric Plague (comicaurora.com)
2. ↑ *"Nobody knows what happened to the life mage, who secluded herself to her studies..."*: message in #aurora-discussion in the OSP discord server (discord.com)
3. ↑ Page 1.2.12 (comicaurora.com)
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Page 1.2.13 (comicaurora.com)
5. ↑ https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-20-23/
6. ↑ Could the Chimeric Plague work according to a dam metaphor? That a person marked is like a dam holding back a reservoir of Life energy, and sealing runes... (tumblr.com)
7. ↑ I found my old Life mage ask, and I have a further question. Without getting into spoiler territory, what are some other in-universe theories (whether in-progress, or thoroughly disproven) about Life mages?... (tumblr.com)
8. ↑ So why don’t people tattoo children born with the chimeric plague with a bunch of sealing runes? (tumblr.com)