Sickness

Cursed began to appear as a now free mankind populated the old continent. Powerful beings born in a human form. Able to manipulate and create natural forces with the ease of a man figuring out where a ball would land were feared by all for their ‘magic’. That fear did not prevent the baseline human populace from eagerly taking advantage of their abilities for their gain. Cursed were mostly alien in their mindset, but human in body, thus rewards of money and material pleasures.

Humans expanded throughout their newly freed lands. Their numbers boomed with newly exploitable lands ripe for the taking. Splitting into fractious states, the Cursed leveraged the power they held to take influence and power.

Only one man saw the coming cataclysm in this new age. A former mercenary named Valan began his trek across from the western edges of the continent to the east preaching a coming doom. He gathered followers for a great voyage across the ocean.

Valan’s prophecies began to come true as a jaundice appeared in a small town. Cursed began to show symptoms of the disease. Their yellowing skin oozed thin sheens of oil, spreading to others and the land itself. Townsfolk began to fall ill while the still mobile ambushed the Cursed and lynched him in the town square, assuming he had overreached or touched something that man should know. Little did they know that explorers had brought the vile plague from one of the many expeditions to the ruins originally created by Ancients. Spores drifted from the dangling corpse further into the town. The sky itself became infected with an opaque yellow miasma. Trees drooped, dripping sickly oils into jaundiced soil.

Those who were afflicted by this disease began moving once again. Ever growing groups of the sick sought out people to help them, unable to vocalize beyond mewling for help. The sickness exuded from them and compelled the ballooning horde to reach for mouths, eyes, or exposed skin, spreading their plight. Countries were swallowed up in the time it took for wind to take the jaundice on a new path or afflicted to wander through their lands.

Armies repeatedly proved themselves to be a minor hindrance in stopping the afflicted horders as they were swallowed by the disease as well. The remnants who did not take the journey over the seas gradually fell back to the final kingdom, the Reich. Ruled by the descendants of the first awakened human, called Kaisers in their language, the Reich was a backwater. Generally ignored by other, more powerful states, the northern kings, of different stock than their cousins, used the Kaiser as an impartial negotiator for their constant disputes. Dural’s attempts to protect its flock failed while the Reich raced against time to construct a suitable fleet to leave the continent.

A final confrontation to stop the affliction saw the combined armies of the remaining states stand against the sickly onslaught. Great worms took part but their skin peeled away at the yellow touch, peeling and only adding to the voracious landscape. Every one of these creatures moved together, leaving a last thought with the Kaiser, “As you sacrificed for us, we shall move for you. Do not break even as the world seems to shatter. Go well, my two legged friend.” The combined defense managed to halt the yellow horde just long enough for a line of red robed northern cultists to take position behind the routing army. The cult was often seen as a curiosity by the northern lords. They spoke of a nascent deity in the heavens above, but what use did the warlike kings have for a god they could not see? In times before the sickness anyone could visit Dural’s complex. However, the machine god’s seeming impotence and the fear of a dwindling humanity kindled a spark of hope.

As one, 3,000 cultists cut their throats. Blood splashed upon the ground, in a rough perimeter. Viscera stained the landscape and was suddenly burnt away by brilliant rays of light.

Hemos had awoken. With their sacrifice, the horde was stopped at this line. Now that the remnants of mankind had some time, they stripped the land bare of resources to set outwards to sea.

* Previous: Liberation
* Next: Exodus