Maladies

In the Otherworld, humans succumb to illness just like humans on earth do. Here are some of the prominent infections that the humans of the cylinder deal with, some more serious than others:

## Yellingitis

A fungal infection, Yellingitis typically manifests around the face and neck of a person or animal. The infection is white and puffy in appearance. It is so named, as it causes the victim to yell uncontrollably. In a minor case, the yelling is infrequent and can be stifled, but as the infection becomes more severe, the yelling becomes more constant, and increasingly loud. This makes eating and drinking extremely difficult, and the victim may die of dehydration or choke to death while trying to eat or drink.

## Palipathy

Palipathy is a viral infection unique to humans. A person infected with Palipathy is called a Palipath. Palipathy can only be cured if one eats a rare Gally Flower within 6 to 8 days of contracting it. After that time period, the person is doomed to be a Palipath until they die. The symptoms of Palipathy include violent psychosis, pale skin, purple irises, aversion to sunlight, increased strength, sharp teeth, scales and claws, the ability to regrow teeth, greatly increased tooth and fingernail growth rate, superb hearing, and extreme allergic reaction to copper (exposure to which usually leads to a quick death). Palipaths can give another person Palipathy by biting them. Strangely, they are also averse to pasta, which burns their skin, and can kill them if a sufficient amount is ingested. Palipaths also gain an increased lifespan, though contrary to common belief they are not actually immortal.

## The Splumpts

The Splumpts is an illness characterised by green spots on the skin, some of which may develop into yellow boils in the second stage of the illness. The Splumpts also gives a person a high fever and is generally unpleasant to have. Most notably though, the Splumpts causes the tongue to grow very long, and the illness gives the patient an uncontrollable desire to catch and eat insects with their long tongue. In the majority of cases, the Splumpts are not fatal and will go away eventually. The person will also be immune to ever catching the Splumpts again, although it's said that they never can quite forget the taste of the insects they ingested...

## The Whispers

The Whispers is a disease caused by small ghosts which lodge themselves in people's throats and force them to whisper nasty things in people's ears.

## Skin Snake Syndrome

Skin Snakes are a parasitic creature distantly related to Dragoons. If a Skin Snake bites you, it will inject you with tiny eggs. You will notice no adverse effects until, at some point in the next few months, a grown snake bursts out of a random part of your body. This can be painful or deadly, depending on where the snake comes out from. And Skin Snakes inject between 5 and 20 eggs per bite, so the same thing will happen several times over the coming months.

## Rollchester Syndrome

A mental illness characterized by uncontrollable lying about oneself. The person is completely incapable of answering a personal question with the truth.

## Plum Pie Disease

A disease common around the Ackrex Marsh. It is carried by small biting insects there. The infected person will not notice, and will go about their life for many decades. Eventually, however, the disease will cause the person to be compulsed to return to the place they were first bitten. Once they reach it, they will suddenly transform into a plum pie. The insects will then eat them, passing the Plum Pie disease back to the insects, who will then bite people and continue the cycle.

## Ermen's Disease

A genetic disease. The person will suffer from extreme swelling, redness, and sweating of the hands and feet in hot weather. In very cold weather, their hands and feet will shrink.

## Holtzman's Curse

A illness caused by poisoning by Holtzman Berries. The small yellow berries are avoided by all who know of their nature, but an unaware person is in for a bad time. The berries are deliciously sweet, and most people will scoff down many of them after tasting one. Once the poisoning kicks in, the person will feel as though his belly is on fire. Then he will begin to hallucinate about fire. He will see flames all around himself, and feel them burning him. Eventually, the berries will pass through the gut, culminating in diarrhea, which is unpleasant, but at the very least the hallucinations will abruptly end and the person will realise that he wasn't on fire at all!

## Aquatic Fever

The sickness starts like a regular cold. But, as it progresses, the person will become very thirsty. They will become delirious and seek out a large body of water. They will attempt to drink this water, but will then fall into it and start to swim. Soon, gills will start to form on their necks, and they will act like a fish for several days, swimming around, and eating algae. They will also cavort with real fish. The fever will pass on to the fish. After a few days, the person will slowly start to remember being a human, and eventually will crawl out onto land. Aquatic Fever is contracted by touching or eating infected fish.

## Bizzentirai Virus

Bizzentirai Virus is a strange infection that affects many species in the otherworld, causing different symptoms in each. It can affect seemingly any species that has developed an industrialized society. In mammals, such as Humans, Vistem, Alphuffel, Zanlos, and Sea Cats, the virus can be fatal, with patches of hair falling off the body prior to death, and partial blindness. In magical beings, such as Light Goddesses, Conics, Alsan, and Blumps, Bizzentirai virus can wipe out any magic that the individual might have in his or her possession, leaving them helpless.

## Golden Blight

Golden Blight is a curious disease where the skin and flesh of a person gradually transmutes into solid gold. The affected person can become rich pawning off this gold, but of course, as they rapidly lose body parts and eventually die, this is only a minor comfort. Certain criminal organisations kidnap people with this blight and keep them captive and harvest their goldified flesh. The disease is carried by certain ticks, and criminals even kidnap random civilians and deliberately infect them with these ticks. However, this often backfires on criminals, as Golden Blight ticks are attracted to people infected with Golden Blight, so the criminals will often accidentally be infected. In some countries, criminals who are to be executed are infected with Gold Blight as a profitable mode of execution. Gold Blight only affects humans, but scientists are trying to develop a new strain which could affect livestock, thus creating abundant, cheap gold. Gold barons, however, actively lobby against this research.

In the past, a similar, but less profitable, disease called Iron Blight existed. However, scientists created a vaccine and eradicated this disease for good.