The Fiendtide

69 BU

Unlike most epidemics throughout history (here spring to mind the dastardly Avian Flu and Dancing Fever), the Fiendtide of Kelsma, Durant and Ghalea was born not of Mother Nature, but of that little understood force known to laymen as Magic. While this was not immediately apparent, it would eventually be discovered by scientists Gaston Devraux and Sebastian Wade, after which a cure would be fabricated to the benefit of all. But let us take a step back. In the year 69 BU, there occurred two curious incidents: First, the village of Medmenham Gate, Durant, rioted with no conceivable provocation, leaving virtually no survivors. Second, a number of Ghalean villages along the western coast began to brutally murder any merchants unlucky enough to pass within sight of their walls.

While the latter events were promptly put down and filed away as the work of some queer species of tribal warfare, the matter of Medmenham was not so easily dismissed. A community built around a grand scientific facility in the north-western mountains of Durant, Medmenham Gate was by no means accustomed to such madness. They were a levelheaded people, quiet and loyal to the crown. Why would they implode in so outrageous a fashion? Naturally, royal investigators were dispatched, and subsequently lost. Luckily for all parties, a number of scientists within the Medmenham Sanitarium had survived the violence, locking themselves away at the first sign of trouble. Under the direction of Professor Sebastian Wade, studies began on a theoretical mental illness observed in the people of the town as events unfolded. As the scholars labored, they began one by one to fall prey to said illness, eventually leaving only Professor Wade and a visiting professor, Gaston Devraux.

Though undeniably a tragedy, these deaths provided an abundance of firsthand data, bringing the pair to the conclusion that, far from mere mental illness, this mass hysteria was the result of a sudden fluctuation in the balance of magic in the region. Professor Wade had theorized some years prior the existence of supposed "hubs" of magical energy throughout Muralis, natural or otherwise, which may be considered significant untapped resources. This line of thought was studied intently until the sudden unpleasantness of 69 AU, at which point Wade noticed a sudden change in the behavior of the "hub" located under the mountains of Medmenham. Its volume had swelled considerably, and the flow of energy in adjacent regions had grown unstable. Wildlife was undergoing unprecedented evolutions, as was the local vegetation. These observations are well documented in the months leading up to the Medmenham Gate riots, which Wade astutely attributed to further deterioration due to magical instability. Studies of the LMA (latent magical ability) of affected individuals yielded the thesis that all humans any magical ability, once touched by the malignant aura of the "tainted hub", would undergo an exponential increase in LMA. The results varied depending on the starting LMA of the individual, ranging from violent madness to a purely beneficial increase in magical ability, the former clearly more common than the latter. Wade and Devraux, therefore, attributed their continued sanity to their possession of a starting LMA within the ideal window, confirming this with the demonstration of, as theorized, dramatically amplified magical abilities.

Though what follows is uncertain, the facts of the final months of the Fiendtide are these: Sebastian Wade ceased to live, the Medmenham Gate Sanitarium was burnt to the ground, and Gaston Devraux made his way to High Durant in posession of a serum intended to place the LMA of all individuals within one the two discovered "safe windows", thus assuring the stability of the population. This serum was distributed and, within weeks, all fear of the Fiendtide abated, securing Devraux's place amongst the pantheon of science's greatest minds. Sebastian Wade, however, is all but forgotten, casually mentioned in Devraux's memoirs as "one of many casualties in those wretched days".