Practicum: Fantasy Mana Diseases (With Anne)
(Vivian here! Instead of me doing a practicum, it is Lady Verbosa again! Say hello to Anne! She will be building upon my post about illnesses and how to do it in a fantasy setting! A setting I am less inclined to deal with. Enjoy the usual bickering between us and her wonderful content!)
Enter the World of Aermundi…
I’m excited to share my process in creating a world, a magic system, and an illness or two (or five!) for this week’s practicum! I’d first like to thank Vivian for providing a lot of great ideas that I was able to build off. Zhi even provided the name of this world! (Vivian: And the world itself where she can go nuts and bastardize so not mine anymore, but it is an old project of mine, so I don’t know. Anne does great, and I hate her 😝) Interested in what I stole took from zhim? Basically, zhi gave me a world with 12 poles with different mana at each, and the idea that people have fields that interact with them. Oh, and the name of the planet! So what did I do with that basic idea? Let’s find out!
On Aermundi, the world is inundated with a force called mana that is exuded from twelve poles, similar to magnetic poles, with the mana from each pole carrying different characteristics. One pole exists at the center of the planet and emits what is known as life mana. The other eleven poles exist like invisible, locked moons around the planet, drawing in and pushing out the mana that humans have categorized as follows: Fire, Water, Ice, Earth, Air, Metal, Electricity, Light, Darkness, Time, and Space. I won’t go over all of them in this post, since there’s not nearly enough space. Instead, I’ll focus on Water, Light, and Time, which I feel covers the basics. However, please take what I discuss here and consider how it would work in the context of one of the other poles! This might help inspire ideas for how things could possibly work in your own worlds!
So we’ve got these twelve poles. Why does that matter? Well, just like gravity is a force that affects every living creature on Earth and is something that everything has evolved to take into account, life on Aermundi has developed fields that give all living things the ability to interact with the poles in different ways. Although I’ll mention a couple of suggestions for other animals and some plants, I’m primarily going to focus on humans just for the sake of attempting to keep this post short, since Vivian will disown me if I write another marathon post!
Evolutionarily, it might make more sense if each pole had different species, not just the same old humans with different adaptations, but for the sake of this post, we’re using a relatively large world but the same species. Just know that you can expand however you like! (Vivian: This is the worst crime since the collapse of the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire in 1444!)
With Vivian’s complaint duly noted 🙄 and the basics out of the way, it’s time to explore what we can do with this premise…
Magic System
All good fantasy worlds need a magic system, so let’s get into the details! Whenever you want to develop a magic system, you need to know three basic things first: the source of the magic, the uses of the magic, and the limitations of the magic. (Vivian: SUL: Sources, Uses, Limitations.) Vivian or I might do a post on magic systems later, so keep your eye out! These three things give you a skeleton of your system that you can flesh out in the writing itself, and between the three of them, give you everything you need to get started. So let’s get started with ours, shall we?
Sources of Magic
On Aermundi, magic is a result of a person’s innate field interacting with mana emitted from the various poles present where they live. The fields act like a magnet to interact with the mana flowing from the poles above and below the surface. Life mana, which is omnipresent across Aermundi, is required for life, so anything that wants to live has evolved a field that attracts it. Once life mana interacts with the field, it’s converted into life magic that bodies consume to sustain all life.
Mana from the other poles, however, can be less friendly, so life has evolved a way for their shields to repel the majority of it. You can’t keep all of it out, and honestly, each polar mana brings some benefits, so life near those poles is reliant on it to some degree. I imagine the amount of this other mana that each living organism can tolerate varies wildly, with some things eagerly drinking it in like life mana and some doing everything possible to shut it out. It’s almost certainly different at each pole, since the characteristics of the different mana have varying levels of usefulness and danger.
Humans are the ones who named the poles based on their own understanding of the world, which is convenient as you, the reader, best understand things through references to our own world! We don’t need too much explanation to understand the twelve poles. Mana from the water pole passes through water easiest and can collect in ponds and streams. Rain brings an influx, often accompanied by cases of Hydrocof, a minor disease I’ll get into later in which a person is temporarily exposed to too much of the water type of mana, but recovers swiftly. I’m thinking that all mana can be blocked to a large degree by certain things, so a raincoat or umbrella would help with rain, and I’m sure people have learned ways to purify water over time for other uses. How do you think that could happen? I’m not sure, but it’s fun to think about!
Light mana cascades down just like the sunlight that it’s named after, and I imagine the area of the world most exposed to this pole rarely or never sees the night sky. What would that do for a society? We have parts of the world where the sun barely sets during the height of summer, and we can extrapolate from there. What does sleep look like in a place without night? Do people sleep at will, or is there a designated time everyone agrees is time to sleep? As someone who loves to sleep, I would have a lot of fun developing this in a novel. In terms of prevention, I suppose there might be night, though I really think this mana would be present in a sunny place. Still, shadows would lessen it, and buildings would be great. There are probably basements as well for deeper darkness, and maybe it’s even possible to have a place without any light mana!
And finally, time. Time is already all around us in this world, slowly and inevitably moving forward, and I imagine it would be similar there. I sort of think there’s no avoiding this one. But perhaps there are timestorms: polar vortexes or storms where concentrated time mana spills down like rain, splattering against life and aging it unevenly. Or maybe–more likely actually–life has evolved so that their fields can withstand a barrage, and yes, the lifeform may age more quickly, but it’ll be spread out. Your arm won’t age a year on its own; instead, your entire body may age a month as the mana is absorbed and turned into time mana. Unless, of course, something else is at play… I might come back to this in illnesses! There’s so much I could do with these three, but I can already feel Vivian breathing down my neck and telling me to move on.
Basically, when the mana from these poles interacts with a field, it’s converted into magic based on the pole it’s closest to, and then the body is able to use that magic for life-sustaining processes. Life can’t process mana in its pure form, so some sort of conversion is necessary. Blame evolution for being so weird. Now, obviously there’s going to be parts of the world where multiple poles are at play, and it gets a lot more complicated, but for the sake of this post, we’re just going to envision humans whose fields interact with two poles only, converting mana from those poles into the magic needed to survive. Everyone deals with life mana, and then we have people interacting with water magic, light magic, and time magic each for this post. But keep the others in mind!
Uses of Magic
The first and most obvious use of magic is survival, as I just finished saying. Life mana especially is necessary. If you think back to gravity, trying to live on Aermundi without life magic would be like trying to live on Earth without gravity. You would not last long. However, some life forms have learned to manipulate mana a bit when converting it into magic. As I said above, every living thing requires a careful blend of both types of mana, and the fields draw or repel it in a way that gives them that balance. But what if a life form attracted a little extra? Just a teensy bit more than it needed? Instead of that magic being absorbed into the body to assist its core functions, that extra mana can be converted into external magic and used to influence the world around it. Here’s where we get into what most people think of as magic.
I’ll go into the manipulation of fields a bit more later, but for now, assume that humans are one of the life forms with fields that can collect a little more than necessary. Some humans, that is. Every species has variation, after all. Most humans are pretty balanced, and their fields work within their individual necessary limits to sustain life. Depending on their daily exposure to mana, they may occasionally be able to do external magic, but not reliably. I expect the people near the water pole enjoy the rain despite the Hydrocof because many of their fields can absorb a little additional mana and give them the ability to do external magic. Using up that excess magic through external magic might actually be an easy cure to Hydrocof! How fun would it be to have a character who can only use their magic when it’s raining?
But ordinary people are boring. We need excitement and variation, so let’s get into genetic mutations! Let’s say there's a genetic mutation that runs in families and causes a mismatch between what the body needs to survive and what the fields naturally attract and repel. First, some people have a lower need for magic to sustain themselves but fields that attract the same amount of mana as everyone else, or sometimes even larger fields. Because they’re left with an excess of magic, they have the ability to use that external magic as you often see in books and movies: healing injuries and curing illnesses with life magic, controlling water as you see fit with water magic, blinding people and illuminating dark corners with light magic, and speeding up or slowing time with time magic. Let’s call them mages for this post, though you can imagine that every society names them and treats them differently.
However, that isn’t the only way an imbalance can occur! On the other end of the spectrum, some people need more magic to survive than the average person, and those who make it past childhood do so because they have fields that attract higher than usual amounts of mana. While they don’t have any excess magic to wave around, their increased reliance on mana makes them more sensitive to the various polarities and better able to interpret the mana traversing space and moving across the landscape. Depending on the culture, they might be viewed as seers or as witches, and treated accordingly. I’m sure you can imagine plenty of ways society might treat someone with a preternatural sense of living things and the other polar force that dictates that society’s lives.
Limitations of Magic
No magic system is complete without limitations, because no magic system is interesting without them. The limitations you put on magic will make or break your system! Here’s where I started having some fun with the magic system and really seeing how far I could push this idea of polar magic while still making it reasonably believable and engaging for readers. I’ve already shown a few limitations. Without the proper balance of magic and a field that attracts and repels each mana type at the right level for each individual, you’ll face difficulties. If you don’t attract enough life mana, you’ll die. But let’s say that part of the field functions just fine, and your field attracts and converts life mana quite happily. I expect irregularities in life magic are rare, since there’s no evolutionary benefit there and it would die out quickly. It’s just that other mana that you have problems with. Remember, it’s generally harmful, so it’s important that your field doesn’t absorb everything from the mana exuded by the poles and pouring down on Aermundi like rain or sunlight. Like the atmosphere protecting Earth from the unfiltered sunlight, a person’s field needs to bounce some back. But just like sunlight is necessary for (most) life on Earth, so too is each pole’s mana necessary on Aermundi.
If you don’t attract just the right amount of that other mana, well, the limitations it imposes can depend. If you attract too much, you can use it for external magic, as I’ll explain in a minute. But if you don’t attract enough, things can get dire. Not enough water magic, and you’ll die of thirst, your body slowly shriveling. Not enough light magic, and your eyesight will fade, your body succumbing to various deficiencies caused by a lack of light. It takes a lot more time, sure, and many people can live quite a while in this state, but eventually, you’ll die. Time is an interesting one, because if you don’t absorb enough time mana, the process will speed up and you’ll age faster and faster until death takes you. Not a good way to go, although dying of thirst doesn’t sound great either.
So that’s one limitation: the natural characteristics of each person’s individual field. Now let’s look at those mages, witches, and seers. What limits them? Well, looking at the mages first, they can only use magic that isn’t being used to sustain their lives. Use too much, and their bodies will starve in the ways I just described. However, what if they don’t use that excess magic at all? It’ll have the opposite effect! Their bodies will be inundated with too much life magic or too much of the other polar magic, and they’ll suffer in various ways. I’ll get more into that later. The bottom line is that for mages, using excess magic isn’t a choice, it’s a necessity. That makes being a mage sound a little less fun, doesn’t it?
Next, the seers and/or witches. I mentioned getting through childhood above, and for good reason. Their bodies need more magic, and if their fields don’t attract enough, they’ll die. I imagine a lot of children with this mutation don’t make it past their first few years. Luckily, some people with this mutation have stronger fields than most, and they survive those first few bumpy years! Their ability to read mana fields gives them a lot of insight, but it isn’t something they control. It’s not a sense like vision where you can shut your eyes, although perhaps with light magic shutting your eyes might help. They’re always aware of the mana around them and how it’s interacting with various fields. With life mana, they can sense every living organism within a certain radius, and by the time they reach adulthood, they’ve usually learned to read the fields and know what everything is. Imagine how overwhelming that would be! Not only are you sensing the people around you, you’re also sensing the other creatures, even the insects that flit around and the beetles that buzz on the tree trunks during the summer. Speaking of trees, you’d of course sense every single plant around you as well. Layer in the polar mana on top of that, and you’ve got a mess. Rainstorms would be deafening, sunny days unbearable, and around time mana you might be able to sense the past and future. That’s a lot. Basically, sanity is an issue here. The more aware of mana you are, the less likely you are to be able to exist in the normal world and not get lost and lose touch of reality completely. That’s a pretty good limitation, right? What seems like a strength–sensing things from a distance and being able to read the people around you–has now become a weakness. Perfect.
Mana and Life
As you can see, there’s a close and necessary connection between mana and life on Aermundi. However, life can take on some bizarre forms and work in fascinating and often horrifying ways, so you’ve got to use your imagination and stretch your understanding of what might be possible. I’ll do my best here, but I invite you to take it a step further. If you have an idea you’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
Life Needs Mana
Let’s start with life mana, because that’s the one everything relies on. Why is it universal to life? I suspect that it’s such a powerful force that anything without an adaptation just didn’t make it. It’s one of those essential, foundational elements of life. If humans from Aermundi get technology that lets them search for life on other planets the way we do, they’ll look at the planets with life mana first. So what about the other types of mana, and the other poles? Let’s look at that list again: Fire, Water, Ice, Earth, Air, Metal, Electricity, Light, Darkness, Time, and Space. Can we live without any of those? Not a chance. They’re all required for life. However, each has its drawbacks as well. You don’t want to be constantly surrounded by water or you might drown! Too much light would burn you, and just imagine what an influx of time would do. Life might not get past that first instant of existence because time keeps pushing it younger and younger! So it’s important to maintain the necessary balance to maintain life. No matter what, though, life requires mana to sustain itself. If the fields of living organisms didn’t attract and repel mana before converting it into magic that the body can consume, nothing would exist at all.
Well, just for fun, and to throw a bit of a wrench in things, there are possible ways life could do this process differently. Maybe animals have evolved fields that convert mana into magic because their bodies require magic to survive. But maybe plants went a different route. That middle step of converting mana to magic is a little excessive, isn’t it? Maybe plants have fields that allow them to feed off of mana directly. That requires a much simpler field, which might have benefits. Plants can probably thrive in places where animals might struggle, since the evolution of a plant’s simpler field might give them an edge in places of extreme excess or drought of the various mana types. It’s something to think about and develop in a book, but not something I’ll explore more in this post. You, though, should go have fun!
Life Manipulates Mana
So all life needs mana, and we’ve established that some life can attract a little more than strictly necessary. We’ve seen what that looks like for people, but what about other life? Vivian may hate me for going overboard (and over a reasonable word count) but I find this so full of potential!
Okay, let's say that various forms of life have developed sensory organs to perceive mana. Seems reasonable, right? After all, seers and witches can do it. Some predators may use it to hunt. They can see where the mana is absorbed into other life forms. Maybe they can even see magic, which again happens when a life form converts mana into a state that the body can consume. Actually, that would make more sense. After all, mana is drawn into things besides living creatures. Water mana is drawn to water, earth mana to earth, light to light (natural and artificial I imagine), dark to shadows, etc. I imagine electricity concentrates in things like lightning and, if your civilization is advanced enough, into electronics. Actually, that’s a great way to spot humans, who are generally to be avoided.
So we have predators who use it. Evolution being what it is, prey are naturally going to come up with a defense. What if they can manipulate mana to disguise themselves? Something so that the conversion to magic isn’t detected? That’s within reason, isn’t it? And who knows, some herbivores might use a similar sense to find the best plants, and those plants might learn to avoid detection as well. Again, evolution being evolution, the other side would eventually learn to detect that, and the evolutionary arms race would continue. What do you think would happen? If you had this mana and magic system, how would you design the natural world? There’s just so much that can happen!
Disturbances in the Mana
We’ve got such a nice world set up, and a magic system fully integrated with life and the various human societies. There’s so much room to explore! After all, I’m loosely touching on three of the polarities, but there are so many more you could play with! However, all good things must end. We’ve talked about the health issues associated with mana and magic with a person’s individual field. That’s all personal health stuff. However, there are plenty of things eagerly awaiting their chance to infect and feed and spread their spores. As a great man once (almost) said:
I’m going to briefly go through two to get started, one of which I’ve already mentioned, and one that doesn’t actually fit with the three mana types I’m examining but can show you the wide variety of options! Always be thinking of how to make this better!
Also, Vivian dropped by at this point and was extremely impressed at what I had done with zhir starting ideas (I went in a very different direction). Zhi was eager to play with different illnesses based on this magic system, and I was happy to oblige! Zhi came up with some wonderfully creative illnesses, so I again stole took the premises and went my own way. Neither of us wanted ordinary illnesses that magic can cure–boring! Anyone can do that. So we went a little deeper into how a fully integrated magic system would create illnesses. It’s about time to share!
Hydrocof/Wet Flu
This mild mana disease is similar to the flu that humans are used to and usually occurs from accidental, environmental exposure. Water mana is attracted to water and collects in various water forms as a result. Unprotected exposure in a rainstorm or unprotected bathing in a body of water are good ways to get this. Though less common, a person can be exposed to a high dose of water mana deliberately. This is occasionally done by siblings during fights.
Symptoms include a rash on exposed skin, fatigue, runny nose, and a hoarse, wet cough. Bad cases may result in clammy skin and a low temperature. Attempting to use life mana to heal it will worsen the effects. It’s recommended that victims use any excess water magic externally as soon as possible, without draining their resources. Prevention is key with this disease. Always remember to use an umbrella!
Petriterium/Stone Scales
This disease occurs in the influence of the earth pole, so it’s a little outside of our practicum, but it was such a cool idea that I just had to include it! Enjoy.
This potentially lethal bacterial infection occurs from exposure to foods grown in the earth that haven’t been adequately washed, or from close physical contact with an infected person. The bacteria feed on life magic as it’s being converted from mana to the body’s energy and excretes earth mana in its pure form. As the infection spreads, the earth mana begins to build up and starts causing damage.
Early symptoms include scratchy patches on the limbs and sometimes face that are pale brown in color and easily flake off; however, the patches keep returning. If the disease is caught at this point, then the victim can either receive a high dose of antibiotics or, if they prefer to rely on more traditional methods, drink fungal-infused tea until the patches stop coming back. However, most cases progress until the patches have deepened in color and can’t be scratched off. At this point, there aren’t any ways to cure it. As the disease progresses, the victim’s life magic will drop lower and lower. Attempting to use life magic to cure this will send the petriterium bacteria into overdrive. As the disease continues to progress, the infected limbs will turn to stone due to excessive buildup of earth mana trapped in the body, and this will spread across the body. Consistent high doses of antibiotics can slow the disease’s progress, but it has a high fatality rate within 1 to 3 years when either the life magic drops too low to sustain life, or the entire body has turned to stone.
Heterochronitis/Youngold
Now let’s get into some exciting options based on our three chosen mana types! We’ll start with time, always a good place. Heterochronitis, more commonly known as Youngold (young-old), is a genetic disorder that causes uneven aging throughout the body. Let’s learn more!
Cause
Heterochronitis is a genetic disorder that occurs when the magiproteins fold such that they break down life mana into time magic (Vivian: Nice fictoscience eh?). The disorder can be detected early, but it’s generally discovered only after symptoms start in middle age. It’s believed that too many exposures to timestorms (events when time mana falls in concentrated spaces like a rainstorm) can trigger the disorder, but it may also be that this is when symptoms are first noticed.
Symptoms
Acute
Symptoms appear suddenly, generally triggered by a timestorm, as parts of the body start aging unevenly. Some areas may grow old, some may grow younger. Although it begins abruptly, quick administration of a cure can slow the process.
Chronic
As the body continues to convert life mana into time magic, a person has less to convert into life magic and they grow weaker, leading to eventual death. This only occurs after at least two years, and so is only apparent if a cure is administered.
When to See a Doctor
See a doctor at the first sign that something is wrong! If you have a history of heterochronitis in your family, scan your body after every timestorm for abnormal wrinkles or smoothing of the skin, as this can be one of the first signs.
Possible Cures
Traditional Cures
Although people have been administering traditional cures for centuries, unfortunately most consist of applying timesalves or amputation. There are no good options until gene sequencing was discovered–assuming your population is that advanced, of course! In fantasy, it can be fun to have civilizations with more modern technology, but a lot tend to get stuck in the Middle Ages. While that’s a classic of the genre, sometimes it’s good to think outside of the box. Sadly for sufferers of this disorder, many die within months and most within a year of the first onset of symptoms as their internal organs age and regress at different rates. A person may have the heart of a newborn and the liver of a 90-year-old, and neither will work for a functioning adult.
Magical Cures
Unfortunately, like many ailments, magic has an extremely temporary effect on the symptoms and has no ability to provide a long term cure. Channeling time magic can prevent surface level infection from growing younger for short periods of time, and if it reaches the stage where life magic is being dramatically impacted, then adding life magic will help. However, the victim’s body will quickly adapt to the increased magic, and the person will suffer from lack of those magics in addition to this disorder.
Modern Cures
You’ve got technology! Awesome! Either you’re writing contemporary fantasy (also known as urban fantasy or low fantasy), or you’ve decided to give your high fantasy a modern feel. Well, your heterochronitis sufferers are in luck–temporarily, at least! Modern gene therapies can temporarily prevent the uneven aging in most body parts. Despite this, the disruption in life magic will take its toll, and nothing can be done about that. Life expectancy with top of the line care is 5-10 years.
Photopox/Lightpox
Oh boy, Vivian just pointed out my word count. I’d better be a bit more concise! To start with, Photopox is a virus that creates skin lesions that shine light. (Vivian: Great at rave parties!) Geez, Vivian, this is a serious disease! Well, with that basic description, we’ll get more in depth.
Causes
Photopox infiltrates cells to use the cellular molecular machinery to replicate and, in the process, converts a person’s life magic to light magic, magnifying it in specific places on a person (the lesions) and resulting in its distinctive glow. It’s primarily spread through human-to-human contact. Photopox is highly contagious and bears a resemblance to smallpox in our world. Any contact with the lesions or even anything that’s come into contact with the lesions can pass it on, but it’s mostly spread through face-to-face contact. There’s some danger in treatment as well, as you’ll see.
Symptoms
Acute
The first symptoms are also the most noticeable, namely lesions that emit light thanks to the increased light magic. These often occur in the throat first: this symptom is known as lightbreath since it’s visible when a person opens their mouth. From there, it spreads across the skin in more lesions that are especially common near the eyes, mouth, and genitals. However, they can spread anywhere on the skin. In addition to intense, uncontrollable itching, Lightpox is accompanied by all of the signs of a loss of life magic, resulting in weakness, fatigue, and often fever. If left untreated, it can be fatal.
When to See a Doctor
At the first sign of lightbreath, you should see a doctor. Or healer. Or whatever your society has! As I said in Heterochronitis, the level of technology in fantasy varies wildly. If you miss that first sign, it’s hard to miss body parts starting to glow.
Preventative Medicine
Depending on your world’s technology, you might have developed a vaccine for this! In fact, like smallpox, you might have eliminated or nearly eliminated it! Wouldn’t that be great? If you haven’t quite reached that point, then simple preventative measures during an outbreak can do wonders. Masks, anyone?
Possible Cures
Traditional Cures
The most traditional and entirely non-magical cure is fairly simple: get away from light mana so that you don’t get an overdose, and drink a special tea found only in this region of the planet that drains your life magic. Now, it’s poisonous, but in this case it reduces the virus’s ability to replicate. Dangerous? Heck yeah! Especially if you’re already weak. Effective? Well, mostly. There’s also the problem with the healer and patient having to be in close quarters, since it’s hard to avoid infection given how extremely contagious it is. If it’s a more modern world that just likes this traditional method, the healers will almost certainly be vaccinated, but vaccines are scarce in a more medieval setting.
Modern Cures
Although you can’t give a vaccine after the illness has started, more modern settings will have shots you can receive as long as it’s early enough. These shots of antibodies are extracted from the relatively rare six-hooved elk. Fun fact, an antivenom for the deadly spitting cobra is also made from this! (Vivian: Many if not all antivenoms are made using large animals to develop antibodies against it that are then extracted and purified.) Anyway, four shots in the arm and you’re good to go. Unfortunately, this is quite painful. Not ideal, but when the other option is contagion sweeping through the town or even region, you’d better bet the doctors will pin you down and administer it. Luckily, it’s pretty safe. So there’s that. With it being so painful, though, it’s very possible someone might try to hide their symptoms for as long as possible to avoid it. Your hero may need to hunt them down to prevent disaster!
However, as I said, with widespread vaccination, it’s very possible this disease is a thing of the past… unless a villain has reintroduced it, and it’s up to your hero to find the elusive six-hooved elk for the antibodies! (Vivian: I named my elk Anne) …awww I’m honored! Wait, do you have to kill the elk to get the antibodies? This suddenly doesn’t seem so friendly… (Vivian: 😈🔪)
Hydromycota/Thirstshroom
Last one, I swear. I know we already did a water one, but I wanted to get a fungus so that we had a good variety of illness types. So this is a fungus, clearly, and it doesn’t directly kill a person, just slowly dehydrates them. Months or even years can pass before it even becomes noticeable. And, well, I guess the person will eventually die, but they can usually be cured first.
Causes
Accidental Causes
The thirstshroom grows near murky ponds in warmer climates. Its distinctive bright blue cap is usually enough to warn people off, but not everyone notices it. It emits spores that humans inhale, and then it’s too late. Once infected, a person can spread it further through skin contact. However, people are usually only prone to infection if a person has a weakened immune system, usually because there’s an imbalance in their life magic to water magic ratio. This is one reason why hydrocof can be dangerous–it opens you up to other, even more dangerous things!
Deliberate Causes
Say you’re trying to weaken or even kill someone. Wouldn’t it be great to administer a very slow-acting poisonous substance that acted so slowly there was no way to blame you? Not great for impatient heroes, perhaps, but a villain with a long-term plan might give it to a hero’s ailing parents and make things worse. Does the hero suspect the villain? Obviously! Do they have proof? Rarely. And so the quest for revenge begins! As a poison, it’s a light blue powder that can be planted in a person’s home, or mixed with drugs if the person snorts anything without carefully checking. It has no odor, so unless you see it in a concentrated amount where the color shows, you might never know until it’s too late. As stated above, it works best in people with weakened systems, but at a high enough concentration, anyone is susceptible.
Symptoms
Chronic
There are really only chronic issues, not acute. The fungus takes root in the lungs and forms fungal balls that slowly feed on a person’s water magic. After they’ve been there long enough, the person will show unexpected signs of dehydration, with the first symptom being unusual thirst. As more time passes and the dehydration becomes more prominent–and a person often figures it out at that point–the balance of water magic to life magic becomes unbalanced, and the fungus spreads more easily. If left untreated, it can spread to the rest of the body, including the brain, causing aggressive and erratic behavior. This fungus doesn’t actually impact life magic directly, just the balance. If left untreated, the lack of water magic will lead to death by dehydration.
When to See a Doctor
It’s sometimes hard to tell when unusual thirst is a problem. A seer or witch might be able to see the imbalance in your magic levels, but there are other potential reasons for that. In general, though, you want to come in at the first suspicion. As long as it hasn’t spread to the brain, it can usually be cured, though it can take months of treatment.
Possible Cures
Traditional Cures
There are several herbs that can help in the early stages, including ones familiar to us here on Earth like turmeric, garlic, and peppermint. I imagine each town has their own special blend just in case. Maybe healers travel from town to town to spread their knowledge! Or maybe they hoard their secrets fiercely. Depends on what you want!
Magical Cures
Regular infusions of water magic from mages can help with symptoms in the short term, but that’s about it.
Modern Cures
Hey, we’ve discovered magifungal medicines! These need to be inhaled or injected to reach the fungal balls in the lungs. There are some dangers, as they unfortunately rely on life magic to work. As with most cures relying on this, it can easily backfire if the person is already weak. And since the fungus is more likely to infect a weaker person, well, it doesn’t always go well. Better than nothing, though!
Summa Summarum
And with that, this massive post comes to an end! I had way too much fun with this. Just so you know, neither Vivian nor I plan on using this in any stories. If you want to play around with it, go for it. But as usual with writing, make sure not to publish anything that draws too closely on this due to copyright. It’s unlikely we would do anything, but if your story becomes the biggest thing since sliced bread, we may come hunting for our own slice. Really, though, fanfic is cool, anything where you don’t make money is cool, and if you do want to use it for anything else, just get permission. We’re both very nice, despite what you might think about Vivian!
So that’s a brief walkthrough of how to design a magic system and create some fascinating diseases from it! The diseases draw inspiration from some Earth ones, but are all uniquely adapted to this specific magic system, and that’s a great way to do it. For those of you exploring how to incorporate this, grab a nice word and add -itis to the end, and you’re set!
(Vivian: The two gravest illnesses people can suffer from are romancitis, a terrible condition where someone is obsessed about romance all the time and cannot see other relations as deep, and fantasitis, where one reads fantasy. 😝)
What Vivian fails to realize is that romancitis is also commonly associated with a larger audience and often higher profits, and fantasitis is generally associated with more funitis, or more fun! 😜 However, it’s important to always write what you want to write and not write to the market (you’ll probably guess wrong) or to make money (you’ll probably fail). Writing what you want is key, because your audience will see your passion!
As you move into your own storytelling, taking inspiration from this post, expanding your own worlds and magic systems, remember to have fun!
(Vivian:) My friend….your mouth is glowing…
To read some non-Aermundi fantasy by Lady Verbosa, check out The Imperial Saga By Anne Winchell
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Copyright ©️ 2023 Anne Winchell. Original ideas belong to the respective authors. Generic concepts such as 12 mana poles (and their respective mana), general descriptions of how the world and people work, and general ideas behind the specific illnesses described are copyrighted under Creative Commons with attribution, and any derivatives must also be Creative Commons. For any intent to use any ideas from this post for profit, you must request specific permission from the authors. Even under Creative Commons, specific ideas such as exact phrasing are individually copyrighted by the respective authors. Contact them for information on usage and questions if uncertain what falls under Creative Commons. We’re almost always happy to give permission. Please contact the authors through this website’s contact page.
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