[Lore + Guide] The Rot, The Melt

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ORIGINS

"Rot. BrainRot. Melt.” These terms are derived from the umbrella disease “Odolausteltzea”, known as BloodRot in common, and its subclassifications. Having come to plague Almaris in recent years, it was first detected shortly after the Almaris Bloodrain, the second one recorded in descendant history. The incident, known commonly as “The Bloodrain,” was overlooked by the public in regards to its short and long-term effects. Soon, it would come to the attention of many that individuals who had been caught in the storm had experienced wear on their health, both mental and physical.

 

It is assumed by most who have looked into the disease that the first ever afflicted with BloodRot were contaminated by the entry of Bloodrain into the body, usually through the eyes, ears, nose or mouth. It is most likely that the raining Blood became infected through contact with surfaces, or precipitated already adjacent, or is somehow cursed. Though Bloodrain was the original carrier of the disease, it remains unclear how it was tainted - whether this was inherent to the Bloodrain itself, or if it had been tainted as it rained down.

 

Spoiler

     - The original characters tainted with the BloodRot have been introduced through RP. Unless otherwise given consent by an admin in the RCA discord, listed at the bottom of this lorepage.

     - Rotten RP is fully consensual. It is completely optional to catch the disease. However, by giving your OOC consent to someone who is able to spread The Rot, you consent to putting a PK timer on your character that lasts anywhere from one to two months that can only be erased should a valid cure be tested and applied to your character.  

 

SPREAD

Those infected with Rot, known as the “Usteldutako” or “Rotten”, are at will to spread the disease through bodily fluids, including (but not limited to) blood, saliva or mucus. One is more likely to become contaminated with BloodRot if they spend a significant amount of time around others bearing the disease. Over the course of time, people who have been infected will become contagious, ill, and, if not treated or cured, chronically ill.

 

Just like any other disease, however, there are many ways to negate the risk of catching This includes social distancing, the use of  Personal Protection Equipment preventing fluid transfer on the part of the infected (such as goggles, face coverings / masks, face shields, air filters, long / covering clothing, etc), or on the part of the potential infectee; or the termination of those infected, and proper and utter annihilation of an infected corpse.

 

Spoiler

     - Use of face coverings, goggles, face shields, and air filters are all viable ways of preventing fluid transmission between a Rotten and a potential infectee. Simple masks would be nearly obsolete. 

     - Killing off a character (PK) can stop The Rot from spreading to anyone else - however, the body must be immolated or otherwise destroyed shortly after, so that the corpse may not become a place for the disease to fester and spread.

     - Exemptions to the spread of Rot include Ghost-type CA’s, Automatons, Golems, Vargr, Vampyric CA’s (corcitura and siliti) and any other creatures with non-descendant blood. Nephilim and Azdrazi heralds can contract the disease, but cannot spread it to any others, and follow all other redlines for their respective CA’s.

     - In the act of killing another player, blood will often spread. If you kill someone with The Rot directly, you risk the chance of getting covered in their blood, and therefore contracting The Rot yourself. Therefore, it is wise to quarantine away from infected, or fight from ranged distances. 

     - If you are infected with The Rot or infect someone with The Rot, please send a submission via screenshot to the #the-infected channel on the RCA’s discord. The link is posted at the bottom of this page.

 

DISEASE

STAGE ZERO

It is hard to discern whether or not someone has been infected by The Rot, as early symptoms of The Rot tend to manifest as that of other mild diseases. Continuous sneezing, tearing of the eyes, migraines or headaches, coughing and wheezing, dizziness or lightheadedness, and / or osteoarthritis are all symptomatic of early Rot. At this stage of development, patients may notice a significantly potent or long-lasting loss or numbing of sensations on the face and / or neck, which is a constant among patients of The Rot.  Across the rest of the body, a Rotten will discover random bruising anywhere below their neck.

 

Spoiler

     - People with Stage Zero will take a week before they can begin to start developing Stage One-type symptoms as listed below. If one is infected with The Rot, they will RP having a series of semi-frequent headaches, as well as other various symptoms such as fever, chills, nasal drip, arthritis, lightheadedness, coughing, wheezing, or other such indicators of the illness that is to come.

 

STAGE ONE:

‘ROT’, OR ‘DEVELOPING CROHME’S DISEASE’

The above labeled symptoms share the common starting ground of Stage Zero. After a Saint’s Week of dealing with these symptoms, less manageable symptoms will begin to manifest. Depending on the strain of Rot someone has contracted, they may develop one of the following classification of symptoms. In cases of increased exposure to others with the disease, one may catch more than one strand, and thus develop more than one line of symptoms. The subclasses of the umbrella term Rot are as follows:

 

- Odolitsutasuna (OL-I)

 

Spoiler

     - After One Saint’s Week of contracting OL-I, an infected character would experience persistent headaches, general tiredness, and an intensified strain on their eyes.

     - After Two Saint’s Weeks of contracting OL-I, an infected character would notice they have much more difficulty seeing, and would begin to develop cataracts in their eyes. While barely noticeable to themselves and others, they would gradually increase over time, further decreasing the abilities of the infected themself.

     - After Four Saint’s Weeks of contracting OL-I, an infected character would have the vision so obscured that they would be clinically blind, their eyesight salvable only with non-biological means, or through magics dealing with the restoration of eyesight. Only with the aid of glasses would these characters be able to notice any sort of visual information - and, at that, it would be reduced to the movement of descendant-sized creatures, and the blurred silhouettes of large structures.

 

- Odolgorreria (OL-G)

 

Spoiler

     - After One Saint’s Week of contracting OL-G, an infected character would notice their headaches had grown even worse, to the point of debilitation. They’d feel a constant sense of lethargy, as well as difficulty hearing and processing auditory information.

     - Within Two Saint’s Weeks of contracting OL-G, an infected character would notice ringing in one or two of their ears, as well as an increased difficulty in hearing and processing auditory information. Their blood would turn a slight greenish tone, though would remain largely red, unobservable unless inspected closely or with magnification. It is referred to as “The Ooze”.  They would, on occasion, also bleed / ooze out of their ears.

     - Within approximately Four Saint’s Weeks of contracting OL-G, an infected character would become permanently deaf, save for the restoration of their hearing through non-biological means.

 

- Odolusaindu (OL-U)

 

Spoiler

     - After One Saint’s Week of contracting OL-U, an infected character would experience regular indigestion, stomach aches, loss of appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, and / or congestion.

     - Within Two Saint’s Weeks of contracting OL-U, an infected character would note an increasing difficulty in describing how something tastes or smells. They would also have a semi-frequent bloody nose.

     - Within Four Saint’s Weeks of contracting OL-U, an infected character would experience walking pneumonia. They would constantly struggle to take in a full breath of air, and would have decreased athletic ability, affecting both RP interactions and Combat RP. Mechanical walking / running / PVP would not be affected by this symptom.

 

- Odoldastatu (OL-O)

 

Spoiler

     - After One Saint’s Week of contracting OL-O, an infected character would notice that, despite their best efforts and actions, they would have irregularly bad mouth hygiene, marked by bad breath and yellowing teeth. They would also face trouble biting into food, and would develop a slight stutter.

     - Within Two Saint’s Weeks of contracting OL-O, an infected character would have increased trouble speaking. They would often slur their words and stutter more often due to an increased swelling in their tongue. Along the tongue, too, would be patches of white. They would experience more rapid tooth decay, as well as a complete loss of taste.

     - Within Four Saint’s Weeks of contracting OL-O, an infected character would become practically mute. Due to their tongue’s swelling, their speech becomes completely incoherent, with an absolute inability to formulate words.

 

NOTE: While the other stages are progressing, the intensity of Stage Zero may increase in tandem. That is, the severity and impact of numbness on the patient’s nervous tissue can progress, until they can no longer feel their head attached to their own body.

 

Spoiler

     - The symptoms listed under Stage Zero get worse as Stage One symptoms increase and develop.

     - If a character contracts more than one strain of BloodRot, they are free to RP them as developing independently of each other. That is, while a person’s OL-I has taken them to the point of blindness, they may now start picking up on the fact that they’ve developed a stutter characteristic of OL-U. Or, in someone with OL-G, they may begin to pick up on their developing tinnitus, as well as the poor oral hygiene characteristic of the beginning stages of OL-O

 

STAGE TWO: ‘BRAINROT’, or CHRONIC CROHME’S DISEASE

There is no specific threshold to where a patient on Stage One progresses into Stage Two, colloquially referred to as ‘BrainRot’. The noticeable pattern, however, is at least for one or more of the Stage One symptom lines to have progressed to such a degree where they come into direct contact with the brain. With more symptoms compromising the health and integrity of the internal flesh and circulatory system of the cranium, The Rot begins to permeate the fluid surrounding the brain, and begin degenerating mental function. 

 

As soon as somebody moves into Stage Two of BrainRot, the symptoms become patently obvious. Oftentimes, patients of Chronic Crohme’s Disease will develop eccentric, taboo or unusually specific obsessions or delusions with concepts, ideas or artifacts of either regular or irregular use degrading to socially acceptable morality or utility. When questioned or approached in regards to obsessions, these Rotted will often lash out, either trying to harm others or themselves, or emotionally break down. It is noted that increased stress put upon these persons by outside forces increases the magnitude of these symptoms. Social contempt and disdain towards these people only intensifies the idea that they have been rejected, and amplifies their rage or sorrow in tandem.

 

Spoiler

     - A player may begin roleplaying Stage Two symptoms four to six weeks after being infected, or immediately upon OOC approval from an admin in the RCA discord, listed at the bottom of this lore page.

     - Persons who have developed Stage Two, aka Chronic Crohme’s disease, may find certain attachments with items, artifacts, concepts, or ideas that are not socially acceptable. This may be with religious concepts not accepted within any official canon, the names of nation leaders and states that have never existed, historical events that have never occurred, identities and lifetimes they have never experienced, or other such obsessions.

     

The process worsens when patients suffer from auditory and / or visual hallucinations, an unfortunate side effect found especially for those with Stage 3 OL-I or OL-G. A few patients remain self aware, knowing that they are indeed not ‘real’ to other people, but the majority refuse to admit the machinations of their own decaying minds. 

 

Thereafter, patients are prone to fits of manic positivism, or depressed negativity, almost never reaching a proper balance of emotions between episodes that can last anywhere from fifteen Saint’s Minutes to Saint’s Years. Furthermore, patients begin to suffer through mild episodes of memory loss - whether it be metal fog to events that transpired just minutes before, or specific logistical or nostalgic information important to the patients (Such as dates, names, places, faces, etc). 

 

Spoiler

     - Those who have developed Stage 3 OL-I / OL-G will struggle to communicate with others as they lose their sense of direction and place, and will begin to act out in attempts to be recognized or to discover others. Those with Stage 3 OL-O, though still able to communicate via sign language or writing (permitting they have not developed OL-I) will struggle more intensely to communicate with those around them.

     - Across infection types, patients of Chronic Crohme’s Disease will experience increased mental fog, experiencing both short and long-term memory loss, as well as confusing or conflating details such as names, places, addresses, experiences, and other common memories.

 

STAGE THREE - ‘MELT’, OR ‘ADVANCED CROHME’S DISEASE’

Not much is known to the general public about Advanced Crohme’s Disease, an unfortunate consequence of the tendency of Rotted to kill themselves before reaching this stage of the illness. In the beginning stages of ‘Melt’, a patient’s face will cease to exist. Incomprehensibly, looking forwards towards where their head should be will only reveal the visage of what would be behind their head, were they not standing in the way. The visible neck will display inner organic structures, such as the esophagus, trachea, and spine; it is important to either stitch or constantly disinfect this area in hopes of preventing the very likely chance that this area will become infected, leading to a full bruising of the patient’s body. This trend of ‘disappearance’ will continue down the body, until one of two things happen to kill the patient.

 

In a Class-A ‘Melt’ scenario, a person’s skin will be coated in patches of boils, bruises, scabs, and lacerations. These continue to develop as the person’s grasp on the outside world begins to rapidly deteriorate. If not already lost before, their sense of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch will completely evaporate. They will be shut into their own microcosmic hell, unable to do anything but flail around with what is left of their body and be guided along by those who are not Melting. Slowly, their skin will begin to disappear, starting at the head and trailing down their body. As the process repeats over and over, the body’s integrity deteriorates until it can no longer sustain itself. At this point, the body gruesomely ejects its inner contents out, the skin flattening and disappearing, leaving nothing of the person but the bile that was spewed out from their corpse and whatever they had on them at the time,  including the clothes and wrappings they wore before their death. A full ‘Melted’ is impossible to recover after death.

 

Spoiler

     - Stage Three is only an RP hypothetical, as the character is most often already deceased, for one reason or another. For all intents and purposes, "The Melt" does not exist.

 

In a ‘Class-B Melt’ scenario, a patient, completely rendered devoid of the ability to speak, hear, see, smell, or touch, will stop existing entirely. If they are wearing clothes, they will fall to the ground as though they are not being worn. Searching for the body is fruitless, as it simply no longer exists. This does not happen all at once, but seems to trail down the body over the course of months. Once it becomes impossible to feed them, the body will starve itself over the course of a few months as the body begins to dissipate more rapidly, before their entire body is gone.

 

Those afflicted are immediately considered terminal, and placed within appropriate containment for reasons of both own self preservation, and public safety. There is little known treatment but painkillers or other alleviators until proper disposal (and subsequent annihilation) of the body can take place.  

 

V. Treatment

 

Across Almaris, many medical corps and research teams have not only been dealing with incident incidences of The Rot, but have been researching cures for The Rot. Xannic healing abilities seem to slightly improve the morale of a patient, through an advanced and extremely effective painkilling method, but it does not seem to affect The Rot itself. 

 

Spoiler

     - Xannic powers cannot be used to heal patients of The Rot.

 

As of now, it is unknown whether shamanic practitioners, voidal magis, or any other type of sorcerical practices are able to treat or otherwise mitigate the symptoms of The Rot. The most prominent hypotheses on how to cure ‘Rot’ all convene on the same point; replacing the entirety of a Rotted patient’s blood with that of healthy descendants of the same species. However, for one mortal descendant to transfer all of their blood to another, and to have the Rotted let all of their blood, both would most likely die in the process. Further research must go into figuring out how to do this total blood transfusion safely.

 

Spoiler

     - It will be left up to RP discretion / RCA approval to use an RP-discovered ‘Cure’ to fix ailments of The Rot. After The Rot has been purged from someone who experiences Stage 0-2 Rot, they may begin to recover some, if not all, of their symptoms. Blindness and Deafness would remain; however, motor function and sensation would increase, and swelling / patches of infection would deflate, allowing the person to move and speak as they once had before.

     - Experiment! Use Alchemy, Bloodmagery, different healing methods, quack doctor science - anything you want! Just send a screenshot of the RP to the #the-cure channel in the RCA discord to get approval of the cure method.

     - OR! If you become infected, feel free to RP as a bad actor and try to spread the Rot to other people! Use different methods you see fit! Sneeze, cough, spit, or throw up on random civilians. Purposefully go into public places without PPE and talk in people’s faces. Share a drink with a loved one, unknowingly poisoning them. Collect a Rotted’ person’s blood and transfuse it into a non-infected person. Make a jar of Rot-infected bile / blood and chuck it into a crowd of people. The possibilities are endless!

 

Visit The RCA’s Discord For More Information / OOC Consent For Rot / Logging Instances Of Rot

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH;

https://discord.gg/wkSY8W9ve3

Edited June 15, 2022 by Nescaffier
General Amendments

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General Amendments: 
- Removed social distancing / mask requirements
- Removed roleplay of the "Melt" (invisible people)

- Corcitura and siliti cannot obtain the rot (Thanks rainedropf for bringing this up to me)
- Slightly appeased story team

NO MORE COVID LARP PLEASE I BEG 

Edited June 15, 2022 by Nescaffier