Erasure Rot

The God's mistake. Often described as an oversight from the gods during the Age of Myth, the Erasure rot is the most dangerous within the Familiar Lands. The Erasure is so profound that is rewrites existence on a cosmic scale, annihilating the soul and memories from the fabric from the universe. The inflicted peers will eventually forget them, and their parents will no longer recognize them as they gradually decay into a grotesque form. The Erasure Rot affects all complex organisms and spreads through bites.

Originating in an era preceding the emergence of the Fundamentals, the Erasure Rot represents the final act of an ancient deity. No records of the illness survives due to the cosmic corruption of the rot, which obliterated his fundamental essence, yet it endures in every infected entity. Despite extensive attempts both magical and biological to replicate the ailment none have had any success, leading to researchers to conclude that this illness is a profound error of divine creation. Some heretical researchers claim that is it an essence of a dead god, persisting through ignorance of its own death, but such radical thinkers would soon receive a visit from the Golden Inquisition.

Diagnosis

It is crucial to spot and identify the disease before complete erasure occurs. Left unidentified, outbreaks quickly grow into epidemics as those who forgets the infection cannot protect themselves against it. Although the rot is easily visible, the uninitiated may mistake it for leprosy or another disease. Reports of disease outbreaks where families neglect infected members, or where clergy and healers are absent despite the severity of the infections, are often early warnings of an outbreak of the Erasure rot. Animals instinctively recognize the threat of the rot. Even a hungry bear wouldn't care approach an afflicted individual.

Through the rot removes the afflicted from the memories of their acquaintances, their journals and writings remains. This is used to identify unknown individuals. The afflicted will most likely attempt to amputate the infected body parts. Though this does delay the infect, it does not excise the rot. For some strange reason, the afflicted start smelling like burnt caramel.

Symptoms

Day 1: It always starts with the pinky finger, skins peels and sores begin to grow. It will spread to the arm within an hour. Amputating can slow the spread, but not prevent it. It has tainted their very soul

Day 2: By now most of their skin has peeled off, more sores and pustules grow, some forming eyes. Their body has forgotten how it is supposed to look, and what's left is a bloody cancerous canvas.

Day 3: They enter a stage of rotting existence, their ego slowly dying. Most of their friends and family have forgotten them. They are little more than a living tumor.

Day 4: Driven by desperation to seek help from a loved one, they reach out to them, and they recoil in horror for they have forgotten them. Their body now spreads the corruption, and soon they will not be remembered either.

Day 5: They have forgotten themself. All their memories are but ashes in the wind. There is no more 'them', there is only unending torment.

Days Beyond: Their tainted body continues to mutate, never settling on a form. The dead god within tries to reform its shape with their flesh, but it no longer remembers how.

Containment

Erasure Rot has been confined and eradicated in the majority of the realm. However, this is a sickness that can never be completely eradicated; its spread can be prevented, but there is no healing the infected.

The Golden Inquisition is dispatched to locations where the sickness may proliferate; if there is even a suspicion of the Rot, they have been known to quarantine entire cities. If an afflicted is identified they are willing to raze the entire settlement to the ground. the cost of innocent lives is considered acceptable when compared against the devastation that could be caused by an infected individual escaping. There are many attempts to educate the general public about the dangers of the Rot. However, a cosmic illness isn't easily comprehended by the average mind and many dismiss it as rumour or propaganda, only realizing otherwise when it is already to late.

Infected individuals exhibit diminished strength and speed; depending on the infection's stage, they may transform into masses of malignant tissue. However in rare instances, they become perilous aberrations capable of significant devastation. These aberrations are purposed to resemble the deceased deity whose carcass they arose. However, no records or recollections of the aberration's appearance exist to substantiate these rumors, nor of the deity it is claimed to resemble. When questioned, those who made such assertions after vanquishing the beast could not explain why they had said such things, swiftly disregarding the idea of such a thing being real, or them having fought it, despite diary notes recording otherwise.

Through Authority's Exaltation, the mortality rate upon being bitten lowers from 100% to a modest but still very deadly 63%. If bitten, the Exalted is to submit to quarantine and write everything down regarding their inheritance, identity and personal history before waiting to see if the infection takes root.