Sinking deeper and deeper in calm embrace

Though the effects of Voidrot are heavily documented, its origins are mostly unknown. The popular theory is that it stemmed from an old-age void ritual gone wrong.

Voidrot is a physiological disease first and a neurological disease second. It can either be hereditary or transmitted. It is transmitted through blood and saliva, so the most common cause of voidrot infection are wounds or bites from the Voidbeasts (see stage 4).

Voidrot infection progresses in a number of stages, which are as follow :

- Stage #1 : Dark, grey-ish patches start appearing on the infected’s skin. They may start experiencing shortness of breath, frequent headaches and dizziness, hallucinations, temporary loss of feeling in infected limbs, and passing apathy. The infection is easily treated in this stage, simply avoid contact with void magic and seek unfiltered sunlight.

- Stage #2 :  The patches on the skin blacken further, and the infected’s skin becomes more fragile. When wounded - which will often happen at this stage from mundane day-to-day tasks - the blood of the infected can be observed to be darker and thicker than normal. Further analysis has revealed that at this stage, the blood is saturated with microscopic bits of crystallized void. Traces of these are also found to form at stage #1, which causes the grey patches on the skin, but their quantity is much less. The symptoms from stage #1 are still present, and in some cases more severe. Cases like these can still be treated, though it will often require constant exposure to sunlight, or direct exposure to some form of light magic.

- Stage #3 : At this stage, the symptoms start to get exponentially worse. Infected experience constant headaches, visual and auditory hallucinations, gradual loss of emotion OR hypersensitivity, mostly in the anger department (this symptom is the most important, letting a doctor determine what transformation the infected will undergo at stage #4), loss of feeling in the limbs/partial paralysis for several minutes at a time. Wounds seem to open up by themselves on the infected’s body at this stage, which will cause blood to pour out and instantly crystallize on contact with air. This leads to mutation of the body by creating a thick crystal carapace of their own blood. The crystal seems to sometimes spread on its own, without injury. Its likely more void than blood at this point of the infection, but more research is needed.

- Stage #4 : This stage marks a split depending on the state of the infected at stage #3 :

If the infected had experienced the gradual loss of emotions, they will become completely apathetic in this stage. People in this condition are describes as “Hollows”. Hollows are covered from the neck down in the void crystal, sometimes even their heads are encased in it. They do not seem to need any kind of sustenance, despite seemingly being still alive. Their eyes will go completely black in this stage, causing blindness, but their body will not change form. Hollows mostly stumble around aimlessly and are no real threat, but there is no known cure at this stage. They will eventually lose all memory of who they once were, and live on virtually forever unless killed faster than the crystal can regenerate their body.

If the infected had experienced hypersensitivity, their emotions will be amplified even further, leading them to act entirely on instinct and being virtually unable of rational thought. Their body will also undergo a significant transformation at this stage, being turned into somewhat of an animalistic shape to become what is described as a “Voidbeast”. Voidbeasts are agressive and dangerous, being much stronger and faster than the average person. They will attack on sight (this is theorized to be because of a deep engrained belief that feeding on “pure” flesh will cure them. This has not been proven to be the case.), and at this point the only hope of evading them is to hide, or wound them enough for them to be unable to pursue further. It’s been shown that Voidbeasts retain somewhat of their original personality, being shown to be able to speak - mostly simple words and names that might have been important to them - and some recorded cases have even shown them being trained and somewhat tamed. Newly transformed Voidbeasts are disoriented and weak, which may inspire pity in some people : this is not recommended, as the beast will quickly regain strength and no doubt make you its first victim. Contact with Voidbeasts is strongly advised against and prohibited under Hekrean law, as they are the main cause of Voidrot spread.

- (Theorized) Stage #5 : In some extremely rare - and often doubted - cases, voidbeasts have reportedly been observed to regain a more anthropomorphic form, and supposedly even shifting back into their original form under direct sunlight. These findings are largely unconfirmed, and widely believed to be delusions from the family members and friends of those who’ve turned, illegally hosting Voidbeasts in their homes.

If you or someone you know has been infected with Voidrot, follow these instructions :

- Stay in direct sunlight as much as possible. If it is presently night time, isolate yourself and call medical services. If possible, try to remain in artificial light, it will slow down the infection.

- Remain calm. Accelerated breathing has been shown to spread the infection faster.