Diseases are pathological. Illnesses are things that cause someone to feel unwell.
In my story:
1.) Radiation Poisoning: This one is dying out in the story, but people still get some of they symptoms.
2.) Shivering Influenza: This one is inspired by the English Sweating Sickness that spread throughout Europe in the 15-16th Century. It spreads quickly and causes a harsh blow to the population. Some people are immune to it, other overcome it quickly, some die fairly quickly.
3) Malnutrition: This is very common in certain areas of my society. It is one of the reasons that the main plot happens. It is also a big part of the history.
These are just a few of the things that happen. I have more, but for the stories sake, these will the main focus. What does your world have to deal with? What is likely to kill off your characters if they were to fall ill? Do they kill you quickly or slowly? Let me know, I would love to bounce around ideas.
In Ehre, a TB-like disease ravaged the country and killed many people. The main character's mother nearly died from it, and it made her resign from heading the guards that protect her and her family. She also has to live with the fact it could come back at any time.
@jynandor That's really interesting. How likely is it to come back?
It's pretty much a given that it will come back, it's more of a matter when than if.
That would really suck. Most of mine are ones that cause lasting damage.
I don't really have a lot of diseases that are specific to any of my universes. I do have a type of poison in one of my stories that's only effective on people with powers though. There's three instances when it's used in the story, and it tends to act differently depending on how it's administered.
In the first two cases it's given subcutaneously in a large amount. This pretty much caused the victims to grow really weak, and become a bit delusional before losing consciousness. In these two cases, the victims were starting to catch on to the villain and therefor needed to be silenced.
In the third case, it's given in smaller doses by mouth. In this instance, the victim has more flu like symptoms, but he also becomes so weak that he can no longer use his powers, and then becomes increasingly weaker from there. In theory, he'd eventually become delusional before losing consciousness like the other two. In this case, the victim was a prominent figure who needed to be taken down (in the eyes of the villains, anyways). So in this case it was kind of a matter of "kill him, but don't make it look like you killed him."
So, the larger the dose the quicker the effects? Is there a large enough dose to kill them almost instantly or does it level off at some point?
Yeah larger doses pretty much speed up the effects. I'm still trying to figure out whether or not it could be lethal though, because if it were then that would be more efficient for the villains, but it would also create a plot hole for the the first two cases (because if it could kill them then that would be the obvious route for the villain to go since there'd be no chance of them getting in the way again. But I also can't kill off these two characters because they're main characters and their roles in the story are too big for them to get killed off later on).
I have one inspired by scarlet/rheumatic fever (still working on a name). It's usually deadly if not treated immediately, and one of my characters now has arthritis and heart problems because he had it when he was younger and wasn't treated.
I have one called Aamusnaan (Ah-muse-san). It's unique to only one species in my universe, and is more of a parasite that takes 650 years to wake up, and 50 years for symptoms to appear, and 30 years to take effect, as well as another additional 3-5 year period and the parasite is complete.
The parasite can stand high temperatures, as is needed to survive in the individual species. The changing is impossible to avoid. Surgery is impossible to do.
What it does is that, while it does not directly lead to the death of the creature it can, as it makes them more aggressive. The first few changes would be wanting to be alone; shorter temper and more likely to lash out at others. Eventually, they might vanish for days, weeks at a time, maybe even months, without eating or drinking (though they do not require as much water as we do). It'll progressively get worse, with the individual loosing, or slowly loosing their ability to communicate via human languages. Instead, it will be limited to noises; vocal; and body language. Writing as well, but only for a limited amount of time.
After the 30 years the victim will have lost all ability of speech. 5 years more, and they will loose their "humanity" or morals, or even their "civil personality." They'll most likely hunt for sport at this point, which can often lead to their deaths as they often wander into areas with the most scents; or heavily populated areas (even if they do a lot of damage).
Parasites live by feeding off the nutrients that the host provides. So, why does this particular parasite make its host go prolonged periods of time without food? It seems that would only hurt itself.
Parasites live by feeding off the nutrients that the host provides. So, why does this particular parasite make its host go prolonged periods of time without food? It seems that would only hurt itself.
This world works much differently compared to ours. The parasite has a main goal, which is to control the brain, but since the species usually has a pretty good food source (which provides nutrients to the host) this also keeps the body's defense systems against bacteria and parasites pretty active and alert. By cutting off a steady supply of food, the parasite can move to the brain, or a different location with little to no trouble at all. While it does hurt the parasite, this specific species can generally go a long while without food (slow metabolism) so the parasite usually ensures that the host has the minimum of nutrients for the host to stay somewhat healthy and for the parasite to survive.
Again, it does hurt the parasite however, so vanishing for months hasn't really been observed since the parasite has another goal which is to keep the host and itself alive. Years will never occur. For the most part, only a few days (3-5) are common.
Vanishing is also apart of the species' instincts since whenever it becomes heavily injured or sick it will do so, like a cat.
There's a disease sweeping the slums of the capital of Basria (name pending). Since the subjugated peoples of Ignosia are the ones populating the slums, it is mostly the Ignosians getting sick, including the main character's younger sister. It's spread through transfer of bodily fluids and at the latest stages of the disease, the inflicted weaken and break out into sores and fever. Death usually comes after three weeks and there's no cure. The wealthier citizens stay healthy by keeping the sick confined in the slums (and denying them access to the better hospitals in the better parts of the city) and they use aqueducts, whereas the poor all have to use wells that are all probably contaminated.
I don't know if this would be categorized as either, but in one of my worlds, the main character is suffering from reality nightmares. He has nightmares that have some kind of gooey substance that can attack him. A little while after he wakes up, whether its by someone else or just out of fear, painful red marks appear for a while on his body where the goo attacked him. The longer he has these nightmares, the longer the red marks last on his body.
I have no name for this one yet, but it only affects creatures with a breath weapon. It causes the sac where the weapon (i.e. alkali metal, pressurized acid, etc.)is behind the sternum, but right of the heart, to swell shut. The disease pregresses fairly quickly, to the point where those with weak immune systems or those who produce a lot of beath weapon will be severely injured or die. It's like appendicitis, where if it swells too much it will rupture. Very few have ever survived the initial explosion, and those who have die soon after. Despite it's deadly outcome, it can be very easily treated. All you need is some anti-inflammatory medicine with water, and the swelling will go down to the point where you could use your breath weapon to clear yourself out. Full on dragons and wyverns have an "infinite" supply where their body produces enough to last for an entire day without running out unless they tried, but half-breeds have far less. Fully grown ones have about ten shots before an 8-12 hour "refractory" period. Symptoms include a burning feeling in the chest, shortness of breath, and a glowing spot where the sac would be on the chest.
the major illness in my worldbuilding is Olmonia (have no idea if that's already a name for something) where a person releases toxins into their body when they die. Touching a dead person more than and hour after death could lead to contracting the disease which gives of a zobifying effect. It's a huge concern for my characters because they're fighting in a war through hand-to-hand combat. It's a helpful tool: create illnesses with the intention of using them to hinder your character!
One of the illnesses i have in one of my universes is called Crystal Rabies and it affects mostly dragons and likes who hoards gems. What happens is that some gems become corrupted with time and start to release some spores, which when breathed get into the sac where is the gas which dragons use to make fire/explosions. The longer a dragon is exposed to that corrupted gem, the more spores the dragon breaths.
With time the spores crystallize into small crystal, which grow and become sharper. The crystal can end up puncturing the sac, and the gas in leaked into the body of the dragon and the next time the creature tries to make fire it can explode or burn himself internally.
