Witch Rash
A magical disease responsible for the Amaranthine Reaping, a terrible plague where millions of people lost their lives. Witch rash was a contagious curse with an unknown origin, but called for serious response and attention.
Even after the Amaranthine Reaping became a distant historical tragedy, pockets of witch rash still popped up from time to time. For smaller, poorer towns, such outbreaks could spiral out of control and effectively wipe the entire settlement off the map.
Symptoms #
Witch rash was characterized by a vibrant glowing blue-violet bruising. As the disease progressed, the bruises would spread throughout the diseased person's body. Late stage witch rash victims emitted a powerful bright light from all over their bodies, including from within their throats and eyes.
Witch rash would also induce mania and psychosis, making afflicted individuals uncooperative and unpredictable.
As a unique and peculiar beneficial symptom, individuals infected with witch rash experienced heightened magical abilities, assuming they were trained in an arcane path.
Witch rash culminated in an explosive demise. In the diseased person's final moments, they would rapidly swell up like a balloon before exploding, incinerating the surrounding area. Outbreaks of witch rash (and especially the Amaranthine Reaping pandemic) were infamous for cascades of explosions sweeping through whole cities as swathes of the infected perished.
Transmission #
The most horrifying part of witch rash's nature was its transmission. When a terminally ill witch rash victim expired and detonated, invisible rays of zawmar archons would momentarily manifest in random directions. These rays could reach over 130 kilometers long, and every living creature in their paths would become infected with the curse.
Stigma #
Witch rash received its name because of its connection to Zawmancy and the similarity of the disease's terminal explosions to those created by members of the Coven of Fire. Many incorrectly assumed that witch rash was first incepted as a malevolent curse by the Exploding Witch long ago. The Arcane Hand cleared up this misconception for the most part, but witch rash's name remained. ^4cd441
It was more likely that witch rash was simply an anomalous arcane reaction that was caused when two zawms manifested in the same spot in space at the same time. The Arcane Hand refers to this concept as the Zawmantic Runaway theory. ^63d0b9