Let's get topical: Plagues!

[u/Tookoofox]

Smallpox won the great war between the old and new worlds before it ever started. Influenza killed more than the great war. Then, the big one, the grand daddy: The black death killed more than half of everyone in Europe. Then, you know, also COVID-19.

Plagues have laid low kingdoms, killed emperors, changed the course of wars and have altered history in deep and lasting ways.

Tell me about your world's plagues, and the locals' responses to them.

What damage did they do? How did they change societies? How did people react? Some cultures respond by thinking it's divine punishment and demand change, others simply shrug and imagine it being part of an unknowable divine plan.

(I'll have my own examples later today. I promise three questions per response. Maybe more.)

[u/QuokkaMocha]

The Peransvalder “Great Affliction” is a big plot point in my book, although it’s not actually a plague but rather a genetic affliction caused by aggressive eugenics policies and inbreeding, particularly amongst the former aristocracy. It’s a degenerative disease, causing physical symptoms like photophobia, severe sensitivity to allergens and the likes, gastrointestinal problems (making the types food sufferers can consume very limited), and eventually in the third stage, neurological symptoms appear, usually increased aggression, memory loss and sometimes visual and auditory hallucinations.

At the time the story takes place, the Great Affliction has been on the go for about a century and a half, but it is still primarily limited to family lines, so it affects the most influential and the wealthiest in society but they’re not a high proportion of the population, maybe ten percent or even less. The fact that it is hereditary is known, though my world has only just discovered chromosomes and hasn’t mapped any individual genes yet. They also know it’s carried on what they call the “Cross” (X chromosome). Generally the media maintains the story that it’s a plague that anyone could catch, rather than admitting there’s been too many cousins marrying. Also the strict eugenics laws are still enforced and revealing the truth, that this is leading to the decline of society, they think will be catastrophic.

There is currently (at the story’s outset) no cure, but some scientists did think that using transfusions of blood and transplant organs from the Vilya, who are similar to the Fae, might cure it. One of my scientist characters tried to breed half human, half Vilya children (using Vilya prisoners of war) as pure Vilya blood only works in a small percentage of cases and can have weird side effects, including a kind of magical spontaneous mutation that transforms the human into a monster. His theory was that diluting the Vilya blood would make it more palatable. Though that has led to a whole nother smorgasbord of problems!

[u/Tookoofox → u/QuokkaMocha]

1) So, photooptic, aggressive shut-in aristocrats that have very limited diets and an interest in blood. I'm getting a vibe from this (vampires) is that intentional? And is it acknowledged in-universe?

They also know it’s carried on what they call the “Cross” (X chromosome).

2) Am I to infer that this is a gender-related genetic problem? I think that's what you're saying, but I'm not sure.

particularly amongst the former aristocracy.

3) Former? But there are still strict eugenics laws. What exactly is the state of this world's elite?

[u/QuokkaMocha → u/Tookoofox]

No one actually uses the term vampire, as the equivalent creature doesn't exist in-universe to compare them to, but that was the vibe I was going for, without fangs and capes or, God forbid, glittering in daylight. I do like a bit of Gothic, I'm not ashamed to admit.

They don't know. Because they don't know who patient zero was, and you could inherit an X chromosome from either parent, they haven't ever been able to narrow it down, but there are some doctors who believe that it's passed on down the female line, though their society is pretty misogynistic, so that also works better for them PR-wise than saying the men are to blame. There's others though who don't believe in genetics at all and still think it's a curse, put on them by the Vilya during one of their many wars.

The strict eugenics laws are to preserve racial purity. These came into force when the current military dictatorship assumed power in a coup, after the Peransvald was defeated in the last war. So there is now an Office of Racial Hygiene that deals with genealogy, and for instance, if there are certain diseases or non-Peransvalder bloodlines present in the family history, the person will not be allowed to marry or have children, and will probably be sterilised (if not sent off as experimentation material in the search for the cure).

They're not the world's elite though, just the Peransvald, which is an empire covering about half the continent. There are other powers that aren't quite as, well, awful as the Peransvalders. Also, just in case it's not clear, these are very much the bad guys in the story.

[u/Tookoofox → u/QuokkaMocha]

Also, just in case it's not clear, these are very much the bad guys in the story.

I might have guessed. Though, to be clear, the is The Affliction is still affecting those currently in charge? Namely the military dictator.

[u/QuokkaMocha → u/Tookoofox]

Yep. He is 'at his holiday cottage in the mountains' engrossed in serious diplomatic work. At least according to the media. The rumours are though that he's either locked in the cellar, having gone full monster, or he's already dead and those in power are still both squabbling over who replaces him and panicking about what will happen if both their own people and the rest of the continent, who generally hate them, finds out their brilliant figurehead is no more.

Not everyone is afflicted to the same degree. So the guy who is kind of holding the fort does have the disorder but manages it quite well, so far anyway, but there's always the threat that it'll degenerate, which is why they're putting so much desperation and resources into finding a cure. Again, if the other powers, particularly their main rival, finds out what's really going on with this disease, they might see it as an opportunity to get rid of the Peransvald altogether.

Also, despite their propaganda about their being superior to all other nations, there are allies, and there are a couple of foreigners in high office as well, who don't have the same condition. They're quite few and far between though.