Fell's Curse

It is said that Serenians and Connlaothians share a common ancestor. Long ago, there was a great nation located beneath the Kilanthro mountains and far to the west. This nation thrived on magecraft and was a successful, prosperous place.

That all fell apart when its mages got too curious and tampered with forces they shouldn't have, and in doing so unleashed a tainted, chaotic magic that became the nation's downfall. The surviving mages were able to contain that taint, but not before the damage was already done and the once great country was in ruins. The magic left a scar on the land and, to this day, the residual taint still clings to the ruins. Any mage who ventures there becomes infected with this chaos magic...and takes it with them when they leave.

While no one remembers the name of that nation, for this all happened so long ago, most know of its legacy and avoid the ruins at all costs. But there are those thrill-junkies, treasure-hunters, and knowledge-seekers that don't heed the warnings and instead choose to poke around the abandoned, crumbling buildings for artifacts and lost knowledge, and they suffer for it if they have even the smallest amount of magical talent.

The Curse

The curse only affects mages, so those that lack magic remain unaffected. But for those who possess even the tiniest amounts, the effects are disastrous and affect not only the mage, but the world around them.

The effect on the infected mages is a loss of control of their magic. Spells go wrong, backfire, and cast without them meaning to. But worse still is the affect on the world around them. Wherever they go, they spread entropy and chaos. People go mad around them; animals go rabid; nature twists, rebels, or dies; magical enchantments and spells warp and go wildly wrong...and the effect gets worse the longer they stay in one place so they have to keep on the move constantly.

To make matters even more complicated? Any mage the infected mage comes into contact with also contracts the curse.

It acts as a magical plague, spreading from mage to mage like wildfire. While one infected mage may be but a nuisance, a group of infected mages could crumble an entire nation the same way it destroyed that long-dead civilization.

As of now, there is no known cure but death. While people are searching for a cure, the only way to stop the spread in the meantime is to kill the infected mage. In Adela, infected mages are even expected to commit ritual suicide for the good of their community. In cases where outbreaks have gotten especially bad, some nations have been known to request aid from Connlaoth, contracting the Mordecai to help stamp out outbreaks.