Tamriel Data:Artificial Diseases, Vol. 2

Book Information Artificial Diseases, Vol. 2
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Artificial Diseases, Vol. 2

by Mar Bekorithi

Vol. II: Knahaten

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The archives of the Museum of the Provinces contain a particular merchant's letter from the city of Stormhold. Besides humdrum details of tariffs and caravan routes, it mentions a rash which has afflicted some of the firm's laborers, causing delays in production. The merchant ends his note with a promise to make up for lost time and money the next month. Two weeks later, he and all those mentioned in his letter would be dead.

The Knahaten Flu was by far the worst plague of the Second Era, responsible for numberless lives lost as well as the annihilation of several proud cultures of the Argonian region, such as the Kothringi and Lilmothiit. Popular history blames the Argonians for its creation, as they alone proved immune to it.

A somewhat obscure theory posits that the Knahaten Flu was spread not through air, dirt, water, or vermin, but through silver. The Kothringi were known far and wide for their silver mines. Kothri silver financed the Alessian Empire's sectarian wars, and supported the Reman conquests and the decades-long war with Morrowind. It is estimated that a fourth of the currency in circulation under Emperor Brazollus Dor originated from the depths of Koth.

Besides silver, disease has always been closely associated with the Blackwood marshes. Other human populations, such as the Orma, bear the marks of living in their proximity, suffering from severe deformities such as blindness.

The Kothringi, by contrast, were curiously hale and healthy -- in fact, many sources emphasize their physical beauty. Even the respiratory illnesses that befall miners of all kinds eluded them, despite the fact that most Kothringi would spend a year in ritual service to Z'en, deep in their holy mines.

Rivers that became polluted with runoff from the mines glowed white at night, causing fish to die and animals to turn feral. Diseases multiplied like flies. Even plants grew poisonous and strange. Whatever curse lived in the heart of Blackwood, the mines of Koth were near the heart of it.

Was it greed, then, that cursed the Kothringi? If the theories on Kothri silver's role in the Flu proved true, It would certainly not be the first recorded instance of a sickness being carried within physical items. I am reminded of the story of a Breton village of the Second Era. It is said that, for some unknown offense, an alchemist had taken a great dislike to this place. Knowing the villagers' rustic lifestyle, he enchanted a great amount of baubles, and, posing as a common peddler, sold these to the villagers.

Unbeknown to them, each item was enchanted in such a way that it would capture and concentrate ambient diseases. Plagues quickly burned through the village, its inhabitants ignorant of the cause of their misfortune -- some even clutching their jewels in the throes of death, or passing them on to their children on their dying bed. The village was lost, but looters and refugees carried off many of these items, some of which are still at large within High Rock.

Though this example does not concern a artificial sickness, it does show how such a disease could be spliced onto a common material. Considering the nature of Kothri silver, which was very pure, homogeneous, and capable of holding great enchantments, it is possible that contact with silver, thus infused with the Knahaten Flu, infected not only those who came into contact with it, but also other pieces of Kothri silver in the vicinity. Commerce, then, would have been the vector for this sickness.