Aurora

This mysterious and tragic occurrence was first documented roughly three hundred years ago, but due to the nature of the event, it is possible that undocumented instances occurred before this theoretically initial case.

Scattered randomly across the world of Aurora, exceptional children are born with intricate green runic birthmarks and an inborn talent for Life magic. Where most young mages grow into their abilities through their youth and adolescence, these children are capable of incredible feats of power from the moment of their birth.

But where a typical life mage only ever develops enough power to heal fresh injuries or encourage slow plant growth, these children only grow in power, surpassing every conventional limitation at breakneck speed. Most notably, within the first few years of their life, their magic becomes potent enough to induce mutation and madness in those around them, easily overwhelming the body’s natural magical defenses if released without control.

Corruption to the body damages both mind and soul. For this reason, Life magic, above all other forms of elemental magic, must be carefully controlled and trained. No other magic can so rapidly and wholly alter a human being without killing them in the process.

But no amount of training can save these children, as it is inevitable in every case that the child will lose total control of their magic within the first few years of their life. This invariably results in a cataclysmic release of raw, untempered life magic, irreparably damaging the surrounding landscape and inducing random, catastrophic mutation in all living things within range of the event. These chimeric mutations are what give this tragedy its name – the “chimeric plague”.

The chimeric carriers themselves never survive this process, but the greater danger comes from the mutated victims of the event, irrevocably transformed and driven thoroughly mad. These chimeric victims roam the blasted land, attacking whatever and whoever passes through the region. Many attempts have been made to restore these victims, but in all cases, the only recourse is to put the creatures down and attempt to gradually cleanse the area of the lingering miasma of mutative life energy.

Though the chimeric plague poses a global threat, the Aseran academy’s research suggests that there is only ever one chimeric carrier in existence at a time, and shortly after each carrier dies, a new one is born elsewhere on the planet. There appears to be no pattern to these births, and the rarity of the event makes it doubly difficult to preempt a chimeric plague instantiation. As it is impossible to inform the entire world population of the deadly threat that these children pose, carriers born in more rural or isolated areas may never know what they are until the very moment tragedy strikes.

We will likely continue to be ravaged by random chimeric plague events across the world for the foreseeable future.