#Septicemic

[dotwpod]

(319) MLiFS: Robert Carlson

Disciples!We’re back with not only another episode of My Life in Four Songs, but we’re also back with ‘multi-band guitarist’ and music store owner Robert Carlson! Rob shares his story of discovery of music outside of his father’s influence, and the path that would lead him to become a guitar player and Death Metal fanatic.You know what to do: tune in, and tune out the world – at least for a…

[imnothingimnobody]

Metal lyrics (attempt 2)

Septicemia Stress spots Baggy eyes A gray stone Everything you exude is yellow ON THE CROSS SLIDING FROM A NAIL IN YOUR COCK AS HE LOOKS DOWN I'M GLAD THAT MY LIFE IS ON TRIAL A gray stone PROVE TO ME THAT MANSON WAS NOT GOD I DARE YOU PROVE TO ME

PULL THE PLUNGER Electric shock... (shock) Open your fucking mouth Septicemia A brain bleed Cirrhosis I laugh at you As your kidneys fail Welcome to hell HE PATS YOU ON THE FUCKING BACK HAHA! I DONT GIVE A FUCK THAT YOU'RE IN HELL Flames peel at your skin

[massgrav]

Their mouths filled with ashes

and Death's tongue

—

Plague patient n.3 – Septicemic

[thethcministry]

[enchanting-chit-chat]

Beetlejuice's Backstory and the Black Plague 💚🕷️🥀💀 PART 1

I went and watched the new Beetlejuice movie twice already, can’t wait to share my thoughts! I’ve decided to make a series of posts mainly dedicated to people that are curious about the Black Plague era and BJ's past life. Join me for a historical dive that might make you appreciate Tim Burton’s work even more!

Warning: This post contains SPOILERS for the 2024 movie Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

Premise

In European countries, we often study the Black Plague in schools. In Italy specifically, the disease spread multiple times throughout the Middle Ages, with the two worst pandemics occurring around 1350 and 1630. The first one alone spread in many countries and caused a total of 20 million deaths - a THIRD of the population of the whole European continent at the time.

However, the 1630 outbreak is the one we know about the most, thanks to author Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873), who described it meticulously in his masterpiece, ‘I promessi sposi' (The Betrothed): This book is one of the most important works in Italian literature. Although it is a novel, it is often treated as historical evidence because Manzoni actually shaped the story referring to archival documents and chronicles of the time.

Introducing: Monatti, the corpse carriers

In his book, Manzoni recalls a group of people called 'monatti' - the only ones allowed to practice public services such as collecting the dead and washing roads during those hellish times. This concession was motivated by the fact that monatti were considered immune to the disease.

However, they were feared and hated by the rest of the population, because they often misused their ‘privileged’ position: they were untouchable. They often extorted money from the living and stole the belongings of the dead and the sick alike, without repercussions. What made them special was the fact that monatti typically gained immunity after surviving the disease themselves.

“Farewell to Cecilia,” one of the most heart-wrenching moments in Manzoni’s novel, beautifully captured by Francesco Gonin.

In fact, the Black Plague typically spread in three ways: through skin contact (bubonic plague), lungs (pneumonic plague) or blood infection (septicemic plague). The Bubonic form was, and still is, the most common and had the highest survival rate, though it was still quite low. It was easily identifiable because it caused the lymph nodes to swell and become infected, forming characteristic 'buboes'.

It was believed that if a plague victim survived five days, the fever would subside, and they would recover within two weeks. This is what usually happened to the monatti. Similarly, Renzo, the protagonist in Manzoni’s book, recovers, though he never becomes a public worker.

Now, let’s dive back into Beetlejuice’s backstory.

Amidst the eerie glow of moonlight, he's depicted among corpses, at night, behind a wagon, stealing from the dead that were just thrown into a communal pit by plague doctors.

Notice how he’s directly touching the bodies with his bare hands, without any protection: usually, that was considered a death sentence.

In Manzoni’s book, there is a character that meets their end in a similar way, simply by touching the clothes of an infected person. During that era, the danger was so great that people used to burn the bodies of the plague victims along with their clothes, beds, and other possessions.

It is also worth mentioning that, during plague outbreaks, some city governments (particularly in Italy and Poland) imposed strict limitations on the movement of people and goods. In some areas, a nighttime curfew was also enforced (Yes, we invented the lockdown centuries ago!). Under those circumstances, being caught outside your own house at the wrong hour could mean instant death. But guess who had the freedom to roam as they pleased? Yes, monatti and plague doctors (and those with special permits).

Conclusion: Beetlejuice wasn’t just 'a humble grave robber', as he claims. He was definitely a plague survivor and, most likely, a monatto.

The fact that this scene was unveiled and narrated in Italian during the Venice Film Festival further convinces me that this is the correct interpretation of the sequence.

So, what do we think? Have you ever heard or read about The Betrothed before? Anyways, if you liked this analysis, make sure to check out PART 2, in which we can delve even deeper into Beetlejuice’s mysterious past!

Until then, have a fantastic week! ✨

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Plague

Plague - a serious, potentially life-threatening infectious disease that is usually transmitted to humans by the bites of rodent fleas. It was one of the scourges of early human history.

Endemic—A disease that occurs naturally in a geographic area/population group.

Epidemic—A disease that occurs throughout part of the population of a country.

Pandemic—A disease that occurs throughout a regional group, the population of a country, or the world.

There are 3 major forms of the disease: bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic.

Bubonic Plague

Two to five days after infection, patients experience:

A sudden fever

Chills

Seizures

Severe headaches

Followed by the appearance of swellings or "buboes" in armpits, groin, and neck

The most commonly affected sites are the lymph glands near the site of the first infection.

As the bacteria multiply in the glands, the lymph node becomes swollen.

As the nodes collect fluid, they become extremely tender.

Occasionally, the bacteria will cause an ulcer at the point of the first infection.

Buboes—Smooth, oval, reddened, and very painful swellings in the armpits, groin, or neck that occur as a result of infection with the plague.

Septicemic Plague

Bacteria that invade the bloodstream directly (without involving the lymph nodes) cause septicemic plague. (Bubonic plague also can progress to septicemic plague if not treated appropriately.)

Does not involve the lymph glands is particularly dangerous because it can be hard to diagnose the disease.

The bacteria usually spread to other sites, including the liver, kidneys, spleen, lungs, and sometimes the eyes, or the lining of the brain.

Symptoms include:

Fever

Chills

Prostration

Abdominal pain

Shock

Bleeding into the skin and organs

Septicemia—The medical term for blood poisoning, in which bacteria have invaded the bloodstream and circulates throughout the body.

Pneumonic Plague

May occur as a direct infection (primary) or as a result of untreated bubonic or septicemic plague (secondary).

Primary pneumonic plague is caused by inhaling infective drops from another person or animal with pneumonic plague.

Symptoms, which appear within 1-3 days after infection, include:

A severe, overwhelming pneumonia

Shortness of breath

High fever

Blood in the phlegm

If untreated, half the patients will die.

If blood poisoning occurs as an early complication, patients may die even before the buboes appear.

Life-threatening Complications of Plague include:

Shock

High fever

Problems with blood clotting

Convulsions

Bioterrorism—Use of disease agents to terrorize/intimidate a civilian population.

Treatment

As soon as plague is suspected, the patient should be isolated, and local and state departments notified.

Drug treatment reduces the risk of death to less than 5%.

The preferred treatment is streptomycin administered as soon as possible.

Alternatives include gentamicin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, or trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole.

Prevention

Anyone who has come in contact with a plague pneumonia victim should be given antibiotics, since untreated pneumonic plague patients can pass on their illness to close contacts throughout the course of the illness.

All plague patients should be isolated for 48 hours after antibiotic treatment begins. Pneumonic plague patients should be completely isolated until sputum cultures show no sign of infection.

Residents of areas where plague is found should keep rodents out of their homes.

Anyone working in a rodent-infested area should wear insect repellent on skin and clothing.

Pets can be treated with insecticidal dust and kept indoors.

Handling sick or dead animals (especially rodents and cats) should be avoided.

Vaccines

Plague vaccines have been used with varying effectiveness since the late 19th century.

Experts believe that vaccination lowers the chance of infection and the severity of the disease. However, the effectiveness of the vaccine against pneumonic plague is not clearly known.

Vaccinations against plague are not required to enter any country.

Because immunization requires multiple doses over a 6–10 month period, plague vaccine is not recommended for quick protection during outbreaks.

Moreover, its unpleasant side effects make it a poor choice unless there is a substantial long-term risk of infection.

The safety of the vaccine for those under age 18 has not been established.

Pregnant women should not be vaccinated unless the need for protection is greater than the risk to the unborn child.

Even those who receive the vaccine may not be completely protected.

The inadequacy of the vaccines available as of 2014 explains why it is important to protect against rodents, fleas, and people with plague.

A team of researchers in the UK reported in the summer of 2004 that an injected subunit vaccine is likely to offer the best protection against both bubonic and pneumonic forms of plague.

Source ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References ⚜ Virus & Vaccine

[hith3r3p33ps]

The writers really went “the pandyssian plague is basically the black plague. But get this. It’s not!” And then left us to make sense of it xD

I wanna pick someone's brain at Arkane for how they chose to make the Dunwall setting in the specific time frame it's in

Specifically that it's late Victorian to early Edwardian, but they're starting to run electricity (powered by supernatural whale oil), and they very specifically and explicitly do not have anything approaching germ theory.

Clearly they have some idea that inhaling fumes is bad (see: Whalers), but I can't find any hint that they would have miasma theory either. What DO they think causes disease? In game several people are investigating the cause of the rat plague but the closest they've gotten to a causative agent is "rat parts???" like not even the droppings or fluids of a rat, just "rat."

I know that is supposed to resemble the bubonic plague, but there's no mention of fleas on the rats we can find being studied. If the plague is closer to my personal guess that it's some sort of turbo hantavirus, then Sokolov has no chance of figuring it out if he doesn't know that germs are a thing.

Did the Abbey of the Everyman decide that germ theory was heresy or something and that's why they don't have it?

[microbes-in-hats]

Yersinia pestis

Yersinia pestis is the bacterium responsible for plague, with the most common manifestations being bubonic plague, septicemic plague, and pneumonic plague.

Image taken via transmission electron microscopy. Bar = 1 μm

Photo credit: Hans R. Gelderblom, Rolf Reissbrodt/RKI

[centers-for-disease-control]

Alright, due to popular request, I bring you the break down of the Taiwan Disease Personifications. Also, just so y’all know, the official explanations for the designs are not easy to find, so a lot of this is just from what I notice and what I know about the diseases

To start off, we have everyone’s favorite disease: COVID-19

So, this is one of the designs where I could actually find the artist explanation, so I will be including that information plus a couple things I noticed and how I think it fits the disease. So let’s start with to crown. The reason for the inclusion of the crown is the reflect the name coronavirus, corona being the Latin word for crown. The face is partially obscured because of COVID’s tendency to hide itself. The bean bag chair that they are sitting on has many protrusions signifying the spike proteins. The different digital devices represent how the world went virtual during the pandemic and the news channels behind them represent the media’s freak out when COVID was at its height. The floor has an outline of the world because everywhere was affected by the pandemic. Also, if you look closely, they are wearing little Covid earrings.

Next up, we got Zika:

I could not find an official artist statement for this design, so take my explanation with a grain of salt. So first off the red waist band reminds me of the red stripe that goes down the abdomen of the mosquito species that spreads Zika after it has fed. Also, the white markings on the black are also a characteristic of this species of mosquito. In fact, the design is the stripes on the chest look like the markings these mosquitoes have on their back. She presents female because it’s the female mosquitoes that bite and spread diseases. Her sleeves look like mosquito wings once again a reference to mosquitoes being the primary vectors of Zika. The area behind her has palm fronds to represent that Zika is a disease typically found in tropical climates.

Next up we have: Hansen’s Disease (aka Leprosy)

This is one where I could find the artist statement due to it being a pretty recent one, however, I will say that at least the translation was a bit lacking in describing the reasoning of every detail. She is a mask maker because leprosy changes how people perceive those who are infected but it is something that can easily be removed with modern antibiotics. She has different accessories like the lion and crocodile headpiece that implicate the divine involvement because leprosy has been historically thought to be a punishment of the gods. The scales on her arm look like an allusion to the scaling pattern scars that those with leprosy would develop.

Next up: Rubella

After a lot of digging I found the official profile for this design but it didn’t really explain the design choices so we are going to do more analysis on my end. So the pomegranate and the red dots represent the red rashes that come with rubella infections. The glasses I assume are to show how Rubella can lead to Congenital Rubella Syndrome (CRS) which can occur in children if their mother had rubella while pregnant. One of the symptoms that comes with CRS is cataracts.

Next up: the plague

I found the explanation on this and it just confirmed my own suspicions for certain design choices. So her design is very focused on death and mysticism because of how the Black Plague led to a lot of cultural focus on these two ideas. Behind her are old coins because of the economic impact the plague had on the civilizations of its time. The references to death are the skeletal pattern on her dress, and the scythe behind her and on her belt. The references to mysticism include the tarot cards she is holding and the crosses on her hat. On the tarot cards are designs referencing the three different forms the plague takes (bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic) as well as a posey which was used to try to ward of the plague in old times. On her hat is also a collection of plague doctor masks which is pretty self explanatory as to how that connects.

Next up: Ebola

I couldn’t find the official explanation for this disease, so this is mostly speculation based on my analysis. Her outfit is red because of the hemorrhaging that comes with the disease. Specifically he lips are red because one of the more unique characteristics of Ebola is hiccuping up blood. The accessories seem to be inspired by central and western african traditional jewelry. There appear to be tribal masks on the necklace, I am not well versed in African art unfortunately, so any deeper meaning of these accessories are unfortunately lost on me. There are bats on the headdress because of bats being the natural host of Ebola. Her design is rather demonic because Ebola was so terrible for the areas affected, that people thought it could be caused be some great evil. The skulls are because of the extremely high death rate that comes with ebola. The leaves and fruits shown come from the African jungles which is typically where Ebola outbreaks start.

Next up: Novel Influenza A Virus Infections

I actually found the artist explanation for this design! As a disease closely associated with birds, there are many elements linked to birds. There are many bird shadows, the hair that looks like feathers, and the beak shaped mask, feathers on his tie and a feather tattoo on right arm, and the “H-N” pin (H and N proteins of the influenza virus).

Next up: Dengue Fever

Another one with an artist statement! Since only female mosquitoes bite, the character is set as a female. Her dark red lips represent mosquito’s instinct to bite, and she is holding a poisonous thornapple flower. She has mosquito wings tattooed on her back and thornapple flower tattooed on her arm. I have spent a long time looking into how the thornapple flower relates to dengue, but I haven’t had a lot of luck. From what I have seen is that the roots, seeds, and leaves are used in some traditional medicines, including treatments for malaria, but I have not had luck finding how it is connected to Dengue specifically.

Next up: Japanese Encephalitis

I found the artist statement for this disease as well. The disease is visualized into three characters that form a pop group, with their names reflecting the 3 main Culex mosquito species that spread Japanese encephalitis in Taiwan, which are Culex tritaeniorhynchus (Three), Culex annulus (Ring), and Culex fuscocephala (Shiro). They wear black and white, like the colors of the Culex mosquitoes. Red accessories represent their love for blood. I don’t have much to add outside of the artist explanation.

Last one for now is: Rabies

I found the explanation for this one, but it is not descriptive at all, so I am going to be going into every detail because this is Rabies. The spikes on the jacket and pant legs represent the protein spikes rabies uses to infect nerves. The blue jacket and gloves are representing water as one of the unique characteristics of rabies is hydrophobia (physical repulsion to water). The claw marks on the shirt show the animalistic tendencies the virus brings out. The violin players in the animal mask show how the virus can hide in these animals. The personification of rabies is holding a conductor’s wand showing how rabies controls those who are infected. The teeth necklace shows how it spreads through bites and they are standing on the brain because that is what rabies infects. He has a chain with mammal skulls once again tying back to rabies being a fatal mammalian disease. The belt buckle has a bone on it as bone are associated with bones and rabies is associated with dogs.

[justadeadreaper]

CW: Gore, Death, Puke, Decaying flesh, Buboes, Blood, Description of the symptoms of the different plagues in The Black Death, Gruesome description of how the representation would look like, Please tell me if anything that should be put as a warning was not, thanks.

The most feared plague in history, The Black Death.

Mainly the bubonic plague mixed with its two more deadly brothers the pneumonic plague and septicemic plague. It was the deadliest plague of the time as it ran through Europe, Africa, and Asia and conquered any village, town, and city it found itself in, flooding the streets with blood, mucus, and rotted flesh as once healthy humans dropped dead from the plague that seemed to come from nowhere before it dragged everyone to the Hell it had seemed to have spawned from. It did not care who you were, it did not discriminate, rich or poor, loved or hated, known or not, it would blow out the little life that you had. It thrived off the fear and only seemed to grow stronger as another soul joined the long chain of victims that had already succumbed to the disease. Anywhere from twenty to sixty percent of the population of the time was taken by it.

The perpetrator? Yersinia pestis. The carriers? Fleas. The spreader? Rats but some say it could have actually been hamsters that were stowaways. But how were the rats able to spread? Trading ships that jumped from town to town leaving a deadly gift as it sailed away that would lead to the death of all that were unfortunate enough to live there.

Now you may ask what would happen if you were to catch it and let me tell you it was living torture. It would start with a simple flea bite but that flea was infected with Yersinia pestis causing it to build a barrier in its stomach so no blood could be digested or go into its stomach causing it to build up and be infected by the bacteria, and this blood would be thrown back up by the flea onto the wound infecting it as it would be absorbed into the bloodstream. From entering the bloodstream it could take one of three routes: the lymphatic system, continuing through the bloodstream, or directly to the lungs. If you were lucky enough for it to infect your lymphatic system then you had a sixty percent chance of dying meaning you had a forty percent chance of surviving. Even though you had more chances of surviving it did not mean that you were saved from not suffering, from one to seven, or if you were lucky eight, days of contracting the disease was when it would show symptoms. At first it would trick you into the false belief that you only had the flu. You would have a general feeling of being ill, lethargic and weak which only grew into worse fatigue as the days went on, followed by chills and a high fever which anyone would know just seems to be like a normal cold but then that soon developed into muscle cramps in your aching limbs as seizures overtook the body. Then it would present the symptom that gave it the name the bubonic plague, buboes. These were when the lymph nodes would balloon to become large, painful, smoothe swellings which would occur near the original area of infection alongside the groin, neck, and armpits which would continue to grow until they burst. You also had the issue of your skin slowly beginning to necrotise as it died alongside the lenticulae which were small black dots that would be scattered across your body and gangrene took over your lips, nose, toes, and fingers which all caused severe pain to the point you would rather die there and then instead of waiting it out to see if you had the lucky chance of surviving. Of course there were other symptoms like heavy breathing as your lungs felt like they were being held down by rocks, your own body becoming like the flea as it would start to vomit gallons of infected blood, coughing, gastrointestinal problems, and spleen inflammation, but in some cases even the sleep would be disturbed to the point of insomnia where sleep would be impossible to get as your were forced to stay awake to feel all the pain that riddled your body. But then the worst of the systems came at the final stage as delirium came and took over any rational thought as all organs began to fail from the disease overcoming them and causing them to shut down which only led to a coma, but it all ended the same way, death.

If you were unlucky enough for it to infect your lungs first or just infect your lungs before the other systems became worse then you had a ninety-five percent chance of dying meaning you had a five percent chance of surviving. To make the pneumonic plague even worse you could develop it even after being infected by either the bubonic plague or the septicemic plague; it could also be caught from not just it infecting your lungs after a bite which infected the bloodstream but by also breathing in air borne droplets of the bacteria from another thing that was riddled with the plague. As it would normally be caught after having bubonic or septicemic plague it meant that at first you would present all the symptoms from the other plagues before experiencing the specifics of the pneumonic plague. At first you would think you have a fever but a severe one as headaches, nausea, and weakness run rampant as if it was trying to warn you that this would be no normal bubonic or septicemic plague. Luckily compared to the bubonic plague the time you would suffer with this plague was a great short, even though it would take around three to seven days before the symptoms showed as soon as the symptoms worsened or even showed you could guarantee that you would be dead within thirty-six hours, most likely less. You would be constantly vomiting for three days straight as your lungs slowly began to feel as if they were being sewn shut at each bronchus, only leading to each breath becoming shorter and shorter as you seemed to constantly be coughing and rasping for the tiniest bit of unrestrained air. Then soon enough your lungs would spew out a bloody and watery mess that would stain your tongue with its mercury taste which you would continue to cough out in between the vomiting until you went into shock as your full respiratory tract went into failure and just stopped, finally leading to death.

But if you were the most unfortunate person alive on Earth at the time that every God seemed to hate since it stayed in your bloodstream and completely infected your blood it meant you had no chance of surviving as you had a hundred percent chance of dying. It made the other two diseases seem like child’s play as it normally only took around fourteen hours before it shut down the body, worse of all it could even kill you without showing any of the symptoms. Like the others you would think it was a common cold due to the fever, chills, and low blood pressure but soon enough severe abdominal pain would set in as it felt like you were dying due to the extreme amount of diarrhea which would be accompanied by nausea that only led to severe vomiting. But soon enough the vomit and diarrhea would be filled with blood until it was fully red as the body lost most of its clotting resources from the tiny blood clots that had formed throughout the body so it could no longer control the blood which started to bleed into the skin and organs creating red or black patches of rashes or bumps which could be seen on the skin. The blood clotting also caused necrosis as tissue and organs would die from the lack of blood flow as it all leaked into where it should not, the most obvious spots of the decay were the gangrene in the fingers, nose, and toes. Then the bleeding would extend from not just bleeding in the body but blood coming out from the rectum but most noticeably the mouth and nose where it would come out like a waterfall. Obviously due to the blood leaking into everything it would cause difficulty breathing as it would fill the lungs and deprive it of the blood outside the lungs that was needed to exchange the carbon dioxide for oxygen. And with no blood to deliver the oxygen needed for the organs to live they all would go into organ failure causing the body to go into shock before the final moments where everything went back as it was taken over by death.

As it can be seen all of them had the same outcome, death.

Luckily nowadays the plagues are a simple pest if the person has access to treatment to stop it from progressing further but at the time that The Black Death ran rampant no one had the luxury of those treatments leading most to die who caught it. Masses upon masses of bodies continued to build up only attracting more of the rats then the ones that had already been attracted to the large towns by the excrement and rotting butcher’s meat that made a river through the streets. With more rats that withered away from the disease it just meant more fleas would jump to more human hosts to use which only led to more living corpses to roam the streets as the disease turned people into skeletons while still living before turning them into an actual corpse.

It was understandable as to why humans of the time would be so scared of such a thing as to them it just seemed like their fellow mortals were dropping like lowly flies that would eat away at the flyblown flesh that continued to pile away in mass graves to create more nests for their larvae and eggs to incubate inside. Imagine the terror and fear that must have filled their minds as they did not understand pathogens at the time, to them it would have seemed like divine wrath but no one could think of a reason as to why their Almighty would betray them like this as everyone appeared to be on their best behaviour. They needed something to blame. They found something to blame. 

Simple rumours turned into truths.

Somewhere in England there was said to be a village. Small, nothing of concern as it was like every other village of the time. Like every other village it had a butcher, a silent man who was rumoured to once be a knight but no one knew why he was not anymore. He tended to be quiet, avoiding others who were not his friends and family. It was said that he loved his nephew and that if he had enough swigs of barley that you could get him singing and dancing on the roof or you could convince him to give you his primest cuts of meat. He was deemed as normal, he was like everyone else, until one day.

No one knew what happened. It was supposed to be a joyous day to celebrate the coming of winter but it was far from that. Nearly the whole family was found butchered with a precision only expected to be known by a trained killer. The lower left leg and most of the fingers of the right hand of the older brother laid in a puddle of blood but they could not find the rest of his body; the mutilated body of the brother’s wife was spread around slightly from each different part as if when she was being attacked the culprit had went after another member while still holding onto the part it was hacking off; the body of their son was curled into the corner clutching onto the leg of his mother while out of the stab holes that covered his body in ten folds nearly making him unidentifiable oozed out blood into a bloody puddle that collected around his body; and finally the grandmother of the family who was found decapitated in her rocking chair with her head being found outside within the well. The only one not found dead was the butcher and when he returned, covered in blood, everyone turned their suspicions to him. When he tried to explain that he had been out hunting but had been attacked by a large grey man no one believed him, especially when they saw the crazed look within his eyes that could only be produced by when they had let Beelzebub into their soul. Everyone agreed to grab their pitchforks and chase him out so no more could be hurt.

It was only a few months before the figure started to appear across the world. People from the village murmured to other villages and beyond when they heard what the figure looked like in its earlier stage that they believed it to be the same butcher infected with the plague of Beelzebub to infect the world with their sin to bring more to Hell. Everyone believed him to be the reason for the spread of the plague. It was said that if you were to see him within the fields outside of any town, village, or city that all the inside were destined to die. 

The Ghost of The Black Death.

A figure that would strike the fear into the hearts of all.

A horde of rats followed behind him in trails as flies buzzed around his head, if he was near you would always see a Black Shuck which commanded a storm alongside it as if they were his hounds of doom brought along to give the townsfolk warning of their dire fates and to pray to the Almighty while they were still apart.

A black coat hid the majority of his body as bloodied rags of old hunting gear of a peasant hung off of skeletal remains with a jaw hanging off his neck as if it was a necklace as it was tied there with rope. Messy blonde hair spread out in all directions as blood leaked out from the tear ducts in a false mockery of the tears that millions had split in their last moments. No nose or bottom jaw could be found, decayed off long ago. The face looked skeletal as teeth, gums, and a tongue were exposed to the bitter air that reeked of death and loss as the cheeks were tattered in form as more skin continued to flake off as it continued to decays; once blue eyes so full of life were left sunken, dead as if they were another victim that had succumb to the plague that the Ghost was said to bring alongside him. A trail of buboes surrounded his neck as if it was a noose to which he could hang himself with as the tail was marked by a diversion of buboes that wrapped around and under his arms to around his groyne. His spine and ribs jutted out for all to see underneath the greyed skin which was littered with blackened patches of decay as branches of red veins leaked and bleed out to leave a path of blood in his wake for all to track him by. Still, as he rotted away, vague faints of the muscular body that had been far gone from its prime lingered where it once remained. The bottom of his calves with his feet and the bottom of his forearms with his hands had turned black and mummified from the decay and gangrene that had taken them over, leaving no remaining sensations within the hands to feel the warmth of a human ever again for the rest of eternity.

If you were to see him late at night, staring into your soul you better pray that The Ghost does not turn you into another soul like him.

[pirunika]

obsessed w how in Wayhaven modern™ vampires dislike 'drinking from the source' bc they have certain preferences i imagine old vampires must be like Back in my DAY we DRANK from humans with Septicemic Plague and DIED like MEN —

[dilfsisko]

What's your favourite infectious disease?

TUBERCULOSIS SWEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With a lovely honorable mention to the plague. Did you know that technically, there are three ‘types’ of plagues, all caused by the bacterium Yersinia Pestis.

There’s your classic bubonic plague, which aftects the lymph nodes, causing them to swell. This is where you get the ‘buboes’ of ‘bubonic’. These buboes are large, painful swellings along the lymph system (the groin, armpits, neck, or thighs) which can turn necrotic, destroying surrounding tissue or erupting with pus. Fun fact! There’s some writings that suggest these buboes make noise.

Then there’s pneumonic plague, which affects the lungs. Pneumonic plague can follow an initial infection of bubonic or septicemic plague. It is invariably fatal, and patients can die pretty quickly without treatment-some in as little as 36 hours from initial presentation of symptoms.

Finally there’s septicemic plague, which means the plague has infected the blood. Septicemic plague is ALWAYS fatal without intervention, it’s a systemic disease that can cause disseminated intravascular coagulation, aka blood clots all over the body which invariably leads to organ failure

[dear-mrs-otome]

Hello friends. Would you like to meet the antagonist of Faust's route? The dastardly entity responsible for untold pain and misery, for putting our intrepid couple through the metaphorical wringer? The arch-enemy of mankind for centuries??

(spoilers behind the cut)

Here you go! Yersinia pestis, or Y. pestis to its friends, in all its gram-negative, electron scanned, color enhanced glory.

Aww, but Mrs O, you say, it's so cute! Look at its widdle fimbriae waving hewwo! Its pastel pink Lisa Frank inspired palette!

But don't be fooled! This tiny cold-blooded killer is responsible for more deaths than possibly any other infectious agent in the history of humankind - we all know it as the bubonic plague. The Black Death. It's cut down hundreds of millions of people over the course of human history, and it is still a threat today.

Transmitted to humans primarily by the bite of fleas, Y. pestis is a nasty character - without treatment, mortality rates upon infection are 30% - 90%. It sets up shop in a nearby lymph node, gets busy, and the resulting damage causes tissues to die. Victims tend to develop large, swollen, and painful lymph nodes called buboes, which is where the illness gets the name 'bubonic plague'.

One thing to note though, for Faust's route, is that while we generally think of this type of plague as THE plague...there are two other forms an infection with Y. pestis can take. A septicemic infection, where the bacteria enter the blood stream rather than the lymph nodes and which is almost always fatal, and a pneumonic version. This one here is the stuff of epidemiology nightmares. It often is the result of inhaling airborne droplets from another infected individual, and it can spread from person to person very easily unlike the usual bubonic form which requires bodily contact or a bite from an infected flea. It causes fevers, weakness, and violently severe coughing, and without antibiotics is nearly 100% fatal in a frighteningly short period of time - most victims are dead within mere days. Sometimes hours.

The first major recorded outbreak of the bubonic plague was the Plague of Justinian, which began about 1,500 years ago in 541 CE and ravaged the Sasanian and Byzantine empires. It's estimated that the plague resulted in anywhere from 15 to 100 million deaths, up to 40% of the population of Constantinople at the time, and some historians believe people were dying at a rate of 5,000 per day in the capital city.

The second plague epidemic, the one many people are more familiar with, was the one we refer to as the Black Death. This epidemic began raging across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia in the late 1330s, with Europe being hit particularly hard. By the time it was over Europe would see its population cut between 30% and 60%, and the Middle East losing about a third of its people as well. Numbers are difficult to estimate but they range from 75 -200 million dead.

There is, however, a third plague epidemic, although not as well known. In the 18th century the plague made a resurgence in SW China, remaining somewhat localized until the mid 19th century when it spread to Hong Kong and from there globally. There were outbreaks in the United States, India, many African countries, SE Asian countries, Russia, South America, the Caribbean, and most importantly for our story purposes - Europe. The largest outbreak was in Lisbon, but there were many smaller pockets of infection in various cities across the continent.

This was around the time the plague bacterium got its scientific name, Yersinia pestis, because of this man - a secondary character in our vampire love story, albeit with a slightly different name:

Say hello to Alexandre Yersin, a Swiss-French doctor and scientist.

Keenly interested in bacteriology, in 1886 he studied in Paris where Louis Pasteur was doing work in microbiology and worked on antiserum for rabies and antitoxin for diphtheria, two other famous scourges. (Antiserum, in the briefest of explanations, is basically a way to transfer antibodies from someone/something exposed to an infectious agent to a different person, thereby triggering the recipients immune system earlier and more vigorously EDITED TO ADD: this also applies to venom and this is actually how antivenom is made as well!)

In 1894, he was sent to Hong Kong to investigate the plague outbreak and it was here that he identified the bacteria responsible, the one that now bears his name, along with confirmation of its transmission route via rodents. (A Japanese scientist in Hong Kong at the same time, Kitasato Shibasaburou, independently identified the bacterium almost simultaneously as well, but because his documentations were not as clear it is Yersin who is generally credited with the initial find)

Yersin spent the next few years continuing his studies of the plague, traveling back to Paris in 1895 to develop the first anti-plague serum. It was the work of scientists like him, and so many others at this time, that paved the way for modern medicine and a path towards eradicating the diseases that have held us in their skeletal grip for so much of mankind's history.

...And perhaps, in the world of Ikevamp, that path owes just a little bit to a certain bespectacled German priest.

[thethcministry]

[straightlightyagami]

copying my addition to this post into a separate post:

some modern problems:

climate change

high tech surveillance

nonzero risk of nuclear war

environmental destruction, pollution, etc on a greater scale

modern capitalism/imperialism (not that the 1600s were better just the economic system is pretty different now)

conversely, some things that have significantly improved:

the best way to illustrate the huge impact of modern medicine on the world: infant, child, and youth mortality has significantly decreased due to improvements in medicine.

compare this to about every other child dying in the early modern period. in fact there are even significant improvements compared to a few decades ago. there is a huge gap visible between different regions of the world less, but nonetheless, the general trend has been improvement (because of improvements to medicine and sanitation) and the fact that in some countries over 99% survive childhood shows that it's possible, which would be unimaginable 400 years ago in any society. life expectancy has also significantly increased.

also, smallpox, a disease that killed hundreds of millions of people throughout history, has been eradicated for over 40 years thanks to a global vaccination effort. smallpox used to cause hundreds of thousands of deaths a year, with a death rate between 20 and 60%.

(I'm not going to put in all the graphs but read this article)

another historically deadly disease, the plague does still exist despite unsuccessful attempts at eradication (notably by the ussr. these attempts at total eradication, despite initial apparent success, were hindered by spillover from animal reservoirs), but it is restricted in geographic range. with timely antibiotic treatment, the death rate for those infected drops to around 10-15% (down from 30% to 90% for the bubonic plague and 100% for the pneumonic and septicemic plague. cw for images of cases in the articles). (although it could become a greater threat if it developed drug resistant strains like tb.)

I could go on with other examples but you get the general picture.

and this has been a tangent but that's why you should never take anything said by anti-vaxxers, or anyone who adopts a blanket "anti-civilization" view, seriously.

[buffmrtumnus]

A bit of extra Trench Crusade Fanfic+Art

So I mentioned I wrote a bunch of scripture for the plague-based faith of my warband. Felt wrong not to provide some more lol

…and the Lord of Flies looked upon the unspoiled world, and wept at it's purity. Man had rejected his gifts of plague and rot, and spat prayers to the Pretender upon his tyrannous throne. Thus, Thirteen Hundred and Forty Six years after the False Redeemer's birth, his infernal majesty gave the gift of the Black Grail to the world, granting countless bubonic bliss. Birthing an army of the faithful to cleanse the world of the Pretender's oppressive will.

And so, the faithful remade the world in Lord Beelzebub's image, and so, were granted his gracious blessings. Scions of Yersinia, his favoured children, his chosen strain of the Black Grail. In time , the Lord of Flies revealed the depths of his love:

"my children, as I ascend to claim the Throne of Creation from the Pretender, I shall grant a gift. my Beloved Son, crafted from the bodies of my chosen strain, will reign upon Earth"

Thus, by the Lord of Flies will, Yersinia Rex rose from the bile of the earth and the blood of the sky, crowned by the corpses of the most lucky. From the bodies of a thousand-thousand blessed thralls, the true Redeemer had risen, and the Beloved Hegemon began to spread His Empire of Pestilence to the wayward kingdoms of mankind.

"Witness His ascendency!" cried His chosen as the promise of Paradise flooded their minds. His faithful experienced exaltation beyond exaltation as His bubonic perfection warped their minds and bodies. Yersinia Rex, the rightful Emperor of plague and despair, had come to claim Europa as the seat of His septicemic Throne.

But agents of the Pretender would not sit idly by and allow the blessed Hegemon to save Europa from the grip of the False Redeemer. They raised a mockery of beloved Yersinia Rex, Joan of Arc, to trap and enslave Europa to the will of the Throne of Tyranny...

Seethe, 3:9-15

...But four hundred and forty years after the betrayal, did our Lord Yersinia Rex show his unending Grace in Death. A champion of His people, in the depths of the Emerald Isles, would rise to restore hope once more to His Mourners.

As His Father's gifts once more returned to Eire, and plague spread rampant, Maria, blessed with Typhoid yet unburdened by it's gifts, would be born to two parents rotting with glorious infection.

Where she would walk, disease would ravage in her wake, and yet the followers of the False Redeemer remained blind to her. For as her blessed, rotten core carried the gift of Typhoid to the unbelievers, her mortal shell remained as pure as the butcher Joan.

When word of this miracle reached the ears and dreams of the Bubonic Patriarchs, they convened. "Who could provide such a gift, if not our Beloved?"

"None"

"None"

"None"

"None"

Song of Maria, 1:1-4

Note, picture 4, Toot Toot Terry - the trumpet wielding basic unit that somehow dealt more damage in my test games than half my army, hence his rippling muscles and handsome squidward face.