Mercy in the Face of Pestilence
From Spiders
In the waning days of RY 775, Mercy's Razor was pulled away from his Circle's ongoing struggles with Fae presence in Chiaroscuro in order to aid with another imminent threat. For several months, a plague had ravaged the Southeastern edge of the Varang City States, spreading dangerously quickly toward the larger populations of the coast. The disease spread unusually quickly due to its unpredictable incubation period, and tendency toward relapses. Infected citizens would appear to avoid or overcome the disease, only to flee an infected settlement and carry the plague with them to the next town, where it would re-assert its influence.
In the early days of the year, the disease's effects began to manifest on the loom, where they were identified by Antak Yandaro, aged head of the Convention on Plague. The disease's unusual properties, combined with the pattern of early outbreaks lead him to suspect supernatural origin, stemming from a Wyld Zone in the desert. He hoped to redeem his chronically-ignored Convention - never wholly recovered from their failure to predict or address the Great Contagion. He widely proclaimed his intent to deal with the issue personally, and set out to find the Fae cause behind the plague, and use it to reverse the plague in a single sweep.
Whether the plague was truly a creation of the Fae remains to be proven. Meanwhile as Antak's investigations near the Wyld zone bore no fruit, the plague spread more quickly than he anticipated. The Varang society's rigid caste structure only contributed to the speed of its fall, as "uninvolved" castes made no attempt to aid the victims. In the Descending Earth of that year, Antak realized the plague's spread needed to be arrested, and began the attempt to do so, calling on his contacts among the Varang leaders. It was too little too late, though, as most of those leaders preferred to flee infected areas rather than staying to enforce a quarantine. Chaos resulted in the affected areas, and the plague marched on.
The plague finally slowed when the heat of Resplendent Fire made the population unwilling to travel, but Antak knew this could not last. Yet he had minimal ability to call in resources from his Convention, and he couldn't afford to admit his failure by calling in the aid of his peers. Mercy represented the only other member of the Convention on Plague currently in the South. He had been assigned to this undesirable Convention due to his medical skills (officially) and lack of sponsorship (actually). His youth allowed Antak to present his involvement as an apprenticeship rather than a bail-out.
By the time Mercy was called to Varang, Antak's hopes had waned from reversing the plague, to merely moderating his impact. He hoped to save the most important members of Varang society - the leaders, artists, and those with a destiny to fulfill, along with the few Dragon Bloods whose healing Charms and Artifacts were able to make a difference in stemming the tide. He intended to allow the plague to burn itself out around them, figuring that the society could re-build in its wake. Since the plague was non-responsive to most treatments, Antak granted Mercy the use of a Resplendent Satchel of Healing, one of the artifacts remaining in the vaults of the Convention on Plague.
Mercy set about his efforts with the Satchel, while Antak did the same using his own elder Charms, splitting his time with the continuation of his researches into the Wyld. While walking the affected towns, though, Mercy found himself unwilling to allow the majority of the population to die slowly around him, and dreading the thought of plagues continued spread to new towns and cities. He also noticed an unexpected phenomenon in one mid-sized town, which gave him an alternative. The ghetto neighborhood of the casteless members of Varang society, which one would expect to be hardest hit, were surprisingly unaffected by the plague. They were also surprisingly quiet. While chaos and looting reigned in many parts town, the streets of the casteless neighborhoods were empty, while the residents remained in their homes healthy.
Mercy tracked the cause of this to a tight-nit criminal family which ruled those streets with an iron fist. While other authorities had fled or collapsed, this criminal organization had retreated into its home neighborhood as if to survive a siege. Criminal agents made forays into other parts of town to obtain supplies, while others kept the locals inside. Those who showed signs of the disease (even those who appeared to recover) were expelled or even killed, before they could spread it to others. With enforcers ensuring minimal contact, the neighborhood was under an effective quarantine. Here Mercy found the inspiration he needed. He saw that the disease was infecting the society, not just the individuals. These people had developed a form of immune response, and it was one which could be adapted into a vaccination for the society as a whole. There would be cost, but the lives saved would far outweigh the lives lost in the balance.
What followed would be titled by historians a reign of terror, but also grudgingly as the salvation of Varang. Crafting an appropriate Destiny, and starting with the core in this town, Mercy organized the criminal element of the region into an organization which spanned the boundaries between cities. He gave them free reign to take the valuables from the useless ruling castes, looting their empty estates and killing those few who were left behind. Meanwhile, he organized armed parties to enforce a ban on travel between towns. Those who violated the ban were killed, whether healthy or sick. Similar limitations were placed within towns and cities. Most drastically, those showing signs of the disease who could not be treated quickly, were summarily executed, so they couldn't spread the disease or drain the resources that the society needed to survive. Both the axe-men and the undertakers were rarely idle in the ensuing months.
Antak was appalled by Mercy's methods, but by the time he realized the full scope of them, they had gained too much momentum to be easy to reverse. Beyond that, he could begin to see their effectiveness. The number of new towns struck by the plague dropped to only two in the entirety of the season of Earth, and by Resplendent Wood farmers in some areas were returning to their fields to obtain a meager harvest. As the heat of Rising Fire returned, the worst of the plague had passed. The population had dropped by half, with half of those having been killed by human hands. Those who survived had seen horrors they would have preferred to avoid, but had also learned a new independence and mistrust of the ruling castes who would soon seek to return. Varang society was in for a time of political trouble, but the peril to its survival had passed.
Back in Heaven, Antak accepted Mercy's success with gratitude; even if he was glad he hadn't been forced to carry it out directly. Antak feared the upstart would seek to have him removed for failing to deal with the situation on his own, and prepared his evidence for a trial. He was gratified, though, when Mercy's report to the Bureau very specifically allowed Antak to save face and share credit, applauding his early efforts and stressing the importance of his further investigations into the cause of the plague and other such threats. Nonetheless, the subtext was clear enough for Mercy's reputation to be established as a Sidereal capable of getting things done, even when the methods needed to be unpleasant.
Character Development
- (15XP) Artifact 4 - Resplendant Satchel of Healing (WotLA 69): On indefinite loan from the Convention's stores. Antak arranged this permanent status to reward Mercy for not embarassing him.
- Open question: What exactly does Repair 2 mean? The rules in WotLA are clear as mud. Is Salary 2 (Resources 3 in Heaven, 4 in Creation) enough to pay for someone to do upkeep on occasion?
- (9XP) Backing 3 - Convention on Plague: Mercy is now known to be an up and coming young Siderial, and one of the few members of this Convention to have done anything useful this century.
- (Free) Acquaintance - Arun "Daddy" Gawli, a leader of the Varang mafia.
Future Hooks
- Antak will become Mercy's Sifu when he is ready to study the Citrine Poxes of Contagion.
- Mercy will eventually take Antak's place as leader of the Convention on Plague. He will gradually turn it toward his own methods, and broaden its influence based on his view of corruption and foreign influences as a diseases of Creation.
