The Scourge of Babel

Origin

 

“I sought the power of an angel, so I took it. What I was rendered was not divinity, but something sinister. My veins now course with a dreadful disease that has no cure in the known world. My skin withers and my bones protrude from my corpse, and yet. I feel enlightened, unburdened. Perfected.”

  The Scourge of Babel is more than just a disease. It is an organic material, an oil which burns from the wounds in the crust of Orincia - causing geothermal explosions to pour out blue clouds of the biohazard.   These clouds are, in fact, mostly harmless. Not toxic, not mutative, not riddled with sickness.   It is only when one bathes in the burning oils, that the scourge burns into the flesh of the body. Hollowing it out to blend the soul with the brand of Babel, allowing the curse to take its hold.     As the flame licks the body of the willing sacrifice, the Scourge of Babel makes its first symptoms known by turning the veins of its chosen into a ghostly light blue colour. Azure fire then bursts from their eyes - turning the whites into the same glowing tint as the defiled oils.   Then the body is scorched. Mummified from the inside out, as it melts away tissue, destroys the organs and hollows out the mortal shell. What remains is a ghoulish remnant of the person that once was, refined into something completely different.   The individual does not die, but their soul is trapped in a limbo. Willfully given to Babel, as their minds are elevated to a state closer to its full potential. Now refined into engines run on eldritch magics, the Scourged become dangerously wise in forbidden knowledge and even the least arcane gifted turns into a force of nature.   The destruction of their bodies does not make them weaker either. Their sense of pain wanes, while their undead and yet living existence grants them eternal vigour. Even as they bleed, they are hard to kill. Requiring to either destroy their brain or the abyssal stone that has replaced their hearts, to put them six feet deep.