Abyssal Flesh-Warping
An Alien Affliction
When the Demons were first banished to the Fringelands, a fascinating phenomena was discovered. Since the Gods had decreed by Divine Law that these subjugated fiends could never return to Sarundel, they would be unable to reconstitute in the same way that their Devilish kin were able to. As such, when they were slain, they could neither die nor return home. Instead, their pulverised bodies would begin to convulse and reform in their new domain, assuming new and ever more sickening figures. Whilst the vile Demons did muster a spirited defence against the Enmanari, they were eventually brought under heel, and became expendable shock troops for the aberrant invaders.
It was during these deployments on the material plane that a new condition became known to its mortal inhabitants. Those who were wounded but not outright killed by the rampaging Demons would become susceptible to a previously unheard of affliction. Splashes of Abyssal blood would splatter upon open wounds and then, when the fiend's body was compelled to return to the Fringelands, the accursed ichor would be trapped beneath mortal skin, preventing it from being recalled with the rest of its previous owner. The infected mortal's skin would begin to deform. Strange Demonic magic would contort their body, sculpting it into a new and grotesque form, as the Abyssal Flesh-Warping took full effect.
Dreadful Reconstruction
In most instances of Abyssal Flesh-Warping, the symptoms are disconcerting but relatively minor. Patches of skin may grow bulbous or prickly, and half-formed digits may begin to emerge. Whilst such abnormalities can be easily remedied with a blade and a good tolerance for pain, more extreme examples are far more difficult to resolve. There have been recordings of additional limbs sprouting from unnatural places, swarms of mouths babbling incessantly upon the patient's back, and even second heads bursting from their flesh. If the malady manifests in such a way, there is unfortunately no known cure.
Some deranged folk view this dire ailment as a blessing, however. Before the final mutation is fully realised, Abyssal Flesh-Warping causes a patch of the body to become very malleable and adaptable. In this way, foreign objects can be bound to the afflicted flesh in order to incorporate them into a person's new form. Fervent Demon cultists have been documented with knives in place of fingers and pieces of armour fused with to their bodies. If a few particularly bleak tales are true, the fiendish blood can be used to fuse two or more living thing together. Whilst each story tells of a different horror, they all agree on one particular detail - the grafted folk are in constant agony.
Isolated Quarantine
Those infected by Abyssal Flesh-Warping who develop severe symptoms generally eventually become outcasts, either by their own volition or by enforced exile. Most folk, the infected included, are repulsed by the disfigurements, leading to loneliness and self-loathing becoming unshakable parts of the victim's life. Since they are also disgusted by the disease, they tend to avoid others who share their pain. For this reason, the majority spend the rest of their life in sombre solitude.
Ostracised Oracles
The Demonic blood that courses through the veins of a corrupted person grants them a strange connection to the fiends of the Fringelands. They develop a preternatural sense for when Demons are in the vicinity, being able to detect such an incursion before it happens. The potency of this ability seems to be directly tied to the extent of the sufferer's ailment; those with severe symptoms can uncover such presence further in advance and in a larger area than someone with only minor mutations.
For this reason, some settlements and organisations use those afflicted with Abyssal Flesh-Warping as sentries against fiendish invasions. They are granted comfortable accommodations and provided with ample food and drink, though they are still often left in isolation for long periods. Most of these watchers are posted near known beachheads of Demonic activity, but it is also believed that every major settlement has at least one oracle stationed in a secluded corner.
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