Death By Cheese

Gorgondeeze cheese has been analysed many times and so far nobody has been able to pinpoint exactly what it is about it which is so toxic. Research is still ongoing (the Meat and Meat Products Act makes certain exceptions for purely research purposes). Obviously the toxic element comes from the irongut ox, an animal which eats poisonous plants, but no trace of those toxins themselves can be found in the cheese.   Efforts to try to determine a "safe" amount of gorgondeeza consumption have made only tenuous theories. In practise nobody knows for sure, which for those who eat it as a death-defying pursuit is part of the allure. Whatever the amounts are would vary not just from species to species but individual to individual considering factors such as age, genetics, overall health, living conditions, and diet. It's thought other factors like combination of other food/drink and individual metabolisms contribute to how long it takes for the disease to set in. The only certainty is that if a troll were to eat enough gorgondeeza to cause cheesegut, it would definitively cause deezamortoxinitis.

Early warning signs are digestive issues which can't be remedied with standard medicine, abdominal pain and bloating, and a sudden specific sensitivity to any kind of cheese. For some it's any sensitivity to any kind of milk product.   From there, the early symptoms increase in severity and are joined by irregular fever, inflammation in other areas of the body, and a strange musty smell.   In the final stage, internal bleeding, painful growths in the stomach and intestines, high fever and hallucinations. No patient who has reached this stage has yet to survive.

Treatment for deezamortoxinitis is quite a recent innovation. Various elixirs are used to treat the individual symptoms, but for the disease itself, the only effective treatment found is a concoction derived from essense of deadly sleep.

Early diagnosis and treatment is important for chances of survival, which varies between species. The amount of gorgondeeza consumed also factors in, but it's not as simple as more cheese, more serious the disease.   Those who eat tiny amounts of the cheese on a regular basis over long periods of time develop deezamortoxinitis very slowly, but symptoms tend to be reported later. This could have more to do with the fact that anyone who's developed a gorgondeeza habit is less likely to admit to eating the illegal cheese to their doctor, or would take longer to bring themselves to do so, than someone who indulged in a lot of it a few times.   In a case like the latter case, the prognosis for most species would be good as long as symptoms were reported early. There is a variable delay, often of years, between eating gorgondeeza and the disease 'setting in' (being diagnosable), even if none has been consumed in the meantime. It appears to be particularly long for etertiles, which likely contributed to it taking so long for the toxicity of the cheese to be identified.   For those who have developed a regular habit of eating gorgondeeza, however, the prognosis is significantly lower. Even if diagnosis occurs immediately after symptoms begin, the disease is typically more aggressive and resiliant.   Etertiles are the most resilient when it comes to prognosis, which is unusual as giants are usually considered to have the strongest digestive system. With an early diagnosis and treatment, an etertile who ate the cheese only a few times has on average a 90% chance of survival. An otherwise healthy one who cultivated a gorgondeeza habit over many years, 40% would be optimistic.   In comparison, a troll with the same habit would be looking at 5-10%. It's unlikely a troll in that position would have managed to eat even tiny amounts of gorgondeeza over so long without developing a cheese addiction, as trolls with either a cheese or survival rush addiction are more vulnerable to developing the other. As such, it's far more common for trolls to develop cheesegut, which itself is a highly dangerous condition. Deezamortoxinitis presents much earlier in trolls, and the two conditions together are always fatal.   Under the Teardrop Sea Islands healthcare system, any patient diagnosed with survival rush addiction is routinely checked for symptoms of deezamortoxinitis (among other things) as part of their mandatory treatment plan.

Depending on how severe the disease became before recovery, most patients who do survive still suffer after-effects, for example continued digestive sensitivity or chronic discomfort, indefinitely.   For survival rush addicts who successfully recover, the psychological impact can be huge--and unpredictable. Patients diagnosed with this addiction are closely monitored afterwards with this in mind.   Once a patient has been treated for and recovered from deezamortoxinitis, consuming even a small amount of gorgondeeza again results in it returning acute late-stage, which cannot currently be cured.

Gorgondeeza is illegal and there are heavy sentences for those trading in it. Unfortunately, all the legislation and preventative action from the Sovereign can't stop individuals from seeking it out. Although the culture of high risk-taking has diminished much since the end of the Viri Empire, it is still prevalent in many areas of society, especially among wealthy city-dwellers.

The first person confirmed to have died of deezamortoxinitis (though it's likely there were others) was Emperor Vir. He traded with the tiny village that invented the cheese, and in the years that followed, enjoyed eating it daily. He introduced it to everyone around him and even fed it to his pets. When the disease struck him, there was no cure and no precedent, and he died in his early thirties.   During his life, Vir had reputedly more of a taste for high-risk pursuits than anyone. This was always part of Viri culture, even before the Empire dawned, but Vir is the one best-known for fuelling the fire so it spread beyond his people. (So it's a little ironic he never knew his favourite snack was lethal.) After his death, and the conclusion that the cheese was to blame, gorgondeeza surged in popularity as a result.   Because gorgondeeza didn't provide the instant survival rush that, say, a traditional game of pudding roulette offered, the Ancient Viri found different uses for it.   Cubes of gorgondeeza were offered as forfeits for not partaking in games where certain instant death was a possibility. Eating a large quantity of it was offered as an alternative punishment to criminals. And for some, the thrill was eating a substance which had killed the Emperor, regardless of whether it was instantly dangerous or not.   The production of gorgondeeza stopped for a while at the fall of the Viri Empire, but the idea of the prolonged death sentence intrigued Allshadow and he commissioned it to be made again. This much is historical fact, but what he actually used it for during the Age of Blood and Bone is lost to myth. A controversial document from that time suggests he ate it himself. Various legends say he fed it to his troops, either for punishment or motivation depending on the version.   After Allshadow's defeat, the popularity of dangerous activities took a dive during the Age of Renewal. However during the early Age of Salt and Stone, there was a big revival of traditional pasttimes, including high risk-taking. All the old games were adopted, including gorgondeeza's role in them. This trend faded somewhat during the middle of the Age, but still lingered among the wealthier classes.   During the latter part of the Age, during the height of inter-species hostility, a dozen trolls were killed by being fed gorgondeeza. Their deaths were due to a combination of deezamortoxinitis and cheesegut, and the murders were never solved.   There had been no central governing body since Allshadow, until the Teardrop Sea Islands was formed at the beginning of the Age of Acceleration. By this time, several regions had started introducing safety-based laws, but they were easy for citizens to get around. The first three Sovereigns worked on this, and it was the third Sovereign who finally banned gorgondeeza.   Incidents of deezamortoxinitis dropped considerably, but they weren't eradicated completely due to the black market. Soon afterwards, survival rush addiction became a recognised condition. At this point an amendment was made to the Meat and Meat Products Act allowing gorgondeeza to be produced strictly for research purposes, with a high standard of safeguards. This research led eventually to the discovery of treatment for deezamortoxinitis.