The Great Sea's Plague

Plague / Epidemic

All peoples who lived near the sea began to get sick with a terrible disease which almost always killed the infected.

The Coastal Peoples of Namiend, all over the world, began to get lumps in their nose and airpaths, these lumps would not go away, and would get bigger and bigger, forcing you to breathe from your mouth exclusively, until the airways closed as well, causing you to die from asphyxiation.   Weirdly, it only affected people who lived next to the sea, but river folk never got the disease.   This led to many people fleeing the coastline and living closer to the hills and mountains, however, it spread still spread from those to others, and caused many painful deaths.   Eventually it went away, but many people still remained away from the coast for many years after it disappeared.