Golden Blood Syndrome

Golden blood syndrome (GBS) is a disease caused by the overconsumption of kiepheloi honey. Although this food is a staple in Orochtha, the reality is that it is toxic. Mildly, in the case of the denizens of the realm who have grown up eating kiepheloi honey and have thus built up a genetic tolerance to the substance, and moderately so for everyone else. Recent research suggests that a buildup of gold-bearing compounds in the body is at least partially to blame for the progression of the disease. Mounting evidence is also contributing to a consensus in the medical community that GBS is not solely a physiological affliction, though more work is needed to determine the nature of the supernatural affliction and the mechanism thereof.

Most who develop GBS never manifest outwardly apparent symptoms, but the primary and distinguishing symptom of the disease is the buildup of gold in a patient's blood, hence the name. Whether other symptoms arise as a consequence of the increased gold concentration in the patient's blood, or as a direct result of the disease itself is a matter of debate in contemporary scholarship. Regardless, there is a wide gamut of physiological symptoms that develop in advanced and end-stage GBS.   Physically, afflicted individuals are likely to experience muscle soreness, muscle cramps, fatigue, shortness of breath, stomach upset, nausea, gastric reflux, and dry eyes or blurry vision. In later stages of the disease, their body's ability to clot will become progressively impaired, and wounds would have difficulty closing and healing. In terminal GBS, the patient's blood takes on a lustrous golden sheen followed by a cascade of organ failures that usually starts with the kidneys and liver. In most cases, however, patients die to massive cerebral hemorrhaging rather than the preceding organ failures.   Psychologically, patients may experience light-headedness, memory problems, and dizziness. Nausea, loss of balance, and a feeling of being untethered to the normal flow of time are other common symptoms. Anxiety, Paranoia, and a sense of impending doom—often accompanied by hallucinations of one's own demise—mark the disease's progression. In terminal cases, patients are said to enter a state of uncanny calm. Patients have self-described these pre-mortem states as episodes of existential ennui, nihilistic solipsism, or "tired resignation in the face of the ultimate futility of life's struggles."

Because victims of the disease do not display outwardly apparent symptoms until more advanced stages, GBS is primarily identified with a blood test which detects the presence of gold in a patient's blood. As it can be difficult to distinguish the symptoms of the disease with the naked eye, especially in the early stages, physicians must make use of other means, whether technological or magical.   One of the most effective diagnostic tools is, in fact, the very creature whose product causes the disease. Due to their innate ability to detect gold over large distances, kiepheloi are an invaluable and highly accurate diagnostic test for GBS. As such, it is not uncommon for such tests to be conducted by or under the watchful supervision of a moradeikon.   In more controlled environments, the test is performed by extracting a blood sample from the patient being diagnosed with a needle, but in more rural areas where such premises are not necessarily available, the test may be conducted using a finger prick. The test is usually conducted in two parts: first, to determine whether an individual is or is not suffering from GBS, and second, to determine the severity of the affliction.   In the first part, a contained kiephelos is placed in proximity to the blood sample. If it reacts, this indicates a positive result, and that the individual is highly likely to be ill with GBS. In the second part of the test, a sample of gold dust is presented to the kiephelos simultaneous to the blood sample, and based how much gold dust is required to draw the kiephelos' attention away from the blood, the diagnosing physician can make a rough determination of how advanced the patient's disease is.   Fortunately, treatment of GBS is comparably simpler. As it is caused by diet—and specifically the consumption of a particular product—historical accounts and modern research agree that the easiest way to resolve the disease, in all but the most advanced of cases, is simply by avoiding kiepheloi honey until the excess gold has been flushed from one's system. While research continues with respect to finding less time-consuming treatments for milder cases, efforts are primarily directed toward finding cures for end-stage patients.

For patients in all but the most advanced stages of the disease, the prognosis for GBS is good. The severity of the affliction determines how long patients would have to forego kiepheloi honey, sometimes on the order of years in the worst of the curable cases, but being unable to enjoy a cultural staple is the worst consequence in such cases. Past a certain threshold of severity, the prognosis precipitously worsens, and outside a narrow band of circumstances where the disease might fail to progress, advanced GBS is near-invariably fatal.