Wormwood Invasion

The water still tastes bitter, rotting through most crops brought from outside. We'll survive, we always have, this isn't the first time our kind has faced disaster.

— Wormwood inhabitant.

During the Great Sangfroid War, the region of Wormwood was a major advantage point for both, with the sangfroid empire fighting over control from it. In the end however, it became the ground for a new military weapon, the infamous wormwood plague.

Birth of a Plague

Like the rest of the Great Sangfroid War, the efforts to claim the remaining elven regions led to a standstill at the Wormwood domain, where the denser forests and swampy terrains made ground combat difficult for the Sangfroid forces.   The first waves against the elves were met with crushing defeats, as soldiers got stuck in the swamps or struggled to notice them amongst the trees, if not the many traps both magical and mundane the inhabitants of Wormwood used to fight the armies off.   To avoid losing more men than needed, the sangfroid empire focused their attention on a more indirect attack, producing a biological weapon that would turn the tide in their favour.   The weapon, now known as the Wormwood Plague, was introduced to the water supply of the region where it was allowed to spread into the population. Within days, both vegetation and inhabitants began to suffer from the effects, allowing soldiers to push forward to claim more ground.   The problem was that the plague proved to be too strong, mutating beyond their control and making the inner regions highly contagious. For every cure made another form of it took out those that got too close. Attempts to eradicate it through fire proved doable, but by then the war was on its last legs, causing the few remaining soldiers to retreat back to Sangfroid .   Ever since, the region has suffered under the effects of the biological weapon, with nature trying to fight against it and mutating further, while the few who still live within the region developed an immunity to it. Though legends speak of it enabling worse things to grow within its heart, making the former cities turn to ruin.