The Grief Plague

The Journeyers Tobrin and Janhalt were a rare breed. Most it not all their ilk who traversed the High Paths between worlds were solitary individuals, loners whose ability to navigate the pathways isolated them from others. Not so with Tobrin and Janhalt, a deeply devoted husband and wife team who were inseparable, their wanderings taking them across numerous worlds. They were a formidable duo, both exceptionally gifted in martial arts and magical disciplines. Tobrin was a polyglot whose magical abilities augmented his language learning skills to incredible heights. Janhalt was a superlatively gifted doctor, able to find and recognise local flora and fauna to combat any disease or ailment and often carrying about her a treasure trove of medicinal items from across the Other Worlds. They relished in every new world they trod upon and tried to leave them better than when they found them if only in small, personal ways.

Alas, their story did not end well.

Their travels took them to the world of Galmar, a primitive world dominated by an exceptionally totalitarian religion that punished any deviation from set scripture with brutal punishment. The two found themselves immediately apprehended by the zealous religious police of the theocratic government when Janhalt attempted to help a young girl who had been declared unclean. Naturally the two Journeyers fought back, displaying a power their zealous attackers had not excepted. Unfortunately, the Priests leading the fight were capable magic wielders themselves, the only ones allowed to study and use the sorcerous arts by divine provenance, and overwhelmed the two Journeyers.

What followed was an arduous and horrific ordeal wherein Torbin and Janhalt were interrogated and tortured. They were declared heretics and abominations against the Divine Prophet Who Sits Beside God and sentenced to death by fire. Before a baying ground the two were tied to a pyre and were helpless as flames were ignited at their feet.

Torbin passed first, his treatment at the hands of his torturers more severe than his wife's.

Seeing her beloved husband pass broke something in Janhalt. Her compassion was stripped away and replaced by an overwhelming rage fed by insurmountable grief. She was likely driven mad by then, her loss and pain pushing her over the edge.

What happened next is unclear for few survived and none could determine what had truly been unleashed. They say that Janhalt began to scream, howling in a way that caused the mob to quieten, their zealous fervour replaced by an ever rising fear. Then, the people around began to feel a terrible creeping dread. And without warning, they began to scream to. One by one people began to drop dead, their faces caught in frozen rictus' of utter terror.

The Grief Plague as it came to be called swept across Galmar. Thousands of people were struck down by the power of a woman who had sought only to help and in whose grief that power was transformed to something else entirely. Only when finally did the flames consume her did Janhalt cease her screaming and the deaths finally stopped.

The Grief Plague had decimated the capitol city of Galmar and greatly reduced the powerbase of the Genmaris faith. A less strident facet of it emerged, one far less zealous and more open to debate. So in a way, the legacy of Torbin and Janhalt endured for Galmar became a different world after their passing. They are seen as divine wrath manifest now by many of the faith, avatars who had come to judge the corrupt old corrupt priesthood and usher in a new way.