The Decline of Elves

Vizerian historians attribute their military success on Cormagh to their mastery of steel, written word, and even their battle hardened generals. This combination amounts to a massive advantage of the sophisticated civilizations of the Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs.   Yet those factors alone do not even the scales against the indigenous population of Cormagh, and the staggering death toll.   Over the course of two centuries, the continent of Cormagh was effectively emptied of their native inhabitants, aside from the Dragonborn. Modern day academics estimate that approximately 95% of the humanoid population of continent were wiped out following the Vizerian invasion.   No army, regardless of training or viciousness, could have achieved devastation on such an apocalyptic scale. In truth, Vizerian carried a deadly weapon that even they themselves were unaware of: Ice scale.   Ice scale is a virulent disease which hangs like a cloud around an infected individual. Those that enter too close to an infected individual have shown signs of the infection in as little as a few days. Large patches of the victim’s flesh turn a milky white, and fill with pus. Soon after, these pustules harden and crack, oozing sickness from the broken skin. What remains is a stiff patchwork of cracked white flesh that resembles scales.   The infection runs its course over roughly 15 days, at which time the victim will have either died or survived with permanent scarring. During the entire period, the infected person may have come into contact with the healthy, and spread the disease further.  

The Spread

Ice Scale struck across the Sea of Songs sometime in the 315 CE , hidden beneath the heavy clothes of an infected individual on a Vizerian ship sailing to Cormagh from Aetrera. No sooner had it made landfall that the ship birthed a host of infected individuals to walk among the Dwarven population of Kalzanzabar. The warmer climate only worsened the spread of the disease, and it is only the hardy constitution of the dwarves and their natural resistance to toxins that saved them from devastation.   Yet the same constitution that saved them, doomed both their allies and enemies. The dwarves of Kalzanzabar traded with their brethren in the Ash Peaks, who in turn make regular contact with their brethren in the World Below. The first elven records of the disease are found in cave paintings recording several battles between the dark elves and the dark dwarves. The paintings depict several of the dark dwarves with pale white patches of flesh among the ranks of the conquered and enslaved.   From there, it was only a few years of regular contact between the elves above and below before the disease had completed its journey across two mountain ranges and a hellish valley between. Once among the elven population, the disease spread like wild fire, assisted by their close-knit culture and the relatively warm climate.     It’s not well documented how the other elven populations across the continent came into contact with the disease, but it is believed that the elven magic and their secret methods of travel may have further assisted Ice Scale in spreading. Such loss drove the rapid change in culture and civilization that we see today. After the death of the previous ruling King and Queen of Felawyn, their successors agreed to instead divide the forests and rule from palaces separated by a great distance, to prevent the elven people being so divested of leadership again. It is also believed to be a contributing factor to the resistance of the elves to adopt more modest forms of dress, and their shift towards smaller more spread out communes.   But the Dwarves were not the only vector for the disease, as other Vizerian ships landed on the peninsula near what is present day Diamora. The orcs that roamed the plains were the next victims of Ice Scale. Although their population was as equally dwindled as the elves, their much shorter breeding and maturation cycle meant that they returned to pre-contact numbers within a few generations.  

Conquest

In the era of conquest that followed, Vizerian colonizers were assisted dramatically by the diseases which they carried. The enslavement of the Halfling population on Cormagh’s peninsula is largely attributed to the decimation of the able-bodied by the very same disease, just years after the Vizerians made contact.
More victims of colonization were killed by Vizerian diseases, than by either the spell or sword, making disease the deadliest agent of conquest.