In the year 2558 after Truth the plague sweeps over Midgard and some parts of Utgard . These are texts that describe the initial outbreak and its effects:
11/05/2558 A.T. Outbreak.
A mutation of the "black death" infects visitors of the most popular inn and sleeping house in Ul-Targash . Lla'smoclew.
A Vortexian is deemed original host and source of the mutation. Priests of Wana state that the sickness is not divine punishment.
The Lorekeepers state that the sickness is a known Midgardian sickness and that treatment is simple and effective. It is not a feared Vortexian sickness as people initially thought and the Vortexian containment has not been compromised.
Some panic and rioting brakes out, but nothing to serious and people seem to calm down after a day or two.
18/05/2558 A.T. 1 weeks after outbreak.
Despite containment protocols the disease seems to be spreading.
Infected houses are marked, isolated, treated and then burned.
People are urged not to leave their houses and not to travel around.
Large riots and some plundering have been reported, possibly spreading the disease even more. Luckily the military now steps in where the High Guard fails and riots are dealt with quickly and harshly. Midgard is still very effective in repressing social unrest it seems.
Death toll estimates reach from 2% of the city to 5% of the city. Infection rate could range over 15% of the city already.
25/05/2558 A.T. 2 weeks after outbreak.
The outbreak is deemed uncontrollable, the sickness spreads to fast and to far to contain it within individual houses.
In some regions of the city people are forced to stay in their houses and not to travel around. The military enforces this and has no problem killing rebels or troublemakers, because of this policy, order seems to return to Ul-Targash .
Death toll estimates reach from 5% of the city to 15% of the city. Infection rate is estimated well over 40% of the city.
02/06/2558 A.T. 3 weeks after outbreak.
Anton Undain is quick to activate a ghetto system and splits all the city blocks into regions that can be closed and isolated from the rest of the city with high wooden walls.
All healers guilds, hospitals and churches of the city are bundling their forces and are driving up the cost of treatment. The monopoly on the now highly wanted magical treatment drives the cost of it up the wall.
The farmlands are hit hard by the disease and people are leaving their crops and livestock unattended. Infected livestock wanders out into the plains of Midgard .
Death toll estimates reach from 25% of the city to 35% of the city. Infection rate is estimated to reach at least 70% of the city.
09/06/2558 A.T. 4 weeks after outbreak.
Ul-Targash looks as if it is under attack. The streets are empty, soldiers are marching trough the lanes and death bodies are piled up outside the houses.
But there are differences, hints to spot that this is no [b]regular[/b] attack.
Healers with one-horned masks, as a symbol and homage to Wana , the goddess of diseases, stalk the streets, magically healing people, and protecting themselves from the disease. The stench of death and decay hangs over the city, especially from the slums and middle-class houses. The smell of burned wood and flesh hang about the city flesh as the now homeless warmed themselves on the burning bodies of their once friends and relatives.
Ul-Targash is trying, but Midgard favours the rich and powerful and hasn't got enough magical healers to cover all the sick, by far.
Luck has it that the morality rate of the mutated sickness is lower than the original black death. The original host had a very different biological make up as the standard Midgardian human and therefore the sickness only kills roughly three quarter of the infected people who don't receive magical healing within a week. Children normally die within four days. A magical healer of normal strength is only able to heal about four people a day. That covers the military, the rich population, but only about half of the middle class, even though the healers are performing rituals to increase their capacity.
The cries of the dying, who are too poor to pay for treatment, are heard over the wooden walls that have been build around the infected parts of the city. Leaving these walls is only possible if you can prove you can pay for treatment, all other attempt to leave these prison ghetto's are judged as murder by infection and are instantly punished by death. The military oversees these street trails.
Within the wooden walls, people rob and murder each other to gather enough money to buy their way out, no military or guards oversee these area's. These are lawless, wild and hellish patches of urban chaos. After ten days these city blocks are burned to the ground, often still with living, infected and non-infected people in them.
Lots of people flee from Ul-Targash , both infected and non-infected. Word has reached Ul-Targash that both Predator Haven and Port Ossic have closed their walls but both cities have already reported people with symptoms.
Anton Undain has locked the borders and prohibits people from leaving Midgard . Entering is still free. Some healers from Utgard and Asgard have entered the kingdom to become rich of the disease, but some people have whispered that the Utgard border has been compromised by infected people wandering into the Caldera Wasteland .
Nobody is able to count the death toll or infection rate at this moment.
08/07/2558 A.T. Two months after outbreak.
Both Port Ossic and Predator Haven are saved. The sickness reached the cities, but warning did as well. Quick acting of the High guard made sure the plague only affected a small portion of the population of these two cities.
Word has it that the plague has not affected Asgard at all. People whisper of Satyrs working together with Shanata to butcher any and all sick people trying to pass trough long ear forest or venture onto the open plains of the Uplands.
There are rumors of Utgardian villages affected by the Plague but it seems Utgard won't be having a lot of trouble.
But Ul-Targash . Ul-Targash is in rubbles.
People heading towards the Vortex walk passed the hulking giant that once was Ul-Targash . Surrounded by wooden walls and constant stationed High Guard archers. Anyone trying to get out of the city is shot on sight. Some of the High guardsmen have resigned because they believe they are shooting people that could still be saved. Rumours are however that more than just '''sick''' people are streaming out of the city. Deformed people. Mutated, mad... hungry... and maybe other, horrors. The High Guard stationed at the Portal has been tripled and enforced by military personnel to make sure the Plague doesn't spread towards the Vortex . Anton Undain sees the dangers of this for the entire multiverse. Ul-Targash itself has been completely sealed. No person is allowed in or out any longer. The walls of the city now serve to keep the dying in. And there are still dying. Anton Undain has stopped sending in rescue parties of healers and fighters to get out the nobles, his excuse is that most parties are not returning and he won't risk more of his men. The Lorekeepers write that the chances of Anton lying about this are high as the parties entering the ghost city would only encounter small groups of weakened and dying people. The stench rising up from the city is heavy and plans are being made to burn the entire city to the ground as soon as there are no more survivors inside.
01/08/2558 A.T. Three months after outbreak.
'''"Still more are coming out. It is as if they are... breeding."'''
The original plan was to keep everybody in Ul-Targash . Let them die and starve. And then burn the whole place to the ground. But it has been three months now, and still people are climbing over the walls, running for freedom in the night. They are gunned down by magic and arrows. The bodies are hard to hide from the public eye, and even harder from the prying eyes of the Lorekeepers . They are not just humans, halfings, gnomes and the occasional Utgardian or Asgardian. There are other things streaming out of Ul-Targash as well. Violent things. Although few, and far in between, they seem to nurture the sick, and heal them, only to make them sick again, slowly mutating them in horrid, mad creatures.
Anton Undain has given the order. The city will be burned to the ground within a week. Preparations have been made. The mages guild stands ready. Whatever is in there; it shall glow hot red from searing arcane firestorms.
Midgard is in a state of war. But what is it fighting?
15/08/2558 A.T. Three months and two weeks after outbreak.
The old Ul-Targash is under siege by the the military of Midgard. They fail for some reason and retreat but won't tell the public what stopped them from burning down the city.
18/09/2558 A.T. Four months and two weeks after outbreak.
Ul-Targash is sieged again, this time more effectively. The mages guild succeeds in burning down lots of the old slums. At this rate the city needs 3 more attacks, to fall completely.
8/10/2558 A.T. Five months and 1 week after outbreak.
Lorekeepers are reporting that Ul-Targash is showing signs it is being '''rebuild''' from the inside out. Still Anton Undain wont disclose any other information to the public. Lorekeepers are sending in men to investigate despite Undain's warnings of Quarantine breach.
1/11/2558 A.T. Six months after outbreak.
The Lorekeepers that went into Ul-Targash have not returned yet. Lorekeepers are no longer being send it. The Midgardian army states it is not planning any more sieges on Ul-Targash , deeming them fruitless. Midgard has lifted its war status but is still on high alert.