Emerling Plague
The Emerling Plague is a dangerous disease.
- It is highly contagious.
- It has caused the deaths of multiple millions of sophonts.
- Worlds affected by the disease are quarantined.
Description (Specifications)[edit]
A virulent disease that has killed millions and resulted in the quarantine of the planet Emerling (and three other worlds). Its containment is an important policy for the Trelyn Domain.
Once an individual is infected the disease typically incubates for around a week. Following incubation, early symptoms include a fever and gastrointestinal problems – these continue to worsen as the disease progresses and hemorrhaging begins. As the disease runs its course it causes muscle wastage and damage to the nervous system, as well as hallucinations and neurological impairment. If the patient survives the course of the disease, recovery is slow but gradual, though most patients suffer permanent physical effects. The patient remains contagious from prior to the onset of symptoms until recovery is well under way.
A patient may suffer relapses of the plague for the remainder of their lives. If a relapse occurs, the patient undergoes all the symptoms and effects and becomes contagious again.
The disease is treatable and can be completely cured utilizing TL–14+ medical technology, though the procedure is inherently hazardous, expensive, and results in death for a small but significant percentage of those who undergo it.
History & Background (Dossier)[edit]
In 994, Grand Duke Ardesh Varen of the Trelyn Domain was touring the valleys of Emerling, a member of that polity, when he became ill with an intestinal infection, which quickly morphed into a haemorrhagic fever. It proved fatal despite the best efforts of his royal physicians. Ardesh was the most notable but far from the only victim; the disease spread across three valleys, killing more than two million people before a treatment was developed.
By 1002, the Trelyn Domain lifted the temporary quarantine on Emerling but retained strict monitoring and research efforts to prevent a re-emergence of the disease.
Despite assurances that the microbial cause of the plague had been eliminated, in 1079 the Emerling Plague returned, spread by a mutated microbe resistant to earlier treatments.
The next year, a new total quarantine of Emerling was imposed, but the plague had already spread. With a long incubation, the disease proved difficult to contain. Despite nearly half the infected patients surviving with treatment, they retained the microbe and the ability to infect others. Emerling's highport became a containment centre for years, until the surviving occupants were sent down to Emerling, whose entire population had either succumbed to the disease or become carriers. Once the last shuttle had left the highport, the Trelyn Royal Navy destroyed it with nuclear torpedoes.
For three years most of the Trelyn Domain remained under strict quarantine controls, and nearly every world managed to isolate surviving victims -- but no cure completely removed the microbe from its victims. Infected survivors had a choice between permanent isolation or a one-way trip to Emerling. Three worlds, Obykla, Voxarl and Quillon, proved unable to control the spread of the virus and remained, like Emerling, permanently quarantined -- with Royal Navy ships preventing any departures by their populations.
World Listing[edit]
Comprehensive Second Survey data for worlds affected by the Plague is available.
- The primary source material for all data is Traveller Map.
- Data is occasionally updated as new information becomes available.
AAB library archives contain expanded data about the following systems:
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Verified updated data is constantly sought.
- Scouting missions to these worlds is not recommended.
References & Contributors (Sources)[edit]
- Geir Lanesskog. The Spinward Extents, (Mongoose Publishing, 2022), page 273.