The Werewolf Plague

The Werewolf Plague was a supernatural disease created by Filtiarn as a means of spreading lycanthropy on a massive scale. Unlike ordinary lycanthropy, the plague could spread as a disease through a population before its victims were transformed into werewolves.

The plague first appeared around the time of the founding of Aegea, long before the Korvak War and the Age of Wonders. It reappeared during the events of Under the Bus and would again have consequences in later eras.

Its history is closely connected to Filtiarn's repeated attempts to establish his power in the world and to The Aegisstaff, which was originally created in response to the first outbreak.

Origin

Filtiarn was believed to have been the first werewolf, although ancient scholars disagreed over whether he had originally been a man or a wolf.

Long before Demmazon revealed himself to the world, scholars had theorized that a sufficiently powerful mortal being might be able to ascend to divinity. Such an ascension required exceptional personal power, genuine worshippers who believed the being to be divine, and a sufficiently far-reaching demonstration of power to serve as a divine miracle.

Filtiarn attempted to satisfy these requirements simultaneously.

He had already gathered a following among wolves and other wolf-like creatures. He discovered that those he personally transformed into werewolves were naturally inclined to follow him, allowing him to increase both the size of his following and the number of beings who regarded him as divine.

Transforming individuals was not enough, however. Filtiarn needed a demonstration of power on a far greater scale.

He therefore created the Werewolf Plague.

Filtiarn somehow infused the essence of his lycanthropic curse into an airborne disease. His plan was to infect thousands of people and then trigger their transformations simultaneously. The mass transformation would serve as his divine miracle while also instantly creating thousands of new werewolf followers.

The First Outbreak

Filtiarn unleashed the plague upon the newly founded city of Aegea.

The city was already struggling with unusual drought, the threat of famine, and attacks by enormous wolves when the disease began spreading through its population. Victims suffered severe illness and increasingly erratic behavior.

Filtiarn's plan was nearly successful, but the plague contained a flaw. Some infected citizens transformed into werewolves prematurely.

The early transformations revealed that the disease was more than an ordinary plague and gave Aegea's leaders warning before Filtiarn could trigger the planned mass transformation.

Aegea's mystics sought a means of stopping the disease. Their efforts ultimately led to the creation of The Aegisstaff, an artifact built around powerful preservation magic and capable of curing and preventing disease.

The Aegisstaff allowed Aegea to fully cure the plague before Filtiarn could trigger the intended transformation of its infected population. Its power also drove back Filtiarn's wolves and ended his first attempt at ascension.

Filtiarn's plan failed, and his rise to godhood was stopped.

The history of this outbreak was preserved in The Quest for the Cure.

The Second Outbreak

Approximately a century after the Fall of the Age of Wonders, the Werewolf Plague returned.

During the events of Under the Bus, communities began suffering from a mysterious disease whose symptoms resembled an unusually virulent fever. The outbreaks were connected to increasing numbers of werewolves and to the activities of the Gauntlet of the Moon, whose followers worshipped Filtiarn.

The plague was being deliberately spread.

Deskin, one of the Gauntlet's operatives, was involved in experiments intended to improve the disease. Among his subjects were people who appeared naturally resistant to infection, including potential members of The Chosen.

His experiments eventually succeeded in overcoming that resistance. Members of the Chosen became infected following contact with attacking werewolves and their remains, demonstrating that the disease could now affect them as well.

The party recovered an ancient ceramic disk from Deskin. Once translated, the disk contained the formula for the plague.

The disease described there was airborne and extremely virulent. It produced severe mental deterioration in its victims. Once an infected person's condition had deteriorated sufficiently, a repeated invocation could trigger the lycanthropic curse and transform the victim into a werewolf.

The disk explained how to create the disease but provided no cure.

Rediscovering the First Outbreak

Research into the plague revealed that a remarkably similar disease had struck Aegea at its founding.

The surviving histories repeatedly mentioned the ancient outbreak but did not explain how it had been defeated. Instead, they referred researchers to the lost work The Quest for the Cure.

The party eventually recovered the damaged book from the submerged ruins of Aegea and experienced its history through an Adventure Machine. This revealed the connection between the ancient plague, Filtiarn, and the creation of The Aegisstaff.

The modern Werewolf Plague was therefore not a new weapon. It was the return of the same method Filtiarn had attempted to use thousands of years earlier.

The Aegisstaff and the Plague

Because another Aegisstaff could not be created, the party searched for the original artifact.

After recovering The Aegisstaff, they used its preservation magic extensively against the plague.

The results were substantial. The staff cured much of the infection within Toreon, and its continued use nearly eliminated the disease in other affected regions. New outbreaks still occurred, but the combination of the Aegisstaff and the efforts of local clerics and healers greatly reduced the number of new transformations.

This severely limited Filtiarn's ability to expand his armies through mass infection.

Most of Filtiarn's infected werewolves could not themselves transmit lycanthropy. As the plague was suppressed, his followers increasingly had to rely on direct conversion by those capable of transmitting the curse or on coercing conquered populations into worshipping Filtiarn.

The struggle over control of the Aegisstaff consequently became a major part of the conflict between Filtiarn, the party, Cain, and the Church of Demmazon.

Relationship to the Barrier

The events surrounding the plague were ultimately connected to a larger supernatural disruption following the Fall of the Age of Wonders.

The barrier created when Demmazon separated his realm from the mortal world interfered with the normal passage of souls and was connected to the broader spread of plagues and supernatural disturbances in the post-Fall world.

Filtiarn did not originally create the Werewolf Plague during this period—the disease predated the Fall by thousands of years—but he was able to revive and exploit his ancient weapon during the instability that followed the separation of Demmazon's realm.

Later Recurrence

The Werewolf Plague was not confined to the era of Under the Bus.

It later resurfaced during the events of the Steve campaign, demonstrating that neither the disease nor the threat associated with Filtiarn had been permanently erased from the world.

The details of this later outbreak will be documented when the events of that campaign are reconstructed.

Historical Significance

The Werewolf Plague is one of the few supernatural threats known to have resurfaced repeatedly across widely separated periods of history.

Its first outbreak nearly destroyed Aegea before the city had fully established itself and directly resulted in the creation of The Aegisstaff.

Its return during Under the Bus allowed Filtiarn to create large numbers of werewolves, contributed to the rise of his armies, and eventually helped turn the struggle against him into a conflict affecting large portions of the known world.

Its later recurrence demonstrates that the plague survived beyond Filtiarn's defeat during the Under the Bus era, leaving it as a recurring threat in the world's history.