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Princess on the Run background - The Murmur
🕑 Added 2025-11-07 00:09:20 +0000 UTC“No longer were there individual destinies; only a collective destiny, made of plague and emotions shared by all.” ~ Albert Camus, The Plague
The Murmur is a disease that has periodically ravaged the continent for more than a century. While often claiming the elderly, it has been known to claim humans of all ages.
The source of the illness is unknown, which has given rise to wild speculation as to the nature or why it afflicts those it does. Some claim it to be a curse upon the unfaithful by the Gods, while others attribute the illness to some shapeless fell monster or an ill-advised spell gone wrong. All of these arguments are not without their detractors. That many of the researchers, wizards, and scribes have themselves fallen victim to the Murmur has made a closer study of the illness difficult to say the least.
Some of these rumours had the unfortunate effect of having Elves, Dwarves, and other, so-called ‘demihuman’ races, who were immune to the Murmur, withdraw from most human contact.
Through oral tradition, it is generally understood that the Murmur first appeared over 100 years ago, inflicting and decimating the Circle of Nine, a conventing of wizards in the tenuous employ of then Emperor of Blue, Melcharen the 5th. The disease spread quickly, decimating only the human population across the continent.
Chaos reigned for several years until the Imperial Regent enacted several royal edicts to be enforced among the many kingdoms under its control. Those failing to follow these edicts were stripped of their royal titles, banished or executed, and their lands divided up amongst their neighboring kingdoms. These edicts, initially seen as overly harsh, had the intended effect of stabilizing the centers of power throughout the continent and adapting to the lasting effects of the Murmur.
Among these edicts was the Re-Settling Decree. The various kingdoms of the Blue Empire were to direct their vassals to group together the orphaned remainders of the Murmur into family units, retaining familial ties and lands if possible. The imperial edict emphasized that this re-settling of the children of the Murmur was to be conducted with the utmost kindness and consideration. There are bardic songs of the terrible fates that met those kingdoms that ignored or abused this particular Decree. These served as cautionary tales about protecting those children orphaned by the Murmur throughout the continent..
The symptoms of the Murmur are invariable and ultimately fatal. Initial symptoms are complaints of being cold and hearing an incessant buzzing in the ears. After a brief period, the symptoms grow visible to the naked eye; the veins in the limbs and face become visible, taking on a bright red hue. One of the more inexplicable effects the afflicted suffer is that they begin to hear voices and have murmured conversations in unknown languages about events from other lands that they had never visited. These symptoms are followed by violent convulsions that lead immediately to the death of the sufferer. Due to the mystery of the illness, the bodies of the dead are uniformly burned to ash, despite there being no indication that the Murmur is contagious in the traditional sense.
Thus, the outbreaks of the Murmur arrive every 40 years, departing with the death of its last victim..
Comments
FrankNL
Can you tell a period of the release, I mean 'end of 2025' 'Spring 2026' or something like that? I am looking forward to the new setting and see what you added and changed in the game/story
