Player Name: Trace Character Name: Lalli Hotakainen Canon: Stand Still, Stay Silent Submission: I humbly submit The Illness, which legit caused the entire apocalypse and now, 90 years later, is the thing that everyone both fears and has to fight against in order to reclaim any small part of civilization.
The Beasts form out of animals, and are the most sturdy of the infected. A good beast example is the dog that fans call Cthulhund, who almost passes for a normal dog but becomes very much not a normal dog when incited to attack.
Trolls were once human, but are barely recognizable as such due to their distorted features and multiple, disfigured limbs. All in all, trolls are prettyfuckingross. They have very limited intelligence - they tend to at least somewhat calculate when to move or attack, but they also don't seem to know how to pass through fairly rudimentary barriers, nor do they learn from past mistakes/mistakes they see other trolls make. (A note that dusklings - wiki here - might be fun for folks who may not be so into the grosser monsters.)
Giants are basically trolls that fuck. And by fuck, I mean fuck your shit up. Sometimes, a giant is just a really big troll, but usually it's some kind of unholy fusion of any number of humans and/or creatures mashed together in a terrible infected glob. Examples from canon include this train-smashing motherfucker, this giant nope-serpent, this tentacle thing, and this moose filled with corpses. Often, a mobile giant is accompanied by anywhere from a handful to over a dozen beasts or smaller trolls, hoping for scraps leftover when the giant is done - but it's risky because some giants eat smaller infected besides just live prey.
█ TWO (UNFRIENDLY GHOSTS)
A recently-discovered side effect of the illness is that once a troll or giant is killed, the formerly-human spirits trapped inside of it are now warped by the infection and is unable to move on to the afterlife without some super direct guidance. They typically manifest as oblongshadows, and at this stage, they mostly just linger and give you the creeps. However, the most ambitious of these ghosts are capable of some real fucked-up shit.
Particularly malevolent ghosts can possess beasts and even trolls, essentially 'evolving' with each shape they absorb. One ghost in canon possesses first a multi-limbed sjødraug and then a beast-horse, at which point it seems significantly more powerful and sentient than before. We see this horse-ghost show other ghosts how to possess beasts and then leading them to herd non-ghost beasts toward the expedition party in an organized assault.
One huge difference between the infected and the spirits they leave behind are the voices. In canon, spirits speak somewhat frequently in highly-infected zones, even interfering with the radio. It's typically short, distorted phrase filled with pain and suffering and rage, but some of the stronger spirits (like the ones who assimilate the bodies of beasts/trolls) become alarmingly lucid - a key example is that horse-ghost I mentioned, who definitely scares the shit out of me before he discovers that the current assault he orchestrated was a failure and briefly gets even more alarming and retreats.
These infected ghosts (whether they're stuck inside a troll/giant still or choose to possess something corporeal like the horse did) are actually pretty decent at preying on your weaknesses. To Emil, who has entirely too much naive empathy, they appeal for help. To Lalli, who patently lacks empathy and wouldn't fall prey to that, they try to incite fear instead, telling him that he 'can't protect them forever' and that 'we will follow, we won't stop, we won't rest', etc.
Ultimately, it seems like the malevolent spirits universally just want to vent the pain and suffering they feel on every living thing in range by virtue of making those living things suffer as well. The less malevolent spirits (exclusively in oblong shadow form) don't seem to really want much of anything, as long as you leave them be wherever they've decided to gather. As Reynir puts it, "they just kinda sit there and flicker a little."
(A note: While, in canon, only mages can see/hear the spirits, I feel like everyone can here by virtue of having the gods' magic within them. That's technically not how it's supposed to work, but fuck it, y'know? Might as well make it a more inclusive event.)
█ PART THREE (THE ILLNESS ITSELF)
So all of this begs the question: Can you get infected?
Yes, you sure can.
The Illness, previously known as The Rash, was the downfall of much of civilization. While the original rendition of it took 15 days to kill on average (according to the documentation they found), that was exclusively the rash symptoms - nowadays, the psychological effects fuck with you long before the actual illness claims you.
The Illness can be contracted via open, skin-piercing wounds (e.g. a bite, a scratch) and the respiration tract (breathing too close to an infected individual/beast/troll, especially if inhaling what they exhale). Smaller trolls and beasts typically aren't as infectious and thus have to actually bite you to transmit the infection. In a place like Asgard, the biggest danger may very well be other people - humans which have the Illness currently incubating in their bodies, a state which prompts the pathogen to change into a "less destructive, but more airborne form" that can result in infections in a three meter radius.
Physical symptoms include the namesake rash spreading from the point of infection (if a bite) or from an initial rash outbreak along a pulse point (commonly the throat). Following this, infected individuals experience vomiting and fever spells. Many victims also experience painful calcification around the joints. Theoretically this would be followed by falling comatose, but you probably won't get that far because of the...
...Mental-emotional symptoms. Discussed in the central text here, a person soon begins to grow confused and hostile. They also begin to hear the voices of the spirits crackling in their ears like static, even when none are at conversational range. A person basically just... loses their mind in it. It's pretty fucked.
But there's an opt-out pretty much built into the package! A lot of the people currently alive in Year 90 ("modern day") are alive due to a genetic immunity to the illness, passed down from ancestors who were unable to contract the illness at the time of the outbreak. Don't want your character to risk infection? Just assume they're immune!
How to Defeat It:
All in all, salvation could come from any number of things. I'll organize it by what exactly fights each individual element presented above!
█ HOW TO BEAT THE INFECTED
(Specifically, how to we get rid of the beasts, trolls, and giants.)
These can actually be killed with normal weapons! A well-placed headshot or the sword equivalent will do the trick, as will hacking them to pieces or generally just rendering their carcass inoperable. Unlike zombies, they won't really crawl after you if they're more than 50% incapacitated. But be warned: The sound of a gunshot is likely to attract any other infected in the area, and them fuckers be quick.
Another key option: fire. There are entire regiments of the military called cleansers who systematicallyburn infected areas to cleanse them for later inhabitants. On a smaller scale, a flamethrower or fire spell will do wonders. They don't quite burn like paper, but they burn much more effectively than a rotting monstrosity should - and on top of that, they react fearfully if presented with fire.
Sunlight is also a great weapon, for the limited capacity in which anyone is really able to utilize it. Some beasts and thicker-skinned trolls (the above-mentioned Dusklings being one of them) are able to travel in cloudy or shadowed daylight, but for the most part, UV of any strength legitimately burns the infected. Because of this, they tend to linger in buildings or crevices throughout the daylight hours and come out at night when they're safer.
They're also pretty sensitive to cold temperatures (a key step in the above-mentioned cleansing process relies on the winter wiping out any last sign of infection), so anyone who happens to have budding ice magic sure could do some work.
All in all, Asgard can pretty much be rid of them in typical monster-fighting fashion.
█ HOW TO BEAT THE RESTLESS GHOSTS
These are a bit trickier than the infected, unfortunately, and will largely just have to be tolerated until the event is over. That being said, there are a couple of options!
Protective runes. They don't like them. A few of the spells that folks might have at first level offer that sort of thing. Alternatively, the gods might be able to provide protective runes for folks to use if need be.
Any sort of silence spell - basically any way to shut up the ghosts' voices, since that's the part that tends to fuck with you if they aren't inhabiting a beast/troll/giant.
It's possible to lure them into a host beast/etc. and then murder the hell out of them, in theory.
If possible, some sort of exorcism spell would likely do the trick, too.
As far as the ghost issue as a whole is confirmed, if the infected are being wiped out and Asgard is generally being cleansed, it's very possible for the necromancy-based gods and/or players to convince the ghosts to leave. This either involves moving into the beyond (if it's lore-friendly for Asgard) or just wandering off into the forest outside of Asgard, never to be seen again.
█ HOW TO BEAT THE INFECTION
Aside from the obvious "prevention is key" (masks + not letting yourself get bitten/scratched + letting the immune do the fighting), there's no known solution to the issue of the infection. While the gods could definitely decontaminate the city, that doesn't account for the infected individuals themselves. This could go a couple of different ways.
Option 1: Realistically? The infection would run its course and folks would legit die. Does anyone want to die again this soon? Who even knows. But it's an option.
Option 2: The gods are able to basically decontaminate the individuals themselves, with or without lasting side effects. Potentially a couple of days of quarantine for the infected individuals before they figure out how to do so, just for added drama? Idk. I can help brainstorm more ideas once I know whether y'all want the gods to offer a solution or just want to let the infected die unaided.
Soooo that's it. Pia or I can answer any and all questions y'all might have if this one does get picked, to the best of our ability anyway. Until then, thanks for considering this absolute shitshow for your Asgard eventing needs!
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Character Name: Lalli Hotakainen
Canon: Stand Still, Stay Silent
Submission: I humbly submit The Illness, which legit caused the entire apocalypse and now, 90 years later, is the thing that everyone both fears and has to fight against in order to reclaim any small part of civilization.
This has many different elements to offer!
How to Defeat It: