A disease was a detrimental medical condition that was not an injury.[1]
Infection
A disease could be transmitted in various ways: injury, ingestion, inhalation, or mere contact.[1]
Once infected, the disease took hold in a body that was not of strong enough constitution. After an incubation period, the disease showed its symptoms, which persisted until the host was cured of the disease or died of it.[1]
Diseases on Toril
On Toril, widespread plagues were mostly a problem of the past by the 14th century DR.[2]
The reason for this was that diseases turned into widespread plagues when a population had never encountered them before. Toril had a long history of interracial intermingling and even crossbreeding. People were exposed to various diseases since childhood and therefore developed immunities and, being the descendants of survivors of plagues, they also inherited immunities from their ancestors. Overall, widespread plagues were not a problem in urban areas but more in isolated rural areas.[2]
Treatment on Toril
- Official Level
- Another reason why plagues were contained was that preventive treatment was done on an official level by the priesthood and/or rulers. This was done either through official enforcement or by secretly mixing medical substances into food and water. People who were strangers and obviously afflicted were generally killed, at least in frontier regions.[2]
- Personal Level
- On a personal level, people had no real medical knowledge and therefore relied first and foremost on experience, re-using methods that had helped themselves or close associates in the past, and second on the counsel of elders and the like.[2]
Information on Toril
As a general rule, the people of Faerûn had at least some knowledge about how certain diseases were transmitted and had a shared understanding of the matter. What they were in disagreement about were the treatment methods. There were at least two reasons for this. First, there was the aforementioned reliance on personal experience, and second, there was false information that was intentionally spread, such as by followers of Talona.[2]
List of Diseases
The most common diseases were:[3]
| Name | Other names | Infection | Incubation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blacklung fever | none | Inhalation | 1 day |
| Blacktongue | none | Ingestion | 1 to 4 days |
| Darkrot | Gangrene | Injury | 1 day |
| Featherlung | none | Inhalation | 1 to 3 days |
| Fleshrot | none | Contact | 1 to 4 days |
| Green rot | Scaly death | Injury | 1 day |
| Marsh fever | Sallar, typhus | Injury | 3 to 18 days |
| Shaking fever | none | Contact | 2 days |
| Shaking plague | |||
| Spotted plague | none | Contact | 1 day |
| Whitewasting | Leprosy | Contact | 5 years |
| Winterchill fever | Pneumonia | Contact | 1 to 6 days |
Appendix
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Template:Cite book/Dungeon Master's Guide 3.5
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Ed Greenwood, Eric L. Boyd (March 2006). Power of Faerûn. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 93. ISBN 0-7869-3910-9.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood, Eric L. Boyd (March 2006). Power of Faerûn. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 94. ISBN 0-7869-3910-9.