Epochxin

Epochxin is the venom blood of the ebon-swirled primal demon, a primitive relative of the massive shadowy oculoth. While this specific kind of demon is thought to exist in other valences, it was also known by Faendryl scholars to reside in the Southron Wastes. Epochxin is a portmanteau of "epoch toxin". The term "epochxin" refers to one of two things. It may refer to the blood of the ebon-swirled primal demon, or it may refer to its use as a venom, where the victim is subject to very rapid aging and ultimately crumbles. It is somewhat ambiguous to what extent the blood has to be activated to have this effect. It is thought to be essentially temporal in function, such as by Lord Brieson Cassle of the Hall of Mages, causing the victim's body to be accelerated in time relative to its surroundings. It is very closely related to the Everblood, which keeps the body restored to its condition from a fixed moment.

Ebon-swirled primal blood is the base ingredient of what can be considered a whole family of related poisons or blood curses. Among these include the Everblood, epochxin venom, the blackblood curse, the anti-Everblood salve or potion, Raznel's paragons and her own immortality, the temporary restorative poisons used on Rysus and Praxopius, and the Blue Suffer poison used on the krolvin and especially their warlord Kragnack. Through the blackblood curse variant it is responsible for the formation of the Bleaklands, and therefore implicitly bleakstone, and through bleakstone for the Blight.

History

Epochxin is the natural venom blood of the ebon-swirled primal demon. It is unknown why this relative of the oculoth family of demons has a time warping venom. Oculoths in general have the ability to cause victims to be possessed, and their venom has mind wracking effects. The blood of the demon, which is essentially a shadow entity, is itself venom. Epochxin derivatives have been at the core of the dark magic that has made major impacts on historical events since 5110 Modern Era, but are also related to other crimes or catastrophes in the Turamzzyrian Empire dating back roughly six hundred and fifty years. This is principally through the human witch Raznel, or other figures as a result of her. Raznel acquired her knowledge of epochxin both directly and indirectly from Faendryl sources, as a result of being taught by Xorus and the time paradox of learning from Lord Brieson Cassle's studies.

Everblood

The Ever-blood is a term that was apparently coined by Grishom Stone in his "Beyond the Arkati" essay of 5112 Modern Era for the blood of Drangell. Drangell had been a giantman assassin of the Ivory Thorns who, along with the human Thrayzar, was sent to assassinate the witch Raznel. Raznel was a former member of the Hall of Mages who had turned to blood magic, and was involved in the death of Empress Mynal'lyanna's elder siblings. When they approached her cabin, Raznel was shot through the throat, but this did not matter as she was virtually immortal. Raznel broke a yellowed bone talisman which released a toxic yellow gas, which infiltrated the bodies of Drangell and Thrayzar. Thrayzar was transformed into an orc, and Drangell was transformed into a troll. Drangell thereby acquired what appeared to be a powerful form of troll blood which restored him against violent attacks. However, even when Drangell's troll form was broken by the Tehir Spiritcaller Akhash in 5111 Modern Era, his extreme healing powers remained. It was later discovered that the Everblood is truly demonic in origin. It is not known for certain if trolls acquired their healing powers from the venom of primal demons.

Everblood is easily transmitted from one host to another, largely transforming the blood of those who take it into their system. Grishom Stone also developed his "flesh golems" from the Everblood, and made himself similarly indestructible with it. It was the basis of his conceit that life could be created by us mere mortals and that we have the potential within ourselves to be "beyond the Arkati" in power. While Grishom Stone was manipulated at the time by the primordial demon Althedeus, this is more or less still his quest, now making use of a powerful artifact known as the Star of Khar'ta.

Epochxin

Everblood and epochxin were not understood to be related at first. Lady Larsya Caulfield of Bourth was injured with an epochxin poisoned arrow by the assassin Vinswith, who was apparently made using the blood of Wolfloner and Archales, who had known anti-imperial sentiments. While it was assumed this was a genuine assassination attempt, it would later turn out this was not the case, but rather that Larsya was a pawn in a grand strategy being orchestrated by Raznel. Larsya was frozen in time in a bane coffin in the shadow of Melgorehn's Reach until the means were found to halt her rapid aging. (It was later learned that Raznel had invented the bane coffins when she was a member of the Hall of Mages.) This set off a sequence of events where the Prelate Chaston Griffin engaged in a crusade using the Blameless zealots. They acquired Everblood for themselves from Drangell, who had been turned into a troll by Raznel many years earlier. This made the crusaders essentially immortal. Lord Brieson would eventually conjecture that, while outwardly seemingly unrelated, these problems were fundamentally tied. Similarly, the blackblood illness affecting half-elves was realized to not be a true disease.

Lord Brieson discovered a book in Nydds which addressed epochxin, which he noted was strangely written by two Faendryl brothers, after having been hinted that way by Pylasar having vague recollections. Brieson surmised that Everblood and Epochxin must be deeply related, essentially anti-parallel in effect, and that the solution for one would likely provide the solution for the other. Brieson also realized that Larsya, whose blood was now largely made of epochxin, would act as a beacon for ebon-swirled primal demons. Which would essentially smell themselves in her. Along with this Faendryl book and Pylasar recalling something of the Southron Wastes, and items left behind in the Hendoran outpost that had belonged to Raznel, Brieson temporarily kidnapped Larsya and used her as bait, so that samples of this venom blood could be taken. Within a pack that Raznel had left at the Hendoran outpost were alchemical formulas. These included how to make purified Everblood essence from primal blood, and how to make a tar-like black salve from the Everblood essence and other poisons. This was apparently planted by Raznel to move along the time table of her own plans.

This turned out to be an anti-Everblood poison, as well as the cure for the blackblood curse, as well as the agent for halting the progression of epochxin venom. It was discovered years later that this treatment to halt the rapid aging of Larsya in 5116 Modern Era effectively turned her into one of the paragons. In hindsight this must have all been orchestrated by Raznel, for whom it had all happened before, as she knew these events from her youth before being lost in the past in a temporal accident in 5117 Modern Era. In her youth Raznel was Lady Naimorai Kestrel, the daughter of Grand Magister Dennet Kestrel of the Hall of Mages. Dennet's family was adversely afflicted by exposure to the Talon of Toullaire, a "siphon stone" artifact from the Ur-Daemon War, which had chaotically augmented latent powers in his children and made his wife Reannah ill similar to those in the Wizardwaste. Dennet sought the aid of the sorcerous in the Wehnimer's Landing region, so that Naimorai would learn to control her necromantic powers in order to not accidentally harm others. Through these tutors and her biological father Quinshon, Naimorai learned a great deal of dark magic, as well as the history of Raznel. When Naimorai was lost in the past, and her health deteriorated, she used her knowledge to engineer her own creation into Raznel. While the exact division of who taught Naimorai what is unclear, it is known that she learned her epochxin methods from Xorus, and Naimorai suffered with living in the outpost alongside Larsya who was obnoxiously trapped in a time cycle of discovering her aged condition. Xorus cured Larsya of her condition and restored her age in 5118 Modern Era, with the assistance of "The Alchemist" Praxopius Fortney, and elemental calculations by Magister Raelee Svala.

Blue Suffer

Most of the work on curing Larsya was done before Praxopius became involved. Praxopius only made minor adjustments to the formula, mostly the addition of bleaksoil, and provided a low steel cylinder for executing the temporal magic steps involved. He spent most of his time weaponizing Larsya's blood into other poisons. Praxopius discovered that her blood was a temporal anchor for something else during an experiment on top of Melgorehn's Reach in Phoenatos 5118, speaking of it having some other purpose than a rapid aging poison, then one month later a half-krolvin was witnessed rapidly aging and collapsing into dust. Earlier that night Praxopius had told Xorus "work was by far the most complete, and likely accurate, in all of what Breshon had collected." Two weeks later sick or dead krolvin were found in a secret lab on Praxopius' ship. One week later Rysus collapsed under injuries and the poison. One week after that Kragnack was poisoned with what was later called the Blue Suffer. The contagion had likely spread to some extent on Glaoveln following the invasion in 5119 Modern Era, where Praxopius had given out poison daggers before people disembarked the ship.

The Blight

The Blight is a phenomenon that afflicts the Darkstone Bay region, and its symptoms are temporarily suppressed. In 5119 Modern Era a bleakstone merchant named Cayde, who had given Larsya bleakstones shortly before the Valley of Gold summit, brought a bleakstone statue (in the likeness of Mayor Lylia Rashere) to Wehnimer's Landing and placed it outside of Moot Hall. He claimed it was authorized by Councilwoman Alendrial DeArchon, but this was a lie, and it was later discovered that the real Cayde had been dead for months and this was really Raznel wearing an illusion. Later, when the bleakstone statue was removed, it was apparent it had grown attachments into the ground. Around the same time the bleakstone statue arrived, the water of Darkstone Bay turned bloody red, and the fish all died and rotted. There were invasions of oily black serpents and so on. The dockworkers and fishermen would brawl, because the fishermen could not pay. Farmers would raise prices and get threatened by the Rooks, under their new leader Mother, for price gouging the poor. One destitute man randomly tried to shoot Mayor Lylia with a crossbow over the impact on living standards.

There were patches of blighted grass with dead wildlife next to them, or even found with festering wounds. There were crop failures and famine, undead uprising from cemeteries, and even trolls arising from mist. People began falling ill with extreme weakness, scale like blebs, itching at scabs, red spots, even breaking bones, and inflicted with damage from dark or yellow nodules which oozed or bled. It was noted at the time that the symptoms were very similar to the black blood blight disease curse of 5116 Modern Era, but apparently without the black blood or lingering shadowy veins. The ground would also crack open with toxic gas that caused oculoth-like possession, similar to the Bleaklands. Unlike the black blood and blue suffer curses, the Blight affects whole geographical regions. Unlike the Bleaklands it is not a total annihilation and transformation through magical explosion. While it appears able to affect absolutely everyone, it is not at all clear that it actually does so. It might be possible to control who it affects, similar to Raznel's suspected ability to control the spread of the black blood curse, and probably the Bleaklands (which Praxopius described as an "improved wasteland.")

The Hall of Mages set up a quarantine field near the trail to Vornavis to halt the spread south, in case it was contagious, and study it under the direction of Grand Magister Octaven. It was widely assumed and later |confirmed that the bleakstone statue caused the Blight, though whether it is a continued threat or was only a one-shot medium for a spell is unclear. The Blight also appeared to display self-awareness, calling itself "the Bleak" and "the End". Eventually adventurers in the Landing devised a theory and method for suppressing the Blight, though not ending it, by starving it of mana and poisoning it with anti-magic. This involved creating mana fires at the bone pillars which had been created by Grishom Stone using abducted citizens in 5111 Modern Era and later controversially turned into defensive tools under Mayor Cruxophim. Later, in 5121 Modern Era, Octaven stole the bleakstone statue from the Hendoran outpost through a portal. It is suspected that she is interested in learning how to create, control, and end the Blight with it or bleakstone more generally. It is known that Octaven had briefly taken Xorus and Mayor Lylia in 5119 Modern Era to question them for insight regarding Raznel.

Timeline

The following is an approximate sequence of events involving epochxin or related poisons or consequences of those poisons. This is a work in progress. The Witchful Thinking events in particular had a lot of out-of-sequence flashback scenes.

Year	Event
4473	Naimorai Kestrel is trapped in Toullaire following a temporal accident under Melgorehn's Reach. She meets Peter (Pylasar), calls herself Rachel, and becomes involved with the newly founded Arcanum while knowing it would eventually cause the Wizardwaste.
4480	Naimorai Kestrel is involved in the period of imperial assassinations, knowing from her own past who died and when it happened.
> 4480	Naimorai Kestrel and Peter expose themselves to the Crescent, later known as the Talon of Toullaire. Naimorai likely corrupts the Crescent with her own cursed condition, creating a time loop causing her own curse. Peter gains an ability to move back and forth along the timeline on the scale of centuries. They are expelled from Toullaire by the Arcanum for drawing unwanted attention to the Arcanum.
4565	Toullaire is destroyed in a magical explosion that forms the Wizardwaste. The extent to which Naimorai's influence on the Arcanum and/or the Talon in causing this is unclear.
4579	Brumas Brightforge of Doggoroth Keep is taken and turned into one of Naimorai's paragons. His cocooned body would be found there in 5119 after Talador became the Bleaklands, and was the last paragon to be destroyed.
4613	Deshal a Tehir fighter from near Bir Mahallah in the Sea of Fire is turned into a paragon. This happens near a seemingly prophetic statue, surrounded by bone pillars, of a man holding what seem to be the Star of Khar'ta and the Talon of Toullaire.
4754	Harland the Bastard is abducted and becomes one of Naimorai's paragons.
4842	Eastern Sentinel Jerram Happersett went missing and was presumed dead, but was abducted and made into a paragon around the Southron Wastes.
~5080s?	Naimorai Kestrel and Peter move themselves back to her own time period. They join the Hall of Mages in the Swale. Naimorai continues to call herself Rachel.
~5080s?	Naimorai invents the bane coffins while still a member of the Hall of Mages.
~5080s?	Naimorai continues to deteriorate under the magical corruption from her youth and suffers miscarriages.
~5080s?	Naimorai makes the first paragon with Peter. This was apparently some unnamed woman (possibly a Hall of Mages member), who was never discovered, which is either a plot hole or who ultimately did not survive it. (The only other known woman paragon was Mynalari, which would be inconsistent with the dialogue in several ways.)
~5090s?	Oronthal Jalcon is turned into a paragon and his wife is thrown off a cliff by Naimorai. (Second to last paragon made with Peter, but given time travel, could have taken place in the later 90s.)
5092	Naimorai is involved in the assassination of Mynal'lyanna's elder siblings. She makes the elder sister Mynalari into a paragon to help sustain herself. They abduct figures from major historical events across several centuries and make paragons of them in temporal pocket dimensions. (Mynalari was the last paragon made with Peter.)
5090s?	Peter hits his limit on helping Naimorai in her fall into darkness and reports her to the Hall of Mages for blood magic. She rebrands herself as Raznel, meaning "of shadows".
5090s?	Raznel murders Peter's new family. Peter ends up renaming himself Pylasar, after a hero figure of his daughter's.
5090s?	Naimorai Kestrel is born to Dennet Kestrel and his wife Reannah, but her actual biological father is another Magister named Quinshon.
5100s?	Pylasar and Raznel have some confrontation in the Wizardwaste, where Raznel is with an expedition seeking the Talon of Toullaire.
5100s?	Pylasar's memory is scrambled by Quinshon.
5100s?	Raznel curses Thrayzar from a human into an orc and Drangell from a giantman into a troll. In the process Everblood is created in Drangell. They are cursed simultaneously with the same yellow mist, so the difference in their atavistic transformations may be due to their different starting races.
5111	Outlaws assisting the red robe summoners (Grishom Stone and company) release Drangell from a magical prison.
5111	Grishom Stone adapts the Everblood from Drangell to make "flesh golem" clones and gives himself immortality.
5112	The Star of Khar'ta arrives near Wehnimer's Landing. The krolvin warlord Krentuk is eventually killed and replaced by his brother Kragnack, and the Star of Khar'ta seemingly explodes.
5114	War of Shadows: Grishom Stone is discovered alive and tortured in Winter's Manor, kept alive in spite of brutal injuries by his Everblood.
5114	War of Shadows: Mayor Walkar Wellington is cursed as an abomination through his demonic armor, and feeds his thirst for blood with the fruit of blood consuming trees from extraplanar seeds provided by a Marluvian priest.
5115	Grishom Stone escapes from his imprisonment in the Brass Tower. He ends up finding the Star of Khar'ta in the Sea of Fire, and later transforms into the Bloodstar, orienting its power to blood and shadows.
5115	The shadowy blood maw at the core of the root network of the blood consuming trees is moved from Lich's Landing through the Shadow Realm by Harrower Ersix Severus Faendryl and put into the Deadfall Forest in the Upper Trollfang. Wyrdeep druids erect an energy barrier sealing the forest.
5116	Rodnay is created as a result of Grishom Stone dealing with the Ithzir of Kol'Tarsken, using his floating cocoon transformation method along with Ithzir blood. Stone uses the Star of Khar'ta to exploit mana storming on Melgorehn's Reach to bleed through the barriers between Elanthia and Kol'Tarsken. Plinite pylons are invented to shoot down flying Ithzir pyramids, one of which crashes into Darkstone Bay.
5116	Larsya Caulfield of Bourth is struck with an epochxin arrow from the assassin Vinswith.
5116	Half-elves and half-krolvin become ill with the black blood blight. Blameless crusaders slaughter them and secretly collect their blood before burning the bodies.
5116	Blameless crusaders gain the Everblood from themselves through Drangell.
5116	Raznel leaves behind alchemical formulas in the Hendoran outpost for making tar-like black salve, which turns out is the anti-Everblood agent, and the base for curing the black blood illness and for halting the epochxin rapid aging progression.
5116	Brieson Cassle of the Hall of Mages collects information on the epochxin, including a book in Nydds that was strangely written by two Faendryl brothers.
5116	The formulas are found and the tar-like black salve is made and put to use. Drangell and Chaston Griffin are killed with it. Larsya's rapid aging is halted and she is freed from the bane coffin.
5116	The cursed black blood, having been infused into Talador's blood marble, is used by Chaston Griffin to detonate an obelisk that transforms most of Talador into the Bleaklands.
5117	Grand Magister Dennet Kestrel and his family move to Wehnimer's Landing. He is seeking a way to cure his wife of sickness caused by the Talon of Toullaire, which also chaotically augmented latent powers in his children.
5117	Naimorai having a history accidentally injuring or killing others with her power, Dennet has Quinshon and local sorcerers help Naimorai learn how to control her powers. Through them Naimorai learns witchcraft, blood magic, the shadows, demon summoning, and various dark magic.
5117	Dennet Kestrel wears a bone mask impersonating Rekarth and secretly abducts Lana, experimenting with plinite levels in her blood, in research designed to help eventually save his wife Reannah. However, something goes wrong, and Lana is released or escapes. Her flesh bubbles and eyes explode, bursting with greenish black blood, and collapses into ash. Malluch Burdos later becomes the Rone vigilante out of vengeance over her death.
5117	Rysus is crippled by Naimorai's dark magic during a Rook raid on the Hendoran outpost.
5117	Naimorai is lost in the past as a result of a temporal accident under Melgorehn's Reach, following a temporal result where she uses her foreknowledge to become Raznel.
5118	Breshon Caulfield seeks a cure for his sister Larsya. He invites an alchemist from Estoria, Praxopius Fortney, to assist. Praxopius later turns out to be "The Alchemist" who created the Rone vigilante who had been attacking town.
5118	Praxopius determines Larsya's blood is a "paragon" and temporal anchor, not just a rapid aging poison. One month later a half-krolvin is seen outside rapidly aging and collapsing to dust.
5118	Through manipulation of Leafiara, Praxopius has Rysus poisoned with a health potion, as Rysus had been crippled by Naimorai's dark magic in a raid on the Hendoran outpost in 5117.
5118	Praxopius adds components to Xorus' formula for curing Larsya, especially soil from the Bleaklands which he determines is essentially blood. Sick or dead krolvin and half-krol are found on Praxopius' ship, said to be related to Kragnack.
5118	Rysus having become increasingly unhinged is turned over to the town by the Rooks and is killed. He collapses into ash and black ichor.
5118	Praxopius plans the invasion of Glaoveln, where Kragnack will be killed by a "contagion", which will affect those of Kragnack's bloodline. Praxopius says he does not believe it can be expanded to eradicate all krolvin in his own lifetime, but claims he will have it sent to Xorus in two years. Praxopius gives himself an enhanced version of the Rysus poison so he regains the use of his legs and goes out in a blaze of glory in the Glaoveln invasion. Plinite pylons are used by the imperial ships.
5118	Kragnack is stabbed by contagion coated daggers and collapses into ash, while releasing bone pills on Glaoveln and along the Turamzzyrian coast that unleash a poisonous green gas.
5118	Grishom Stone forces his way into the Wyrdeep, kidnaps Briarstorm, and uses his blood to force his way into the Deadfall. His plans with the blood transformed Star of Khar'ta apparently involve the tree and maw, which Harrower Ersix had said was evolving a few years earlier.
5119	Abygail Wellington and Stiletto are fused together and made into a joint paragon by Raznel out of pure cruelty. Raznel also increases Thrayzar's orc curse to maximum, out of spite, so that his mind is drowning under orcness.
5119	Cayde the bleakstone merchant brings a bleakstone statue resembling Mayor Lylia Rashere, falsely claiming it was authorized. Cayde was actually dead, and this was Raznel in disguise. The bleakstone statue delivered and set off the Blight, which produced famine and rotting diseases and the ground ripping open with toxic gasses. Darkstone Bay becomes bloody.
5119	With the assistance of the Chronomage Chrysamber Epoch, and various assists with his memory, Pylasar directs adventurers to the release of all the various paragons. Raznel is permanently killed in the brief window where her paragons were destroyed but before her Bleakworld transition could be fulfilled. Thadston is possessed by a Bleakwalker.
5120	Cordarius Hodges of the Hall of Mages and locals suppress the Blight by starving it with mana fires and trying to poison it with anti-magic. The fires keep burning as the Blight is only suppressed and not reversed.
5120	The first Rone vigilante, Malluch Burdos, becomes a devotee of Grishom Stone and calls himself the Blood Son. He collects acolytes for the blood harvest, where they are brought into the Deadfall.
5121	There is a struggle for control of the bleakstone statue. The bleakwalker, once a Honey Mine worker named Gabriela, is transferred into the bleakstone statue. Which was then stolen by Octaven, who is thought to be interested in knowing how to create and control the Blight.
5121	The Rooks attack a shipment of invar weapons to the Darkstone Bay Consortium from Zul Logoth and discover the wagons also have tar-like black salve in them.
5122	The Black Wyvern of Glaoveln, Czag Pritz Tyrrax, comes to Wehnimer's Landing seeking the formula's destruction. Xorus says it is over a year late and it never arrived.

Variants

There are many processed derivatives of the epochxin venom. Generally speaking, these variants transform the blood of the afflicted into more of the toxin, though not necessarily a total replacement. They have thus far always been cured (or otherwise treated) with other variants of the poison, which has meant that creating the knowledge to cure one form of it requires knowledge of the other forms, and thus makes opportunities to learn how to make new weapons out of it. Moreover, while one form might be cured by a second form, that cure may be lethal in those of other forms. It is very easy to kill with epochxin variants, and much harder to reverse their effects without killing. They can also be modified into contagious forms, so that the poison spreads like a disease, the scope of which can be controlled. The blackblood disease afflicted half-elves and half-krol, the blue suffer afflicts krol and half-krol.

One particular subtlety is that the illness effects of the disease varieties do not necessarily come from the demon blood. The epochxin is the medium. It is possible that these symptoms are derived from Raznel's cursed affliction from her exposure to the Talon of Toullaire in her youth, as the very same symptoms appear throughout the whole story arc in different situations associated with her. In other words, Raznel was cursed with necromantic powers first, and mixed in demon blood later. The illness symptoms may be deriving from mixing in her own blood rather than the demon blood.

Epochxin Venom

"Epochxin" as a rapid aging poison ("epoch toxin") refers to the blood of the ebon-swirled primal demon being used as a venom. Samples of this blood can be taken off the defeated shadowy "bodies" of the primals. Ebon-swirled primal demons are primitive cousins of the massive shadowy oculoth, which itself exists in multiple valences, and the primals are said to exist in other valences but are also found in the Southron Wastes. Their history or origins in the Southron Wastes are not known. Epochxin and primals are known to Faendryl scholars. Lord Brieson Cassle discovered much of what he knew of epochxin from a book written by two Faendryl scholars, which was "strangely" found in Nydds under the suggestions of Pylasar. In light of future events with Raznel manipulating things with her foreknowledge, it is likely not an accident that Brieson found this Faendryl work in Nydds.

Epochxin essentially is the blood of the ebon-swirled primal demon. When it enters the blood stream of the victim, it causes the body around it to be rapidly accelerated, causing a very rapid aging effect. It does not fully replace the blood of the host, though that might be from the host dying first. The Everblood does the opposite, keeping the body from deviating from its state at a fixed moment of time, though not the mind and not to the extent of being immobilized. Epochxin as a synonym for ebon-swirled primal blood is the base component of the whole family of related blood curses or poisons.

Young

You see Lady Larsya Caulfield.
She appears to be a Human from Bourth.
She is short and appears to be extremely young.  She has long-lashed violet eyes and tanned skin.  She has very long, ringleted dark tawny hair.  She has a narrow face, a freckled nose and a single hawk feather braided into the right side of her hair.
She is in good shape.
She is wearing a midnight black eyepatch, a chipped glass vial, a delicate lagoon opal ring, a small rose, a lion skin quiver, a crystal amulet, a gold-veined pure white Koar symbol, a silk-lined white leather cloak, a mother-of-pearl clasp bathed in blue green lagoon opals, a thin gold-stringed white leather satchel, some supple dark leather hunts, a black and white iron signet ring, a small feed pouch, a narrow dark back sling, some slim dark leggings, a pair of brown suede knee-boots, and a curved elven-crafted wyrwood longbow.


Extremely Aged

You see Lady Larsya Caulfield.
She appears to be a Human from Bourth.
She is short.  She appears to be withered with age.  She has very tired violet eyes and wrinkled skin.  She has long and thin, frazzled bone white hair.  She has a creased face, a splotch-marked nose and bent shoulders.  Her back is gnarled, her form stooped over.   Her scalp is spotted and discolored, haphazardly covered with clumps of frazzled white hair.
She is in good shape.
She is wearing a midnight black eyepatch, a chipped glass vial, a delicate lagoon opal ring, a small rose, a lion skin quiver, a crystal amulet, a silk-lined white leather cloak, a mother-of-pearl clasp bathed in blue green lagoon opals, a thin gold-stringed white leather satchel, some supple dark leather hunts, a black and white iron signet ring, a small feed pouch, a narrow dark back sling, some slim dark leggings, a pair of brown suede knee-boots, and a curved elven-crafted wyrwood longbow.

Note that, strictly speaking, the extremely aged condition is Larsya in a paragon state, rather than under the active epochxin venom. This is the effect the epochxin had brought her to by the time it was halted.

Praxopius' Recreation

While it is not known for certain if he was working from primal blood directly or samples of Larsya's blood in this case, it is known that Praxopius inflicted epochxin on a half-krolvin during his experiments in 5118 Modern Era, as the half-krolvin was seen rapidly aging and then crumbled.

Someone shouts nearby, "He...he looked horrible!...he...he ran out of the gate!"

[The group proceeds with a search outside town.]

A gnarled figure rushes off nearby, stumbling, nearly tripping, bouncing off a tree as it shambles into the darkness of the woods.

[The search continues through the Lower Dragonsclaw and eventually...]

[Lower Dragonsclaw, Forest]

You realize that you have been climbing steadily, if gradually, as the vegetation changes to the rugged pines and firs that thrive in the higher elevations. The subtle herbal scent of the lower forest has been replaced by the pungent aroma of pine.

A gnarled figure shambles by, thin arms clawing at his face and neck. The figure appears to be a half-krolvin, but very, very aged. His scalp is discolored and patchy, with frazzled threads of bone white hair that seem to be shedding with each movement. The half-krolvin gasps, coughing and wheezing ,veins spreading along his thin, sallow arms and legs. The half-krolvin turns and looks at you, eyes wide in pain, yet glazed with a thin opaque film. Then just like that, the body begins to crumble apart like sand or dust, any remnants tossed about by the storm's wind.

Everblood

Everblood originates in the troll curse of Drangell. Implicitly, Raznel must have used primal blood in her devising of the curse, so the relationship to trolls is misleading. Everblood may be spread directly from being shared between hosts. In other words, it is auto-catalytic, it transforms the host. The host then has the Everblood in their own veins, and their flesh restores to its prior form, following injuries. Those with Everblood are effectively immortal, unless poisoned with the anti-Everblood. Memories to some extent are stored in the Everblood. Thus, the host is able to be reconstituted, even when obliterated. Grishom Stone made his "flesh golem" clones of himself using the Everblood, and discovered they even mimic his tones and mannerisms. The alchemical roots of Everblood in demon blood was discovered on a "hastily-scrawled paper scrap" in a pack of Raznel's in 5116 Modern Era.

Purified Everblood essence is made simply by distilling ebon-swirled primal blood in an alembic. This is an actual mechanically existing alchemy process, provided you possess a vial of ebon-swirled primal blood. As such, Everblood and epochxin are essentially the same substance, differing mostly in their effect on the body. This may even just be a matter of whether the flesh of the body is synched the blood instead of out of synch with it. There is not a known way to make actual Everblood out of the purified Everblood essence component.

Anti-Everblood

While Lord Brieson Cassle had surmised in fall 5116 Modern Era that the solution for epochxin and Everblood would be joined at the hip, there was never any need to try to invent such a solution. Raznel left the formula for the anti-Everblood in a pack with other belongings in the Hendoran outpost. This included indications, such as the iguanoids and a pale arachnid, that the Southron Wastes were important. When the formula was actually made with the alchemical ingredients, loresinging revealed that the tar-like black salve would render those with Everblood mortal. There is a degree of ambiguity in this as Disean is said to have been cured of Everblood with the salve, but others such as Drangell were not merely made mortal, but completely melted into black ichor under its effect. This could maybe have something to do with how complete the Everblood transformation is in the host.

However, rather than being a cure for Everblood per se, the tar-like black salve cannibalized the Everblood. Apparently making more of itself at expense of the Everblood. Thus, those with Everblood are killed if exposed to the salve, which causes them to melt and collapse into black ichor. This happens on some time delay but is fairly rapid. Both Drangell and Chaston Griffin melted and crumbled from it. While Grishom Stone himself has Everblood, this would not work on him. His blood magic transformation of the Star of Khar'ta gives him the ability to rip out foreign agents from blood. This was illustrated when he removed the anti-magic poison from Cruxophim, afflicted from the first Rone vigilante (Malluch Burdos) and devised by Praxopius, and Stone simultaneously corrupted Evician with Cruxophim's lichborn cursed condition as a balance factor in the process as they were both Aelotoi.

Chaston Griffin Death

The messaging from when Chaston Griffin died makes a strong implication that his body was turning into the tar-like black salve, which suggest that the salve creates more of itself by cannibalizing the Everblood. Drangell also melted into a black puddle.

Chaston's abdomen melts, crumbling apart, his legs melting to black tar.

Chaston reaches out with an blood-soaked hand, touching the base of the blood marble obelisk. He prays, and coughs, ichor dripping out from his mouth. His golden eyes go black as night. The rest of his body soon melts into a pile of gooey black tar.

The runes along the obelisk flash with a bright crimson light!

(Cruxophim splashes the obelisk with the tar-like black salve, for good measure.)

Suddenly, the obelisk bursts open like an obsidian egg, and a bright blood red pillar of light bursts up from the obelisk and temporarily blinds you! The blast fires up into the darkness!

Alchemy

The alchemical formula for the anti-Everblood was found on a double sided "blood-stained vellum page":

Empath Formula: tar-like black salve

• Add water
• Add ground black toadstool
• Add mashed white baneberry
• Simmer
• Add purified Everblood essence
• Chant Wither

Sorcerer Formula: tar-like black salve

• Add water
• Add ground black toadstool
• Add mashed white baneberry
• Simmer
• Add purified Everblood essence
• Chant Disintegrate

Applied To Weapons

J>pour my salve on my sword
You carefully smear the salve on your sword, making sure to evenly coat its edge with the substance.

>analyze salve
You analyze your tar-like black salve and sense that there is no recorded information on that item.  It may or may not be able to be worked on by a merchant alterer.

You get no sense of whether or not the salve may be further lightened.

While the tar-like black salve is a lethal anti-Everblood toxin, it was also the cure for the blackblood curse that afflicted half-elves and half-krolvin. Brieson tested it first on Shinann. Then he applied it some days later to other afflicted half-elves, and it cured them with various side effects. (For example, Gavrien's hair fell out and turned into ichor worms, while Kippe's arm blackened and swelled and had to be blown off and then the fingers killed.) Brieson also boiled the salve into a bubbling potion, along with unspecified minor modifications, which he applied to Larsya in her bane coffin. The interaction with her epochxin caused Larsya to stop rapidly aging, and severely slowed or even stopped her aging entirely. However, Larsya was then frozen in time, in her highly aged condition. Moreover, her mind was frozen in that moment as well, only able to proceed for a matter of seconds. Larsya would impersonate a pirate, as she was performing in a pirate play at the moment she was hit with epochxin, and then discover her body was aged and become upset and cry out for her daddy. This time loop condition continued until she was cured and restored two years later.

Blackblood Curse

The "Black Blood blight" was a disease that afflicted half-elves and half-krolvin in 5116 Modern Era, which turned their blood black and even caused flames to darken when they were burned. The illness affected some adventurers, causing deleterious symptoms, as well as black veins. These were notably similar to the black veins people had after being exposed to Althedeus in the Shadow Realm, which apparently bled off and returned there when a portal to it was opened during the moving of the shadowy blood maw of the blood consuming trees in 5115 Modern Era. Harrower Ersix Severus Faendryl had noted at the time that these people seemed to have been cursed and it was lifting. The similarity suggested the concentration of "the shadows" as energy in the black blood. This would make sense given what happened later with the detonation of the blood marble obelisk.

The Blameless would execute the half-elves and half-krolvin in whole villages, claiming it was the God-King revealing their inherent corruption. However, the Blameless were draining their victims of their blood, and then burning their bodies. They were using the cursed blood to essentially fuel up blood marble for another purpose. Brieson had discerned that this was not behaving as an actual disease, that its spread seemed localized, really acting more like a controlled curse. When Chaston Griffin was dying under the effect of the anti-Everblood, he detonated an obelisk made of blood marble, where the blood marble in Talador had been essentially charged up with the cursed blood. This caused a magical explosion that transformed most of the Barony of Talador into the Bleaklands, which is gradually bleeding into the Shadow Realm once ruled by Althedeus.

The anti-Everblood salve was used to treat adventurers afflicted the black blood curse, and the recipe for making it was public and spread around widely. This very strongly implies that the black blood disease was really another form of the epochxin poison, as the anti-Everblood itself and Everblood are derivatives made from epochxin, and the application of this same formula with minor modifications halted the epochxin progression in Larsya. This suggests they were designed to be solved by the same agent and have mutual common roots. Later, Praxopius would use Larsya's cursed blood to remake the epochxin venom on a half-krol test subject, as well as new variants of the poison. This included a contagious form, later called the Blue Suffer, that would only spread among krolvin and half-krol. While this is not merely the Black Blood blight, it is proof of concept that it was derived from the same roots, and that epochxin can be designed into other bloodline targeting varieties. Since the black blood variant effectively created the Bleaklands, it also created bleakstone, and so in a downstream way is the cause of the Blight which had toxic gas that caused effects resembling oculoth possession.

Plinite Experiment

In Charlatos 5117 Modern Era, Grand Magister Dennet Kestrel wore a bone mask to impersonate Rekarth, and kidnapped Lana of the Wehnimer's Landing music shop family. He was conducting experiments trying to research ways to treat or cure the sickness of his wife Reannah, who along with their children had been adversely afflicted by exposure to the Talon of Toullaire. Dennet was researching the potential of plinite to help sustain her, and half a year later would eventually use plinite infused pylons under Melgorehn's Reach to temporarily keep her stable until her consciousness could be transferred by Quinshon into a host body. This would be a half-sylvan and ultimately they chose Shinann. The ritual was interrupted and failed, after having previously failed for Cyph Kestrel with a deceased host, and fragments of Reannah's mind still exist in Shinann.

However, this early experiment with plinite levels in the blood went horribly wrong, and clearly was not just plinite. Lana was released or escaped while terminally ill with what is obviously some variety of epochxin poisoning. She gruesomely exploded and disintegrated in an eruption of black blood after exiting an invisible portal near Melgorehn's Reach, having been in the underground chamber where Dennet and Reannah later died, and where Raznel herself would ultimately die two years later. The idea was likely to try to reverse Reannah's condition through an Everblood pathway.

The young girl looks up, her brown eyes blackening, the flesh of her face bubbling. Her eyeballs explode outwardly with a loud and sticky POP! She screams, but soon even her voice is stiffled, as a torrent of greenish-black blood rushes up from her throat, bathing her neck and chest in its bile liquid. She digs at the ground, for it is all she knows left to do, as if by instinct, preparing her own grave. She digs and cries and screams, and in a matter of moments, her body crumbles apart, no different than the plinite dust.

Paragons

When Raznel was young, and known as Naimorai Kestrel, she was corrupted by the Talon of Toullaire. This was a "siphon stone" which has the chaos of the Wizardwaste absorbed within it. It made her develop an unstable necromantic power, such that she could accidentally injure or kill others by touching them. (For example, Rysus the leader of the Rooks became crippled with a curse, having gone toward her in an invasion of the Hendoran outpost.) While she learned to control this power so that it was not involuntary, eventually her body began failing as a result of this corruption. She may have had her sanity deteriorating under it as well, but she was increasingly haunted by miscarriages. In order to preserve herself forever, she used what she had learned of epochxin, and created a kind of horcrux that came to be known as "paragons". In a flashback vision she attributed her knowledge of how this works to "the Ageless One", which was an obscure epithet for Xorus, which went unrecognized though Pylasar strongly implied it by looking at Xorus in that moment. Cordarius Hodges of the Hall of Mages would later refer to Xorus as the "Father of Naimorai's magic" during Pylasar's trial.

The original form that paragons took was a body strung up in a quasi-alive state with the demon blood in them. These would be connected to her own blood. Raznel was known for using mediating creatures in her witchcraft, such as scarabs or maggots, which she learned from her blood father Quinshon. So long as the paragons existed, she would be able to restore herself physically, similar to the Everblood but more difficult to destroy. These were hidden in pocket dimensions of time throughout history, where the paragon was unaware of their own condition, surrounded by a reality shaped by their own mind. Therefore destroying the paragons required not just finding them in space, but finding "when" they were located. She used prominent historical figures who were known to have died or gone missing in given years, probably to avoid disrupting the timeline leading to her own existence.

Mynalari hangs suspended from a cavern ceiling, sharp hooks wedged into her back, and countless thin black ribbons like shadowy veins dangle from pores along her bare flesh, arms, legs, torso, neck, breasts. The veins seem to throb, almost pulsing, like the lump of a mouse squirming through the belly of a serpent as it meets its final demise. Below, standing half in light, half in shadow, Peter and Rachel observe the woman as blood slowly flows out of her body.

Pylasar begins to turn his head to look away from the water.

Chrysamber melodically says, "Reflect Peter. Reflect."

Pylasar slowly empties his lungs.

Within the water, Rachel moves closer to Mynalari's body as the blood continues to be siphoned from her broken frame. She reaches into a jar and removes black worms, each one glistening with incarnadine rings around their bulbous forms. She places one worm at Mynalari's throat, and it makes a sucking sound as it leeches into her skin. She places a second at her abdomen, a third at her waist. Dozens more are placed and eerie, unnatural cries echo from the hanging woman as her body writhes in endless agony. Peter stands, still in light and shadow, squirming, his cheeks sunken, his eyes so, so tired.

Rachel looks back, unphased, "Be a dear Peter, grab the next jar please."

Pylasar stumbles forward as if dropping something.

Rachel almost hisses, "Did you do that on purpose Peter?"

Pylasar asks, "I...I'm sorry. I'll grab....I'll grab more. Must we? With her? Haven't we done enough?"

Rachel hisses, "Wait here. Continue to bleed her. You can do that, can't you? I'll fetch more."

Within the waters, Peter steps forward as Rachel disappears from view. Peter comes near the woman, who hangs upside down still, her eyes bloodshot and bulging, her face red, yet pale. Her body squirms almost endlessly now and she flinches as he tries to touch her face.

Pylasar says, "I will make it quick. You will be the last. I promise. This does not help you. But you will be the last."

From within the waters, Peter pulls out a jar of black red-ringed worms and uncorks the top. He looks around, notices he is still alone, and opens the jar.

There had been visions about destroying the paragons, later more or less confirmed to have been sent by Grishom Stone, and Praxopius made a comment once calling Larsya's blood a kind of "paragon". Larsya was also revealed to be connected to Raznel in the process of being cured, who carved the date into the flesh of Larsya's arm while possessing her. It was later discovered that Larsya was herself a paragon, when it was understood what paragons were to Raznel. Pylasar had regained significant memory of the paragons and where to find them through a ritual performed by Xorus on Melgorehn's Reach. (Quinshon also made a deal with Pylasar to help find some of the paragons in his memory.) There was also a flashback scene where Naimorai was seen becoming consciously aware of losing that paragon, which would have been years before Larsya was inflicted with epochxin, illustrating how Naimorai (Raznel) was connected to the paragons through time both in the past and future. While Larsya was cured before the process was complete, the original paragons all had to be destroyed. This involved the paragons, who appeared as projected manifestations, becoming aware of their true condition and more or less losing the will to keep existing. Larsya was perpetually discovering her own condition in a time loop, and was never put into her own time pocket dimension. This was a new method of paragon creation, and it was thought that Raznel was ultimately planning on making paragons of everyone she had ever taken blood from, making herself virtually indestructible. Raznel had planned to make this switch as the Bleakworld was forming, which was timed for when the last of her old paragons were destroyed, but she was found and killed at just the right moment.

The rough idea of the Bleakworld was a temporally warped hellscape where a vast array of paragons would sustain Raznel, who was herself in a cocoon like that of the original paragons, and she would be able to project herself like the paragons were able to within their temporal pocket dimensions. Implicitly, since Larsya was one of the paragons, that means the paragon variant of the poison is created by mixing the epochxin venom with a form of the anti-Everblood toxin in the host. These were both pieces of knowledge available to Raznel in her youth as Naimorai, when she was living in the Hendoran outpost with the cursed Larsya, after Brieson had stabilized Larsya's aging with the anti-Everblood and Larsya was no longer confined to the bane coffin. Naimorai most likely had access to Brieson's notes on the subject as her father was a Grand Magister. It is likely not as simple as "epochxin venom plus anti-Everblood", however, because the substance likely had something in it to tether Larsya to Raznel as a temporal anchor. Praxopius included Bleakland soil in her cure because of its similarity to the Wizardwaste and surmising the poison tied back to a place similar to the Bleaklands. If taken on face value, Praxopius was acting as though he was unaware of how the Bleaklands were created, which was through the black blood contagion. But there were already ill krolvin in his ship and the Glaoveln invasion was only two weeks later. He was likely feigning ignorance on the subject.

Anti-Paragon Restorative

Grishom Stone had offered to cure Larsya of her condition, but her brother Breshon Caulfield did not want to cooperate with Stone. It was later determined that the real reason Stone wanted Larsya's blood was because she was part Wyrdeep elven by bloodline, and he wanted to force his way into the Deadfall forest of blood consuming trees, which are blocked off by a barrier erected by the Wyrdeep druids. Breshon was asking adventurers what they knew of his sister's condition and if she could be cured on their own. Xorus was quickly realized to have a mastery of this subject, even though he had not been present during the period of Brieson's studies, and mostly devised a cure for reversing Larsya's condition. This was before it was known what a "paragon" was, or what their function was in sustaining Raznel, and before their special role in the Bleaklands was known or understood.

Breshon invited a prominent alchemist from Estoria named Praxopius Fortney to assist in the cure development. This was a source of consternation and suspicion, as someone known as "The Alchemist" was known to have behind turning Malluch Burdos into the first Rone vigilante, and Praxopius later admitted it. Most of the work of developing the cure was done before Praxopius arrived, which he admitted he only slightly modified. This was mostly the addition of "bleaksoil", soil from the Bleaklands, which he said was itself essentially a kind of blood. (Since bleaksoil is ultimately derived from the black blood variant, it can itself be considered a variant of epochxin.) Whether this made a difference is unknown since it could be tested once, and it had to be calibrated just right, or else Larsya could melt and crumble from an adverse reaction between the poison variants.

Xorus was working on constructing a general theory on the mechanisms of the various blood curses (See: Interventions and Restoratives of Epochxin Affliction (essay)), including those of Grishom Stone, who had been working with the Everblood variant. (Stone has transformed victims in cocoons as well, for example, and it was his methods along with Ithzir blood that created Rodnay. Rodnay has exhibited self-healing properties.) He speculated that trolls acquired their self-healing powers from extraplanar transmogrification from demon venom. His cure method was premised on a formula that would convert the modified epochxin in Larsya's blood, later understood to be a paragon state, into the Everblood through the use of heat. It was a combination of essence of fire, as well as essence of regeneration from troll flesh, and the anti-Everblood. Magister Raelee Svala did elemental calculations to carefully tune it. The troll aspects would in theory help preserve Larsya's flesh, and the essence of fire would push out the sludge, with the anti-Everblood cannibalizing the Everblood being formed from the epochxin under heat. Praxopius decided bleaksoil needed to be added to it due to the nature of the Bleaklands. Praxopius also provided a low steel cylinder, which executed a sequence of Wizard time spells, which sequenced the process of temporally reverting Larsya's body to the time it was inflicted with epochxin, and only then pushing out the toxin from her system.

This cure was only possible because of knowledge of how the other Raznel poisons worked. It was likely possible to cure Larsya significantly earlier, even if the bleaksoil was necessary, as the bleaksoil was not collected until a week prior to the ritual. Praxopius was likely delaying, as he was spending his time weaponizing Larsya's blood, into at least three known forms. One was remaking the epochxin venom variant, possibly a form that only affects krolvin blood. One was a variant that would restore bodies to a prior healthful condition, even if crippled by a curse, but which was also a poison that would eventually make the host crumble into black ash. And one was a contagion designed to afflict blood relatives of Kragnack, so that Kragnack would either immediately or eventually be killed by it. Kragnack collapsed into ash as well. The krolvin would come to call this variant the "Blue Suffer".

Uncurse Restorative Poison

Praxopius weaponized his study of Larsya's blood by creating a health restorative potion that was actually a time delayed poison. The formula for this variant is unknown. It is probably an unstable variation of the Larsya cure method invented by Xorus. There would be a temporal reversion to the blood's "memory" of its healthy state through the use of Everblood, but there would be a small anti-Everblood component in it that would eventually cannibalize it. In this way the blood of the host would turn into oily black ichor and they would melt and collapse into ash. This was what happened when it was used on Rysus, who was half-elven and not half-krolvin. Leafiara was tricked into giving it to the Rooks for Rysus to heal him, as Rysus had been crippled with a curse from Naimorai Kestrel during the Rook invasion of the Hendoran outpost in 5117 Modern Era.

Rysus was gradually losing his mind as a result of the poison, behaving erratically, and the Rooks eventually turned him over to the town to be killed. Praxopius openly admitted to poisoning Rysus. Praxopius used an enhanced version of it on himself, so he would instantly recover the use of his legs, but would only survive a short period of time so he could go out in a blaze of glory fighting the krolvin. Praxopius' body also crumbled. He was human. Praxopius was also exhibiting some delirious mental states as a result of this form of the poison.

Rysus Death

The crumbling and oily black blood are clearly indicative of the epochxin-family poisons, while other aspects like the scratching and teeth breaking resemble Raznel curse symptoms.

Rysus begins to twitch.

Rysus scratches at his cheeks, then his arms.

Rysus bites at his lower lip.

(edit for relevance)

Rysus rushes at Balley, a dagger appearing in his hand. He stumbles, falling to one knee, his dagger sliding across the ground as blood drips form his nose.

Rysus scratches at his arm, and some of his skin begins to peel away.

(Claudaro moves in among the figures, and plunges his dagger in Rysus' side, before making room for others.)

Rysus stumbles to the side, and oily black blood and flakes of ash spill forth from Rysus' side.

(edit for relevance)

(Hapenlok plunges the dagger into Rysus' right eye.)

Rysus howls in pain, as Hapenlok's dagger pierces his eye. Oily black blood coils out, with flakes of ash.

(edit for relevance)

Rysus weakly says, "Cowards..."

Rysus weakly says, "You....will see your freedom die..."

(edit for relevance)

(Darcena leans forward and pushes the dagger into Rysu's chest an indeterminate amount.)

Rysus reaches out, blood covering his hand. Suddenly, his hand crumbles into dust and he screams!

Rysus lurches, then falls back against the ground, his chest spilling forth oily black blood and flakes of ash as Darcena's dagger is driven in beyond sight.

Rysus turns his head, his one good eye staring at the crowd as blood covers his teeth and drizzles out to the snow and street below.

Rysus weakly says, "Cowards.."

Rysus spits, more blood then saliva spilling forth.

(Ganimead picks up the dagger, and walks over to Rysus, and slides the edge of the dagger across Rysus' neck.)

Rysus laughs, blood filling his throat and his voice sounding like a rattle as Ganimead slices across his neck.

A hooded figure leans down, and stabs a dagger into Rysus' hand.

Another hooded figure drives a dagger into Rysus' side, another figure drives one home into his abdomen.

Rysus twitches on the ground, flakes of flesh and ash falling from him, as oily black blood pools out around him like a cape of darkness.

Rysus opens his mouth to say something, but some of his teeth crumble to dust and blood spills out over his tongue and chin.

(Chamorr swings his broadsword and separates Rysus' head from his body.)

(Claudaro stands before Rysus's head, and kneels down, shoddily working his dagger over Rysus's head, skinning his scalp off, he leaves the back end hanging there, Rysus's skull exposed.)

Rysus goes limp, his head rolling away from his corpse as Chamorr's broadsword slices it off clean. After Claudaro quickly scalps him, Rysus' entire head crumbles into flakes of ash, mixed amongst the snow.

The last hand of Rysus twitches in death, as more and more pieces of his corpse begin to crumble, as if collapsing inward, departing into dust and ash.

Speaking to Xorus, Dergoatean says, "Do you figure Rysus showed the same symptoms as Lana? The Dennet victim."

Xorus says, "It is similar."

Speaking to Xorus, Dergoatean says, "Pity we couldn't produce some plinite to see if it has the same temporary arresting effect on his decay."

As the last remnants of Rysus crumble into ash, a pool of his blood remains, where his body and head once were. Chamorr's strike left a trail of blood arcing out from where the corpse had once been, resembling a spherical pattern of a crude crown of blood. It is not long before the murky black blood begins to dissolve as well, soon leaving no sign of Rysus left at all.

Praxopius Death

The crumbling to ash is a clear indicator of the epochxin-family, but the bleeding from eyes and mouth maybe be more indicative of Raznel.

Upon the deck of the Titan, Praxopius wheels into view. He takes a thin syringe, placing the needle into his side, then rises up slowly from his chair. He grabs the chair, tossing it into the raging waters below the ship, and unsheathes his warcat longsword. His face smeared with white war paint, his grins wide, very wide, and tears streak down his face as he rushes towards the Shore of Glaoveln.

Praxopius runs along the sands of Glaoveln, screaming at the top of his lungs. His face is smeared in white paint and krolvin blood. Entrails dangle from his arm, krolvin guts. His blade is black from the blood of his enemies. He weeps and cackles all at the same time. As Kragnack descends, landing on the shore, Praxopius rushes in to strike him. With ease, Kragnack blocks Prax with his broadsword, then knocks him aside with his tentacle arm, sending the man flying off.

(edited: later, after Kragnack died)

Praxopius opens his mouth, some blood seeping out.

Praxopius weakly says, "Is he..."

Praxopius weakly asks, "Is he?"

Praxopius laughs!

Praxopius laughs!

Praxopius weakly says, "It worked..."

Praxopius applauds.

Praxopius cackles insanely, wild-eyed and drooling.

Praxopius weakly says, "It worked...he's gone..."

Praxopius spits blood.

Praxopius spits blood.

(edited for relevance)

Praxopius slumps more.

Praxopius falls over.

Praxopius falls to the sands, blood seeping from his eyes and ears.

Praxopius spits blood, smiling for a moment.

Praxopius weakly says, "Go...the..."

Speaking to Praxopius, Hapenlok whispers aloud, "Thank you."

Praxopius grins.

Praxopius nods, touching a locket in his hand, then falls flat to the sands.

Speck by speck, Praxopius' body begins to crumble apart, as green mist seeps across the sands.

(Note: The green mist was unrelated, it was caused by bone pillars.)

Blue Suffer

The "Lalk Morgil" (Krolgeh: "Blue Suffer") is the contagion that Praxopius developed to assassinate Kragnack. Praxopius claimed it would affect those in Kragnack's bloodline, where it would eventually take out Kragnack even if he was not directly hit with it. Kragnack, however, was hit with it repeatedly, and collapsed into ash. Praxopius claimed that it was necessary to use this poison to kill Kragnack. Otherwise Kragnack would not stay dead, restoring himself with his necromantic powers, and magic he had acquired from Elithain Cross. But Praxopius was nominally open to its genocidal potential against the krolvin. About two weeks prior to the invasion of Glaoveln, the militia of Wehnimer's Landing searched Praxopius' ship The Titan, and discovered shackled krolvin and half-krolvin being experimented upon. The krolvin was more or less unconscious, with scratches and small wounds, likely self-inflicted injuries. The half-krolvin was dead with no visible injuries, other than bruising. In the Glaoveln offensive the contagion was delivered using coated daggers, which were highly fragile, but which were stowed by many adventurers. The table with all the other daggers on it was on The Titan, which is presumed to have sailed back to Idolone. As such the actual poison is scattered across the continent, and given the nature of the other variants, the poison probably largely replaces the blood of those afflicted with it. Which would mean the poison can be harvested from the sick if any survivors are left.

Praxopius publicly claimed that he did not believe the contagion could be developed into a form that would eradicate the whole krolvin bloodline within his own lifespan. He said he would send the formula for making it to Xorus on a two year delay, in late 5120 or 5121 Modern Era, so that it could eventually be used to eradicate the krolvin entirely. As has been noted, this was essentially the opposite of Praxopius' way of operating, making secret deals and acting through subterfuge. Breshon had noted that it would only be a brief amount of time before another warlord took Kragnack's place and came looking for vengeance. The formula never arrived. When it was a year late, a new warlord named Tyrrax, called the Black Wyvern of Glaoveln or Czag Pritz, came searching for the formula based on this promised delivery. But their halfling mentalist Kharusa is unable to get into Xorus' mind.

Xorus in turn has argued that Praxopius was probably only painting a target on him as a decoy, so as to distract the krolvin from whatever Praxopius was actually planning, suggesting plinite weapons development by elements in the Hall of Mages. That Praxopius would not have trusted him with it, noting that the first Rone vigilante was planning on killing him, and that Praxopius would not have publicly put all of his eggs in one basket that way. That if he was serious, he would have pretended to destroy his notes in public, and turn them over immediately in secret. Or alternatively, that Octaven somehow intercepted it, if Praxopius sent it magically. That Octaven was probably Praxopius' source of plinite and that she has had an interest in controlling the Blight since 5119 Modern Era. Whatever the case may be, the Blue Suffer has probably spread among relations of Kragnack to some distance, but in its present form does not extend to all krolvin. Tyrrax claims he wants the formula destroyed. The "Blue Suffer" is clearly based on the epochxin family of poisons, given the way Kragnack died from it, and the krolvin do not possess or understand the base of knowledge upon which Praxopius was able to develop it within only a few months. Specific details of the Blue Suffer are still sketchy, but it seems like an analog of the black blood curse (which was race specific and afflicted half-krolvin), except where the end result is more like that of the poison used on Rysus or those killed with anti-Everblood.

Raznel

The paragons were all temporal anchors for Raznel, and there were clear indications she mixed herself into them. She would insert a mediating vermin into them, such as a black ichor worm, but her trademark "babies" were scarabs. Her blood itself would spontaneously manifest into such things, and was likely the aspect causing that phenomenon in the cures of the black blood curse and Larsya's paragon condition. Raznel in a sense might be considered the supreme paragon. Her burrowing into others wantonly with scarabs was generally about their blood and her plans for the Bleakworld. When Raznel was finally destroyed, without the paragons to support her physical form, her body collapsed and fell apart similar to other epochxin related deaths. The chief difference was the formation of those mediating creatures from her body.

Raznel tries to rise, but her feet crumble into a swarm of black maggots, which try to skitter away but burn and curl in death.

Raznel tries to rise again, a leg crumbling into a pile of scorched bugs.

The ghostly voice of Raznel says, "Peter..."

Raznel tries to open her mouth to speak, but a shower of tiny black maggots pour out, curling and burning before they hit the ground.

The many tooth-covered behemoth in the sky begins to slowly shrink, ichor dropping from the dozens of fiery holes in its massive body.

Raznel tries to rise again, lifting one hand, only for her fingers to drop off like fat maggots, crumbling and burning away.

The huge behemoth in the sky continues to float, but begins to descend, ichor dropping from its wounds and its great bellow echoes across the skies.

Raznel turns to her side, facing Pylasar. One of her eyes pops, oozing ichor from its socket. Her mouth opens again, her thin lips drifting away. But she cackles, staring at Pylasar and she whispers in a hoarse voice, "...I enjoyed killing your wife and daughter most of all...."

Then, bit by bit, Raznel, the witch breaks apart into a host of slimy black maggots, each one trying to skitter away as if frightened, only to smoke and burn and curl up in death, melting away into pallid ichor.

It is most likely the case that a number of her blood curses have some of her own blood in them. In principle this might be expected to provide a channel for her to control them remotely. It is plausible that the ones with the illness symptoms derive that property from her own blood, as a result of her being corrupted by the Talon of Toullaire which now carries properties of the Wizardwaste (or possibly vice versa). The mediating creatures do not come from the demon blood aspect. She learned that method of implanting them in victims and using "the shadows" from Quinshon.

The following is an example of the original paragon creation process, illustrating how she would bind herself to them through vermin with the demon blood implicitly in them:

Rachel moves around the table, opening a thin crystal cylinder. She picks out a long oily-black maggot that seems to have a tiny barbed tail.

Rachel gently lays the maggot onto the woman's chest that still faintly rises and falls.

Rachel leans forward, chanting as the barbed-tail maggot burrows halfway into the woman's chest. Rachel touches the bug, and its tail snaps out and sticks into Rachel's wrist. She sighs, almost with a rise of passion.

The woman screams suddenly, her eyes going black like shadows, her veins turning the same dark shade. The maggot releases Rachel and burrows fully into the other woman's chest. Rachel leans back, looking weakened, but still utters an archaic phrase, her voice more demonic than human. The woman begins to flicker in and out of existence before fading completely.

(Note: Pylasar and Raznel did not know the name of this woman. This paragon was never found. Pylasar realized by the end that Raznel would be ending the old paragons herself, if we had not been doing it for her, for the last phase of her plan. So this paragon was likely destroyed off camera.)

Others

There are some other variants or related phenomena. Grishom Stone in particular has worked with the Everblood, and has his own history of blood magic projects.

• Flesh Golems: Grishom Stone made "clones" of himself using the Everblood. He has shipped them all over the place, and some such as Granthem appear to be whole personalities. Unconscious flesh golems are typically covered in a black ichor residue.

• Cocoon Children: Grishom Stone has sometimes transformed victims, especially children, into other forms such as winged monstrosities or Ithzir hybrids to open portals. Rodnay originated this way in 5116 Modern Era and self-heals like Everblood.

• Bleaksoil: The soil of the Bleaklands was described by Praxopius as essentially being blood in its own right. It was created through the black blood variant in blood marble.

• Behemoths: There are huge floating toothy abominations in the Bleaklands, resembling Quinshon's mouth in some ways, that may be willful manifestations of the Bleaklands in some fashion.

• Blood trees: The blood consuming trees have some unclear relationship to it. They grow in the Bleaklands, but are also being used by Stone in the Deadfall. The blood maw core of the root network is drawn to the Shadow Realm. They store bodies in sacs.

• Stones: Bleakstone could be considered a variant in its own right, and blood marble (at least when infused with the black blood variant) might be considered its own form as well.

• The Blight: The Blight is not a substance. But it is either a phenomenon created from it, or else an epiphenomenon of the Bleaklands, which was created from it.

• Thrayzar: Thrayzar was cursed with the same yellow mist as Drangell. After Praxopius' experiments, Thrayzar became temporally un-fixed, and remained so after the antidote. Raznel and Stone became unable to track him, and Stone later took some of his blood.

• Black coral amulets: It is possible in light of later developments that the black coral amulets, specifically the demonic liquid used in their creation, may have been made in Arcanum era Toullaire by Naimorai Kestrel and thereby could be related to epochxin.

Illnesses

While the epochxin varieties can adversely react and cause a victim to melt into black blood and ultimately disintegrate, it is not clear that they impose any disease symptoms in themselves. The close similarity in their symptoms overlaps with Raznel curse phenomena that are not obviously related to the epochxin poisons. In particular, when she was young as Naimorai Kestrel, she could inflict blisters and flesh injuries as a result of touching others, especially if reacting suddenly. The Raznel curse symptoms date back until at least 5111 Modern Era and were also used during the War of Shadows.

Raznel Curse

The following are the kind of symptoms that would occur from Raznel directly. These particular log clips come from early 5114 Modern Era, after someone broke into her cabin in Talador, which was almost three years before the storyline that introduced epochxin.

Your skin begins to burn, as if your flesh is on fire!

Scale-like, shiny blebs begin to appear on your skin, growing with frightening rapidity.
Roundtime: 4 sec.

Scale-like, shiny blebs begin to appear on your skin, growing with frightening rapidity.
Roundtime: 5 sec.

Red spots appear on your skin suddenly. The edges are slightly raised and seem to be spreading rapidly.
Roundtime: 5 sec.

Dark, yellowish nodules erupt from your skin in very inconvenient places, sending threads of pain throughout your entire body. Some of the nodules ooze or bleed, others have made it difficult to move in certain places.
... 15 points of damage!
Minor muscle tearing on your left leg.
You are stunned for 1 round!
Roundtime: 6 sec.

The blebs on your skin swell and expand, some bursting and horribly disfiguring your skin, other simply intensifying the pain.
... 20 points of damage!
Major bones in your left leg crack loudly!
You are stunned for 3 rounds!
Roundtime: 8 sec.

All of your hair begins to turn white, some of it falling to the the ground in clumps. Your nails become weak and brittle, and your teeth seem ready to fall out as your gums bleed steadily.
You are forced to your knees by the crippling effects of leprosy!
... 10 points of damage!
You hear the tendons in your foot snap. That hurt!

The blebs on your skin swell and expand, some bursting and horribly disfiguring your skin, other simply intensifying the pain.
... 15 points of damage!
Large lesions sprout on your shield arm.
Roundtime: 12 sec.

Though you still feel the effects of the disease that ravaged your body, you begin to feel a bit better

Pain shoots up and down your chest.
Roundtime: 3 sec.

Runny blood-soaked sores begin to grow on your chest and abdomen.

Sharp jabbing pains stick you in the ribs and back.
Roundtime: 3 sec.

Your stomach bulges outward and horrific pains stab you up and down the chest.
Roundtime: 3 sec.

A horrible urge to scratch passes over you and a intense burning feeling doubles you over in pain.
Roundtime: 3 sec.

You go into a sudden coughing fit causing dark blood-colored spittle to spray everywhere.
Blood begins to run from your eyes and ears.
Roundtime: 7 sec.

Another symptom which is recorded back in 5111 Modern Era, and appears in multiple victims in the direct conflict with Raznel in 5119 Modern Era, is an early symptom of reddish blebs:

A series of reddish blebs begin to appear randomly over your skin. Though not very painful in and of themselves, they may signal something much more dangerous on the way.
Roundtime: 5 sec.

Black Blood

The "Black Blood blight" symptoms were essentially the same as the Raznel leprosy. However, the black blood curse turned the blood of its victims black, which ordinary Raznel exposure did not. There were also black veins that appeared, reminiscent of those who went to the Shadow Realm and fought Althedeus in person, which suggests those were related to "the shadows" as concentrated energy. This makes sense given how it was used. It is also possible that the shadows are naturally related to epochxin, as primals are a variety of oculoth, and oculoths are shadow demons that exist in the Shadow Realm. It might be that these are the symptoms that came from the demon blood, which was acting as a capacitor, and the other illness symptoms came instead from Raznel's blood. Which could naturally explain how she would be able to control its spread.

Black veins are a symptom of shadows corruption. Disciples of the Shadows physically transform over time in various ways, and one of the hallmark features is the development of black veins on various parts of their body. (Raznel would have been shadows corrupted, but that is probably not the root of her Talon of Toullaire condition. Quinshon and Naimorai were not going to move the Talon through the shadows "at this time", planning to travel on foot, because Quinshon thought moving it through the shadows would bring about "adverse effects".)

This is what it looked like when the shadows left those who had black veins from Althedeus and returned to the Shadow Realm (Ersix's portal was shifted to that destination and stuck to it):

You see Dame Evia Aramathia the Knight-Errant.
She appears to be a Giantman of the T'Kirem Clan.
She is very tall.  She appears to be mature.  She has copper-lashed sparkling hazel green eyes and smooth tanned skin.  She has long, softly wavy deep auburn hair shimmering with sun-streaked fiery highlights.  She has an angular face, a straight nose and a web of shadowy black veins coiling along her neck and high cheekbones.  She has glossy white-tipped lacquer brushed onto her squared fingernails.
She has a rampant silver gryphon tattoo, and a shooting star tattoo on her ear.

Wisps of shadowy energy peel from XXXXX's skin, coiling up into the rift like black smoke.

The following are some examples of half-elves who were afflicted with the black blood curse in 5116 Modern Era:

You see Kippe.
He appears to be a Half-Elf.
He appears to have come of age.  He has mismatched grey-green eyes and tanned skin.  He has short, wavy dark brown hair.  He has a web of deep black veins bulging along his face and coiling down around his neck.  Thick black veins stretch across his fingers and hands.

You see Slivaer.
He appears to be a Half-Elf.
He is taller than average and appears to be very young.  He has silver-flecked crystal blue eyes and tanned skin.  He has very short, straight brown hair streaked with silver.  He has a clean-shaven face and frown lines.  He has thin black veins along his neck and ears.

You see High Lady Leafiara the Scion of Shaundara.
She appears to be a Half-Sylvan.
She is tall and appears to be very young.  She has sparkling green eyes and fair skin.  She has short, tousled red hair swept back into a low ponytail secured with a twined mithril wire.  She has slightly pointed ears and thin black veins along her neck and cheeks.  She has ebon-marbled kelyn green lacquer brushed onto her smooth oval fingernails.

You see Bekke Mournmoon the Defender of Wehnimer's Landing.
She appears to be a Half-Elf.
She is tall and appears to be youthful.  She has large amber-swirled pale eyes and light amber-tinted skin.  She has hip-length, bright amber-hued hair barely held in place by a lattice-woven headband of delicate platinum filaments, leaving a fall of tumbled waves to spill down the small of her back.  She has a delicately arched brows that accentuate her finely-boned features and some thin black veins along her neck.  She has gilt-sheened fiery crimson lacquer brushed onto her flawlessly manicured fingernails.

The Blight

The Blight, or "the Bleak" as it calls itself, is something that affects the very land and everything in it. There is almost certainly epochxin-family related roots in it, because it was unleashed through a bleakstone medium, and bleakstone was formed as a consequence of the blackblood curse in blood marble exploding. There were also tears in the ground with toxic gas which inflicted oculoth-like possession. However, the illness symptoms experienced in general were those of the Raznel curse, which suggests that aspect comes from her blood. The Blight does not require a blood medium. It is apparently either radiant, or else transmits through vapors, especially mist and toxic gas. Trolls were remarkably appearing from out of the fog itself at one point during the Blight. Raznel cursed Drangell in the first place through a yellow mist. The Bleaklands version of the possession looks like:

A blast of foul-smelling mist erupts from a small fissure in the ground and strikes XXXXX's face and seeps into him!

Compare that to the jagged fissures that arose in town during the Blight:

One by one, cobblestones along Town Square Northeast are torn asunder as a jagged fissure opens up along the ground, clawing into existance as it stretches from one side of the road to the other like a vicious wound. Mist seems to swirl about within it, rising and falling and drifting about.

A blast of foul-smelling mist erupts from a fissure in the ground and strikes XXXXX's face and seeps into her!

The ground cracks, the cobbled road of Town Square Southwest ripping open like giving birth to a festering wound and a cloud of foul mist. Townspeople run screaming, unsure of which direction to flee in the chaos.

Militamen are sent scrambling as a section of North Ring Road literally rips open, splitting into a jagged, uneven wound of the earth as foul mist rises from it just outside the town barracks.

Some townspeople can be seen stumbling about in the open streets, clawing at their faces, leaving bloody, deep wounds along their skin. They scream and writhe and cry out in pain and for help. Then one by one, their faces erupt outward, flesh spraying like broken glass as swarms of glistening white-grey maggots spill out from the wound, dropping to the ground just as the townsperson's corpse lands with a thud.

The following are more passive examples of people becoming symptomatic with the flesh illnesses just from standing around during the Blight. They are the same leprous symptoms as the Raznel curse:

Zosopage's skin begins to crack and peel, bleeding from the fresh wounds, pus oozing out disgustingly.

Scale-like, shiny blebs begin to appear on Eledryn's skin, growing with frightening rapidity.

Zosopage's skin suddenly becomes bright red. Scratching at it fiercely, he breaks the skin and causes it to bleed.

Red spots appear on Eledryn's skin suddenly. The edges are slightly raised and seem to be spreading rapidly.

Boils suddenly break out all over Zosopage, who takes a deep breath and appears to be suffering a great deal of pain.

Spasms wrack Zosopage's body as a cluster of boils erupt over his neck and face, causing him to choke and fight for air.

Wolfloner's body is wracked painfully by his disease!
... 3 points of damage!
Wolfloner's ribs warp and crack violently.

Dark, yellowish nodules erupt from Eledryn's skin. Some of the nodules ooze or bleed, others seem to make it difficult for him to move in certain places.
... 10 points of damage!
Eledryn's stomach muscles jerk uncontrollably.

Buboes suddenly erupt over Beldannon's body. Definitely painful.

Thick boils sprout up along Zosopage's body, erupting a thick, clear liquid that runs along his skin disgustingly. Zosopage gasps for breath just as a boil erupts from the tip of his nose, the liquid running into his open mouth.

Wolfloner looks very confused and falls over.

All of Eledryn's hair begins to turn white, some of it falling to the ground in clumps. He looks extremely weak.
... 10 points of damage!
Eledryn's vertebrae vibrate causing extreme pain.

Some townspeople wander by, itching at scabs along their necks and arms.

Wolfloner's body is wracked painfully by his disease!
... 15 points of damage!
Minor muscle tearing on Wolfloner's left leg.

Scabs cover Zosopage's skin, thick and dark with his blood. Boils break constantly, leaking a clear liquid that runs oil-like over him.

Beldannon's neck swells up. That can't feel good.

The blebs on Eledryn's skin swell and expand, some bursting and horribly disfiguring his skin.
... 15 points of damage!
Strips of flesh flayed from Eledryn's back.

Eledryn is forced to his knees by the crippling effects of leprosy!
... 20 points of damage!
Major bones in Eledryn's left arm crack loudly!

Dry skin flakes off of Kipara leaving the new, healthy skin that was underneath.

The flushed red look leaves Lyrna's face.

The lesions on XXXXX's skin disappear.

The disease that wracked Wolfloner finally appears to have run its course.

Blue Suffer

The active form of the Blue Suffer disease has not yet been observed directly. Two weeks before the Glaoveln invasion, Praxopius was discovered to have been experimenting on krolvin and half-krolvin prisoners, which were thought to likely be blood relations of Kragnack. This may not reflect the final form of the poison. But the injuries on the krolvin are consistent with the Raznel disease curse symptoms. In particular, Kragnack had a very clear epochxin-family style death, while the dead half-krol clearly did not. This state of the experiment might not include the full set of components in the poison.

[The Titan, Cell]
A large T-shaped rack stands at the center of this cell, its limbs and base outfitted with pairs of manacles and shackles. You also see a chained krolvin, a chained krolvin, a half-krolvin corpse, a wheeled wooden cart and a heavy steel door.

You hit the floor with a loud *THUD*.
Roundtime: 10 sec.

>look krol
The krolvin is chained to the wall, various scatches and small wounds covering its body. Blood stains its loin cloth. Its head sways from time to time, and occasionally emits a low groan.

>look corp
The corpse appears to be that of a half-krolvin. It is huddled in a corner, knees drawn to its chest, perhaps a testament to its agony before its demise. No physical wounds can be seen on the corpse safe for bruising along the wrists and ankles.

Kragnack was killed directly with the contagion coated daggers. The eye color change is epochxin-family related. However, he notably has a laughter fit at the end (but not the eye and mouth bleeding), resembling the poison deaths of Rysus and Praxopius:

Kragnack stumbles forward.

The pools of onyx for Kragnack's eyes begin to turn blood red.

Kragnack looks down at his missing tendril arm, and falls to his knees.

Kragnack kneels down.

Kragnack tries to speak, but his chest suddenly caves in, collapsing inward.

Kragnack begins to topple over, but then laughs. He laughs, and laughs, and laughs...

Kragnack raises his last remaining hand, closes his fist, and his eyes. With his last breath, he utters something archaic, then his entire body crumbles into a pile of ash.

When Praxopius arrived in Koaratos 5118 he would not have known much of anything at all about the epochxin group of poisons. He acquired this knowledge from the written work of Xorus earlier that year, as well as any other records collected by Lord Breshon Caulfield at the Hendoran outpost, which would have included the notes of Lord Brieson Cassle on the subject. Praxopius tested Larsya's blood on the moon altar of Melgorehn's Reach one month later in Phoenatos 5118, and determined it was a temporal tether to some anchor and a perfect "paragon" of what it could be. One month after that in Imaerasta 5118, krolvin and half-krol test victims were found on his boat. As such it took Praxopius less than two months to invent and mostly finish testing the Blue Suffer having started with knowing nothing on the subject and making use of the pre-existing work related to treating Larsya Caulfield.

See Also

• Wehnimer's Landing Storylines (Note: Almost all of them are related to these poisons to one extent or another.)
• "Beyond the Arkati" - Grishom Stone (2012)
• "A Study on the Occult Origins and Intrinsic Properties of Everblood and its Derivatives (Part I)" - Cruxophim (2016)
• Interventions and Restoratives of Epochxin Affliction - Xorus (2018)