Spoiler
Show
History:
Tix and Tox Malady were born in the 4rd month in the year 314, in a small village by the name of Murrain, located in one the denser portions of ungoverned region known as the Wild Wastes. The exact date of their birth is unknown, as record keeping and history within many villages in the Wild Wastes are minimal or nonexistent. For the same reason, very little is known about the early life of the Malady twins. The first significant occurrence on record was in the year 324. As occurs fairly commonly in the Wild Wastes, a plague struck the small village, and seems to have killed the entirety of its populace. For reasons unknown, the Malady twins, at the time ten years old, were the sole survivors.
The two, very young, traveled between villages for the next several years. Many of the villages the Malady twins passed through suffered symptoms of a similar plague, suspected to be the same one that eradicated the small town of Murrain where the twins originated. This disease, later named after the town in which it is first known to have struck, is suspected to have been carried by the Malady twins, though they did not show symptoms. The siblings eventually arrived at the Utopia Academy, where they were taken in as students. The Malady siblings excelled at their studies, mastering everything put in front of them, and took an extreme liking to chemistry, anatomy, and magic. They were patroned by a particularly notable researcher: Doctor Hansen Marcescent, an expert on the human body and its reactions to disease, as well as a talented cleric. Dr. Marcescent is also notable as one of extremely few sentient undead on record, after an accident during an expedition seemed to result in his body’s death, but not his mind’s. The accident did nothing to slow down his academic career, and he continued as a researcher and a professor, finding an assortment of ways to slow and halt the natural decay of his body.
However, within a year of the Malady twins’ arrival, the Murrain struck the Academy. A large number of students and researchers alike were killed in the now infamous Black Year of the Utopia Academy. During the Black Year, all capable hands were put to use attempting to research and develop a cure to the Murrain, including capable students such as the Malady twins. As with many diseases in the Wastes, the Murrain was incredibly lethal and transmitted very easily. However, where most of the Wastes’ diseases were fairly straightforward in their development, and as such, straightforward to cure, the Murrain was malleable to an unusual degree, and as a result proved to be incredibly difficult to fix. After nine months of research, and an enormous number of deaths, a stopgap solution was developed by Dr. Marcescent at the academy, with vital assistance from the Malady twins, who received significant renown for their contributions at such a young age. The solution was not a cure, but a chemical compound capable of halting the symptoms and progression of the disease, as well as suppressing its presence in the body to a sufficient degree that it would not spread as a contagion. The compound filtered out of the body over the course of a day, but with regular doses, it was possible for those who contracted the illness to carry on with their regular lives, risking neither themselves nor those around them.
The Malady twins’ continued their careers as students and research assistants, primarily working under the tutelage of Dr. Marcescent, but with increasing independence, working on a number of projects on their own with only a small amount of oversight. By the age of 16, the two were full Academy researchers in everything but official title. Dr. Marcescent observed that it was around this time that the two were on the trail of a significant discovery. They had been following research and carrying out experiments regarding natural decomposition, on living and undead beings. The Malady twins noted to Dr. Marcescent more than once that they were on the edge of a significant discovery, though would not go into details regarding their research. Though it was not realized at the time, based on analyses of future experiments carried out by the Malady twins, and certain records and observations kept by Dr. Marcescent at the time, it is now suspected that during this period, the Malady twins began using themselves as test subjects, albeit in carefully protected and controlled experiments.
Then, in 331, for unknown reasons, the Malady twins dropped this secretive project. When inquiries were made, they avoided the questions, stating simply that the research produced no results, was unfinished, or was impossible to test, often giving conflicting answers, primarily avoiding giving any and all information regarding their research. The two immediately dropped all studies in their field of expertise, disease research, and instead turned to the practice of magic, and a variety of fields they had never shown particular interest or expertise in, including history and social support for the Wild Wastes. Though they continued to show little particular interest in the fields they had begun practicing, the Malady twins absolutely refused to return to any project or studies within the fields of disease or anatomy. Dr. Marcescent noted that the pair seemed to be avoiding him, not out of any dislike, but as if they felt it would be dangerous for them to interact with him. Almost a year after this unknown event, the two, against their protests, were brought to contribute their expertise and chemical knowledge on a social mission to a small town which seemed to have been struck by a disease, possibly the Murrain. It was concluded to be a different illness, and a simpler one, however much of the Academy team fell ill, those still capable beginning standard rush-research procedures to find a cure. Approximately half the team died from the disease, however Tix and Tox seemed to be unaffected, much as they had been unaffected by the Murrain. The twins spearheaded the effort to find a cure, which succeeded after only a period of several weeks. Upon return from the mission, the Malady twins filed to graduate from the Academy, stating the intent of continuing research in a private setting. Tix and Tox Malady left the Utopia Academy in the year 332.
The two traveled back to the now abandoned site of their old village, upon which they constructed a private laboratory. Beyond this fact, no details of their lab, their work, or their experiments were known at the time. Investigation of the lab after their capture in the year 339 has shed a small amount of light on these experiments, however a very small amount of information has been gathered, because even under all standard quarantine procedures, those who attempt to investigate their research tend to fall ill from a variety of diseases, often several in unison, and die within a period of days, if not sooner.
It is believed that the Malady twins resumed the research that they had so abruptly ended. However, investigations and comparisons of the two labs suggest that where their initial research was in attempts to discover information and theorize, their new private lab was initially built with disease cure rush-research procedures in mind. It is unknown what affliction the twins were attempting to combat with their lab, but records suggest that within a period of about two years after setting up their laboratory, their research shifted away from disease curing, and back to disease theory. It is unknown whether this changed because the twins discovered a cure to whatever affliction they were attempting to fix, or for other reasons. It is shortly after this point in time that the first unique plague is suspected to have been put out from the Malady twins’ private research facility. Over the course of the next five years, a series of plagues were tracked back to the facility, each of which was concluded to have not developed naturally, but been magically enhanced, or entirely magically designed. These plagues struck in a variety of unique and incredibly dangerous and effective ways. The first, and one of the most effective afflictions now simply known as the Arcane Plagues gained its name from victims first, becoming known as Magiceater, the first cases of which were recorded in 334. The disease spread exclusively between those capable of wielding arcane energy, something never seen before in a disease. Even more exceptional, and even more dangerous, the disease appeared to be capable of spreading as a contagion via spell, and any exposed to the magic of one suffering from Magiceater would often succumb to the disease, even if the two practitioners had no physical proximity to one another. The disease would consume and destroy the magic of the infected, without having any apparent effect on their physical body. It is the result of Magiceater that such a very small quantity of the population of the Wild Wastes today are capable practitioners of magic, even though the Utopia Academy developed a cure for Magiceater within a matter of months. A series of other deadly plagues of assorted unique features, each more difficult to understand and cure, spread through the Wild Wastes over these few years. Other than Magiceater, most had similar effects to the normal array of diseases in the jungles, and were simply more widespread, more deadly, and more difficult to treat, but the Utopia Academy was prepared to deal with them. In 337, the last of the Arcane Plagues struck, a disease known as the Rising Death. Rising Death was a unique plague, sufficiently infused with magic that as a subject slowly died, their body would rot around them in such a way that their own life force further infused their affliction. As a result, in 40% of cases, individuals who died from the Rising Death had a sufficient density of rot-suffused magic filling their body that their corpse would return as a crazed ghoul, still carrying the infection, with an obsession to spread it to as many people as they were capable of. While several of the earlier Arcane Plagues struck civilizations outside of the Wild Wastes, they did so only to small degrees. However, supported by the attacks of intelligent rot ghouls, the Rising Death struck incredibly severely within the cities of the Spire, the Empire of the Sands, and the Kingdom of Dawnstar, covering the entirety of the world. In 338, the Utopia Academy was laid to waste by assaults from these rot ghouls, it’s head disease researcher Dr. Marcescent escaping the facility with a very small team of other researchers, who continued to do all they could to combat the spreading plague.
The Arcane Plagues having been tracked to the Malady twins’ facility, all three civilizations declared the twins as suspected guilty of Genocide, adding a fourth count for the numerous deaths caused within the Wild Wastes. All three poured their full support behind Dr. Marcescent’s research, which successfully produced a cure for the Rising Death after a period of about a year. Several small attempts were made by assorted groups to attack the research facility of the Malady twins, but none were heard back from. Eventually, the three civilizations created a joint assault force to destroy the research laboratory of Tix and Tox Malady, and capture the twins for trial. The force consisted of a team of Spark Myrmidons, the arcane swordsmen of the Empire of the Sands, led by Court Mages Saho Ramanis and Amantun Sankhas, a wing of knights from the Kingdom of Dawnstar, and a set of Spire Authority Strike Teams from the Spire cities. The facility proved incredibly heavily defended, with small contingents of rot ghouls leading defenses. Despite all attempts to protect against them, severe diseases struck the entirety of the assault force, and deaths in the ranks resulted in rot ghouls rising from the dead of the assault force’s own soldiers. After a twenty-day conflict, the assault force penetrated the inner laboratory, and were able to capture Tix and Tox Malady.
After some analysis by Dr. Marcescent, the twins were concluded to be infected with not only every disease of their own designing, but nearly every affliction the doctor had observed in his over fifty years in the field, as well as a spread of previously unrecorded illnesses. Though they seemed not to show much in the way of symptoms, the enormous presence of disease and illness in their bodies had had some effects on their physiology.
Though half of the assault force were killed during the siege on the facility itself, a further 40% of them died in the following months from illness, including Court Mage Amantun Sankhas, leaving a very small number of survivors.
A pair of quarantine cells were developed to contain the twins, built by Dr. Marcescent and his team in the Lock prison facility. Tix and Tox Malady were tried from inside of their cell, and were found guilty of four counts of genocide for the Arcane Plagues, as well as Practice of Priority I Illegal Magic, and Production of Priority II Illegal Substances, and were convicted to life in prison in the Lock prison facility.
There have been two instances in the first year of the Malady twins’ imprisonment in which the quarantine of their cell failed. In each instance, emergency further quarantine procedures were enacted, and deaths were minimized, however between the two incidents a further 38 people were killed by the twins. Dr. Marcescent produced a further layer of protection, a serum derived from the Murrain treatment, capable of suppressing the natural contagion of the diseases within the bodies of the twins, stopping them entirely from spreading their diseases as long as the chemical was in effect. Though it required daily injections, the disease ensured that even if the quarantine cell failed, or an unaccounted for disease was capable of escaping it, all diseases would be bound within the twins and would not spread to the rest of the facility. Due to the potential risks however, especially in the periods of re-dosing, only Dr. Marcescent himself as an already undead being is safely able to enter the Malady twins’ cells and give them their daily injections.
Known Capabilities:
The full extent of the Malady twins’ abilities is unknown. Their capacity as researchers and developers of longer form magic and ritual magic has been seen to surpass that of most others in the world today in their field of expertise, that of diseases, poisons, and decay. Their capacity as traditional mages, in spellcasting in the immediate sense, is known to be fairly standard, although they stand out as being reasonably capable in both the arcane and clerical arts. It is unknown to what extent their disease and infected state might influence their magical capabilities. It is known that the twins have some measure of control over disease and decay, especially when allowed close physical proximity or contact with what they wish to affect.
Physiologically, Tix and Tox Malady are so severely infected and afflicted by such an enormous range of diseases that their anatomy and physiology show distinct variance away from the healthy norm. Most notably, the extreme presence of such powerful diseases, most notably that of the Rising Death, results in standard systems of detection registering the Malady twins as both alive and undead beings.
The extent of the notes taken by the Malady twins would reveal more about their capability and the methods by which they accomplished many of the damages they caused, potentially even serving to benefit efforts to cure or otherwise reduce the influences of their afflictions on the world. However, on Dr. Marcescent’s insistence, the journals of the Malady twins have been locked away under quarantine under special protections, alongside other classified possessions of the Lock prisoners, as he considers them to be unsafe to handle, and potentially trapped to a more severe degree than simple contamination.