Outbreaks: Ildûn 386 DR.

Perhaps one of the most disturbing plagues to strike in the 4th century DR was the Plague of Flies. The plague was first recorded on the island kingdom of Ildûn in 386 DR. Symptoms included a fever that ran for two to three days as red splotches formed on the victim’s skin. At the end of the third day the splotches became soft boils which would grow for another two to three days before erupting into hundreds of gray larvae. The stench of these eruptions was so great that houses were usually evacuated for many hours. This was a key moment in the disease’s progression, for within the first two hours of eruption the larvae would burrow beneath the person’s skin where they would nest until mature. As the larvae matured a second round of splotches and bumps would form. These bumps would be hard, sore, and bright red. The second eruption usually occurred within four days of the first. During this event, the mature larvae would dig up through the skin causing great anguish to the afflicted. Digging and eating up through the hardened skin would emerge hundreds of biting white-and-black flies which would then swarm about for days before laying their eggs in another (or the same) host.

The Plague of Flies was incredibly painful and disfiguring. Fatalities were most common among children, the poor, and the elderly. The main cause of death was dehydration by those who could not fend for themselves while stricken.