Plague Doctor, by ChainclawofBloodClan
Many fantasies are set in a never-never-land of times gone by. Usually it’s Medieval Europe. But the Roman Empire, Bronze Age Britain, and Dynastic Egypt also get their times in the sun. All have one thing in common: the dearth of plagues. Which, admittedly, are hard to incorporate into uplifting adventure stories. They’re depressing, and tend to kill a lot of people, characters included, and thus derail plots and quests.
Diseases are easier to find as local color or plot devices. John Norman’s Gor series had a leprosy-like disease called Dar-Kosis, and Harry Potter, Dragon Pox. Grayscale features in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series.
Should you need a quaintly named disease, plague or pestilence for plot purposes, here’s a randomly generated list of them.
Plagues
| The Brown Wasting
Putrid Croup Scratchpphleg Black Ptomordis Grim Pox Agfulo Red Colic Heartblind Brown Scurvinia Black Choke Spotted Chrothenia Sprondophy Wheat Hives Scarlet Twitch Blue Septis Crock Hives Bulbsy Pule Ague |
Camp Death
Yellow Rot Sprondopsy Agenza Laughing Boils Black Cerewad Dog’s Eye Effluvia Cyanlera Herpenza Ditch Grippe Dancing Parula Screaming Spasms Softbones Blue Chromordis Gringopsy Dyspraxis Sponge Pox Speckled Plague |
Ureacropsy
Centipede Curse Rotting Fever Land Flux Thin Plague Dragon Catarrh Rotting Canker Catchscrat Scrotflora Red Malaise Blood Fever Liver Cramps Scarlet Blindness Summer Contagion Scrotthae Paraenza White Chill Brown Cropsy |
