“It doesn’t kill you all at once. It reshapes you. And it never reshapes you the same way twice.”

Shard Blight is a chaotic magical affliction born from prolonged exposure to raw, unrefined Shardisite. While known throughout the world, it is most common near the cursed waters of the Sea of Ghosts, where the highest Shardisite concentrations seep into the land, sea, and air.

Unlike early descriptions that framed it as a slow crystallization, Shard Blight is now understood as wildly unpredictable. No two victims transform the same way. One may sprout jagged crystalline spines from the spine and shoulders; another may develop translucent skin crawling with green light; a third may warp into something unrecognizable, half-flesh, half-mineral, writhing and humming with unstable magic.

Symptoms often begin subtly: flickers of green light under the skin, disjointed thoughts, or the sensation of something humming in the blood. But within days, the body begins to break its own rules. Limbs twist. Bones elongate. Eyes multiply. Voices crack into harmonics. Some victims collapse into convulsions; others wander off, drawn by unknown forces toward the ocean.

Shard Blight is not merely a disease. It is a curse of place, a mutation of being. There is no known cure, only containment or mercy.

The afflicted are often feared not just for their appearance but for the magical disturbances they radiate. Entire villages near the Sea of Ghosts have been abandoned after a single outbreak, leaving behind only the faint glow of the blighted in the dark.