NOTE; this is gonna include some mentions of REAL names of diseases caused by viruses, fungi, and bacterium, both Aerobic and Anaerobic, and some rather nasty ones! So, read at your own risk! I won’t go into any graphic details on symptoms or whatnot, but there’s some nasty, nasty infamous disease names in here (the real baddies, ya got that?), so if ya don’t like that then don’t read. Hypochondriacs and people who fear disease, I DO NOT RECOMMEND READING THIS!
So. I’ve been thinking.
About this quote from the world map description of the scarred wasteland:
“Rot and runaway viruses pulse through the landscape, infecting the terrain”
And I was wonderin’, hey, what exactly does it imply here with the ground itself bein’ infected? Most people just go ‘MËÄT FLOOR MËÄT FLOOR’ from what I’ve heard, or some kinda fungal description and whatnot.
Well, by infected, I think Imma go with the definition of ‘nasty nasty microbes inhabitin’ the land itself yasee’
And then that uh, begs me the question, ‘Hey Beeff, what exactly IS makin’ little apartments and homes for itself and its sickly brethren in the land?’
And my first thoughts, my first thoughts is ya see, ‘Well the description is kinda wrong here ‘cause uh. Viruses don’t infect dirt.’
And then I doubted myself on that and decided to look it up.
Well, turns out I was wrong, those little ‘not really alive’ RNA guys CAN be in tha dirt itself according to a study described by energy.gov’s office of science or whateva “The results suggest that soil RNA viruses are diverse, abundant, and infect primarily fungi and some bacteria. However, they possibly also infect vertebrates and plants. These data suggest viruses are potentially as important in the turnover of chemicals in soils as they are in the ocean.” as stated here, so, yea, you MIGHT get yaself a viral infection if you lick plague ground. So don’t do that. (Also it seems like some viral groups in that study infect plants specifically so. HA. Take that nature. Yer plants can’t touch our ground without gettin’ plant colds and plant fevers!)
Do be careful though, because uh, in the graphic they used on that page it did include somethin’ sayin’ ‘Picorna’, which, if you ain’t aware, is one of those groups of viruses that can get us humans. Picornaviruses can range from the annoying Rhinovirus, which gives ya the sniffles (common cold), to the poliovirus. It’s in the name on that one. So, again, DON’T TOUCH PLAGUE GROUND because I’d imagine it’d be waaayyy amped up on those in comparison to earth soils, and I’m not sure if dragons invented a vaccine for those yet. It also included somethin’ called ‘Zhoavirus’, which I couldn’t find when I looked it up because I only got results for our current problem disease, you know who, so I’d assume… another good reason not to touch plague dirt. There’s also Mono-chu, which came mostly fruitless when I looked it up so. Just assume that Plague ground has it and it’s bad for you.
So, there’s all the viruses. Also, so keep in mind that while there are some nasty names in those dirt-virus books, they are important for the dirt (to our chagrin), so like it or not, they’re staying so stuff doesn’t get outta wack in the ecosystem.
Now, I started to wonder, ‘hey, what about the stuff that isn’t viruses in the dirt but can still infect people?’
So I looked that up to see what we have in tha dirt.
Now, first and foremost, Imma get fungi outta the way. We already KNOW plague has fungi. It’s tha dang festival currency! But, I’m quite sure it’s very safe to assume that there are various yeasts (yes the bread fungus), molds and other fungi in Plague’s soils that can cause those nasty, itchy fungal infections (looking at you, ringworm!). This just seemed quite obvious so I figured I’d get it outta the way.
One I would like to mention tho is Cryptococcosus. Not for any good reason, it just sounds like the word ‘cryptocurrency’ and I think that’s pretty funny.
Now, moving onto our final category of ‘snuffles in the sickly soils’, we’ve got bacteria (specifically of the kingdom Eubacteria, as Archaea are mostly chill and do not want to hurt anyone. They just wanna turn ur water pink.)
There are specific bacterium known to inhabit soil as like. Part of their whole thing. Creating spores and infecting areas themselves. Two groups do this.
Ofc I can’t mention every specific bacteria that lives in ‘da dirt’ tm, because. Cmon. That’d take days. So I’m just sticking with the spore bois. We’ll be discussion’ two mains groups. Bacillus and Clostridium, both which have some nasty, nasty names in their ranks. Some of the ABSOLUTE NASTIEST, even!
Clostridium has two main members I’d like to mention. Now these two members… they’re INFAMOUS.
First up in the anaerobic ring, preventing babies from eating honey and keeping your face youthful, and harboring THE MOST TOXIC NATURAL SUBSTANCE KNOWN TO MAN, it’s…
*drumroll*
botulism. Yeah. That bad boy. That bad bad bad bad boy who attacks yer nerves and is very good at doin’ so with the smallest amounts possible of its specialty Botulinum toxin. And is also used for Botox because we humans will find the weirdest ways to keep ourselves young with those sweet sweet paralyzed facial muscles.
Next up in the ring, you feel the need to get a shot for it every time your bump into something rusty or get bitten by something (or someone), it’s…
*another drumroll*
TETANUS! Unlike Botulism, this bad boy has LITERALLY NO USES! It is USELESS TO HUMAN SOCIETY!!! Literally all it does is hurt people! Can’t even make em’ look young! Such a shame, Tetanus… such a shame. Well, except for it being used to make its own vaccine but THAT DOESN’T COUNT!! C’MOOON THAT’S LIKE KICKING A VASE OVER AND THEN FIXING IT AND SAYING ‘mm yes that was a useful and good thing to do’ LIKE C’MON MAN!! YOUR ONLY USE IS CURING YOURSELF!! Bad Tetanus, bad… so… so ONE DIMENSIONAL of a bacteria!
Now to move onto Bacillus.
While Bacillus has many baddies indeed, causing wound infections and everything else, and meningitis infections…
There’s one baddie here that rises above the rest.
The disease to conquer all others.
A terrifying bioweapon.
The boogieman of bogeys.
The assassination tool.
The contaminator of entire areas.
The ticking time bomb of the Siberian permafrost.
The namesake for the antagonist of osmosis Jones.
The eldritch horror of bacterium.
The rare, but still certainly feared and never to be forgotten…
If we were to assume that Plague soil can and DOES house every possible infectious human-getting disease out there, in every square inch…
Then the scarred wasteland is practically uninhabitable.
Because it has the worst soil-dwelling nasty of them all.
Anthrax.
The name itself strikes fear in all who hear it, except for those who don’t.
While, if you, like me, live in the United States, you should have no fear of encountering this mini-monster, the same likely couldn’t be said for anyone inhabiting the Scarred Wasteland.
It contaminates patches of land itself, and, knowing how the entirety of Plague is contaminated with various things, and this is one of the most contaminate-y of all, then Plague is like a massive contaminated hazard zone, and any non-plague dragons (especially herbivorous ones), should at the least maybe wear a hazmat suit and bring their own, not contaminated food and water with them on their travels.
That and not to mention the tidbit from that ‘radioactive slime’ familiar about how it’s from the wyrmwound… so we can assume that the contents of that, and a lot of plague slimes, are radioactive. So Anthrax or no Anthrax, wear a dang hazmat! WITH protective lead on the inside!! Or just don’t go to the scarred wasteland!
So, in conclusion, based on what I’ve found about Plague ground, we’ve got new reasons never to visit the scarred Wasteland.
-Various RNA viruses including Polio. In the ground.
-Infectious fungi. Literally in the ground itself.
-Botulism and Tetanus. IN THE GROUND.
-THERE IS VERY LIKELY ANTHRAX EVERYWHERE IN THE GROUND OF THE SCARRED WASTELAND. DO NOT GO THERE EVER.
Imagine a radioactive fallout zone where you get sick just by being there. Now, take that concept and instead of radiation, it’s a feast of deadly diseases including some of the absolute worst to offer, not to mention whatever fictional diseases are going on there. But also still with added radiation if you felt like microbe-based sickness wasn’t enough. That’s the Scarred Wasteland.
This is to put into perspective how awful, harsh, and virulent of a place the Scarred Wasteland just might be (and probably is). It’s probably that bad (in my opinion).
So. I’ve been thinking.
About this quote from the world map description of the scarred wasteland:
“Rot and runaway viruses pulse through the landscape, infecting the terrain”
And I was wonderin’, hey, what exactly does it imply here with the ground itself bein’ infected? Most people just go ‘MËÄT FLOOR MËÄT FLOOR’ from what I’ve heard, or some kinda fungal description and whatnot.
Well, by infected, I think Imma go with the definition of ‘nasty nasty microbes inhabitin’ the land itself yasee’
And then that uh, begs me the question, ‘Hey Beeff, what exactly IS makin’ little apartments and homes for itself and its sickly brethren in the land?’
And my first thoughts, my first thoughts is ya see, ‘Well the description is kinda wrong here ‘cause uh. Viruses don’t infect dirt.’
And then I doubted myself on that and decided to look it up.
Well, turns out I was wrong, those little ‘not really alive’ RNA guys CAN be in tha dirt itself according to a study described by energy.gov’s office of science or whateva “The results suggest that soil RNA viruses are diverse, abundant, and infect primarily fungi and some bacteria. However, they possibly also infect vertebrates and plants. These data suggest viruses are potentially as important in the turnover of chemicals in soils as they are in the ocean.” as stated here, so, yea, you MIGHT get yaself a viral infection if you lick plague ground. So don’t do that. (Also it seems like some viral groups in that study infect plants specifically so. HA. Take that nature. Yer plants can’t touch our ground without gettin’ plant colds and plant fevers!)
Do be careful though, because uh, in the graphic they used on that page it did include somethin’ sayin’ ‘Picorna’, which, if you ain’t aware, is one of those groups of viruses that can get us humans. Picornaviruses can range from the annoying Rhinovirus, which gives ya the sniffles (common cold), to the poliovirus. It’s in the name on that one. So, again, DON’T TOUCH PLAGUE GROUND because I’d imagine it’d be waaayyy amped up on those in comparison to earth soils, and I’m not sure if dragons invented a vaccine for those yet. It also included somethin’ called ‘Zhoavirus’, which I couldn’t find when I looked it up because I only got results for our current problem disease, you know who, so I’d assume… another good reason not to touch plague dirt. There’s also Mono-chu, which came mostly fruitless when I looked it up so. Just assume that Plague ground has it and it’s bad for you.
So, there’s all the viruses. Also, so keep in mind that while there are some nasty names in those dirt-virus books, they are important for the dirt (to our chagrin), so like it or not, they’re staying so stuff doesn’t get outta wack in the ecosystem.
Now, I started to wonder, ‘hey, what about the stuff that isn’t viruses in the dirt but can still infect people?’
So I looked that up to see what we have in tha dirt.
Now, first and foremost, Imma get fungi outta the way. We already KNOW plague has fungi. It’s tha dang festival currency! But, I’m quite sure it’s very safe to assume that there are various yeasts (yes the bread fungus), molds and other fungi in Plague’s soils that can cause those nasty, itchy fungal infections (looking at you, ringworm!). This just seemed quite obvious so I figured I’d get it outta the way.
One I would like to mention tho is Cryptococcosus. Not for any good reason, it just sounds like the word ‘cryptocurrency’ and I think that’s pretty funny.
Now, moving onto our final category of ‘snuffles in the sickly soils’, we’ve got bacteria (specifically of the kingdom Eubacteria, as Archaea are mostly chill and do not want to hurt anyone. They just wanna turn ur water pink.)
There are specific bacterium known to inhabit soil as like. Part of their whole thing. Creating spores and infecting areas themselves. Two groups do this.
Ofc I can’t mention every specific bacteria that lives in ‘da dirt’ tm, because. Cmon. That’d take days. So I’m just sticking with the spore bois. We’ll be discussion’ two mains groups. Bacillus and Clostridium, both which have some nasty, nasty names in their ranks. Some of the ABSOLUTE NASTIEST, even!
Clostridium has two main members I’d like to mention. Now these two members… they’re INFAMOUS.
First up in the anaerobic ring, preventing babies from eating honey and keeping your face youthful, and harboring THE MOST TOXIC NATURAL SUBSTANCE KNOWN TO MAN, it’s…
*drumroll*
botulism. Yeah. That bad boy. That bad bad bad bad boy who attacks yer nerves and is very good at doin’ so with the smallest amounts possible of its specialty Botulinum toxin. And is also used for Botox because we humans will find the weirdest ways to keep ourselves young with those sweet sweet paralyzed facial muscles.
Next up in the ring, you feel the need to get a shot for it every time your bump into something rusty or get bitten by something (or someone), it’s…
*another drumroll*
TETANUS! Unlike Botulism, this bad boy has LITERALLY NO USES! It is USELESS TO HUMAN SOCIETY!!! Literally all it does is hurt people! Can’t even make em’ look young! Such a shame, Tetanus… such a shame. Well, except for it being used to make its own vaccine but THAT DOESN’T COUNT!! C’MOOON THAT’S LIKE KICKING A VASE OVER AND THEN FIXING IT AND SAYING ‘mm yes that was a useful and good thing to do’ LIKE C’MON MAN!! YOUR ONLY USE IS CURING YOURSELF!! Bad Tetanus, bad… so… so ONE DIMENSIONAL of a bacteria!
Now to move onto Bacillus.
While Bacillus has many baddies indeed, causing wound infections and everything else, and meningitis infections…
There’s one baddie here that rises above the rest.
The disease to conquer all others.
A terrifying bioweapon.
The boogieman of bogeys.
The assassination tool.
The contaminator of entire areas.
The ticking time bomb of the Siberian permafrost.
The namesake for the antagonist of osmosis Jones.
The eldritch horror of bacterium.
The rare, but still certainly feared and never to be forgotten…
If we were to assume that Plague soil can and DOES house every possible infectious human-getting disease out there, in every square inch…
Then the scarred wasteland is practically uninhabitable.
Because it has the worst soil-dwelling nasty of them all.
Anthrax.
The name itself strikes fear in all who hear it, except for those who don’t.
While, if you, like me, live in the United States, you should have no fear of encountering this mini-monster, the same likely couldn’t be said for anyone inhabiting the Scarred Wasteland.
It contaminates patches of land itself, and, knowing how the entirety of Plague is contaminated with various things, and this is one of the most contaminate-y of all, then Plague is like a massive contaminated hazard zone, and any non-plague dragons (especially herbivorous ones), should at the least maybe wear a hazmat suit and bring their own, not contaminated food and water with them on their travels.
That and not to mention the tidbit from that ‘radioactive slime’ familiar about how it’s from the wyrmwound… so we can assume that the contents of that, and a lot of plague slimes, are radioactive. So Anthrax or no Anthrax, wear a dang hazmat! WITH protective lead on the inside!! Or just don’t go to the scarred wasteland!
So, in conclusion, based on what I’ve found about Plague ground, we’ve got new reasons never to visit the scarred Wasteland.
-Various RNA viruses including Polio. In the ground.
-Infectious fungi. Literally in the ground itself.
-Botulism and Tetanus. IN THE GROUND.
-THERE IS VERY LIKELY ANTHRAX EVERYWHERE IN THE GROUND OF THE SCARRED WASTELAND. DO NOT GO THERE EVER.
Imagine a radioactive fallout zone where you get sick just by being there. Now, take that concept and instead of radiation, it’s a feast of deadly diseases including some of the absolute worst to offer, not to mention whatever fictional diseases are going on there. But also still with added radiation if you felt like microbe-based sickness wasn’t enough. That’s the Scarred Wasteland.
This is to put into perspective how awful, harsh, and virulent of a place the Scarred Wasteland just might be (and probably is). It’s probably that bad (in my opinion).
