Carnifex

FROM THE ARCHIVES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ISKADAR:

There is absolutely no solid evidence that points to the existence of Carnifexes. They're a particularly gruesome myth, nothing more. Our anthropologist colleagues like to talk about how the myth of the carnifex fits into the greater scheme of underdark mythoi.

They've helpfully labelled it 'Motif 4A, Possession via Blood Infection'.

The myth of the Carnifex usually describes one of two origin points: The first is the consumption of unclean or 'tainted' meat, from some lightly described fauna. The second is from the ingestion or injection of 'unclean blood'.

Some anatomists have suggested that the Carnifex was the way primitive Underdarkers explained away the dangers of blood transfusion.

After the meat or blood enters the body, the victim will, according to tales, begin to act irrationally - anger, or fear, are the main responses, perhaps adjusted for the setting in which the story is being told. The classic motif in these tales is the victim reporting hearing a whispering in a language they do not understand. 'buzzing at the back of the neck', as one collection eloquently put it.

Some alchemists have suggested that this is linked somehow, to the role that the 'brain-stem' plays in psionic processes. Of course, psionics are poorly understood and possibly best classified as magic. For more studies on Psionics, see Alphon's Powers of the Mind or Simico's Processes of the Spine.

(A scribbled note in the margin: 'If you can find a copy!')

On with the myths. As this whispering increases in intensity, the victim begins to display both increased appetite and debilitating nausea in turns. This often leads to vomiting and irritability. While the increased appetite is certainly an outlier, the consumption of ordinary 'bad' meat can be linked with nausea, certainly.

Myths are reticent to fully describe stages beyond this, however, the condition is repeatedly described as carrying no risk of fatality.

One account collected from an isolated hamlet in Caudann (a region of the Underdark populated by a varied group of the native folk, and crossed by many underground rivers) has more to offer:

'The flesh boyls, and becomes twysted. They are as clay yn the Carnyfexes clawes.  Now, There ys No Hope for the poer sod. Burn theyr effects and consygn them to a deep grave.' 

This suggests infectiousness. If Carnifexes are representative of a real disease, it is surely an easily transmissible one. This hypothesis does rely on 'folk wisdom', however. I must reiterate the lack of actual evidence for any of this.

Reports from the Kessek Expedition that suppose to record the later stages of Carnifex infection are almost definitively false. Kessek (unwelcome in most universities already, by that point) describes one of the Expedition's porters developing 'a distended jaw' and 'clawed hands'. A fanciful explanation for a negligent loss of personnel, I would wager.

A further note. We shan't bother further printing any of Kessek's writings, for most of them are obviously either fabricated or plagiarised.

While a disease that seriously affects the behaviour of an infectee and causes extensive physical changes would be of serious concern, i highly doubt such a thing could exist under the sun - or indeed, beneath the earth.