Black Castle No. 391
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Dürer, 1498
When the fourth seal was revealed, I heard the fourth living creature say, "Come!" I watched and saw a gray horse. Those who ride on horses, whose name is death, and the house of hell, with him, gives them the authority to kill a quarter of the people on earth with swords, famine, plague, and beasts.
- The Bible: Revelation
Death came on a white horse
——A brief discussion of fantasy works and plagues in the real world
Nini
Foreword: Due to space limitations, this article is only a "brief discussion". When it comes to historical events and speculations about unfinished fantasy works, try to be objective, but it cannot be very comprehensive, and those who are interested can search for these keywords according to the reading recommendations introduced at the end of the article or on their own.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, also known as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. From revelation chapter 6, the last chapter of the New Testament of the Bible, it is traditionally and in literature as the knight on the white horse—the plague, the knight on the red horse—war, the knight on the black horse—famine, and the knight on the gray horse—who died. [1]
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, by Victor Vasnetsov
The first three knights are always with them. Plagues, wars and famines have been the nightmares of mankind for countless centuries. Outbreaks of large-scale infectious diseases are often inseparable from war. The damage caused by infectious diseases is even stronger than war. In the face of it, even the greatest emperors were helpless. And war, combined with the depletion of resources by disease and the complete destruction of productive forces, will inevitably lead to large-scale famine.
Taken together, of course, these three things are a massive decrease in population—the fourth knight: death. After a round of destruction, it will surely bring about changes in the social pattern, promote the reform of science and technology and medicine, and enter a new era of history.
The plague in Winterthur in 1328. Lithograph by A. Corrodi,Credit: Wellcome Library, London.
There are many books on how diseases have changed history, which are recorded in detail, and will not be repeated here, but will only start with some diseases related to fantasy works. Most of the popular fantasy works are based on medieval settings, which must be inseparable from the names that have been raging in real world history, so some real history will also be mentioned. Let's see what archetypes of these fantasy world plagues come from in our world.
The plague of Mirin in Pale Mare's A Song of Ice and Fire
Listen to me, Daenerys Targaryen. The glass candle is lit, the pale mare is coming, and the rest is immediately following. Sea monsters and black flames, lions and griffins, children of the sun and dragons of the play, all do not believe. Remember the immortals, pay attention to the master of the fragrance.
- Warning of the Quetzalcoatl, "The Dance of the Dragon"
Known as the "Pale Mare," the bloody flux that broke out in Meereen, it is an infectious disease that spreads rapidly and very easily. Sir Balistan Selmi called the blood plague a scourge for troops since the Dawn Age.
Mirin in the play
Symptoms: high fever, intestinal bleeding, diarrhea, etc. There is no effective treatment for this notorious infectious disease, only to prevent it before it occurs, and common measures include isolating patients and avoiding direct contact with them. Its mortality rate was so high that only a quarter of the infected troops survived.
The Mirin people naturally do not have any treatment and immunization methods for this disease, and the only thing they can do is to isolate and burn. Legend has it that people of Targaryen family lineage with true dragon blood are immune.
Daenerys, by Denver Balbaboco
Prototype: dysentery + epidemic hemorrhagic fever. Symptoms include high fever, intestinal bleeding, diarrhea, etc. The main mode of transmission is direct contact with the secretions of an infected person. According to Ballistan , " it is easy to catch in the army " , we can easily relate to dysentery that was prevalent in the barracks of the 18th century.
Barracks in the 18th century. Living and sanitary conditions are quite poor
The barracks at that time were hotbeds of infectious diseases. In battle, more soldiers died from diseases such as typhus, smallpox, typhoid fever and malaria than soldiers who lost their lives in battle. This was mainly caused by poor sanitary conditions and the lack of hygienic awareness of human beings at that time. One name for military dysentery is Bloody flux.
Shigella dysentery
However, the plague in Mirin seemed to be more rapid and deadly, and almost no one could survive. Even Daenerys's simple quarantine didn't work, and the plague spread throughout the city, as if it were an upgraded version of dysentery. So let's venture to guess that Mr. Ma may have referenced Ebola haemorrhagic fever (EBHF) when creating this fictional disease.
Ebola virus
Ebola cannot enter the body through the skin, but viruses that remain on the skin may transfer to the eyes or enter the body through the mucous membranes. Even a very small wound can cause infection, so it is easy to spread. Not to mention the barbaric era in which Daenerys lived, modern medicine has not developed vaccines and targeted drugs for the time being, and the treatment methods are only symptomatic supportive treatment. Historically, virulent infectious diseases such as Ebola have not caused large-scale transmission, one of the main reasons is that it kills its host too quickly. The development of modern means of transport offers them more possibilities. The current Ebola outbreak is the worst in West African history, causing more than 5,160 deaths.
Ebola-inspired American drama "Blood Plague", starring Uncle Onion, Douban 8.1, no urine spots throughout the whole process, it is recommended to watch
The first case of blood plague found in Mirin was a dying Astapo cavalry carried by a pale mare, hence the nickname "Pale Mare". The "God of Death" of the Seven Gods is said to ride a "pale mare," just like the "death" rider in the Bible. Although most of the Bible states that Death rode a Pale horse, the ancient Greek Bible uses the word khlōros to describe the color of his horse. The word can be translated not only as pale but also as gray-green or yellow-green, in short, a color that evokes a dead body.
Daenerys heeded the warnings of the dangers of sending refugees into the city, strictly forbade any refugees from entering the city, allowed them to camp at the foot of the city, and sent help, and she herself entered the camp to encourage people. However, the disease spread, severely damaging Mirin and the besieging forces from Yuankai and New Guisi. The latter came up with a way to lack morality -
"The trebuchet," the round-headed man shouted, "all six are activated."
Grazdan Caral also stood up. "This is the reply of the Yuankai people, Sir, I just warned you."
They choose war. Then come on. Sir Ballistan was relieved. War was an area he was familiar with. "If they think they can break through Mirin by throwing stones—"
"Not a stone." The old woman's voice was full of sorrow and fear. "It's a corpse."
- "The Dance of the Dragon"
Beyond the city walls was the sound of trebuchets being thrown, and corpses and stumps roared through the night. A corpse landed in the middle of the gladiators, splashing them with brain plasma and flesh. The other smashed on the weathered head of the bronze statue of the chainmaker, and when it fell, it snapped off its arm, leaving a slimy beach at the foot of the bronze statue. A spinning human leg fell and landed less than three yards away from Selmi.
"It's a pale mare." Tuco Lee Ho snorted, his voice muffled, dark eyes flashing on his dark face. Then he whispered a few words in the dialect of the Serpent Lizard Islands, as if in prayer. He fears the pale mare more than our enemies. Sir Ballistan realized.
—— The first chapter of "The Cold Wind of Winter"
The prototype of this terrible siege was the Mongol cavalry using trebuchets to throw infected corpses into the city. These "ammunition" infected nature not with the "pale mare", but with the black death, the demon that dominated mankind in the Middle Ages.
Long story short. In the 14th century, the regional suzerainty of the Crimean Peninsula was the Golden Horde. The port city of Kaffa– now known as Feodossija – was the most important stronghold of the Genoese in the East. The Mongols themselves were satisfied with the tax revenues and prosperity brought about by the development of commerce, and Italian merchants sent Slavic, Caucasian and Turkic slaves bought from the Mongols to the Mamluk dynasty, an alliance of the Mongols, and became the source of Mamluk soldiers. However, the overdevelopment of the slave trade soon led the Golden Horde to fear population loss. So in 1347, the Mongol army prepared to sweep the Genoese out of the country.
However, after an intermittent 2-year blockade, the Black Death broke out inside the Mongol military camp. Before retreating, they threw the bodies of the dead into the city with trebuchets. As the people of Kaffa city cheered and celebrated the victory, the plague quietly broke out. So much so that for a long time Europeans saw the Black Death virus as a merchant ship from Kaffa. However, studies have shown that the Black Death had landed in Italy and southern France before the Siege of Caffa.
The "biochemical warfare" of the Mongol army is notorious, not only the cities on the road to conquest in the West, but also the Southern Song Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty were "corpse attacks", and Kafa is only the most famous one
Similar to Kafa, Mirin was a port city for the slave trade, ruled by exiles from the West. The enemy's reason for attacking is also to eliminate foreign forces. The "Pale Mare" had already harvested a large number of lives in the city long before they threw the corpses.
Compare the locations of Kaffa and Mirin. This picture is based on the Mongol Empire as the main perspective on the earth
Although Uncle Ma has not yet proposed a solution to the Mirin Crisis, we can guess according to the fate of Kafa - the plague has dealt a blow to both the attacking and defending sides, but it is obviously more difficult for the siege side. When the Genoese and the Golden Horde finally reached a compromise, prosperity continued unabated. But with the fall of the suzerain, Kaffa was also occupied by the Ottoman Turks.
The world that belongs to Western civilization is too far away from both Mirin and Kafa
It is conceivable that Daenerys, the current Lord of The Millimeen, will eventually return to Westeros no matter how long she has traveled. She will not leave an heir or an army when she leaves (after all, the flag and progress bar of the book will not last). So the outcome of the Battle of Mirin is likely to be an armistice with Tyrion's efforts. But after the queen leaves, this isolated city in the east will probably return to the old way of aristocratic rule before it was occupied by the newer and more powerful forces on the eastern continent of Giosos and Yuankai, and even Essos.
Today's Feodosia can still see the remains of the genoese-era city of Kaffa. Don't know which wall has experienced the "corpse attack" of the trebuchet?
The Black Death is the plague in Demon Hunter
She was in hell, navigating the most terrible nightmares. Pass through houses marked with white crosses. Pass through the stuffy rags. Pass between lonely corpses and piles of dead bodies. From ragged clothes, sunken cheeks, crawling in the mud, screaming in language she didn't understand, stretching out thin arms, bleeding pustules all over her body, living people like ghouls...
- "Demon Hunter"
Traversing the worlds is a competency in the Demon Hunter setting, but it's not common. Most of the species in the world of Demon Hunters landed from other worlds in an event called "Conjunction of the Spheres" (or "Celestial Spheres") about fifteen hundred years ago. Although most creatures can't cross like this now, since there is this setting, there must be exceptions - the Black Death was accidentally brought back by someone during the crossing, belonging to the demons of the world known as "Earth".
Illustration from the game "The Witcher"
Houses marked with white crosses, dense boats, and black smoke suspected of burning corpses prove that this was most likely a port town in 14th-century Europe, perhaps Genoa, or some other city in the Mediterranean. Advances in navigational traffic facilitated the spread of the plague. The time of Demon Hunter is very similar to the Earth of this period.
The Triumph of Death by PIETER BRUEGEL THE ELDER, 1562, in the collection of the Prado Museum of Art, Madrid
The fleas settled on the skin of a rat: it was an old male rat that had been through a lot of battles, and its broken ears were proof of this. That night, rats and fleas boarded a boat. And the next morning, the boat will sail out to sea. The ship they boarded was dirty and old, and its name was "Katriona". The name will go down in history. But at that time, it was still unknown.
The plague was named the Catriona plague, named after the Nephgard ships that transmitted the disease to the Northern Kingdom. It is also called the "Red Death" by people in the world of Demon Hunters. According to the description in the book, "pustules" and "hemorrhagic fever" are the hallmark symptoms of the Black Death, or bubonic plague.
Uncle Ned and Aunt May starred in the movie "Black Death" poster. It's a strange combination for GOT fans
Although Nephgard plays a terrifying villain in the book, and the ship also belongs to Nephgard, the plague is repeatedly raging in the Northern Kingdom, and it seems that Nefergaard in the south is not affected. Disease does not pick the good or evil side to infect, it treats all noble or lowly beings equally, just like death. This novel is so realistic and ironic.
Happy Year of the Rat! From "The Witcher" Quint art setting
The main route of transmission of bubonic plague is rat flea bites. When the bacteria spread to the lymph nodes, a lump will appear, followed by fever, lethargy, and black spots after bleeding from the skin. The mass gradually increases in volume and then ruptures, causing severe pain. Two to four days after symptoms appear, people may die. Boccaccio, author of the Decameron, described it this way: "Nosebleeds are precursors to death; men and women first give birth to nameless lumps on the inner thighs and armpits, some as large as apples and eggs... The lump spread from these two places to the whole body; then black spots appeared, especially on the arms and thighs, densely packed; almost all those who showed symptoms must die within three days, and those who were lucky enough to be alive gathered in a safe house, locked themselves up, and carefully survived."
Plague bacillus
In the Middle Ages, when there was a lack of medical treatment and poor hygiene, the outbreak of the Black Death was extremely fast and extremely large. Today, a wide variety of antibiotics are effective against bubonic plague, such as streptomycin. However, due to its very nature, the plague can only be controlled, not eradicated.
Rattenvanger, Jan Gillisz. van Vliet, 1632
It is worth noting that many theories tend to favor the catastrophe that plunged all of Europe into darkness and imported from the East, but did not fully erupt in China. One of the main reasons is that China's feudal dynastic system has a relatively strong central government to promote the prevention and control of epidemics within a relatively wide territory. The Song and Yuan governments tried to set up local Huimin Pharmacies, set up sick factories to treat patients and bury corpses in epidemic years. It can be said that at a time when the Black Death was raging in Europe, China's centralized feudal dynastic government played a limited but relatively active role in curbing the epidemic.
In addition, China's backward feudal system, which restricted free movement and trade at that time, helped to limit the spread of the Black Death. (It's not that the Black Death didn't enter China, of course, or that China didn't suffer any other diseases besides the Black Death, it's just that the Black Death didn't break out as fully as it did in Europe at the time.) ）
Some features of the Yuan regime (1260-1368) doomed it to be severely affected by the plague. For example, its birthplace is the grassland, which itself is the hardest hit area, coupled with its policy of outward expansion - the most important thing is its lack of attention to the epidemic prevention and control system of the former dynasty, resulting in the lack of relevant institutions, which made the Mongolian Yuan the first world empire crushed by the plague, and caused the rise of the Ming Dynasty.
Trade development in the Yuan Dynasty also accelerated the spread of the virus
However, after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the decline of the local epidemic prevention and control mechanism, coupled with the development and progress of transportation in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the scope of population migration became larger, resulting in a large-scale outbreak of epidemic diseases after the 15th century, and to a certain extent, also caused the collapse of the Ming Dynasty.
Hanged on the crooked neck tree of Jingshan Mountain, the name surpassed the last emperor, Chongzhen
During the Yuan Dynasty, at least in terms of policy, the state still had a relatively positive attitude towards the prevention and treatment of epidemic diseases and the rescue of patients. In contrast, europe lacked a strong central government in the 14th century, and the lords were clearly unable to control the disease, so the main force against the disease was actually the church. In most cases, the church can only provide religious ceremonies, which can appease survivors to some extent, but it has no effect on curbing the spread of the disease.
Medieval ecclesiastical hospital
The final disappearance of the Black Death was entirely due to the fact that most plagues were a seasonal infectious disease, and the Black Death mainly broke out during the warmer seasons and regions, so the epidemic gradually weakened as the weather became colder. Of course, warmer areas such as Provence have also had repeated outbreaks.
The Carteriona Plague Doctor shape, like the Plague Doctor of the Black Death, comes from the Quint brand of "The Witcher"
The consequences of the Black Death in the world of Demon Hunter are unclear, but in the real world the 14th century caused the death of one-third of Europe's population of nearly 25 million. It enabled the redistribution of wealth, broke the Catholic dictatorship, increased mobility of the working class, increased the status of merchants and craftsmen, advanced the development of European science and technology, advanced medical theory, and laid the foundation for the Renaissance, the Reformation, and even the Enlightenment, thus changing the direction of the development of European civilization.
PaulFürst，Der Doctor Schnabel von Rom。 The costume prints of the famous Black Death Plague Doctor. This mask originated in 1619, invented by a French doctor named Charles de Lorme, and is the earliest N95 mask. At that time, people believed that the plague was caused by poisonous air, so perfume, spices and other things were placed in the mouth of the bird in the mask, hoping to purify the air, but in fact, the effect was not very large. Because of this shape, the Plague Doctor is also known as Doctor Schnabel. This kind of dress also has the intention of scaring away the disease, but it should be of little use in this regard, and the children are not lightly frightened. Nowadays, Dr. Bird's Beak has even become a cultural symbol, which is used in the creation of some literary and artistic works.
Smallpox The Plague in Demon Hunter
The two dwarfs ran lifelessly, as if Death were right behind them. Azon shouted something—it could have been a curse. Dandrian suddenly turned pale.
"What he said was... Oh, O gods!"
"What..." Drottan stopped, because Asun and Caleb had already run back. They ran red in the face. "What's going on?" Speak quickly!"
"Plague..." Caleb said breathlessly, "Smallpox..."
"Did you two touch?" Zortan Ziva took a few steps back nervously, almost knocking dandrian down, "Did you touch something in the yard?"
"No... The dog wouldn't let them get close..."
"You two should thank that stray dog." Drottan looked up at the sky, "May the gods give it longevity, plus a bunch of bones taller than Mount Kaben."
Don't look at the dwarf's usual mouth cannon beating, scolding people is not heavy, fighting a battle is not fatal, as soon as you hear the two words of smallpox, you are immediately frightened and urine flow. Because it is indeed incurable. One in every 4 people infected with smallpox dies, and the rest leave terrible scars.
Smallpox virus
Smallpox is a common infectious disease in the world of Demon Hunter, and everyone will basically mention its name when cursing. For example, at the court ball of "Accident Law", Baron Clackle talked to Carranser about the smallpox epidemic in his family's territory. And Carranser's ex-husband also died during the smallpox epidemic - but the cause of death was not smallpox, and there are signs that Carranser took advantage of the chaos to get rid of him.
From The Witcher's Quint setting
From the few words interspersed in the book, it can be seen that this epidemic disease has repeatedly ravaged the Northern Kingdom. Even Coën, one of the demon hunters, was once tricked, leaving a face of numbness. Due to the super immunity of the Demon Hunter, Cohen was most likely ill before he was tested as a child.
In the game, Cohen's shape is not clear where Mazi is
The principalities around the Bloklean Forest even abandoned girls with various infectious diseases, including smallpox, in order to encroach on the territory of the tree spirits, but the tree spirits had superb healing powers, so this trick has not yet succeeded. As Eisna says, "What we have is stronger than immunity."
Eithne Of Brokilon from The Witcher Battle Arena
However, the protagonists' positive encounters with smallpox in the whole book are only in the above paragraph, which occurs in a small farm that Geralt encounters in the process of finding women in the south. The whole team vividly explained what it means to "run away by the wind".
Smallpox may have harmed humans for much longer than the plague, and is rumored to have originated in India or Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. From the mummies of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramses V and others, smallpox scars can be found. (The picture is too scary to serve)
In the 18th century, smallpox spread across Europe, with more than 150 million deaths. The British historian Kikole called smallpox "a faithful accomplice of death". He wrote: "The mortality rate of plague or other diseases is high, but its occurrence is limited. In people's memory, they only happened once or twice in our place. But smallpox has appeared among us one after another, and the long-term horror has distressed the diseaseless people, and even if some patients have survived death, they have left ugly acne marks on their faces forever. People who recover from the disease not only end up with acne scars on their faces, but many even lose their hearing, lose their eyes, or contract tuberculosis."
Depiction of early vaccination of a vaccinia vaccine, 1802, a hospital in St Pancras, London
Smallpox seems to have been introduced to China during the Eastern Han Dynasty, and as early as the Wei and Jin dynasties, there were already records of the prevention of smallpox. In the Song and Yuan dynasties, the prevention and treatment of smallpox already had relatively rich experience, at least in the Ming Dynasty, there was already a relatively mature method of planting pox, and there were also relatively effective treatment methods, which also attracted the attention of foreign countries. Yu Zhengxie's "Manuscript of 癸巳存" says: "During the Kangxi Dynasty (1688), Russia sent people to China to study pox medicine." This was the first country to send international students to China to study human pox. The pox method was later transmitted through Russia to Turkey and Northern Europe.
Kangxi was also a survivor of smallpox
Under the advocacy and promotion of Kangxi, the prevention and control of smallpox in the Qing Dynasty began to move towards a scientific and systematic road, and the smallpox disease in the north and the Central Plains was curbed to a certain extent. However, at that time, the technical operation of pox was complicated, and there were fewer people who were conditionally vaccinated, and the complications were more serious. In some vaccinators, the process can be described as thrilling. Even with vaccination, the success rate is not as high as that of modern vaccines. Combining the above points, it is impossible to popularize the whole people.
Although smallpox in real life has disappeared, this was not a long time ago. On October 26, 1979, the World Health Organization announced that humans had successfully eradicated smallpox. In this way, smallpox became the first human infectious disease to be completely eradicated. With the disappearance of smallpox around the world, the smallpox vaccine has been stopped globally. But decades have passed since then, and the crowd has lost all immunity to smallpox. And the vast majority of countries have also stopped producing and stockpiling smallpox vaccines, so once smallpox is re-interviewed, or mutated, the consequences of the outbreak are unimaginable. In addition, because of the strong adverse reactions of smallpox vaccination, many people are discouraged. Scientists are said to be developing a more reliable new smallpox vaccine.
Greyscale is the original plague in A Song of Ice and Fire
The disease is more common in children and more common in wet and cold weather. Infected skin can harden, stiffen, crack... Tyrion read from the book that bathing with limes, mustard paste, and heat could delay gray scales (as the Bachelor said); or by praying, sacrificing, and hunger strike (according to the monks). After surviving the onset period, the children will leave significant marks on their skin, but they will survive. Both the bachelor and the monk agreed that children who had been infected with gray phosphorus disease would not be infected with other evil diseases in the future, let alone the vicious and deadly variant of gray phosphorus disease, the gray blight.
Gray scale disease is a fatal disease. It is characterized by hardening of the patient's skin, covered with black and gray spots, and hard to touch like stone. The most terrifying thing is that the tongue and lips of the sick person will turn directly into stone. In those cold, wet areas, it is particularly susceptible to transmission among children. The patient's appearance will be greatly damaged, but at the same time it will not be infected by gray blight or some low-fatal diseases. The wildlings call gray scale disease gray death, and believe that people who have gray death disease and are not dead are unclean. Tyrion Lannister believes that Guerin's curse refers to gray scales. (From A Song of Ice and Fire Chinese Wiki)
Readers have speculated countless times about the archetype of grey scale disease, and the answer is that it is not any common infectious disease in our world. (Who said nail fungus?) Give me a stand)
The patients in the book are: Hilline Stannis, Jon Connington — in the play, jorah Mormont.
Patients who survive grey scale disease are immune to various infectious diseases, much like smallpox. The symptoms of smallpox are dense pustules on the face and limbs, and if a small life is retrieved, it will leave a serious scar - which is very similar to gray scale disease. But slowly, let's not say that the "memorial" left by gray scale disease is a kind of severe keratinized skin, not the kind of scar left by smallpox, most importantly, it is a chronic disease.
There are also differences in communication channels. The smallpox virus invades the human body mainly through the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract, and is transmitted through droplet inhalation or direct contact, so it makes the most heroic warriors flee. In "The Dance of the Dragon", Tyrion and his party travel in a small boat in a river suspected of being contaminated with the gray scale virus, except for Clinton, who fell into the water, everyone else is fine. This proves that the route of transmission of the gray scale virus is direct contact, so it did not break out on Tyrion's boat. And in Loyna, the birthplace of suspected gray scale disease, there is a natural quarantine area called Sorrows, and the infected are called "stonemen", who wander there every day, are slow to move, and do not want to run out. Three times a year, the consuls of Valantis sent ships to feed them. This is also a kind of quarantine policy in the epidemic area. However, unlucky supply team members also often suffer from this disease, causing the virus to spread outward.
Jon Clinton, an image in the A Song of Ice and Fire card game
The stigmatization of people with gray scales is very similar to the attitude of our world towards leprosy. In theory, children who survive the recovery of gray scale disease will not be able to infect others, but they will be hated by the world. Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by bacillus leprosy, with main lesions in the skin and peripheral nerves. Clinical manifestations are numb skin lesions, enlarged nerves, severe cases and even limb disability. Historically, both Chinese and foreign, the way of leprosy patients has been very cruel, either burned, buried alive or drowned. Religion is also very unfriendly to leprosy, which is also used in the Bible as a symbol of sin.
Jesus healed 10 lepers
The onset of grey scales in Loina is slow and can be halted by removing the diseased tissue. After the gray scale disease entered the advanced stage, the human body appeared to be petrified, the central nervous system seemed to be affected, becoming dull, "their cold breathing drifted up from the bottom of the river to form a fog, and their bodies and minds turned into solid stones."
It's a thriller in the play! There is a frostbite patient look like
In the TV series, it was Jorah who was unlucky for Clinton. Of course Tyrion also fell into the river, and he was all right. Therefore, some readers have taken this to argue that Tyrion also inherited a little "true dragon blood".
The family of gray scales has two members:
The first, chronic gray scale disease. There is a difference between the effect on the child and the effect on recognition. If the child survives, it will not be fatal, and will only leave a keratinized scar (see Hirin's example). Adults will slowly move toward petrification and death (see the example of Jorah Clinton).
The second is an upgraded version of grey plague.
...... When I was a child, I studied in the old town, and one year the gray plague struck, taking half of the city's population and three-quarters of the members of the school town. Lord Hightower burned down the ships in the harbor, closed the gates, and ordered his soldiers to kill all those who tried to flee, whether men, women, or babies in their arms. As a result, when the plague finally subsided, he taught them to kill. On the very day he reopened the port, they dragged him off his horse, cut his throat, and killed his young son. To this day, the fools of the Old Town still spit on his name, but Quinton Hightower did his duty.
—Paisil's Memories, A Feast for crows
"A Braavos merchant ship returning from the Jade Sea docks in Pantos." Treasure'. She brought cloves and saffron, emerald and black jade, red splendid embroidery, green silk... But it also brought gray blight. We killed all the sailors on the shore and burned the merchant ships, but the rats on the ships crawled out and took the cold stone feet to bring the disease into the docks. The epidemic killed an entire two thousand people." Governor Illyrio closed the box. "Her hands are kept in the bedroom by me, those soft hands..."
—Memories of Illyrio, Dance of the Dragon
The rich were caught in the face of the disease, and Illyrio's wife, Syrah, was also taken away by the gray plague. Her hands were the last to petrify, and the lover was able to retain a little of her soft memories. Still a bit maddening to listen.
Triumph of Death (partial), Pieter Brughel, 1562, Museo del Prado, Madrid
Apparently gray blight was a symptom of Mix's gray scale disease and the spread of the Black Death. Due to the rapid onset of the disease, it was clear that Sam's surgery on Jorah to remove the diseased tissue was simply too late.
I watched say goodbye to pineapple buns and durians
Here I would like to mention the ceiling again. The symptoms of gray scale disease are mild and the onset is slow, and survivors of gray scale disease can not only survive its malignant variant of gray blight, but can even be resistant to "other evil diseases" [2]. A 2010 study by American scientists showed that people who were vaccinated against smallpox were more effective against HIV than those who were not vaccinated against HIV. Therefore, the prototype of this disease that Uncle Ma's brain hole is likely to be plague + smallpox.
But that shape, in real life, no skin disease looks like that. So even if you have a little reference to the nail fungus that you have always wanted to talk about...
Red Horse Rider: Assist each other
When the second seal was unveiled, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" Just another horse came out, red. The authority was given to the horseman, who could take the peace from the earth, and let the people kill each other, and give him a great sword.
The Knight on the Red Horse and the Knight on the White Horse are inseparable partners, and the combination of war and plague has greatly increased the efficiency of the Grim Reaper. Even early leads to the end of the war. Reading this, you may think that the following is the famous Spanish flu. Although the plague did not occur in fantasy works, it is mentioned in the first novel of Ken Follett's "Trilogy of the Century", The Fall of the Giants. By the way, it covers almost the most important events that took place in the 20th century and changed the course of human history, helping to give readers an understanding of why our world is the way it is today.
The Spanish flu was the closest to a large-scale global outbreak that broke out in 1918, at the height of World War I. By the spring of 1920, about 1 billion people had been infected worldwide, nearly 40 million people had died, and the global average fatality rate was about 2.5%-5%.
A hospital ward full of soldiers during the pandemic. Source: The Great Flu: The Epic of the Deadliest Plague
When you hear the name "Spanish flu", you may assume that it broke out in Spain. But in fact, at that time, Spain called it the "French flu", and the French wanted to push the pot to the Chinese workers who were digging trenches on the front line. But in fact, many countries are recruited at almost the same time, and the real source can no longer be traced. Since the European continent was fighting a fierce war at that time, in order to avoid causing panic in their own countries and boosting the morale of others, the participating countries tried their best to block the news. But neutral Spain was more honest, so the outbreak was reported, and it looked like an outbreak of influenza from Spain. Although some people have proposed the hypothesis that influenza originated in East Asia, Europe and even Kansas in the United States, there is still debate in academic circles about the exact geographical origin location.
Coronavirus is the culprit of the flu
World War I killed 10 million people because of the war, but because of the flu caused 20 million deaths in one year, it can be seen that the lethality of disease is stronger than the war. You must know that there were only 1.7 billion people in the world at that time, because of the war and disease suddenly lost 30 million, but also made many people reflect - this way, human beings will soon be finished. In addition, the main reason was that the resources of various countries were almost exhausted, so the First World War ended quickly. So there is a saying, "World War II ended with the atomic bomb, and World War I ended with the flu."
In December 1918, Seattle law enforcement officers came standard with masks
In the 18 months from 1918 to 1920, the flu went on three offensives:
The first wave occurred around April 1918, and the fatality rate was the lowest;
The second wave of mortality was the highest, beginning in August 1918;
The third wave occurred between the winter of 1919 and the spring of 1920, and the mortality rate was between the first and second waves.
Couples wearing masks on the streets of London in 1919
Usually, the people who die from influenza are mainly young children, the elderly and the infirm, but this time the flu is very abnormal, and the mortality rate is particularly high among young adults aged 20 to 35 years. And the onset is very rapid, and many people die within 48 hours of the disease.
In this regard, there are two hypotheses: First, the elderly population has experienced influenza, so it has antibodies, so it is more resistant to influenza. Second, young adults have a better immune system, and in the process of eliminating foreign viruses, the fever and inflammation they produce are also more serious; the immune system's overreaction may lead to cytokine storms, resulting in damage to human tissues or organs. (Baidu Encyclopedia)
Many cities restrict public access to public places, and movie theaters, dance halls, sports venues, etc. have been closed for more than a year. Train attendants in Seattle refuse to allow passengers without masks to board (below).
October of that year was the darkest month in U.S. history, 200,000 Americans died during the month, and the average life expectancy in the United States in 1918 was 12 years less than usual.
Much of the high mortality rate from the Spanish flu can be attributed to the overcrowding and squalor of military barracks and urban environments, as well as the malnutrition suffered by people during the war. There were no antibiotics (antibiotics were invented and widely used during World War II), so there was no way to treat the flu. So under modern conditions, if it were to do it again, would it cause as much damage as the last time?
First of all, influenza is caused by viruses, and there is no specific drug to deal with it like antibiotics used to deal with germs, and the various cold medicines currently on the market are actually only used to alleviate cold symptoms and cannot eliminate viruses.
On the surface, we have a higher level of medical care, but in fact, if there is a light enemy, it is a big mistake. Don't forget that the traffic is much more developed than it was in 1918, and the disease has an incubation period, and at first it may not be able to see any difference from the common cold, and the patient thinks that he is fine, and then takes a flight for a few hours to run to another continent.
Image: Pleague . Inc games
Many people unknowingly spread pathogens in large numbers, and the rate of death is exaggerated – the Spanish flu has a record of "onset at noon and death at night", and there is no time to treat it. And no matter which era, the number of medical staff is definitely less than the number of patients, if suddenly encountered such a disease without warning, fierce, no vaccine, droplet infection, medical resources are certainly not enough to treat all patients, and the probability of medical staff being infected and losing is very high. I know there is a one called "If the Spanish flu happened today, can it be quickly controlled?" The question, the first floor answer is 2018, interested can search it.
Severe influenza pandemics tend to occur every few decades. Experts believe that the next question is not "will it happen" but "when" question.
Judging from the "deeds" of the above famous infectious diseases in history, the more developed the technology, the greater the radius of human activity, and the speed and radiation area of the plague spread are also considerable. No matter which plague in history, even in ancient times, when medical treatment and living conditions were extremely poor, the most effective means of control were top-down, systematic and comprehensive prevention and control and isolation. In today's globalized environment, all mankind should work together to prevent and establish a complete and rapid response disease prevention and control system, rather than keeping information secret from each other.
Face the devil
Infectious diseases are a major tragedy of living things, a struggle for survival between different life forms.
- Rats, Lice, and History: A New History of Human Destiny
In Rats, Lice, and History: A New History of Human Destiny, Hans Zinsser, a bacteriologist and immunologist, offers a unique insight into microbes. That is, we humans always look at other creatures with colored glasses, not knowing that we are regarded as inferior beings, and we also have our own struggles and the instinct to survive. The human instinct is to plunder, which is the same as the plague. We all wreak havoc to survive. Outbreaks of infectious diseases are often associated with the destruction of the environment, and in his eyes, the devastation of infectious diseases to human beings comes from human ignorance, greed and cruelty.
The god of the plague on a white horse is ruthless, but the human race is stupid, full of unrealistic ambitions, dreaming of subservient to all other beings. With the advent of modern society, most people have lost the opportunity to prove themselves in battle. We briefly stopped killing each other, and the Knight on the White Horse took a temporary back seat. But the dragonless warriors turned the goal of conquest to the world, to unexplored forests and grasslands, game, civets, bats, and marmots.
Cute Groundhog: I did something wrong
Who beat the virus? We think it's human beings, but it's actually nature. First of all, viruses are also life. During epidemics, the infected population is also regional. When there are fewer and fewer people in an outbreak area, the virus is more and more distant, the infection route is lost, and the virus that leaves the host is much more vulnerable than humans. A little change in ultraviolet light and temperature can make it die. This is the importance of isolating infected individuals from areas. As we all know, the epidemic of infectious diseases must have three links: the source of infection, the route of transmission and susceptible people. All of the most terrible infectious diseases in history mentioned above have finally lost their power due to changes in seasons and temperatures, and the susceptible populations have been eliminated by nature if they can't survive, and those who survive have antibodies. If the virus had not mutated and made a comeback, the outbreak would have been over.
All the plagues have never really disappeared, they have only disappeared from our sight. Possessed by bats, snakes, and rats, they retreat to the darkest corners of the planet, into the damp and deep caves of the deep mountains and old forests, lurking, like sleeping vampires, waiting for their chances.
Dracula:??? Something about me again
There is no sunlight there, and no one will set foot even after a thousand years.
Theoretically.
Yet the most ignorant of us will always release demons into the world. Whether hunting exotic animals for ornamentation, hunting to satisfy their appetites, or just trying to be heroes, they enter the realm of strangers riding pale mares again and again, repeatedly waking them up and never learning their lessons.
A menu from a restaurant in Huanan Seafood Market
No matter how safe and orderly life in modern civilization may seem, bacteria, protozoa, viruses, infected fleas, lice, ticks, mosquitoes, and bed bugs are always lurking in the shadows. As long as humanity lets its guard down because of carelessness, poverty, hunger, or war, they will attack.
Hidden in dark corners, these tiny creatures parasitize rats, mice, and a variety of domestic animals, and follow us at all times; they parasitize insects that fly or climb, ambushing us in our food, drinking water, and even our love.
End
In Good Omens, four Apocalypse Knights ride the wind-pulling Harley Motorcycle with the times. The "plague" has been retired since the invention of various vaccines, giving way to "pollution":
Pollution took off his helmet and threw out his long white hair. In 1936, he took over the plague class. When the old guy retired, he kept cursing penicillin in his mouth.
- "Good Omens"
Stills from the 2019 Amazon TV series "Good Omens"
Although "pollution" is also a global problem to be ignored, it is too early to say that the god of "plague" has retired. With each disease outbreak, bacteria and viruses themselves are constantly evolving, and the routes and ways of transmission and lethality are different. The plague was once far away from us, but it is not extinct and can make a comeback at any time.
The success of the United States in developing antibiotic drugs after World War II brought short-term joy to mankind. It is believed that the suffering caused by infectious diseases has been eradicated once and for all, and that future medicine will devote more energy to the eradication of long-lasting or chronic diseases. However, the emergence of HIV and other viral diseases, the potential threat of influenza and the emergence of resistant strains of bacterial diseases have led to a rapid realization that infectious diseases still have the capacity to wreak havoc on humans, provided that appropriate social and environmental conditions are given. [3]
end
[1] The interpretation of the Knight on the White Horse is slightly controversial, with clergy and religious scholars believing that it represented conquest.
[2] The translation is controversial here. Originally written as Maesters and septons alike agreed that children marked by greyscale could never be touched by the rarer mortal form of the affliction, nor by its terrible swift cousin, the grey plague, Or it should be understood to mean "will not suffer from worse forms of gray scale disease and worse variants of gray blight", and not other diseases.
[3] Preface to Hans Zinsel's Rats, Lice, and History: A New History of human Destiny, by Gerald S. Sinsel Gerald N. Grob.
Black Castle editor-in-chief, loser small master.
Recommended Reading:
Black Castle 216: A Contagious Examination in the World of A Song of Ice and Fire
Holiday Must See, Don't Laugh At You Hit Me: The Unorthodox British Self-Black Comedy "Good Omens"
Video analysis | bad film? Divine drama? What the hell was the BBC's "Dracula" about?
Volume VI: The Cold Winds of Winter: The Commander on the Eve of Battle
If you are interested, you can search for the following articles
· Beating the "Bloody Flux" – How an 18th Century Army Doctor Waged War on Dysentery
· The Story of the Black Death (Douban), henry™
· Solving the Mystery of the Deadliest Flu Virus, Ark
· If the Spanish flu had occurred today, could it have been quickly controlled (I know)
· Looking back on the century: 10 misconceptions about the pandemic in Spain
· Fyodosia: Former Pearl of the Black Sea with historic Kaffa Harbour
· Death Comes: The Great Plague of the Mediterranean that destroyed the dreams of the Byzantine Empire
· Why did the Black Death, which plunged the whole of Europe into darkness, imported from the East, not have a large-scale outbreak in China?
· Plague Empire: The rise and fall of the Ming Dynasty was aided by viruses
(Nini note: But Y. pestis is a bacterium)
Related film and television works
· Movies such as "The Black Death", "Twelve Monkeys" and so on
· TV series "Game of Thrones", "Demon Hunter", "Good Omen", "Blood Plague", "Black Death" (Spanish drama) and so on.
Related books
· A Song of Ice and Fire, by George W. Bush. R.R. Martin
· The Demon Hunter, By Andrey Sapkowski
· The Century Trilogy, By Ken Follett
· Rats, Lice and History: A New History of Human Destiny, Hans Zinsel
· Disease Changes History, Frederick M. F. Cartwright
Related games
· The Witcher (including Quint)
· Bloodborne
· The Plague Company
· Resident Evil
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