Horseman's Plague

The Horseman's Plague was a (as of Paleblood Moonrise update) widespread plague that had crippled the Ymaryn and destroyed many nearby nations. It was first sighted in a Ymaryn bathhouse where a sustained coughing was observed in one of the visitors, and spread rapidly since then, arriving in all of the known world and likely much further in less than one turn and subsequently disabling or killing large amounts of the population of any afflicted group.

Symptoms

 * 1) Possible minor cold, maybe an initial phase of light sickness. Disagreement among experts.
 * 2) Patient begins wet coughing but report no other problems, which may last for weeks. Problematic is that it could go away on its own, or last for a really long time, and so forth.
 * 3) Coughing will throw out blood, which is really bad for prognosis. Survival rate plummets. Only take a day or two.
 * 4) Symptom begins showing randomly. There will be lesions, pustules, necrotic patches, abnormal growths and rashes.
 * 5) Death. Abnormal fast rate of decay.

Response
Many civilizations responded in various ways, some of which are still as of yet unknown.

In the Ymaryn, the initial government response was mass quarantine and lock downs in the cities, bringing all travel or communication to a halt outside of a few couriers between cities. Among the general population, most effects are yet to be seen, but already many have decided to blame the Monotheistic group appearing out of the Highland Kingdom.

In the Highland Kingdom, the response is largely unknown, though some locals had been starting to cough by the time that Ymaryn mercenaries pulled out of the region. It is likely this was transmitted there by the mercenaries traveling between core Ymaryn lands and their position combating the Monotheists.

In the Khemetri, response is similarly unknown, but they were observed pulling back into their core territory.

One nomad leader reacted to the plague by having a religious experience and deciding to burn all the cities and support structures for them, seeing cities as centers of disease and evil, as well as obsessively fighting disease. He managed to plow through the Mountain Horse and Thunder Speakers, as well as to some degree Thunder Horse, but were ground to a halt by Ymaryn mercenaries (all three companies) and fell to plague.

The Mountain Horse is replaced a generation later by a nomad confederacy that united after the Pure Riders scattered them away.

Aftermath
The destruction of Trelli and the abandonment of Khemetri colonies led to a landgrab for Anatolia between the Highland Kingdom and Freehills and the resettlment of Trelli by the latter. Meanwhile, the Storm Tribes merged into the Western Ymaryn, becoming the Storm People and they began conquering more territories, bringing high quality iron tools and the new administrative bureaucracy to bear.

Casualties

 * Trelli
 * Mountain Horse (aided by nomad attack)
 * Thunder Speakers (aided by nomad attack)