A Regression Infection

Plot Status: After Effects

Suseptible Character Types: Living creatures (voluntary for PCs)

Starting on October 28th, a handful of people will start to regress in age while out in the public square. After a short while, some people who were nearby will also begin to experience regressive effects. It's quickly obvious that there's some sort of contagious effect that's causing people to shed their years!

Not everyone is affected, but the cause is not immediately clear.

Out of Character, this will potentially lead to permanent regression effects, if you want to reset the age on any of your characters or just have them deal with a long term problem growing up!

Characters who were infected and cured will wind up in one of the following states:

• Full recovery: they go back to how they were before the plot and are none the worse for wear.
  
• Near-full recovery: They go back to how they were before the plot, with only minor side effects that they probably wont mind, like being subject to Benjis protective aura, or being younger, but still adults.
  
• Moderate recovery: They mostly go back to how they were before the plot, with some deleterious side effects, such as minor loss of motor function, emotional control, or speech impediments.
  
• Stunted recovery: They grow back up, mostly, but still have major side effects such as significant loss of academics or ability to function independently. This also likely has some physical consequences, such as being less athletic, extra baby fat, and being smaller in general. Also includes a high chance of not having grown all the way back up. Further recovery may be possible, but would take effort.
  
• Stuck regressed (Accelerated growth): The characters are unable to recover right away, and have to grow back up to their target age. This will happen on individual timetables, probably ranging from a month to a year+. When they reach their original age, they go to one of the recovery states above, with stunted or moderate recovery being the most likely options.
  
• Stuck regressed (normal growth): The characters are unable to recover right away, and have to grow back up to their normal age. This happens at their normal aging rate. For all intents and purposes, they are just a younger version of themselves. They will likely make a full or near-full recovery.
  
• Stuck regressed (permanently): The characters are unable to recover, and furthermore, they are not aging anymore, putting them in a permanent state of regression. They will have to find individual solutions to resolve this, or just get used to their new state of being.

In addition to normal physical regression, a chart of potential mental regression effects can be found here.

1. Aiden Deirri
   • Physical age: 4
2. Andromeda
   • Physical age: Sub-year
3. Brenner
   • Physical age: Sub-year
4. Bryyo
   • Physical age: 14
5. Danny Knox
   • Physical age: 15
6. Davwyn
   • Physical age: 3 the changes to Davs form are subtle but he looks much more youthful, his head is noticeably bigger compared to the rest of his body as a hatchling, and his wings although functional are not full size and strength. His size reduced making him 8 inches long nose to tail tip.
7. Ethan Locke
   • Physical age: 8
8. Fuzzle
   • Physical age: Sub-1-year
9. Hawking
   • Physical age: Sub-year
10. Ina Fortuna
    • Physical age: 14
11. Jacklyn Barbados
    • Physical age: 17
12. Penumbra
    • Physical age: Sub-year
13. Rich
    • Physical age: Smol. (13)
14. Solaria Starwisp
    • Physical age: Luma was affected but it's impossible to determin how much she de-aged given how starwisps reproduce.
      Umbra is currently unaffected.
15. Thomas O'Rua
    • Physical age: 11 for the little ones, 16 for Storm
16. Trenton Vect
    • Physical age: 15
17. Tristan
    • Physical age: 3
18. Xander
    • Physical age: 4
19. Xirah
    • Physical age: 8 (functionally 16 due to species aging traits)

Though the cause was never identified, a cure and counteraction to the effect has been devised by the Mages Guild and deployed at large. Players can move to one of the recovery states listed above.

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