The Sickness

The Sickness

The Sickness was a highly contagious autoimmune disease that developed during dark times on Quadia. Only Qua were susceptible to this disease.

History
In the overcrowded and terrible conditions of the Farms where the Qua were kept as slaves, Qua suddenly began dying off. It was a strange development, since until then Qua had been immune to any disease or poison that might occur. Initially, slavers believed that the Qua were killing themselves in some way, and took more drastic measures to keep their livestock from dying off. Despite their efforts, though, the Qua population in each farm continued to dwindle.

The Qua knew otherwise. Though they could not research any part of it to prove the existence, the disease was dubbed "The Sickness" among those imprisoned. It wasn't until later that the disease was extensively studied. The Ministry of Health maintained a facility in Emoria, the Qua capital city, devoted to the study of the Sickness.

The illness
The immune system of a Qua was highly specialized, taking anything that did not belong and immediately destroying it. The Sickness was a ruthlessly brutal disease that turned the immune system against the sufferer, causing it to attack healthy cells, and destroy important organ systems in the body. Because of this, affected areas of the body could vary. Illness could last anywhere from minutes to several days before a patient succumbed to the disease.

Symptoms for the disease varied from one Qua to the next, but it quite often included fever, cough, lightheadedness, sores, severe pain, internal bleeding, hemorrhagic fever, unconsciousness, seizures, and death.

There was no known cure for this disease. Symptoms were simply treated as they arose in hopes of making the patient more comfortable.

There was no known cause for the disease's initial spread, though it was highly contagious among Qua, and, once contracted, it was almost always fatal. Only a handful of people were able to live through the disease, and it was suspected that their survival was due to the fact that they were all trained Force users.

Viral war
During the Nightmare War, the Reawakened launch an invasion of Quadia and captured a sample of the Sickness. The disease was weaponized by the deranged Dark Jedi Desha Marad and dropped on the Qua Centurion Te`net Organi in hopes of infecting the Queen Rin Sakaros. This failed, however, when a trip to the med bay infected the queen's niece, Rayne Turgachia instead. The two were quarantined in the med bay, and treated for days before they showed any signs of improvement. Against all odds, both of them survived with no lasting effects, largely due to the ministrations of the healer Centurion Tillandra Moraes.

The weaponization of the Sickness and the infection of Turgachia and Organi provoked Rin to completely destroy the Kizav system in retaliation.