Carrier of Cedhen

Carriers of Cedhen, often called just "carriers" for short, are people who have devoted themselves to the service of Cedhen, goddess of disease, and are granted certain powers by their patron, which they use to spread plague and infection. Each carrier is associated with a specific disease, and those of different diseases have different traits and powers to reflect their associations. All carriers do have a few things in common, however. A carrier of Cedhen has increased strength and resiliency over an ordinary human, or whatever species the carrier was previously, and even has the ability to regenerate severed limbs and other lost body parts. The carrier will appear either simply as the carrier did previously, largely indistiguishable from an ordinary member of its former species, but may if it wishes show signs of severe affliction with its associated disease; the carrier may switch between diseased and undiseased appearance at will. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, a carrier has the ability to infect other people with its associated disease. Most types of carrier can do this at will even from a distance, though carriers of some particularly vile diseases have to touch their victims to transmit the infection. A carrier may "turn off" this ability, touching a creature without inflictings the carrier's disease upon it, but since infecting people with disease is the carrier's main goal, they rarely do so.

Because of Cedhen's alliance with Vlastach, carriers are considered natural creatures, and have increased favor with the land. Many carriers serve the land further, becoming landworkers or dedicants. Since carriers aid Cedhen by inflicting disease, they are indirectly serving Vlastach by doing so, and carriers actually gain favor with the land by this act.

Unsurprisingly, carriers are hated and feared by every country and people. It is illegal in many nations to become a carrier, or for carriers to enter, although of course that doesn't stop it from happening. Even where they aren't outlawed, carriers may face mob justice, and be lynched or at least driven out of the area. To avoid the wrathful populace, carriers often live alone in the wilderness, or form small communities with others of their kind or with landworkers and other servants of the land who tolerate them because of their favor with Vlastach. However, some carriers do live in the midst of cities and other populated areas, either hiding themselves away in sewers and apparently abandoned buildings or keeping their carrierhood secret and knowing they face harsh retribution if they're ever found out. Living in a populated area is dangerous for a carrier, but also gives it easy access to large numbers of people to infect.

Becoming a carrier

There are several ways a person may become a carrier. There is a landworking ritual that accomplishes this, the petition of Cedhen. Alternately, an aspiring carrier may be inducted by an existing carrier; a carrier may, if it chooses, transmute a subject into a carrier rather than merely inflicting the carrier's disease upon it; the newly made carrier will suffer normally from the disease for some period of time, which varies by the disease in question, except that even if the disease is normally fatal, the aspirant will not die from it or suffer any permanent harm. After this period is over, the subject will be a carrier—normally of the same type that infected it. On rare occasions, however, Cedhen may associate a newly made carrier with a different disease than that of the carrier who inducted it, either at the new carrier's request, or for purposes of her own. In any case, the process of induction into carrierhood can only be carried out on a willing subject; no one can be made a carrier against his will—at least, not by another carrier, though Cedhen herself could surely do so if she wished. (However, it's not impossible to magically compel a victim to "willingly" accept the transformation...)

There is a third way to become a carrier, by directly petitioning Cedhen herself in prayer. If the petitioner is truly earnest, and gives some sign of his dedication and devotion, Cedhen may intervene personally and transform him into a carrier, perhaps without even the usual period of suffering from the disease. However, because of the services Cedhen may require as tokens of the applicant's sincerity and fervor, this method tends to be difficult and uncertain, and usually one of the other methods is preferable.

Carrierhood is not hereditary, but because of their isolation from humanity few carriers have children, except perhaps with each other, and those that do inculcuate their children in the ways of Cedhen such that they usually choose to become carriers at a young age.

Renouncing carrierhood

Once a person has become a carrier, he cannot generally willingly renounce this status. He can, of course, refrain from infecting anyone, but Cedhen will be displeased with this, and may retaliate, perhaps by incurably inflicting the carrier himself with his associated disease, and perhaps by more terrible measures. A few remorseful carriers have managed to mollfy Cedhen with sufficiently extravagant services and sacrifices that she has consented to remove their carrierhood and restore them to what they were before, but this isn't an easy feat; in general, once one becomes a carrier, one is a carrier for life.

Afterlife

Since carriers serve Cedhen in life, the spirits of dead carriers are claimed by her in death, although some who were fervent servents of the land she may cede to Vlastach. Some of the former carriers dwell in Cedhen's divine domain in the plane of Kfasses, but others she transforms into various divine servants to continue to pursue her goals after the ends of their mortal existences.