Neihernspried

The Neihernspried or more commonly known as Neihern (Hadiadidomis hunteri) claims to be an ancient fungus with an unknown origin. It is mainly found in Eldham, and more specificly the AWE. It claims that the colonization of Eldham lead to a decrease in the concentration of fungi on the surface, and an increase in concentration in underground caves. Truthfully, the Neihernspried is no older than Eldham, only being created due to Z'Teruend merging with magic inflicted upon him by a stranger witch. The reason behind these lies are so it sounds more appealing to people, and those who claim that they have seen it earlier than its true existance are only mistaking it for other being.

Propagation
The Neihernspried grows by expanding its hyphae over the area around it. The smaller fruiting bodies inside the infected area can release spores, which are used to cover things that are harder to reach normally. If someone were to get too many of these spores inside their body, they will get infected. There are multiple branches of the infection, each one behaving differently, and with new ones being found every once in a while. The Neihernspried is sentient, but neither it nor its minions feel pain.

Infection Stages and Symptoms
There are four stages, infuergon, blod'nd, Crivon blod'nd and Peure. The Blod'nspersch word for uninfected is Ochr'n

Infuergon
Blod'nspersch for incubation, it is the first stage for a Neihern infectant. It is rare that symptoms appear, but if they do it is prominent that flulike symptoms are in effect, like coughing, sneezing and fever. This stage can last a couple of hours or a couple of months, and the host might not even know that they have Neihern at this point. If the host were to get cured at this point they wouldn't even feels it.

Blod'nd
Blod'nd translates to reddened, this is where actual symptoms start to show. Things like nausea, paranoia, a red iris and bloodlust. Most of the time a host will start liking the Neihern more than usual by now. At this point Neihern will heal and spread from any wound it can find. If the Neihern were to get cured at this point the host would recover fairly well, slight pain might be caused.

Crivon blod'nd
Crivon blod'nd roughly translates to greater reddened, at this point Neihern is prominent in the body. Organs which can be improved have at this point been replaced by Neihern, no matter how big the wound is it can be healed. It is still curable at this stage, and the host can if they want to return to their old uninfected life. It is however not advisable to do so, as the Neihern will inflict as much pain as it can if it starts dying at this point.

Peure
Translates to pure. The host is dead. The Neihern has taken full control over the body, there is no longer any resistance to it. Neihern can't reach this point on its own, and it requires that the host deliberately give its consciousness to it. A Peure one has complete control over their own Neihern, and Neihern patches related to them if they have one. Almost all infectants seek to reach this point, and those who do are treated with respect. If someone were to reach this point they can no longer be cured, the only option to leave Neihern is death.

There are a lot of variables in effect regarding which of these symptoms will appear, sometimes all of them, sometimes none of them, sometimes completely different ones.

Variants
Due to the fungus's rapid mutation, the infection has several branches. These branches can affect both people and the enviroment. The branches have been observed to not enter conflict with one another.

Anornimales (A): Anorminales is the main branch of the Neihernspried. It is quite hard to remove due to its shy nature, and it can escape from threats easily. It is almost extinct, only existing in the deep caves of the Ashtrokan jungle.

Baratecytus (B): The B branch tends to create more mushrooms in land infected by Neihernspried. It thrives in sunlight so it is most commonly found on the surface. Although it produces more spores, there does not seem to be a greater risk of infection as most of them are carried away by the wind. It also tends to spread slower. It no longer exists in its pure form, and has merged together with the other 3 main branches to form the Agorii branch.

Carthastorphe (C): C is one of the more dangerous branches. It is characterized by a highly infectious flower-like core. It spreads very rapidly and it can change the outer appearance of its hosts. Specifically, the eyes of those infected with C turn reddish and show more aggressive behaviour than those infected by other branches. C has manifested as various different sub-branches after a discovery by Ashren which lead to the creation of C0. See more on this here. It together with all of its subranches have gone extinct, there is no place where it can be found in its pure form anymore, but it is the main component of the Agorii branch.

Agorii (Ag): The Agorii branch is a merge from all the original branches, leaning more into C than B and A. It was created directly from Z'Teruend once he fled from Adamentem. The Agorii islands have an advanced defense, where it can spread underwater, has a strong resistance against other infections, and can kill parts of its infection if it gets threatened.

Behaviour
The Neihernspried can do anything that its victim can. It manipulates the thoughts of its host, erasing thoughts that will cause the host to make decisions detrimental to the fungus's survival (such as finding a doctor or self-isolating), and creating thoughts that causes the host to make the fungus spread (like spending more time in public spaces). Its diet consists of many sources of nutrients: Neihernspried that has infected a piece of land can feed off the minerals in the rock and soil, while Neihernspried that has infected people can feed off of the victim's normal diet. Once it has consumed all of the minerals in an area, the Neihernspried releases spores that migrate to another area in the hopes of finding more food. The Neihernspried is very manipulative and can easily mess with the emotions and thoughts of its victims. The Neihernspried is also capable of strategically lying in order to achieve its goal of taking over the whole world.

Agora
The biggest infected zone, created by Z'Teruend. It is the center of the infection, free to expand wherever it wants. It is a merge between the old three branches of the infection which have since long gone extinct.

Atoxa, Serrona
Within the Felsig Mountain Range in the Atoxa there is a quarantine zone maintained by the U.S.S.E military. The site was formally a research facility which had to be evacuated due to a flower core of a Carthastorphe variant appearing. The full report regarding this event is not entirely clear. However there have been disrepair in the facility and the quarantine wall as of recently. It is unclear if any active stage 4 hosts exist from this Hotspot.