Scoiris

The Scoiris is a fungus, originating from Neihrenspried. The neihrenspried fungus evolved in labolatory enviorment, originally being constructed as a bioweapon against Neihrenspried, developed by resistance, specifically by Nikolas Thornvell. It occurs in Eldham, more specificaly in Myrtles abandoned mines and caves, and Novastonias town Alfelvellir where it's undergoing research by SRT led by Thylas Kamirek-Nuwan

Origins
Scoiris was created in resistance labolatory. It's original creators were Nikolas Thornvell and Cryon who planned on using the Scoiris as a bioweapon against Neihernspried. Over the course of a week the scoiris would grow and evolve in chambers. One day the scoiris has shown to be aggressive in growth, shattering chambers glass exposing Nikolas to the spores. Soon after he became the patient zero, infecting others, mainly cryon. Going unnoticed the scoiris spread widely in the myrtles caves and old mines, eventually finding it's way to the outside and infecting a nearby village. Soon enough the new threat was recognized and the village was destroyed along with scoiris growing there. Not long after Nikolas was exposed as one of the infected and caught by resistance leader Sidja Foryel-Goldnyr and Mojas. They have developed a prototype cure and cured Nikolas, Cryon and other victims. After that Nikolas and Cryon recontained Scoiris and begun their work on better treatment for infected civilians. Soon after the resistance was disbanded and Nikolas died, leaving the labolatory unsupervised which led to Scoiris break out and slowly spread over the next 20 years.

SRT - Scoiris Research Team
Around 20 years after Nikolas's death, scoiris has found new victims. Five civilians from Myrtle has disappeared, leading to creation of a search party led by Thylas Kamirek-Nuwan. Upon the discovery of Scoiris and early Stage 5 victims, Thylas arranged SRT (Scoiris Research Team) who worked in the abandoned Scoiris labolatory. After a breakout of a Stage 5A infectant, everyone from original SRT left, leaving Thylas alone, who then transported some samples over seas to his town, AlfelVellir, where he set up a labolatory and begun intense work on scoiris treatment.

Spreading
Scoiris spreads in 4 main ways. First is spreading by spores, that are released either by blossoming scoiris grass, or mushrooms. These spores will use wind to travel long distances and settle on the ground, acting like a seed and growing into scoiris clusters. Second way is spreading through roots of trees. These roots will spread over the area of up to 100m in diameter. These roots will then come out of the ground and spread around, completing the cycle and building up into more trees and covering more space. Third way is With the infection fluid or so called ,,glow juice". It is produced naturally in vines and trees, that will eventually discharge the fluid buildup, eventually reaching water supply and travelling long distances thanks to rivers and creeks. This fluid will sometimes infect any sprouting flora, creating new scoiris clusters.

Ways of infection
The methods of infection are divided into two types, directly and indirectly. These two types divide into their own ways of spreading the infection. Depending on those two types are ways of preventing the infection.

Direct infection
Direct infection is a plant-patient type. This type is used to discribe a situation where the victim is infected through inhaling spores, exposure to infection fluid and consumption of the fungi. As to the first 2 ways, best way of preventing the infection is a mask or cloth to cover any airways, and thick clothing to prevent infection fluid from contact with the body. If you were to consume a piece of the fungi, most effective way it forced puke.

Indirect infection
Indirect infection means patient-patient contagion. It can be done by exchange of bodily fluids like saliva, blood, sweat, urine etc. Most commonly it happens in case of infected animals, biting the victim and contaminating the wound with saliva. In that case the only way to prevent infection is immediate injection of the cure directly to the wound.

Infection stages
It is possible to get infected in many ways. The most noticable are: Inhaling spores, exposure to infection fluid, consumption, exchange of bodily fluids (saliva, blood etc.). Infection has been divided into 5 stages, the incubation phase, spread phase, manifestation phase, lichen phase and victim consumption.

Stage 1 ,,incubation phase ''
Course and symptoms of this stage depend on the way of patients infection.

Stage 2 ,,spread phase ''
This stage begins after the incubation. The infection will grow into tiny ringworms and spread all around you body. It will target muscles, bones and nervous system. During that stage, victims experience light pain in parts of body where it incubated, pain in the spine as well as fatigue and dizziness.

Stage 3 ,,lichen phase ''
Now that Scoiris has spread all over the victims body, the ringworms will latch onto the muscles of the victim, causing strong pain in the body. Additionally victims will experience nausea, uncontrolled muscle movements, spasms, blackouts and short term memory loss. Victims will deny any possibility of infection and will avoid any medical help as the scoiris targets the brain. At the end of this stage victims iris change colour into cyan or yellow. Infectants will also seek the nearest infection source and develop affection to scoiris. The infection will also weaken victims immune system.

Stage 4 ,,manifestation phase ''
In this phase recovery from infection is unlikely. This phase starts with salivary glands either failing or generating too much saliva. Scoiris will make its way to victims brain and completely take over it's nervous system and motor functions. It will silent the consciousness of the infected and implement it's hive mind. During this phase vines grow inside of the victims body, some creating a secondary vein system. These vines will eventually gently pierce through victims skin. It is common that small mushrooms will grow on victims body, which might release spores. Victims skin will begin to rot and decay leaving blueish flesh, which upon being cured will leave d. By now it is imposible to make contact with the victim. The zombified body will seek people who are not infected and force them into infection. In some cases, stage 4 infectants are able to hide traces of infection and mimic victims behavior to the point of nearly indistinguishable.

Stage 5 ,,victim consumption ''
Even though this stage is unlikely to occur, in some cases the infectants will enter some kind of cocoon filled with infection fluid. In the cocoon infectants mind will be completely wiped out while Scoiris takes absolute controll over the body. Flesh of the victim will slowly disintegrade and be replaces with Scoiris artificial mass, that acts as a highly flexible base for the body. The infectants after this stage divide into two subclasses: Subclass A is a humanoid entity, it moves fast, has longer limbs and its teeth are more like a canines. Their body is protected by a material that resembles scoiris tree bark. Subclass B are entities that take various shapes, most commonly spider looking monster with long sharp teeth. They move slow but are strong and grow up to 6 meters high.

Note: Treatment of stage 5 is not feasable. The only solution is to eliminate these sepcimen either by cutting head off, using higly concentrated cure or usage of explosives.

Behaviour
The scoiris has developped a kind of hive mind. Hosts are able to feel if other infectants are in danger and can communicate on long distances. It can take complete controll over hosts motor functions and consciousness. The Scoiris feeds on hosts bodily fluids to survive, once all nutrients are gone the host dies however the parasite keeps control of the body, in that case hosts body will quickly rot and become "unusable", however the death of a host is unlikely as Scoiris doesn't need lots of humidity to feed on. The process might take months or even years.

Treatment
A cure for scoiris has been fully developed by Thylas Kamirek-Nuwan following instruction left by Nikolas Thornvell, however it comes with terrible sideeffects for stages 3 and 4, including permamently breaking down infectants melanin causing pale skin and discoloured hair, may cause internal bleeding and scars deep permament scarring on spots where vines would grow. Permament respiratory, nervous and muscle system malfunction. In some cases it will cause mental instability like depression, mania, masochism, physchopatic and sociopathic tendencies. Cured infectants will need several months of carefull physical therapy in order to return to full health, although chance of full recovery is very unlikely.

Vaccine is currently in production, due to it's unstable composition it has 7%±1% effectiveness, in ~60% will cause complications variating from slight fever and halucinations, to causing more serious complications like weakening patients immune system and exposing patient to serious diseases. In remaining ~34% it will be ineffective and will not cause any complications. Using this vaccine is prohibited for the time being, leaving other prevention measures like face masks and protective clothing.