An interesting fact about the word malaise. In the old common tongue it didn’t mean sickly or weak. Quite the opposite it was synonymous with vigor, strength and power. Yet in just a single generation the changing fates of one of Elyria’s oldest families brought an entirely new meaning for the word into common use.
When Malcom Malais II was just a child, his father Malcom; first of his name, was a kind hearted lord who ruled over a small spit of land. While not overly wealthy the land produced some of the finest swordsman in all of the land. He himself won many tournaments, several with his armor still as prestine as when he first donned it. Yet the very month his son was born a strange contagion swept the county. In just three weeks it spilled out of the local borders and burned like a flame through every living being in the land. Within a year the pestilence was all anyone spoke of. Nearly 1 in 3 who caught the disease would die from it within a week.
Those with the means would travel far hoping to stay ahead of the sweeping tide, lords would close the gates to their castles, insulating themselves from the plight of their people. Which left the poorest to fend for themselves. That is all except for Malcom I.
Malcom always believed his fate was tied to that of his people. If the people love you long may your reign be. If the people don’t love you, long may your family search for your body.. He encouraged his personal physician to find a cure for the plague offering his castle and eventually his own bedchamber for the cause.
After the cemeteries ran out of space, the local ditches were filled to bursting and the pyres seemed to burn long into the nights the plague burned itself out and vanished as quickly as it appeared. That is everywhere except Malcom’s lands.
Word spread he was offering aid to the ill and heir survivors. Anyone well enough to travel cane to his door seeking aid. It was in those lands the plague continued for months after dieing out elsewhere. Malcom II was nearly 5 before the last of the sick expired. The once proud and glorious House Malais was laid low by the well meaning intentions of his father. Malcom IIs fate was decided the day of his birth. He would inherit a land ravaged by plague but would also glean a keen understanding of both the deleterious effects of disease and ingenious use for plagues flesh in warfare. It is from the effect of these uses we get our understanding of malaise today.
