State of the Empire
The years 1111 to 1114 saw a great change in the Empire, one that the people of the Old World will be coming to terms with for some time.
The Plague
In the year 1111, the first plagues broke out in the Empire proper. It took only a few months, and for whatever reason, the plagues struck only the larger cities of the Empire, and spread out from there. Middenheim lost a third of its population, Talabheim three-quarters, Nuln a third and Altdorf a half. Noblefolk deserted the cities for their country estates at the first sign of the true magnitude of the plague, while commoners fled the city to surrounding towns. As a result, most small settlements also suffered greatly from the plague.
The plague itself was a malignant, almost malicious disease. As far as Imperial scholars can tell, it laid dormant, but contaigous, for about a month; after which point, the flesh softened and dissolved, leaving behind foetid green disease-filled pustules prone to bursting at the slightest movement. By the time the lethal stage of the disease had developed, the flesh was literally rotten, and the host more or less a carrier for any number of bacteria and infections. At that stage the Plague itself was not contaigous, but many more virulent and fast-acting maladies dripped from the unlucky host like sweat.
Scholars date the first outbreak to December in most of the Empire's major towns (but none outside the Central Provinces), and physicians guess that the initial infections must have occurred in November of that year.
The ultimate cause of the plague was traced back to rats as the vector; the Plague apparently does not affect them. A symposium of Shallyan Priests, Altdorf Physicians and noted scholars pointed to the deplorable filth in modern urban Imperial sewer systems as the cause.
The Domestic Effect
The plague cause the Imperial governance apparatus to focus entirely inward; no Ranger-Generals were dispatched for the length of the crisis, and the painstaking oversight the Emperor took with the Arabian integration was abandoned. As a people, the Empire fell to tatters: all who had the means fled the cities, but townspeople in the smaller hamlets wanted the plague no more than the cityfolk, and took to shooting refugees before they could reach town and infect the people there. Law enforcement wanted nothing to do with this kind of mob rule, so the violence went on unchecked.
The military, at least those within the Central Provinces, suffered as much as the cities; Gottlieb Sturm's force, the most assembled and ready, lost fully half its men.
The Church decried this plague as a manifestation of Sigmar's wrath, but has held back on deploying their Witch Hunters in force after several of them were mobbed, lynched and the corpses burnt.
The Foreign Response
Following these events, Free Brettonia (as it was called by Duke XXXX) "closed" the borders to the Empire - both passes had large armies stationed at them, and with Gottlieb Sturm's armies encamped in Middenland, Brettonia became a de-facto state. Tilea followed soon after, with pirate vessels sinking the Imperial cutters patrolling their waters, and with mercenary bands staking out the mountain passes and repelling all travellers. All in the name of safety, of course.
Kislev lent as much aid as they could, as the fertile fields of Talabecland provided for much of their food supply, but in the power vacuum, a militia faction in Erengraad known as the Tzarists seized power.
Shortly afterward, the Border Princes were smashed to bits by the assault of Salud-al-Din. Few reports have made it back to the Empire, but the rumor is his southern fighters are huge, warpainted brutes with the strength of ten men. Salud-al-Din has been officially excommunicated, but the Fleet and the Arabian Occupying Force have no commands from Altdorf on account of the plague.
The Aftermath
By 1113, the plagues have more or less passed; fully a third of the Empire's population succumbed. Rumors abound that Karl Franz, if not dead, is deathly ill. The Church has deployed its forces with vigor, and the sapped will of the people presents little opposition. Of the Empire's military might, it is perhaps at half-strength, though a good quarter of the remaining forces are Norscans under Leif Hrothgar, and of late they have been unruly and unresponsive. Much of the losses are from soldiers abandoning their posts to tend to loved ones; the remaining Ranger-Generals have begun patrols to regroup their men.
Of the fate of the Empire itself, it seems destined to be weakened; Salud-al-Din still camps beyond Brandt the Macher's wall; the Brettonians still deny entrance to their lands (though the Tileans have relented, as the rebuilding of Imperial farmland and food supply is a profitable business). Marienburg has declared its independence from the Empire - the resurgence in Tilean trade has filled its merchant houses' coffers, and in its present state the Empire has more pressing matters than Marienburg tax revenue. Rumors say that the merchant houses of Marienburg have forged an understanding with Leif Hrothgar, and that he has pledged to defend the city from any re-conquest attempts.
