The Mage Grabber Disease (coloquial term) is most common and most noteable among mages, who tend to use the links within the cár’áll most often. The illness is also more technically called "Xeuá Deterioration" or - in the Styrásh tongue - "Xeuá'terquás" (Xeuá'terquás), often abbreviated by scholars simply to Aterquás (Aterquás). Not much is known about the disease, but many think that it is spread from parent to child. However, once the disease becomes active, the effects can be quite severe and dangerous to the person possessing them, sometimes causing a great deal of suffering before ending in death.

Symptoms. The symptoms of this disease are clear. As soon as Mage Grabber becomes active, the victim will experience difficulty with gaining energy from food or drink. Usually in the beginning stages of the disease, only foods that incorporate a lot of different kinds of cár’áll will be difficult to gain nutrients from, but as the disease progresses, even light foods and drinks such as water will be useless to the body.

Mages will also have trouble casting spells that involve moving or expanding their own cár’áll, and spells done on them to do such will either be extremely difficult or end in failure. Anything that involves the cár’áll of the victim can be difficult. Staff at the Ximax Academy of Magic have learned to identify these signs.

Effects. A slow deterioration of the victim is the more noticeable effect. Because the victim is unable to gain nutrients from things outside their body, they will continually grow thinner and weaker until their body ingests vital organs, which eventually kills the victim. However, most who possess the disease die long before this is able to take place because the xeuá that connect the cár’áll completely break down.

Cure/Prevention. There is no known permanent cure for this disease, though many magi at the Ximax Academy of Magic are working to find a spell or enchantment that can stop or cure the disease completely. However, many xeuá magi are able to help reconnect some of the damaged links in the person’s cár’áll. However, doing this tends to be very time-consuming and is only very temporary.

It has also been found, by many tests, that those who know they have a latent form of the disease should not over stress the xeuá in their cár’áll, as this is what seems to make the disease become active. Even when one has the disease, not doing exhausting spells or even giving up magic completely can cause a victim to live nearly ten years longer than they originally would.

Vector/Cause. The disease is believed to be hereditary, passed down through generations. The disease begins by making it difficult to create new magical links with cár’áll entering the body, such as food or water, and the current xeuá links will harden, making spells more difficult to cast. The following stages involve the xeuá links beginning to weaken, deteriorating and being unable to heal when strained, and the body being rendered completely unable to create new xeuá connections between current and incoming cár’áll. The final stage usually involves the xeuá in one’s cár’áll being completely eaten away, causing the victim to die.

Endemic. The Mage Grabber Disease tends to be most prominent in humans and elves, but many pathologists agree that those of all races have it, and it only seems to be more common in humans and elves because such races do more strenuous activity with their xeuá, being more common mages, which can bring the disease out of latency. It is also not confined in an individual region, but has been recorded on almost all continents sometime in history.

	History/Epidemics Age of Awakening 1090 b.S. First Recorded Case First case of what is believed to be the Mage Grabber Disease is recorded. The victim is a young Maeverhim elf by the name of Elaina Mernighia. Very little information is given save the symptoms, deterioration, and eventual death of the young girl. Age of Change 342-343 Outbreak at Ximax Academy A sudden outbreak of the disease in the town of mages, Ximax, causes the school to be closed for several months. Seven students are diagnosed with the disease and many more appear to have symptoms, but all result in false emergencies. However, the staff of the Ximax Academy fear it to be contagious. In the end, most staff believe that the drastic increase in students that year resulted in a more highly competitive student body, and that this may have perhaps caused the disease to become active in a number of students.