The Grimm Pandemic

[Professor W B Copperfield]

Starting in the year 40AGW(After Great War), residents of both the Kingdom of Atlas and Vale started to fall ill. Medical practitioners were baffled by it, and modern medicine seemed completely ineffective. It attacked the lungs and blood, opening up blood vessels and greatly thinning blood while causing extreme coughing. Results in coughing up blood and internal bleeding. Patients who were able to survive long enough found their blood to become toxic, leading to slow and painful organ failure. While medical machines were able to keep those who could afford the emergency procedures alive for some time, the disease had a 100% fatality rate.

From coastal settlements along the southwestern coast of Atlas and the north and northwestern coast of Vale, the disease spread across the land, claiming many lives. However, despite the disease's level of contagiousness, quarantine efforts were successful in greatly slowing its spread. It was quickly discovered that the air coming off the ocean was contaminated and evacuation efforts coupled with quarantine measures were made. Huntsman and other Aura specialists were called in to help, and they discovered that the disease was Grimm in origin. Whatever was creating the contagion was acros the sea, letting the wind, sea, and fish carry the disease.

Despite efforts to keep it contained, cases still popped up across the continents. The eastern side of Mantle and the Vale-Vacuo border, and Southern Vacuo were contaminated.

The Grimm Pandemic continued, though slowly, to plague humanity for decades with no breakthroughs on how to combat it once it had infected a host. Pets, livestock, wild animals, faunus, and humans all fell to the illness. Until the year 73AGW, when a huge band of fighters, people fed up and hateful towards Grimm and some military types, headed by a Huntsman, uncovered the origin point of the disease. The Atlas Military at the time was uninterested in wasting resources, men, and money on a campaign into Grimm territory on a hunch. So instead the militia supplied and armed themselves and stole a few Atlas aircraft and flew to the mysterious continent.

There, the 500 volunteer militia members assaulted a practical Grimm fortress and killed the Legendary Grimm that was the origin of the illness. It was slain and the disease all faded away from every affected being on Remnant. Miraculous recovers were made and communities were restored in a matter of weeks. However, no one from the 500 volunteers survived the assault. Most of their remains could not be identified. Investigations show that they met incredibly heavy Grimm resistance, but still, their perseverance to protect their friends, family, and fellow beings pushed them forward. It's estimated that once the assault on the Legendary Grimm actually began(after fighting a campaign through Grimm-infested territories to get there), only a few dozen remained.

A human woman named Hemera Firewing was credited for leading the large force, a former police sergeant for Atlas. After the event and the news of it all spread around, local communities made statues, large and small, to commemorate her and all the other's bravery wherever people had the means and drive to do so.

Hemera Firewing was reported to be the final person standing, succumbing to her injuries sustained in the final battle. However, autopsy reports show that she was shot in the heart by a shotgun of same make and model that was popular among the militia group at close range and died shortly thereafter. Official statements claim that the Huntsman who helped organize and direct the force arrived too late to help in the assault, and their name has been left out of any and all publications, only referring to them as 'He' or 'The Huntsman'.

Despite the oddities, Hemera Firewing is still the name people remember when they think of the courageous souls who braved terrors beyond their responsibilities and lost their lives to save hundreds of thousands more.