QYBURN: Few afflictions are more feared than greyscale,
and far past the point of reason.
A legend calls it Prince Garin's Curse,
after an ancient eastern prince, whom the Valyrians hung in a cage
and forced to watch the immolation of his city and people.
As his city burned under dragon flame, this prince called on his god for vengeance,
and a thick fog of foul humors rose from the ruin
to smother the Valyrians with greyscale.
But if diseases could be called down by the vengeful,
we'd have no health in the world.
More likely, the disease predates the Valyrians entirely,
confined to some remote region of Essos, and only spread throughout the world
once the Valyrians linked the continent with roads and dragons.
The disease begins as a rash.
The afflicted flesh stiffens, calcifies, and cracks,
and assumes the disease's nominal hue.
Victims are graciously spared pain,
as the disease dulls sensation in the infected limbs.
But the disease is insidious,
and slowly it creeps over the skin and into the organs.
Once the infection reaches the brain, feral madness replaces humanity,
and the transformation to a stone man is complete.
There is no consensus on treatment.
Some maesters advocate mustard poultices, vinegar rinses,
and scalding hot baths.
Others claim only three cures, axe, sword, and cleaver.
Hacking off afflicted parts does sometimes stop the spread of the disease,
but not always.
Many a man has sacrificed an arm or foot,
only to find the other going grey.
Those who have been miraculously cured of greyscale are few,
and usually were subjected to so many treatments,
that isolating the responsible cure is impossible.
Besides, few maesters, priests, or healers have the courage for such experiments
as would prove a cure.
Greyscale is highly contagious,
being known to spread from even the slightest contact with an infected person.
Hence the current occupation of Valyria by the stone men,
exiled from their homelands at the first sign of the disease.
What they do there with their final months or even years,
for greyscale is a slow killer,
no one knows.
No one wants to find out.