The Black Death

Mankind's annals don't get darker.

Delve into the deadliest pandemic ever known.

No one knew where it came from, and at a certain point, it didn't matter because it seemed to be everywhere... stalking the land with silent menace. It clung to people and animals like a second skin, traveling to distant places on the backs of traders and travelers who didn't even know they were dead. It could kill swiftly and brutally, or slowly and painfully, and no one knew if they had it until it was far too late-when the weeping black pustules that gave the disease its name appeared across their feverish bodies. The Black Death swept through Africa, Asia, and Europe, taking millions of lives en route.

People didn't passively accept this epidemic. They scrambled for answers and solutions, grappling with the impossible. A very real fear began to take form: that this was the beginning of the end of the world. Social order broke down, governments stopped functioning, churches and religious scholars were undermined, fanatics whipped themselves into a frenzy, and ignorant, terrified mobs scapegoated and slaughtered their own neighbors in their homes.

And yet, the world did not then end. Humanity endured, survived, and came again to thrive.

This horrifying chapter of our history will fascinate, but discord and disease await. Prepare for the Black Death!