What is ocean-ague?

Oro Deus·10/29/2015, 6:30:04 PM·2 votes·3,582 views

Might be a stupid question but I've never heard the term before...

"His warning came too late for one man and his wife. Miss Fortune didn’t know their names, but knew they had lost a son to ocean-ague less than a year ago." - Shadow and Fortune, Chapter 3, Part 5.

12 Comments

RiotDinopawz10/29/2015, 6:38:22 PM10 votes

Ague:

Noun, archaic: malaria or some other illness involving fever and shivering.

I like to use old fashioned, obscure sounding names for things like this as it puts a level of 'oldness' and 'otherness' to the world to keep it from sounding too like ours. I imagined it as some kind of fever you get from living in near the ocean in a place like Bilgewater.

RiotDinopawz10/29/2015, 6:56:22 PM6 votes

I imagined it as a fantasy version of dysentery, but far, far worse.

And the 'cures' for it would likely be even worse if you have even a passing acquaintance with mediaeval medicine... Singed :-)

MrKoolDragon10/30/2015, 5:24:38 PM2 votes

I googled "ocean-ague" and this was the top search result. Thankfully, this is was what I was looking for!