Prelude to Infection
Long before the streets turned to ash, the city's elite flocked to a renovated cathedral to hear the debut of "Requiem for a Silent God", a choral piece that would become infamous.
Experimental Acoustics
- Hidden in the renovation budget is a line item for **"neural resonance emitters"**.
- These devices were embedded in the walls behind the choir loft.
- Officially, they were meant to **enhance acoustics**; in reality, they tested how certain frequencies affected the audience's nervous systems.
The Night of the Premiere
Witness accounts (now scattered as files) describe:
- A sudden wave of **euphoria**, followed by nausea.
- Several attendees experiencing **phantom choir voices** hours after the performance.
- Birds falling from the rafters mid-piece, mistaken at the time for grim stagecraft.
Patient Zero, or Proof of Concept?
It is unclear whether:
1. The Choir's First Performance created the first carriers, or
2. It was simply a live trial of technology later repurposed into the Ash Plague.
Either way, the hymn's melody becomes a recurring motif, and infected subjects later hum fragments even when physically incapable of speech.