Greyscale was a disease with an extremely high fatality rate in this world. Once someone contracted the greyscale virus, their skin would harden, become covered in black and grey spots, and feel as hard as stone to the touch. Most horrifying of all, in the final stages, the sufferer's tongue and lips would turn to stone.
The disease was also highly contagious, making greyscale a terrifying affliction that struck fear into people on both the eastern and western continents.
Originally, greyscale had appeared only in cold, damp regions and spread especially easily among children. Not only did it severely disfigure its victims, but it also left them highly susceptible to diseases that ordinarily had low fatality rates.
People therefore also called greyscale the grey death, considering those who contracted it but had yet to die unclean, because they could easily spread all kinds of diseases to others.
The Valyrians, however, claimed that greyscale was merely Garin's laughable curse. Wherever Great Dragons dwelled, the virus could not survive.
The Citadel's maesters who specialized in treating greyscale would apply a poultice made from lime and mustard, along with boiling water, to the afflicted areas. This could indeed inhibit the disease's spread through the body to some extent.
The brothers, however, insisted that only prayer and sacrificial offerings could quickly curb the disease. Folk remedies such as "cutting open the infected organ" were also said to halt its spread, but such treatments were almost entirely ineffective.
The Rhoyne basin and Volantis were the regions worst affected by greyscale. They would round up infected patients and drive them to a place called Sorrow Hill.
It lay near the volcanoes of Old Valyria, which were said to delay the patients' deaths as much as possible. Indeed, many greyscale sufferers had survived there and continued to