Once there was a circle of nine sorcerers. Perhaps they were wicked, perhaps they only wanted power, perhaps they were just foolish. Perhaps they were all three.
Whatever the reason, when the stranger offered them spells to bind a mighty spirit they were too eager to accept and too eager to use a magic they did not understand. True, the ritual summoned and bound a spirit of great power - but the spirit was Leprosy and they were bound to it as it was bound to them.
Although the disease ravaged their bodies they could draw vitality from the spirit and retain their lives - after a fashion. Indeed their life, such as it was, was greatly extended. They learned magic to hide their sickness. And they learned how to master other spirits of disease.
Some say the stranger was Alurax, and he watched all that happened and was amused.
Lepers, but not yet Kings, the sorcerers made plans to become rulers of men. A kingdom would suffer plague. A traveller would come with knowledge of how to drive away the disease. The traveller would be given a position. Then the royal family would - one, by one - die from illness or mischance. Their trusted advisor would become regent and when the last heir died, King.
All nine did this and it is said that Alurax was greatly amused.
But another sickness had taken hold of them - the lust for more and more power. They began to raise armies - of men and disease-spirits. Now they moved openly. First they - or later their apprentices - would enter a realm by stealth to unleash their plagues. As pestilence spread they would offer to defeat the disease if the rulers surrendered and submitted to the Leper Kings. If the rulers refused the plague would continue to spread until the realm was so weak the armies of the Leper Kings could seize control by force of arms.
Even realms on other Spheres were not safe from these tactics.
These were called the Plague Demon Wars and we may be sure that Alurax was most highly amused.
This could not continue. The mighty realm of Roundwander mobilised it's forces which set out from the Gates of Everway, gathering allies. The wise warriors of Athenia, the Smiths of the Iron Citadel, wizard-hunters out of Magebane, the shape-changers of Shift and many others joined against the Leper Kings.
Many died in the wars, including all Nine of the Leper Kings. Two were slain by ambitious apprentices. Three were slain by forces sent to infiltrate their palaces. The shape-changers and wizard-hunters being especially adept at such work. The third time one of the raiders escaped with the Leper King's grimoire.
With the secrets of the grimoire Saker Crookstaff of Everway prepared a counter-spell which would shatter the great spirit, Leprosy, breaking the power of the surviving Leper-Kings. Before the spell could be employed he was attacked by a band of wizard-hunters who feared that he had been touched by the corruption they believed inevitably followed from the use of magic. The wizard-hunters were slain, but Saker Crookstaff was wounded, and could not perform the spell himself. His injury and near-death saved his life.
The spell worked. Leprosy was broken into a hundred weaker spirits. The Leper Kings died, deprived of the energy supplied by the spirit. The casters of the spell also died, overwhelmed by the forces they invoked.
And Alurax was monstrously amused.
In the years following there were many troubles. The apprentices lacked the power of their masters but had enough skill to cause great mischief. Uncontrolled disease-spirits - including the fragmented parts of Leprosy -roamed the lands. The victims of the leprosy-spirits were often feared and rejected by their peoples who had not forgotten the Leper-Kings. Even today lepers are unjustly feared in many places, although the reasons are long forgotten.