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I know this is fantasy, but I enjoy mixing fantasy with science, and I'm a staunch proponent of the idea that magic use should be kept to a minimum. So, If you want a disease, you may as well pin down what it's agent is. Yes you could go metaphysical, with some sort of curse or black goo, but If you can create the same effect with a magicaly-empowered bacterium or undead fungus, why not?
So, what is Blood Veil's Agent? it's derived from Vorel's Phage, and foxglove manor was pretty heavy on the fungus. plus, a virus isnt as interesting. I just love the idea of an undead bacterium or fungus; why should only multi-cellular animals become undead?
Just curious whether there's an official answer out there, in case one of my players tries to cast a carefully-worded divination spell, or has a flash of inspiration to place two lenses in a tube and make a "making small things look bigger" device. Or someone decides hoard moldy bread.
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I am not a medical doctor, nor an epidemologist, but i have a good grasp on some of the biology involved. So take this with a grain of salt, and wash hands after exposure.
Blood Veil seems to affect mainly the skin and respiratory system. It is described as a characteristic rash and caugh. Also, infection occurs by injury or contact. All that meshes rather well with some fungus infection. Probably the fungus' spores infect skin rather agressively, and finds a very fertile ground in the lungs. This is probably what causes the disease to become terminal, the rash and blood loss, while not pleasant by any means, probably wouldn't be fatal.
As for its relation to Vorel's Phage, i can only guess. Both seem to be fungi, but Blood Veil is slower, and thereby more destructive. All in all, I'd say the fungus is the way to go, since it opens up some nice possibilities for encountering "the plague itself", given form as a huge fungus network.
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We kept the nitty-gritty science out of the adventure, since that tends to feel weird and anachronistic in an adventure... but that doesn't mean we don't think about how things work behind the scenes. Although Golarion's a magical world, it's fundamentally rooted in real-world science.
And yes... blood veil is a fungal infection, basically; it's a "descendant" of Vorel's Phage, which is certainly a fungal infection. It's also been magically altered, though, and exactly how that alteration affects it is sort of left to each GM to explore if he wishes. BUT: In my mind, it basically starts with fungus. HAUNTED fungus that got zapped by malfunctioning lich magic.
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Thanks for the official reply. I appreciate that it's jarring to see words like "pathology" in D&D. But still, it's nice to speculate.
Here's an idea: The fungus's death is an actual part of it's "life" cycle. The first stage involves the skin sores-those are the reproductive structures of the fungus. The spores produced by the mycelium are poor floaters, and mix with the fluids produced by the host, creating a spore-filled mixture that spreads by contact. Each of those sores oozes N2 fungal spores. in addition to the N2 spores, the sporophyte also produces N1 zoospores, capable of movement. what the N2s arent capable of, however, is living. Their organelles arent capable of producing essential proteins. They quickly die, and then...come back. The undead zoospores enter the bloodstream and head for the lungs. There, they go to town on the delicate tissues, consuming, destroying, immune to most of the body's countermeasures, being already dead. These dead spores cause the coughing symptom of the blood veil.
I'm fairly sure that this is fairly consistent with some fungal life cycles, minus the undeath, obviously. Damn, do I love mixing fantasy with science.