Research pointed to the virus being a waterborne rhabdovirus that had infected sheep and goat populations only a few months before the virus had evolved into a deadly disease. The people of Altin, being typical incompetent degenerates, did not waste the bodies of the dead sheep and goats; not knowing of their viral disease, they made meals of them and one profoundly intelligent person got sick and vomited into the Bern River due to their viral induced nausea. The river carried the deadly pathogen farther south to the valley town of Galini and further south to a city, Arcea.
Later studies showed evidence of the virus taking a slightly different path from livestock to human, evolving as it travelled. The waterborne virus could be traced back to the salmon, who were infected by the virus via clathrin mediated endocytosis and became the first hosts. From there, the virus was transmitted to foxes, who preyed on both salmon and sheep, able to transmit the disease to the livestock through a bite or scratch. Given the almost immediate effects the virus had on humans after their consumption of the infected hosts, sheep, the virus was most likely already adapted to infect