Four horsemen are said to appear before the end of the world, they are the bringers of the apocalypse will cause chaos on earth before its end.

Four horsemen

The first of the four rides a white horse, and the most speculation surrounds him. He goes out into the world wearing a crown and with the intent of conquest, and it is assumed that he is evil based on how he is introduced as part of the group that is very clearly evil. But still, he is different from the other three in some way, and everyone has a different take on what he truly is. Some claim that he is the antichrist, others say he is representing civil war, and another belief is that he is Christ himself, the second coming. That he could be there to sort out the wicked from the good.

Riding atop the red horse, is the second horseman of the apocalypse; war. It is pretty clear from his large sword the fiery color of his steed that his purpose is only for one thing; the killing of men, by men.

The third horse is black and the horseman who rides it represents famine. With him he has weighing scales, which were often used to weigh bread before it was distributed during famines. He also seems to be the only horseman who speaks. It is not indicated that it is famine speaking, but the voice that comes from the general direction of the four speaks of bread, wine and oil; things that would only concern him.

The final horseman, riding the ‘pale horse’ that insinuates something like the color of a corpse; is death. Though in some versions he carries a scythe (suggesting that he himself is the grim reaper) in most he carries nothing with him, and is instead followed by Hades.

With them comes the destruction of the world, and with them leaves all that was in it.

Adieu, my friends. Adieu.
-Black Widow

The Black Death was a plague that swept through Europe in the 1300s that killed somewhere between 30 and 60 percent of their population. It was carried by fleas, which lived on rats, which could easily stow away on ships and be transported from country to country. The disease peaked in Europe between 1348 and 1350.

the black death

There were three types of plague associated with this time period that took hundreds of thousands of lives, and their symptoms varied. If you had been so unfortunate to get the bubonic plague (which was very likely, as it was the most common of the three during the black death), you would first feel general uneasiness. Like that feeling that something is wrong, but you can’t quite place your finger on what. It would soon be followed by nausea, vomiting, headaches, and very painful joint aches. You would develop a fever of somewhere between 101 and 105 degrees Fahrenheit, and likely be dead within eight days. The mortality rate for the bubonic plague was somewhere between 30 and 75%

The second most common had a mortality rate of 90-95% and was known as the Pneumonic plague. There was a bad fever associated with this as well. But its main calling card was a bloody, phlegm-y, cough which became more free flowing and a bright red color the further the disease progressed.

The final and least common of the three plagues of the black death was the septicemic plague. Though it was not as common as the other two, it had a nearly one hundred percent mortality rate and the symptoms associated with it were mainly a high fever and purple patches on the skin due to blood clots and internal bleeding. The septicemic plague wasn’t a coughing, sick-sick, kind of illness, you see. It was a multiple organ failure kind of illness.

There have been modern cases of ‘plague’ as recently as 1995, but nowhere close to the epidemic that it was back then. So far, only one modern case has been resistant to antibiotics. Let us hope that it does not mutate and become as dangerous to us as it was to the people of the medieval times.

May we reconvene under the blood red moon,
-Black Widow