Sickness and the WOTFK

[John Doe]

Am I the only one who finds it weird that there is almost no mention of casualties inflicted by disease prior to ADWD, or did I not read careful enough? Historically, disease was the number one killer of soldiers in the middle ages as far as I am aware, yet during the wotfk, despite there being massive armies horded together for months (Renly's army at Bitterbridge and Tywin's army at Harrenhal are good examples of this), disease is almost never discussed. The only time I am aware that it was actually a factor is at Slaver's Bay where the pale mare is ravaging both sides. 

 

Did GRRM just oversee this, did he mention it and I forgot or is there some explanation for this?

[Lucius Lovejoy]

I don't recall any significant mention of disease, though GRRM took great pains to go into details about the collateral damage of the war on the land and the smallfolk.  He also brings in many realistic details about feeding, clothing, arming, sheltering, and transporting soldiers, and the logistics of warfare and seiges.  I'm thinking it is intentional that the pale mare is only introduced in ADWD as it helps the readers prepare for whatever hell Jon Con's greyscale brings Westeros, or at least the threat of grey scale.  I think it would have been difficult for GRRM to dedicate any time to covering the issues with disease in the WOT5K.

[GyantSpyder]

There is a Bloody Flux plague outbreak in King's Landing while Tyrion is managing it in A Clash of Kings.

We learn about Greyscale when we learn about Shireen in A Clash of Kings as well.

The Great Spring Sickenss is a big factor in the Dunk & Egg novellas and a big historical event that has effects throughout the story.

Khal Drogo's infected wound gets a lot of focus in A Game of Thrones and is one of the book's essential plot points..

We learn about the Grey Plague that hit Oldtown in A Feast for Crows.

There are mentions of diseases of various sorts of every book - it's just that later on in the books, the tone shifts darker, and "closer to the ground," and you get to see more of the bloody flux victims and stone men and such close up.

You don't see them earlier because one of the major themes of the whole story is that kings and aristocrats are largely blind to the real problems affecting their subjects, so the hoity toity main characters don't find out how rough disease really is until they get humbled a little bit.

[Moiraine Sedai]

28 minutes ago, GyantSpyder said:

You don't see them earlier because one of the major themes of the whole story is that kings and aristocrats are largely blind to the real problems affecting their subjects, so the hoity toity main characters don't find out how rough disease really is until they get humbled a little bit.

Right.  GM just didn't address it at the time but we can be certain that the troops and the common people were suffering from disease.  Starvation was a major plot point when Stannis roasted soldiers who were loyal to him because they went cannibal on the dead.  Disease ravaged Westeros from time to time even during times of peace.  The Stark and Lannister forces pretty much destroyed and raped the River lands.