(Angelica archangelica)

It is the year 1665 in London. People live in extremely unhygienic conditions, with rats freely roaming the streets. Even though the Dark Ages are over, darkness persists, embodied in the Black Death, bubonic plague. The plague which ravaged China in the 1330s arrived in Europe in October 1347, when 12 Genoese ships docked in Messina, Sicily. People rushed to the port to welcome the sailors, but once there they witnessed something that froze blood in their veins: most of the sailors were dead, while those few who were still alive were about to join the dead. They had a high fever, excruciating pains all over and could not hold any food or water. Their skin was covered in black boils from which blood and pus were dripping. These boils gave the disease its name – Black Death.