Classification: Legendary & Supernatural Humanoids

Temporal Range: 1518

Geographic Range: Strasbourg, France

Diet: Nothing due to being too busy dancing

Horde: Wretched Mortals

On July 14, 1518, in the town of Strasbourg, France, a woman named Frau Troffea spontaneously began to dance. Within days, over thirty others had joined her in an inexplicable outbreak of choreomania. By the end of the month, nearly 400 people were afflicted. No one knew what had triggered this bizarre mania, and no one could stop the dancers. They simply danced and danced and danced.

This was not the first time such an outbreak had been recorded. Similar events had occurred in Aachen, Germany, in 1374, and in Erfurt in 1237, where groups of people, sometimes children, danced uncontrollably for days. These episodes, often referred to as the "Dancing Plague," had troubled parts of Europe for centuries, adding to the mystery surrounding their cause.

For the <b>Dancers of Strasbourg,</b> many of the afflicted dancers succumbed to exhaustion, strokes, or heart attacks, with some reports suggesting as many as 15 victims per day. Physicians at the time, baffled by the phenomenon, recommended more dancing to exhaust the mania. Musicians and stages were hired to keep the afflicted moving in the hope they would dance themselves out of it. When that plan failed, local authorities tried the opposite approach, banning music and dancing outright. Neither strategy worked.

The clergy, however, saw the outbreak as either a punishment from Saint Vitus, the patron saint of dancers, or evidence of demonic possession. In September, the remaining dancers were escorted to the shrine of Saint Vitus. There, they underwent a religious ritual that included wearing red shoes doused in holy water, holding crosses, and being surrounded by incense and Latin chants. And then, mysteriously, they stopped dancing.

Skeptics have since suggested that the ritual worked as a placebo, calming the afflicted through religious faith. Others argue that the outbreak could have been caused by ergot poisoning, a mass psychogenic illness, or a form of social contagion fueled by stress and superstition. However, the failure of both the “dance it out” plan and the ban on dancing adds weight to the idea that something supernatural may have been at work. Whatever the truth, it seems that these saints and demons, if they were indeed involved, had impeccable rhythm.

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