For the remainder of the year, the Bubonic Plague steadily spread across the southern coasts of Emerstari. Shortly before the Christmas of 1355, the Archbishop of Rensulier, Harald Eirikrsson, declared a warning throughout the dioceses, describing “great mortalities, pestilences, and infections of the air.” It was in January that the Great Mortality, as it came to be known as in the eighteenth century, reached the capital of Coronet as well as the other large cities in the Duchy of Amerien including Rensulier and Hansburg.

By the Spring of 1356, the Bubonic Plague had spread across all of the southern half of Emerstari and began to enter the northern half. The Emerstarian clergy brought comfort to the dying, heard final confessions, and organized burials; thus, they were at a great risk of infection. Estimates by Dr. Folk Pedersen from a 2004 study put the death rate among clergy may of have been as high as 45% whereas the death rate among the general populace was at 49%; this rate puts Emerstari below the average estimate for the Scanian Peninsula as a whole, which is 60%. During this period, there was a massive rise in ordained clergy; in the year of 1357, 111 priests and 337 acolytes were recruited whilst in 1359, 299 priests and 683 acolytes were recruited. In one session alone, in the July of 1360, 166 priests were ordained.

Although there was death rate of 49% across Emerstari, few members of the upper class died during the plague; the only member of the Royal Family of Emerstari at this point in history that is known with certainty to have died was the daughter of King Ludwig II, Johanna, who was residing in the Rhenish city of Saarbruchen while on her way to marry Charles of Annoncy – son of King Louis XII of Marseile. This is known because in a letter to King Louis XII from King Ludwig II dated November 2nd, 1358, he wrote, “... destructive death (who seizes young and old alike, sparing no one and reducing rich and poor to the same level) has lamentably snatched from both of us our dearest daugther (whom we loved best of all, as her virtues demanded).”

As well as Princess Johanna, it is possible that the popular religious author in Emerstari, Richard av Sjolanda who died on October 28th, 1358, was also a victim of the Great Mortality. Emerstarian philosopher Ervin Lokardsen has been mentioned to be a victim of the plague as well; this is an impossibility, however, as Lokardsen was living in the town of Fiskstad in the Duchy of Haller at the time of his death in 1356, two years before the Great Mortality arrived in the island of Lottning (where Fiskstad is located).

An immediate consequence of the Great Mortality was a shortage of farm labor and thus a corresponding rise in wages. The landowning classes viewed these changes as a sign of social upheaval and insubordinations; therefore, in 1359, King Ludwig II passed the “Bekendtgørelse av Verkora” (Ordinance of Laborers) that fixed wages to pre-plague levels. This law was enforced ruthlessly over the following decades, causing public resentment and eventually the Peasants’ Revolt of 1401 (and the eventual extinction of serfdom in Emerstari).

The high rate of death among the clergy naturally led to a shortage of priests in copious parts of Emerstari. The clergy were seen as more important than the ordinary people due to their closeness with God, being His envoys on Earth; however, the Catholic Church had given the cause of the Great Mortality to be the behavior of men and thus many began to lose faith in the Church. The dissatisfaction with Catholicism led to the rise of numerous Emerstarian priests who strayed from the Church and the eventual rise of Lutheranism in Emerstari. Some linguists also associate this consequence with the development of modern Regemersk, or Standard Emerstarian, as much of it is based upon the Emerstarian translation of the Bible that was commissioned by Georg I in the 1440s.

Finally, the Great Mortality affected the arts and culture in Emerstari significantly. As there were fewer laborers, the building of castles, palaces, and cathedrals across Emerstari – particularly the cathedrals of Upplanda and Karlsburg – were halted for numerous years. This trend of continued until the rise of Georg I in the 1440s; during his reign, he commissioned the construction of numerous cathedrals and palaces, most notably the renovation of the Rensulier Cathedral – the seat of the Church of Emerstari – Rensulier Palace – the modern residence of the Royal Family – and Upplanda Palace.

The Great Mortality was the first occurrence of the Bubonic Plague in Emerstari; it continued to occur in various parts of Emerstari and Eurevia less and less frequently – with a lessening mortality rate – until early in the eighteenth century. Some of the most famous of these recurrences in Emerstari include the Caans Outbreak in 1438 when King Christian I of Emerstari died and caused the Emerstarian War of Succession as well as the Yoerk Outbreak in 1622 where an estimated 15% of the city’s population died.