The Soldier's Kneel

The Soldier's Kneel describes a condition wherein an individual has suffered a severe wound and has caused it to close using minerals that are low-ordered.

Causes

When a person is injured, the essence within the body attempts to restore the wound. This is done by binding material into place and restoring the body. While small injuries, such as cuts, require little attention and are usually mended by the body over the course of an hour or two, gaping wounds are unable to be closed. Injuries such as this may occur when a large object impacts the body, forcefully knocking away material, a creature physically severing material, or the use of weapons specifically designed to remove body matter. When this occurs, the body will continue to bind the wound even though the body cannot supply the necessary components. At this stage, the individual will grab nearby material, such as dirt or rock, to take the place of the material that had been previously present. These minerals are often contrary to the elemental composition of the individual and also are weakly elemental. As such, these minerals require a continuous supply of essence to be supported as they rapidly degrade. Once integrated with the body, the individual feels the rapid drain caused by the replacement material.

Symptoms

As the individual is subjected to the Soldier's Kneel, a feeling of weakness, fatigue, and exhaustion begins to take hold. The individual will become delirious as their essence prioritizes maintaining the low-level components of the body. Eventually, in order to survive, the body will begin to reject that material. Once the material is rejected, the person will notice that they begin wasting away. This is caused by the body attempting to reorganize the high-order materials to supplant the low-order materials. This results in loss of bodily function as the essence struggles to reorganize. The body will begin to convulse. Finally, the essence is diminished to the point that the sovereign must separate in order to be preserved. Thus, the person withers.

Treatment

The procedure for treating the Soldier's Kneel is to remove the low-ordered material and replace it with high-order material. The complicated methods to discover how the body has integrated the material is known only by the most skilled herbalists. These herbalists have been trained in "Elemental Survey", concepts that have rarely been used on living creatures. The material is cut away periodically, allowing the body to repair itself before being repeated. If the Soldier's Kneel has been performed recently, it may be possible to perform the procedure at once. However, if the deterioration process has begun, the sovereign is likely too weak to restore the body. It has been suggested, though, that by channeling essence into the individual during the procedure may allow for increased survivability, there are few that can sustain such prolonged requirements.

Prognosis

In many cases, when the Soldier's Kneel is taken, it is an admission of the fate that they have earned. Individuals who think to perform the action likely have experience dealing with the particular event. While the Soldier's Kneel specifically refers to large, life-threatening injuries, an accumulation of small injuries repaired inappropriately may result in the Soldier's Kneel. Without treatment, death is the inevitable conclusion.

History

While many injuries have occurred over the generations, many having healed in one way or another, the Soldier's Kneel differentiates itself from natural healing by the willful action of one to take a temporary boon for long term bane. For generations, the composition of the bodyand its relation with the sovereign was misunderstood. It was assumed that the body was a vessel that merely stored what was consumed. The gain or loss was dependent on what was taken in versus what was used. Thus, an injury would result in a loss. The larger the injury, the larger the loss. Once you've lost everything, you die. Even within the modern world, this opinion is the standard. However, opinion directly contradicts the interaction between the world, the parallel, and the sovereign.
When an injury occurs, some essence is lost. It is the essence used to transfigure the materials used to construct the body into the flesh that we recognize. However, essence does not simply flow from the wound. Essence seeks to bind the wound to restore order to the parallel. This is to match the sovereign state. To do this, essence within the system, beyond what is needed to sustain the sovereign, is spent by the parallel in binding minerals or elements to the wound. By doing so, the order of the system is restored. However, some minerals or elements are better suited than others.
When a wound occurs, it likely has happened in an open environment where the individual is surrounded by air or water. When struck by an arrow, a soldier on the battlefield will be surrounding by air. If the arrow was barbed, pulling it out risks further injury. Assuming the arrow is pulled out and a gaping wound occurs, the parallel will attempt to close the wound by tethering to the nearest elements. In this case, the soldier is standing in a battlefield surrounded by air. Thus, the parallel will attempt to bind air to the wound. But elemental air is difficult to bind, causing the parallel to continue feed essence to bind elemental air. This will result in the decay of the system it is unable to order the system. When a soldier in this state might fall to the ground, they might serendipitously bring low-order minerals such as ash or dirt to the wound. The parallel will bond the dirt to the body and heal the wound. This is the expected course of a battlefield injury. Those Soldier's would return from battle and would feel the lasting effects. This would be called "Battle Fatigue," a characteristic that describes the weakness one feels during or after battle. Others would call this "The World's Call," describing that the person has inevitable avoided their fate and they are being pursued by it. Over time, people would find the practical use of using nearby materials to quickly heal wounds as low-order materials convert quicker than high-order materials. Over time, veterans of war would become sick and slowly wither away. As this practice was largely used by soldiers and adventurers during battle, this was giving the name, "The Soldier's Kneel." This describes that the soldier has served in many battles and finally answers to fate. This moniker would stick. Many saw the practice described best as, "The struggle to fight and carry on. You take the worst things of the world to mend your wounds to win the battle. But, eventually, fate will call." It would be in the modern medicine that the truth behind the Soldier's Kneel would be discovered. Mashangisti herbalist Algar Sorri would use principles of "Elemental Survey" to identify unsual variations in the body. While the soldier could reveal that those were the scars of battle, as many would do, it would be finding the cause of the deterioration and the remedy that would be notable. Though Algar Sorri would not receive recognition for his work, the discovery would turn heads within the Temples of the Clerics, who believed that the effects of the "Soldier's Kneel" was the product of fate. The remedy would lead the "sculptors", a privileged class of scholars, to enhance their expertise. Sculptor's shifted from the alchemical ingestion of various potions and elixirs to improve the body to the physical augmentation of the body through material grafting. This process is laborious and often inaccurate. However, through this approach, most are able to survive the "Soldier's Kneel" should sculptors be available. However, most sculptors strictly reside in Mashangist and specifically in the House of the Lords.

Type

Magical