Sallowing
When individuals become depleted of Uhd they run the risk of becoming Soul Husks through a processes known as Sallowing.
Causes
Sallowing refers to the depletion of someone's personal store of UHD. This can occur when a practitioner of Blood magic utlises their own UHD, or someone's UHD is being channeled by someone else - ither willingly, or as a thrall. In some cases, such as in locations impacted by Jitters and time quakes, environmental forces can also deplete personal stores of UHD.
Symptoms
Depletion of UHD can have a number of mild and potentially fatal effects. Sallowing progresses in a number of stages, depending upon the amount of UHD depleted, the rate of depletion, and the rate and amount of replenishment available.
Stages of Sallowing
Immediately after the use of UHD to affect blood magic transformations, the individual being Sallowed will feel lethargic and find it difficult to concentrate. If their personal stores are drained further, the mental and physical lethargy will get worst and worse, with severe lapses in judgement occuring to the point of irrationality. The sufferer will begin to lose muscle control, and be unable to speak or move of their own accord. At this point howver, they can easily be guided and moved about with simple pushing. They will not be able to respond verbally, and even though it will be clear they have sensed something if spoken to, or impacted phsyically in some way, their onely response will be of puzzled confusion. If the sallowing is self-inflicted, this is the stage where it will usually stop. Even further sallowing will turn the victim into a full soul husk, where all internal desires and motivation will be removed, and they will be unable to respond either physically or mentally to any external stimulous. At this point the sense of self is gone and the victim in all ways but the physical, is essentially dead.Treatment
As long as a sallowing is intervened with before the victim has become a soul husk, those afflicted can recover. The first step is to remove the affect that is draining their personal store of Uhd. Once this is done, replenishment can occur through the ingestion of a new source of Uhd - usually found within the foodchain, at least in small amounts. In mild cases this can take a few days, but If the sallowing was serious, this process can take weeks, if not months.
Recovery can be sped up through other means. If they have their wits about them, a practitioner can siphon the Uhd from another - either willingly or not. Pure crystaline Uhd can also be injected directly into the blood stream, but care must be taken or the recipient runs the risk of Hemolithiasis.
Prognosis
All mild cases, and even more adnvanced cases are usually full recovered from.
However, very severe cases of sallowing, short of becoming a full soul husk, can result in permanent injury. People may have their abilities to draw upon and utlise uhd permanently weakened, thereby raising their chances of Hemolithiasis.
Other physical impacts may include permanent partial paralysis or chronic fatigue.
Mental impacts may also be ongoing and potentially debilitating depression, or serious cognitive decline and dementia.
While the body cannot directly die from a sallowing, a Soul husk is the outcome of the most serious cases, and cannot be recovered from.
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