Healers

Those who use magic to heal.

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Chymosian

Alignment: Unaligned
Type: Doctor

A doctor of humors. Chymosians heal people using the theory of the humors of the body. This unscientific and mystical process is, of course, bullshit, but there is body magic that makes it work in this magical setting.

Chymosians recognize many humors and their importance:

• Amniotic: the waters of life and protection of the unborn. Keeping it healthy is crucial. In imbalance, it causes miscarriages. A healthy uterus keeps it balanced.
• Black bile: black bile is any organ fluid that is not other fluids listed. It is correlated to melancholic disposition. It is said to cause depression, cancer, and senescence if it exists in excess. A healthy spleen keeps it from increasing to excess.
• Blood: blood is correlated to a sanguine disposition. It is the most powerful of all the humors and can be studied to know the full balance of all humors in a body. It is the source of life within a person. A healthy heart keeps it balanced.
• Lymph: lymph is correlated to a compassionate disposition. It is said to be responsible for healing within the body and for bodily growth. Too much, however, causes heart and lung issues. Healthy lymph nodes keep it balanced.
• Milk: milk is correlated to a maternal disposition. It is nourishment and strength. Healthy mammary glands keep it balanced. Too much milk in the system causes anxiety, back pains, and osteoporosis.
• Oestrus: menstrual blood is correlated to a minerval disposition. It is said that an excess of it causes every problem "women" usually have, but it is also considered a self-balancing fluid. Healthy ovaries keep it balanced.
• Phlegm: phlegm includes any kind of mucus or pus in the body. It is correlated to a phlegmatic disposition. It is said to cause tumours, chlorosis, rheumatism, and cacochymia. A healthy brain keeps it from increasing to excess.
• Semen: semen is correlated to an agrandized disposition. If in excess, it causes strokes, heart attacks, and blindness. It must be purged regularly. Healthy genitalia keep it balanced.
• Tears (lachryma): tears are correlated to a hysterical disposition. If in excess, they cause headaches, confusion, and paranoia. Healthy lungs keep it balanced.
• Urine: urine is correlated to a sour disposition. If in excess, it causes digestional problems. It must be purged regularly. Healthy kidneys keep it balanced.
• Yellow bile: yellow bile is actual bile, the yellowish fluid found or associated with the liver and gallbladder. It is correlated to a choleric disposition. It is said to cause increased anger, irrational behavior, cirrhosis, and jaundice. A healthy liver or gallbladder keeps it under control.

Different foods, exercises, and other practices help to keep fluids balanced, and chymosians know what to recommend to their patients. They also know how to encourage blood and lymph to heal sicknesses or wounds, keeping medicines for this purposes always on their person. Their magic is generally long-term, slow, and an absurdly pseudoscientific version of medicine, they have access to quicker magicks such as special herbs, roots, and potions that speed recovery from injuries.

PRO -2 ATH / STR -1 AWA +3 WIL +1 PRS / STH /

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Cori

Alignment: Fey
Type: Therapist

Coris are part of a sisterhood of ancient power that pass on their own traditions. They are an old order of wielders of sex magic and witchcraft. They work together in covens of eleven for their witchcraft. In the colonies, they use their arts to help others with their bodies and hearts, working as physical and emotional sex therapists.

Their sex magic is part of an ancient tradition known as the "thirteen points", referring to thirteen parts of (most) bodies that are both targets for pleasure and magical energy. If all thirteen are invoked during sex, the culmination of the union will release enormous magical energy that all consenting parties in the spell can wield. They can choose to wield it in the moment, to store it for later, or to give it to one of the other participants. If they store it, they have 26 points of magic to use later. If they wield it, they can roll from a 13 to cast any spell that will affect the body of anyone involved who consents. If they choose to give it, they give 13 points to someone else.

If they store it, they usually keep that magic for their witchcraft. Coris have 13 spells they can cast individually, and 13 they can cast when the coven of 11 is together. All spells must be cast before they are needed, then kept by the cori for three days and three nights, at which point they will be gone whether they were used or not. They can cast only three individual spells per night and one group spell.

Individual spells include the following:

• Enticing aura: the cori is more enticing to anyone who sees them, +3 PRS for an hour
• Touch of grace: the touch of the cori grants someone a one-time escape from a diffuclty situation that must be used within 13 days
• Drop of life: a drop of the cori's sweat will heal wounds down one level (deep to normal, etc.)
• Violet hearts: the cori's heart glows violet and anyone they choose who can see it will feel themselves centered emotionally
• Point of relaxation: the cori gives +3 ATH for an hour to anyone they soothe
• Word of release: the cori speaks a word that releases a single target from a specific obligation
• Soothing whisper: the cori's voice becomes intensely soothing
• Inner beauty: the cori releases the 13 points of someone and unleashes their inner beauty
• Heart's barrier: the cori's feelings fuel a barrier that only allows through those they love or care about
• Smile of kindness: the cori's smile gives anyone who sees it +3 to their lowest base stat for 10 minutes
• Bodily emancipation: the cori releases someone's body's limitations for a short period of time
• Circle of power: the cori creates a circle of power that gives everyone around them +3 to STR
• Mirror of feelings: the cori enchants a mirror to show the emotions of those whose images it reflects

Group spells include the following, which all participants gain. They must be cast the day before being used, cast by the entire coven together, and given to a specific cori to wield via a trinket that will trigger the spell when they choose sometime in the next 24 hours. These are more witchcraft-focused than healing:

• Ritual of Calming Aura: when invoked, the cori can calm the emotions of everyone within 20' (WIL vs. PRS)
• Ritual of Fey Will: when invoked, the cori gains +1 WIL for every 3 points of PRS they have
• Ritual of Lunar Dance: when invoked, the cori gains +1 for crescent moon, +2 for half, +3 for gibbous, +6 for full, -1 for new, to every roll
• Ritual of Violet Storm: when invoked, violet lightning and rain are unleashed in a radius of 25', causing emotional damage and confusion to everyone
• Ritual of Potent Pleasures: when invoked, the cori knows what is the greatest source of pleasure for anyone they can see
• Ritual of Widow's Needle: when invoked, the cori communes with every woman within three miles who has killed an abuser, gaining +6 PRO against any abuser for the entire night
• Ritual of Twice Hexed: when invoked, the cori can inflict two targets whose name they know or whom they can see with a curse of their choosing
• Ritual of Inner Presence: when invoked, the cori gains +1 PRS for every 3 points of WIL they have
• Ritual of Coven Voice: when invoked, the coven speaks as one through the cori, combining their spells into one
• Ritual of Mother's Heart: when invoked, the cori provides healing to all allies within 100', perfectly healing all wounds
• Ritual of Child's Cries: when invoked, the cori becomes impossible to attack for 15 seconds
• Ritual of Crone's Laughter: when invoked, the cori intimidates any enemy who can hear it; anyone who fails exceptionally or critically goes mad with terror
• Ritual of Thirteen Souls: when invoked, the haritmu links souls with the coven and can use any of their innate powers or learned skills for 10 minutes

If any of the group spells have been cast, the player rolls a d12 every in-game hour to see if one of the other members of the coven uses the spell. This does not use it up, but their character will be aware and affected by some of them.

PRO +1 ATH +2 STR +1 AWA +1 WIL +2 PRS +3 STH +1

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Gutwright

Alignment: Celestial
Type: Nutritionist

A gutwright is someone who trains in foods and nutrition such that they know what is good for people to eat to be strong and resilient, to keep their spirits up in the face of oppression, and to be protected from imperial, industrial, or infernal magicks. What a gutwright ultimately does is encourage celestial microbes to keep the constitution of a person up, but they do this through food, drink, and magical sciences.

To become a gutwright, one is usually trained and mentored by another gutwright. Universities in colonial lands do not teach this, so the information is passed on from elder to student over the course of generations, often through families. The secrets are kept in magical cookbooks and tomes, and many years of study are required for someone to truly understand it. While anyone can read the recipes, only a well trained gutwright may get them exactly right. To be a gutwright, one must not be an oppressor, exploiter, abuser, polluter, or other enemy of the people, as the magic will not work for them.

Some common recipes include the following:

• Yeast-rich bread: a bread that generates a good gut biome, making a person more resistant to disease, exhaustion, or depression.
• Healthy milk: a milk mixed with special ingredients to make the drinker heal from wounds or disease quicker.
• Sourgut cream: a cream that calms the gut if it is soured.
• Good yoghurt: a yoghurt that makes a body resistant to industrial, imperial, or infernal energies.
• Muscle-ripening beer: a beer that makes it easier to build muscles.
• Sweetened pudding: a pudding that protects children from harm.

Other recipes are possible. Consult the GM.

PRO / ATH +1 STR +1 AWA +2 WIL / PRS / STH /

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Healer

Alignment: Celestial
Type: Healer

The quintessential healers. The power of healing derives from blood, and healers draw their own to create medicines. This is augmented with other medical skills, mundane and supernatural, but in direst times, they use their own blood to heal.

To become a healer, to have blood that is imbued with tabait, one must make a great sacrifice. One must devote themselves to the healing arts and use them for years before they are worthy, and then they must prepare a special concoction, a medicine, in a special kind of pot.

To become a healer, one must first live it. If one devotes onself to the study and practice of medicine, this is the first step. Once they have done this for at least six years (usually more), proving themself every step of the way as a devoted healer, they may be taken under the wing of a healer. Their mentor will teach them the six esoteric arts of the healer - blood of life, clay of life, true listening, empathy, guiding flow, and careful binding. This usually takes between three to six years.

The most important part of becoming a healer is the sacrifice one makes - their entire life. This is more than a vow or oath. This is more than an attitude or lifestyle. It is constant devotion. It is putting others above oneself entirely. It is pure selflessness. And to achieve this, they must complete their training. Once they understand the six esoteric arts, they must prove they are worthy. They will be tested by their mentor in knowledge and skill, and then they will be sent to create a special pot to create a concoction to prep themselves for the final act.

The pots are formed using any neutral or celestial form of clay. Each pot is designed with etchings that symbolize the body: blood and heart, bone, flesh and muscle, viscera, the mind, humors, and hair and nails. How these are symbolized varies by culture, but it is always a combination of image and writing.

Once the pot is designed and fired, it is left outdoors for a week and a day. Anything that has entered the pot in that time is then taken, along with the pot, to a nearby body of water. The pot is half-filled with water, stoppered, and sunk into the body of water, where it is left again for a week and a day. It is then taken to the healer-in-training's home and it is unstoppered. The healer then puts some of their own blood and other parts of their body into the pot (hair, nails, skin, other humors, etc.). It is re-stoppered and placed next to or under the bed or sleeping place of the healer for a week and a day. After this period, the pot is heated or frozen in some way for a week and a day (this varies by culture and location). Finally, it is taken to a place of healing, and then concoction is smeared on the bodies of 40 patients or as many as are present (whichever is fewer), and then the remainder of the medicine is drunk by the healer, who will then pass out.

If they are worthy, if they have done everything right, they will awaken in a week and a day with the blood of life in their veins. If they have failed in any way, they will get very sick for a week and a day.

After they have done this, they can do it again to create new medicine for use to recover from blood loss used to heal.

The final act of a healer's training is when they awaken with the blood of life. They will sense someone nearby in need of healing (this is inevitable unless they are absolutely alone). They will feel the compulsion to give their blood to this person. When they do, they will feel their blood begin to burn. If they let it touch air, they will erupt into flame. Knowing this, knowing they will die in this moment, they have the choice - die or let someone else die. Those who choose themselves lose their powers. Those who self-immolate by opening their veins to heal another feel ecstasy and power, and forever after they can heal with their own blood and use the other powers of a healer.

When performing their sacrifice, the healer rolls their WIL plus a bonus for their degree of devotion to healing and their desire to help others against the difficulty of surviving and recoverying from catastrophic self-combustion (16 plus 1 per every point of STR over 19). If they get to the point where self-immolation is even possible, their bonus is already +12, but it can go much higher (cap is 42 total WIL+bonus for standard mortal). Success rate determines the base power of their lifesblood:

• Critical failure: death.

• Exceptional failure: permanent power loss, bodily dysfunction, coma.

• Special failure: permanent power loss and bodily dysfunction.

• Failed roll: they chicken out and either have to try again or lose their powers.

• Tied roll: power of 7.

• Normal success: 10.

• Special success: 13.

• Exceptional success: 16.

• Critical success: 19.

The strength of a healer's lifesblood has a base determined by their sacrifice and medical knowledge. If they have a correct diagnosis of a problem, that is +6 to healing and allows them to address the source. If they know only symptoms, it is +3 to addressing the symptoms. If they know nothing, they can merely apply their base power to alleviate any kind of general discomfort reported or perceived.

The blood of life can grow in power as the healer makes more sacrifices using the blood. This is to say, every time they mortally wound themselves (that is, draw a mortal wound's worth of blood) to heal someone with a deep or mortal wound, the lifesblood temporarily gains a +3, and for every eight times they do this, they permanently gain +1. This can only be done if the mortal wound is done to engage a wound directly, not if done to draw blood for use later.

Recovering from blood loss takes time, but healers recover faster than others. They view using another's lifesblood to recover from blood given freely to be a waste of lifesblood, so they recover on their own by use of special diet, exercise, meditative and rest practices, and doses of their original medication. Flesh wounds heal almost instantly. Normal wounds heal after a day. Deep wounds become normal wounds after a week and heal in a day after that. Mortal wounds become deep wounds in a day, then take a week to become normal wounds, then heal in a day. Total exsanguination will kill them, but it will heal anything.

Note: the above refers only to blood drawn safely for use in healing, not for actual wounds caused by battle, accident, etc. Wound ratings used above refer to amounts of blood lost.

The six powers of a healer are

• Blood of Life: the sharing of healing blood for rapid healing.

• Clay of Life: the sealing of a person's body in blood-enriched clay that will heal more slowly but effectively. The clay of life is created by mixing healing blood with neutral or celestial clay. Encasing someone in clay of life has the same effect as healing blood, but it can handle greater injuries with less blood - it just takes longer and their whole body must be encased.

• True Listening: the art of hearing what is truly wrong with a person, no matter what their words say. True listening is a passive art used by all healers who have completed their training. They gain a +3 to +6 bonus to diagnosis if they listen to a patient for more than five minutes.

• Diagnosis: Diagnosis is necessary to a healer's craft. They cannot heal that which they cannot identify. They can merely treat symptoms if they do not know the cause or condition they are addressing.

• Empathy: sensing what a person is feeling and why so that they may be better diagnosed. Healers gain weak empathic powers that can be grown with use. The stronger their empathy, the better their diagnosis and listening skills are. They can also use it to address emotional issues by guiding a person through their trauma.

• Sensing Wounds or Illness: Via empathy, they can also sense where pain, injuries, and illness are in the body.

• Guiding Flow: guiding the flow of life within a person through touch, breath, and words. A healer can guide the flow of lifeforce, ashar, through a body with their touch, with breathing exercises, or with special calming words. In doing this, they can promote healing in different parts of the body without using their blood.

• Careful Binding: using clean, special bandages to trap illness, pain, trauma, or other maladies within a part of a person in order to defeat them. Healers can bind malady into certain parts of a body, drawing disease, pain, trauma, cancer, or esoteric energies into a specific spot so that it can be addressed more directly. They use special bandages to do this. The bandages used in careful binding are either neutral linen or some celestial fabric, touched with the blood of life. Using the control of the flow of life to isolate negative energies, pathogens, pain, etc., the healer can then bind them in place with these bandages and apply their arts directly to the trapped malady.

• Surgery: Sometimes after binding, they must cut someone open to address their malady. They do this with special scalpels made from neutral or celestial metals and whetted on opals. A transfusion of preserved lifesblood is usually set up for the surgery.

The use of blood to heal is never the first-resort unless it is obvious a person is in dire straits. The method by which the blood is given determines the potency of its healing, and the amount does as well:

• Washing: to wash someone in healing blood works best for smaller external injuries and minor maladies.

• Drinking: to have someone drink healing blood helps with internal injuries, gut conditions, and moderate maladies.

• Transfusion: to tranfuse healing blood into someone is to give them a complete healing.

The amount of blood translates into a direct bonus:

• One drop: no bonus / standard application.

• Three drops: +1.

• Five drops: +2

• Flesh wound's worth: +3

• Normal wound: +4

• Deep wound: +5

• Mortal wound: +6

• Instant death: +7

• Total exsanguination: +8

When a healer uses their own blood, it must be fresh or preserved. Preserving blood requires use of their pot, but preserved blood takes a -1 penalty for every eight days it is out of the body. Fresh blood is best, but of course, the healer experiences the negative effects of blood loss.

There are three main limitations: infernal beings, beings with different kinds of bodies, and toxic beings.

• Infernal beings with toxic bodies / forms. People infected by the contagion can be healed via celestial healing, but the contagion itself is killed by it. Lutipariants, aliens that befoul the world, are similarly affected.

• Some beings are too filled with or otherwise composed of infernal powers for celestial healing to work on them. The undead are simply destroyed by celestial healing (if they have bodies). Demons, the Eldritch, infernal Aeonians, infernal dragons, and some infernal constructs are all harmed by celestial healing. Other infernal-oriented folk, including cythreuliaid, inimica, and tantum, are all healable via celestial healing, though they prefer other forms of healing culturally. Destroyers cannot be healed by any means, celestial or not.

• Beings without bodies cannot be healed by lifesblood, and thus, insubstantiates are unaffected by it. Other forms of celestial healing may be applied to them if they are not purely infernal. Beings such as some viridianites, mechanicals, gargoyles, golems, and crystal folk who do not have blood or have metallic or stone bodies cannot be healed by lifesblood but may be healed by other forms of celestial healing. Similarly, plant and fungal folk require a variation on lifesblood (tree folk healers have lifessap, for example).

PRO -1 ATH / STR +1 AWA +3 WIL +2 PRS / STH -1

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Heartsoother

Alignment: Celestial
Type: Therapist

Heartsoothers have the ability to calm emotions in others. They gain the power to calm and soothe people's emotions by making a vow of non-violence.

The vow includes any act of self-defense. Any act of violence, no matter how justified, will violate their vow and strip them of powers. They do not gain powers until a year into their vow. Accidents do not violate the vow unless they were plainly avoidable, but the vow does include actions that may not seem like direct violence - voting to support war, doing nothing to try to stop it, supporting exploitation or oppression, etc. Indeed, even things such as causing hunger or illness can violate the vow if one is not careful. Heartsoothers eat only that which has not died by anyone's hand - fallen fruit and never-alive minerals. Not even honey, vegetables, or found materials that were once alive but butchered or killed, even humanely. They also avoid harming any animal or plant, any living thing at all, except to clean their own body.

The vow must be spoken solemnly, made on their own life, and given to the wilderness. As this vow is extremely difficult to live up to in a world of violence, there are very few heartsoothers.

Once they have made it a year into their vow - a very rare occurrence - they gain the power to exude peace and calm. Because this might alert the authorities to their powers, they isolate themselves and practice meditation until they can draw that aura in and make it part of their bodies, instead channeling it through touch. They study and practice massage in order to soothe the emotions of their clients. Their main set of patients are the poor and oppressed.

PRO -6 ATH +1 STR +1 AWA +3 WIL +3 PRS +2 STH /

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Vitalist

Alignment: Elemental
Type: Healer

A vitalist is someone who can transfer elemental lifeforce from one being to another using a special corded rope.

Elemental lifeforce in different kinds of lifeforms subtly differs. A human's elemental lifeforce will be similar to both an empath's and a chimpanzee's, but very different from an angel's, a mushroom's, or a paramecium's. Plants, animals, and fungi have elemental lifeforce so different they count as separate kinds of aether. Viruses, destroyers, the undead, and some constructs do not have elemental lifeforce.

The size or complexity of a creature does not determine how much elemental lifeforce it has, but rather, its vitality. How alive it is. A healthy newborn human baby will have a tremendous amount of elemental lifeforce. A person who is dying will have very little lifeforce. Healthy people tend to have more lifeforce, but people with illnesses are not necessarily low in lifeforce. Only those very close to death will have little energy. Pregnant people and children tend to have the most elemental lifeforce, but these are all just tendencies, not hard and fast rules.

Species can affect the amount of elemental lifeforce if thay species replaces elemental lifeforce with another energy. Viridianites that are not elemental lifeforce-based will have relatively little elemental lifeforce, replacing it with their relevant kind of aether. Similarly, though angels and demons have elemental lifeforce, it is minimal compared to the amount of celestial or infernal energies they have.

Vitalists wield ropes in order to move elemental lifeforce from one being to another. Any kind of rope will work, but ropes made of special elemental materials work best. In order to use a rope to transfer elemental lifeforce, it must be corded and knotted with three strands and three knots per foot. One must wrap the rope around the target. In medical spaces, this is done gently, using a loose knot. However, some vitalists who are combat medics may use a lasso or lariat to grab targets who are in a place that is difficult to get to otherwise. Others use them to grab wounded and scared animals. Some kind of tying or knotting is required, regardless of how the rope is applied. The rope must also be wrapped around the hands (or equivalent) of the vitalist as well.

The rope can be around the target's smallest feature, and the vitalist can still transfer elemental lifeforce into them. It works best when the rope is near the injury, infection, etc. or around the chest so it touches the heart.

The rope connects the vitalist to the target and makes itself a channel for elemental lifeforce. The vitalist will transfer their own elemental lifeforce into the target in order to create one of several healing effects.

To transfer elemental lifeforce from oneself to another requires special training. One must be attuned to their inner lifeforce, their qi, their spark, their lifeforce. This requires an inner awareness of their own body and its flowing energies. Most vitalists meditate for years before they are attuned enough to use their ropes without special concentration, along with studying the ways of life.

One must be careful when transferring elemental lifeforce. Every person has a specific amount of lifeforce at any given time that, if lost, will mean they die, sicken, or weaken. If they are healthy, they will usually recover their lifeforce unless it is drained completely or corrupted somehow, but temporarily, they will be weak. A little bit of lifeforce goes a long way.

It is possible for a vitalist to transfer from one target to another target. A consensual giver is preferred for ethical and practical reasons (it's hard to force someone's elemental lifeforce out if they don't want you to). It's hard even when they do want you to. Every living thing has self-preservation instincts. Elemental lifeforce will resist transferrence, and therefore, can be difficult even to transfer from the vitalist to another. When transferring from a giver to a target, the vitalist must concentrate deeply, and it helps if the giver is aware of their own elemental lifeforce as well. The rope must be wrapped around both giver and target and in the hands of the vitalist. The giver must be willing even if they are not sapient; a powerful vitalist can sense and communicate via elemental lifeforce to determine this.

Physical wounds, illnesses, pains, and so on can be healed through transferrence. Physical damage to a body is relatively easy to address. Trauma and mental illness can be treated somewhat, but only the physical aspects can be addressed. This will often reduce symptoms, especially in trauma victims, but not entirely cure it. Senescence is the most difficult thing to heal; this process is called rejuvenation. Only the greatest vitalists can do this.

Preserving life is easier than healing in some ways and more difficult in others. If the intention is to simply stop a wound or illness from killing someone without healing them, this is relatively easy. This is used when the vitalist does not have enough power to heal someone, but knows they can keep them alive longer until another way is found. Giving a person longer life through elemental lifeforce, called longevity,, however, is a much more difficult form of preservation. This requires nearly completely depleting the vitalist's elemental lifeforce reserves.

Revitalization is the act of bringing someone back from the brink of death. From being mostly dead. A mortal wound, a disease in its final stages, etc. It is very difficult to do, and complete recovery is even more difficult. But it is possible.

A person who is actually dead may be resurrected by a vitalist in the rarest of circumstances. This requires sacrificing themselves to bring the dead back, and then only if the person were recently dead (usually within a day). To resurrect someone long dead is impossible, even if a body is present.

It is possible for a vitalist to reverse the flow of elemental lifeforce through the rope and take elemental lifeforce from another. If the target is willing (thus making them a giver, really), this can be done to heal the vitalist. If the target is unwilling, this action is considered a form of vampirism. It is illegal, forbidden, and a violation of the element of life. Doing it will result in the vitalist losing their powers.

If a vitalist uses their rope on the corporeal undead, they can use their elemental lifeforce to make the target burn with argent flame. The stronger the undead, the more difficult this is.

Sometimes, a vitalist will need to draw elemental lifeforce from an animal, plant, or fungus. In these cases, they might need more pure elemental lifeforce than what is present, and thus, they might draw other elemental energies and distill into into pure elemental lifeforce. This requires that they pull that elemental lifeforce into their own bodies and meditate upon it to separate it out. This process takes hours, thus making it an impractical use in the field.

PRO -2 ATH +1 STR +2 AWA +2 WIL +3 PRS +1 STH /

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Wisin

Alignment: Unaligned
Type: Therapist/Nutritionist

Those who practice esoteric exercises to invoke the magic of the body that allow them to control their own bodily growth and transformations. They do this for themselves, and they manage it for others as well, teaching them the basics of nutrition and leading them exercises such that others' bodies may be adapted.

In order to tap into the power of the body, one must give of the flesh. This means physical sacrifice in the form of cutting flesh, or it means dedicated gathering of lost skin, hair, and nails. The former is used only for sacred ceremonies, initiation rites, and extreme occasions (such as during famines or droughts) where significant power is needed. The latter is more common, and the materials are always burned in a small ceremony.

Different cultures identify different body parts as untouchable. Some view circumcision as a sacred rite, for instance, while others view it as mutilation (and some differentiate between bodily dimorphic variations). Most cut a small slice of skin from an upper arm or lower leg in ceremonies, while some will take a bit off an ear or even as much as a fingertip. The commonest form of flesh-giving, however, is simply body piercing. Whatever the rite is, whatever the flesh is, it is usually engaged when a person reaches maturity within their culture and has decided to become a wisin (or cultural equivalent). This initiation is what gives them the power to have control over the body magic within themselves.

Wisin practice magical, seasonal changes to their diet, special grains, spices, and milk, and special exercises, along with occasional rites to re-engage themselves with the body magic within. These latter are usually smaller rites of flesh-giving.

Exercise always begins with a ritual of cleansing and grooming the body, preserving hair, nail, and skin that comes off in the process in special pots. They wash with a mild soap, using pure water, and scrub with harsh stones that scrape excess skin. They shave specific parts of themselves (this varies by culture, usually either the face, arms, legs, or head). And a wisin always has trimmed nails. They then engage in extreme exercise of some sort:

• Running: long-distance or sprinting in significant quantities is the most common form of exercise used.
• Lifting: lifting extremely heavy weights, usually composed of common objects, is often used to complement running.
• Stretching: a vital part of every wisin's routine.
• Stillness: one of the hardest forms of exercise a wisin may use, standing or sitting in a single difficult position for hours is used to focus on single areas of the body.
• Swimming: swimming is one of the most potent, common full body exercises.
• Climbing: climbing is done in areas where mountain or tree is commonly accessible for the purpose.
• Repetitions: a broad category of repetitions movements or strenuous physical activities, which could include pull ups and sit ups and other common exercises.
• Obstacles: obstacle courses that engage multiple forms of exercise are used for more advanced wisin.

Wisin never use gyms or other modern structures, always focusing on outdoors exercises and as many common objects or natural resources to engage in their work as possible.

The diet of the wisin includes special grains, spices, and milk. They eat this as a form of gruel or porridge, usually, but they can be mixed with other foods in variations in order to expand the diet or alter flavors. They must eat some of the diet every single day to maintain body magic.

A wisin's practice does not have the same effect as normal exercise. Instead of strengthening their bodies, it simply feeds the body magic within them, and then they choose how that body magic is used. They do this by burning the flesh given and breathing in the smoke before going to sleep. When they awaken, the changes they (usually lucidly) dream of take place. The more natural the change, the easier it is to effect. Common changes include

• Muscle building
• Growing height
• Building weight
• Strengthening bone
• Improving organ performance
• Self-healing
• Improving immune system
• Neutralizing poisons
• Toughening flesh
• Changing hair color or eye color
• Minor body shape changes (changing nose shape, lengthening fingers)
• Skin or hair color change

Changes always take place through a process of natural growth, meaning they take time from when they are begun. They happen gradually after initiation.

Powerful wisin can alter their bodies more dramatically, even changing forms. This takes extreme measures. Some notable alterations include

• Growing extra limbs
• Growing new or extra organs
• Altering reproductive organs
• Stopping senescence
• Growing body parts not congruous with their species (wings for humans, gills for avians, etc.)
• Changing skin texture or composition (stoneskin, barkskin, etc.)
• In extreme cases, altering species

These are almost always temporary; permanent major form changes usually come with permanent loss of powers.

Some wisin practice transferring their body magic to another in order to alter another's body, usually for purposes of healing or blessing someone going on a quest. This process requires taking some of their flesh, mixing it with one's own, and both wisin and target breathing the smoke then resting. The target must also eat the special diet and engage in special exercises beforehand if they are healthy enough.

PRO +1 ATH +3 STR +4 AWA / Perception +1 WIL +1 PRS -1 STH -2