Khemrys (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
homeless_pard) wrote2013-02-24 03:48 am
homeless_pard) wrote2013-02-24 03:48 am
Of Old Blood and Healing
Old Blood
The races of the Witchworld are myriad. They come of strange worlds and stranger; travelers, lost, and running. The Old Blood preceded them though, caretakers of a rich world full of legends and lore. Beings were crafted and created, magic ran like water through the hills, and great Good and great Evil rose in the land to continue their eternal wars.
Every race wanes though, and the Power that flowed through their being could not grant more children in their long lives. Their numbers dwindled and so they welcomed the fair haired people of the Dales. They were a people of honey skin and golden hair, shorter lived than the elder race but able to live beside them for a time.
The bloods were even able to mix. Most the children born of such unions were of the Dales. Power did not gather around the children, they were born gold and red headed, born and living within a blink of their parents eyes. Sometimes though, sometimes even a drop of Old Blood blossomed into a full member of the elder race.
Those children, no matter how far back in their bloodline the blood entered, were Old Blood, and the Power that gathered around them were one reason that the elder race retreated from the Dales. Power has a price after all...
...and many of the prices are such as cannot be stopped. Power gravitates toward those of the Old Blood, laying thick and heavy in the air around them. This changes the way the world works around them to a degree.
Involuntary
~Words and Bonds: Promises and given words around the Old Blood provide a pattern for Power to flow through. Even casual promises become binding in their presence. This does not effect any person who holds true to their word but to those that break their given word the Power gives consequence. The most common consequences are: Infertility, madness, a break in fortune, and ill luck. This binds the Old blood harsher than those of other races, most Old Blood that break their word will slide over into Evil ways or into Madness.
~Longevity: Those of the Old Race have health and long lives granted by the sheer amount of Power that gathers around them. The average life span is measured in centuries rather than decades as long as murder is not a factor.
~Good Fortune: The lands and areas where the Old Blood make their home benefit from the Power around them. Fields are fertile, the weather, while harsh at times, will never throw trees into buildings where people are living, etc.
Voluntary
~Words and Bonds: Unlike when promises are spoken in their presence, if the Old Blood can have someone give their word directly then the Old Blood can hold and bind by such word. A word given to civil behavior, for example, if broken, the Old Blood can use to hold a person beyond a room for as long as their own strength and will holds out.Likewise they can bind a person to stillness.
~Declarations of Forsworn/Oathbreaking: When an individual who has given their word or oath to a member of the Old Blood and breaks it, the Old Blood in question may label them as an Oathbreaker, which in essence draws the attention of the Power to bear down upon the forsworn individual.
Individual Abilities
Setting aside that which is around them, a great deal of Power is intrinsic to the being of one of the Old Blood. Each member has their own talents and ways of accessing their abilities. Even the lowest farmer has strength in his fields and the highest noble may be capable of crafting gates between worlds.
The relevant ability in this write up is that of Healing. Healing is not a common individual ability, mainly granted to those of true Good or true Evil. It is an ability of great harm or great good, but either source of healing has a cost. It is this cost that keeps most healings in the Witchworld uncommon or things of quests. Healers tend to their close family and friends, or those who will put a great distance between themselves and the healer after. Following are the reasons why:
Low Level: Cost is in energy from Healer
~Wound cleansing: To halt or reverse an infection that has not progressed far.
~Light bruising/scratches: Healing of scratches and light bruising
~Food Poisoning: Curing of food poisoning
~Sleep: Sending someone into a restful sleep
~Calming: Calming a panic or fear
~Holding of bones/casts: The use of Power to hold bone fragments in place on the inside of a body rather than the outside. This must be powered/touched up on every day bones must be held.
Mid Level: Cost in energy from healer and patient
~Advanced wound cleansing: Cleaning and disinfecting a wound that has been going septic for some time.
~Mid range bruising/sprains: Healing of mid range bruises and harsh sprains.
~Deeper cuts/slashes: Healing of wounds that pierce through skin layers into a few layers of muscle.
~Deep sleep: Sleep without dreams.
~Illness: Curing of most general illnesses.
Drawing poison: Drawing poison from a wound before it has permeated far into the body.
High level: Cost in energy from both as well as additional side effects such as one or two ways bonds for energy draw, emotional bonds, shared dreaming, etc. High healings go too deeply into another person and leave traces.
~Restorations of putrification: Salvaging a usable limb or body section from advanced decay.
~Organ/bone regrowth: Restoring/healing/regrowing bones and organ tissue.
~Advanced illnesses/recurring illnesses: Treatment or curing of advanced illnesses or congenital, recurring illnesses.
~Poison drawing: Drawing out a poison that has permeated the body.
~Holding after trauma: Holding a body alive after severe trauma that would otherwise cause death while healing. This often results in a dream state for the patient.
~Rebuilding: Restructuring and rebuilding of poorly healed or scarred injuries.
{This is a compilation of Old Blood and Healer lore as it pertains to the Witchworld setting per Andre Norton.}
The races of the Witchworld are myriad. They come of strange worlds and stranger; travelers, lost, and running. The Old Blood preceded them though, caretakers of a rich world full of legends and lore. Beings were crafted and created, magic ran like water through the hills, and great Good and great Evil rose in the land to continue their eternal wars.
Every race wanes though, and the Power that flowed through their being could not grant more children in their long lives. Their numbers dwindled and so they welcomed the fair haired people of the Dales. They were a people of honey skin and golden hair, shorter lived than the elder race but able to live beside them for a time.
The bloods were even able to mix. Most the children born of such unions were of the Dales. Power did not gather around the children, they were born gold and red headed, born and living within a blink of their parents eyes. Sometimes though, sometimes even a drop of Old Blood blossomed into a full member of the elder race.
Those children, no matter how far back in their bloodline the blood entered, were Old Blood, and the Power that gathered around them were one reason that the elder race retreated from the Dales. Power has a price after all...
...and many of the prices are such as cannot be stopped. Power gravitates toward those of the Old Blood, laying thick and heavy in the air around them. This changes the way the world works around them to a degree.
Involuntary
~Words and Bonds: Promises and given words around the Old Blood provide a pattern for Power to flow through. Even casual promises become binding in their presence. This does not effect any person who holds true to their word but to those that break their given word the Power gives consequence. The most common consequences are: Infertility, madness, a break in fortune, and ill luck. This binds the Old blood harsher than those of other races, most Old Blood that break their word will slide over into Evil ways or into Madness.
~Longevity: Those of the Old Race have health and long lives granted by the sheer amount of Power that gathers around them. The average life span is measured in centuries rather than decades as long as murder is not a factor.
~Good Fortune: The lands and areas where the Old Blood make their home benefit from the Power around them. Fields are fertile, the weather, while harsh at times, will never throw trees into buildings where people are living, etc.
Voluntary
~Words and Bonds: Unlike when promises are spoken in their presence, if the Old Blood can have someone give their word directly then the Old Blood can hold and bind by such word. A word given to civil behavior, for example, if broken, the Old Blood can use to hold a person beyond a room for as long as their own strength and will holds out.Likewise they can bind a person to stillness.
~Declarations of Forsworn/Oathbreaking: When an individual who has given their word or oath to a member of the Old Blood and breaks it, the Old Blood in question may label them as an Oathbreaker, which in essence draws the attention of the Power to bear down upon the forsworn individual.
Individual Abilities
Setting aside that which is around them, a great deal of Power is intrinsic to the being of one of the Old Blood. Each member has their own talents and ways of accessing their abilities. Even the lowest farmer has strength in his fields and the highest noble may be capable of crafting gates between worlds.
The relevant ability in this write up is that of Healing. Healing is not a common individual ability, mainly granted to those of true Good or true Evil. It is an ability of great harm or great good, but either source of healing has a cost. It is this cost that keeps most healings in the Witchworld uncommon or things of quests. Healers tend to their close family and friends, or those who will put a great distance between themselves and the healer after. Following are the reasons why:
Low Level: Cost is in energy from Healer
~Wound cleansing: To halt or reverse an infection that has not progressed far.
~Light bruising/scratches: Healing of scratches and light bruising
~Food Poisoning: Curing of food poisoning
~Sleep: Sending someone into a restful sleep
~Calming: Calming a panic or fear
~Holding of bones/casts: The use of Power to hold bone fragments in place on the inside of a body rather than the outside. This must be powered/touched up on every day bones must be held.
Mid Level: Cost in energy from healer and patient
~Advanced wound cleansing: Cleaning and disinfecting a wound that has been going septic for some time.
~Mid range bruising/sprains: Healing of mid range bruises and harsh sprains.
~Deeper cuts/slashes: Healing of wounds that pierce through skin layers into a few layers of muscle.
~Deep sleep: Sleep without dreams.
~Illness: Curing of most general illnesses.
Drawing poison: Drawing poison from a wound before it has permeated far into the body.
High level: Cost in energy from both as well as additional side effects such as one or two ways bonds for energy draw, emotional bonds, shared dreaming, etc. High healings go too deeply into another person and leave traces.
~Restorations of putrification: Salvaging a usable limb or body section from advanced decay.
~Organ/bone regrowth: Restoring/healing/regrowing bones and organ tissue.
~Advanced illnesses/recurring illnesses: Treatment or curing of advanced illnesses or congenital, recurring illnesses.
~Poison drawing: Drawing out a poison that has permeated the body.
~Holding after trauma: Holding a body alive after severe trauma that would otherwise cause death while healing. This often results in a dream state for the patient.
~Rebuilding: Restructuring and rebuilding of poorly healed or scarred injuries.
{This is a compilation of Old Blood and Healer lore as it pertains to the Witchworld setting per Andre Norton.}