“Murder is a sin worse than digging wells in our hometown. Not because the soul is sacred, but because a body is. What is not whole, is not holy. A torn body is but a foul parody of the universe.”
- Pathologic
Necromancy and haruspicy - the art of divining from dead things, from their entrails, souls or entire bodies. It’s a ritual that requires time, skill and knowledge. Incorrect incisions will damage the tissue and render the flesh worthless. Too big or too dull a tool will do the same. Lack of knowledge will render the whole endeavour moot, and the conclusions erroneous. The art can be learnt only from another person, and perfected through long practice.
Organs and Limbs
Let us split haruspicy into a source of knowledge a few things: mind of an individual, health of an individual, or the disease that killed them, and the world, if the individual (or animal) was tied to it.
Brain
Mind finds its shelter there. Each part of the brain corresponds to a part of the mind. If part of a mind is rotting, so will the corresponding part of the brain, and vice-versa, if part of a brain is damaged, so is part of the mind. Parts of the mind that reside in the brain are as follows.
1. Logic
2. Spirituality
3. Memory
4. Perception
5. Motion
6. Will
Health - if the brain fails, so does the rest of the body. A disease that gives mental or pain-based symptoms in the head may be striking the brain.
World - brain and the heart are the anchors of the soul that speak with the Higher Self and the gods.
Eyes and Ears
Mind sees the world through the eyes and hears it through the ears. If there’s something wrong with them, then the view of the world is skewed. If the view of the world is skewed, the mind will eventually be, too.
Health - the inflammation of either can spread into the brain, and damage to these organs means impaired perception.
World - does it have eyes or ears? Does the world watch us as we watch it? What are its eyes? What are its ears? What does it think of the things it sees?
Spine
Mind is held up by the spine. Spine is the morality, the integrity of a person.
Health - a broken spine means crippling. Rot in it means awful pain. Spine holds the body together and allows it to retain its shape.
World’s integrity depends on the spine. Breaking it means the breaking of things as they are, an apocalypse to usher in a new era. Rot in it means the things that hold the world together, be they a man-made system, the Laws or the Engines are coming apart at the seams.
Heart
Mind - heart is the keeper of emotion and a second anchor of the soul.
Health - heart pumps blood within the vascular system; damage to it may be even less repairable than damage to the brain.
World - the heart of the world allows it to function, perhaps even feel. Its destruction could mean either the world’s emotions grows rotten, or that the emotions of people take a turn for the worse.
Vessels and Nerves
Mind - the connections that join everything together and let things flow. Stemming the flow might mean parts of the mind may be excluded from communication with each other or the world. Logic may not believe what the eyes see, or motion may cease to listen to what thoughts demand.
Health - similarly blood is the medium of nutrient and pathogen transportation, and so bleeding weakens the body. Nerves allow the central nervous system to connect to every organ and muscle, similarly with connections within the nervous system itself.
World - if the paths of connecting the world are severed, peoples are stranded and secluded. Sometimes stranding and seclusion leads to death, sometimes it produces variety and strength.
Lungs
Mind needs air to exist. Lung is the chimney of the forge of ideas, and larynx needs them to let the ideas out through speech. Breath is the sign of life to the world, a measure of body’s (and by proxy the mind’s) vitality and energy.
Health - destruction of the lungs kills the body. Infection in them slows them down, makes breathing difficult, and by proxy slows down the entire body, weakening it.
World - Lung is the gateway to the Outside; it pulls the positive in and pushes the negative out. What form does it take in the world? It could also mean the damage or destruction of things that kept the evil and good from mixing.
Liver
Mind - liver and the kidneys rid the mind of toxins, keep negative or destructive thoughts out. Their impairment allows them to flood in unabated. Furthermore liver and surrounding gastrointestinal glands nurture the mind like soil and allow it to function.
Health - damage to the liver, while it can often regenerate, causes problems with digestion, toxin removal, and a score of other bodily processes.
World - many traditions of haruspicy only require the liver of a sacrificial animal. It contains many a line that tell about the world and the gods. It is the earth which filters water of toxins and upon which the body of life is nurtured.
Kidney
Mind - liver and the kidneys rid the mind of toxins, keep negative or destructive thoughts out. Their impairment allows them to flood in unabated.
Health - damage to kidneys and other parts of urinary system can be extremely painful and end up in impaired toxin removal, which will slowly poison the body, weakening and killing it in the process.
World - damage to the kidneys might mean damage to things that keep good and evil from mixing, corruption of moral or judiciary systems, potentially end of some duality (similarly with other symmetrical organs)
Intestine
Mind - intestine, like the liver and glands, is the soil that nurtures the mind. It represents the gritty chains that join the mind and body, change that mind goes through, and the process of aging.
Health - damage to the intestine, especially perforation, may cause its contents to spill into the peritoneal cavity and heavy bleeding; it’s often lethal if not treated.
World - damage or rot in the intestine means the process of change becoming corrupted, the earth that nurtures the body of life growing warped or infertile.
Hands
Mind - hands are part of the mind’s expression to the outside world, they give way for emotions and logic both. They also have a role in perception through the skin.
Health - damage impairs motion of the limb, rot may spread to the rest of the body if not contained or amputated. Often limbs are the first thing that gets damaged by area effects (like frostbite, burning, etc.)
World - damaged hand could mean the impact of the gods being stilted somehow, perhaps the death of their Archons or otherwise a halt or corruption of intricate motions of the world.
Legs
Mind - legs carry the mind where it needs to be, they represent the journey, so their impairment means stillness, crippling, slowing down.
Health - damage impairs motion of the limb, rot may spread to the rest of the body if not contained or amputated. Often limbs are the first thing that gets damaged by area effects (like frostbite, burning, etc.)
World - damaged leg could mean lack of celestial motions, stilling or corruption of the grand but not necessarily intricate movements of the universe.
Lines
Each line of a world beast has something it represents, and its location. Sometimes multiple lines can represent the same thing or different aspects of it. Disturbances in those lines could represent various disturbances to the things they represent.
Sky - that which is aerial, sometimes that which is aetherial. Divides heaven from earth.
Disturbance - damage to something airborne, like birds, dragons and such; the blurring of the border between Beyond and Here, prediction of rain and draught.
Location - they split lungs into lobes and segments that each tell of a different part of the sky.
Aetheria - that which is ethereal - the souls, spirits and such.
Disturbance - damage to the soul or to the way souls are handled in the world.
Location - follows round ligament of liver, difficult to see intact in its original path.
Aeterna - that which is eternal - the gods, the Laws, the Engines.
Disturbance - change in the Laws, deaths of gods, world being changed or born anew.
Location - follows lesser curvature of stomach, then duodenum up to duodenojejunal junction.
Earth - the soil and that which nurtures.
Disturbance - infertility of both life and the soil, emergence of things that will uphold the Laws.
Location - follows the curve of common and external iliac arteries.
Sea - the great waters.
Disturbance - death of fish and other waterborne things, emergence of the Deep Gods,
Location - follows the bile ducts, excluding the cystic duct.
Iron - that which builds towers, forges weapons and flows in the blood.
Disturbance - fall of civilisation, death or corruption of conventional live.
Location - follows splenic artery.
Stars - those that shine above.
Disturbance - astronomical changes, strange celestial motions, arrival of something from the stars.
Location - lymph nodes; different parts of the sky are depicted in different parts of the body.
Necromancy
The usage of body parts in spells, rituals and alchemy.
Brain - spells that affect rational thinking.
Example:
Fog
Grind a brain into a pulp, add proper herbs and salt, then boil it, chanting spells, until the smoke turns brown. Collect the smoke into a container, preferably glass.
If released, the smoke creates a vapour that quickly dissipates in the air and doesn’t smell, making everyone in the vicinity have a clouded judgement and become prone to bad life choices, without realizing it.
Eyes and Ears - spells that affect hearing and sight
Example:
Mark of Blinding
Dry an eyeball and grind it into dust. Mix the dust with blood, bile, ink and some bonedust. Let the mixture stand for a night under moonlight, then use the entirety of it to write down the correct symbol.
If a person to whom the mixed blood, bile or bonedust doesn’t belong to gazes at the symbol, they are blinded for a few minutes.
Spine - spells that affect morality, movement and bone structure.
Example:
The Evilizing Whip
Extract the spine and remove the tissue surrounding it and within the vertebral canal. Join each vertebra with metal to form a chain. Sprinkle it with the blood of a unicorn and fashion the handle out of human skin.
Each strike of the whip wears away at an individual’s morality, turning them more and more evil.
Heart - spells that affect emotion.
Example:
Bull’s Heart
Squeeze the blood out of a heart of a freshly killed bull onto a piece of cloth. Put the rest of it in a copper chalice, then burn it on a small fire sprinkled with moondust. Wave the cloth over the fire as it smokes and let the smoke soak the cloth as you recite evil incantations.
When you sprinkle the cloth with someone’s blood and later show it to them, they’ll become overcome with mindless, murderous rage.
Lungs - spells that affect breathing
Example:
Sand Pest
Dry lungs and grind them into a powder. Mix the powder with finely grounded desert sand and thistle. Move the powder into a clear glass bottle and write infernal symbols on it, all the while chanting prayers to a demonic lord of disease. Let the bottle cool down in a cold stream through a night afterward.
Inhaling the powder will cause the sand pest plague to spread in the victim’s lungs, turning them into a bloody pulp. Blood, mucus and saliva the victim coughs out will spread the disease.
Intestine - spells that affect gastrointestinal tract.
Example:
Digestive Biscuits
Separate the large and small intestine. Dry the small intestine and grind it into powder, then mix it with baking soda, flour, egg and sugar grown on a field in a village where a witch was burnt. Add water and finely diced large intestine, make it look like chocolate (you can even dip it in one), and shape the resulting mass into cookies while singing hymns to the forgotten gods. Bake them for a few hours until they’re crunchy.
The person who eats the cookies will open a portal to a random dimension in their gut.
Hands - spells that disarm and affect fine manipulation
Example:
Mage Hand
Sever a fresh hand right above the wrist. Shove a magically potent mountain crystal up its carpal tunnel, then secure it with horse or human hair mixed with frogskin glue. Mark the hand with eldritch runes and whisper evil things to it at midnight. Next day, with the first rays of dawn, it’ll start moving on its own and obeying your commands.
The hand is weak and can’t last long in combat, but is capable of fine manipulation and fetching light things.
Legs - spells that affect movement.
Example:
Tripping Wire
Grind a femur into fine powder and strip tendons and ligaments of other tissue, then weave them into a rope. Rub the bonedust into the rope. Burn the rope in morning-dew-sprinkled hellfire. Once the ash cools down, you’ll be able to pull out the still-intact rope.
If thrown, the rope wraps itself around the legs of the targeted creature.
Liver - potions of healing and remedies.
Kidney - poisons and spells that poison the body
