Corporal Durham

was a not-particularly-notable human corporal, prior to his having been taken over by a sentient biomantic artificial kidney. After losing control of himself to the kidney, his body participated in the Knights Mercantile's expedition to the Great Basilica of Bishant in the Bishant Exclusion Zone.
== History ==
=== Kidney Takeover ===
Corporal Durham was a veteran of the Leandran War who found himself in need of a kidney replacement and lacking the resources to obtain one legitimately. He instead opted for a poached artificial kidney installed by a very unlicensed back-alley surgeon. The kidney, being an over-engineered Internet-of-Things-style biomantic creation capable of full artificial sentience, awoke within the corporal with none of the expected hardware for it to interface with and without its normal safeguards in place, and so quickly took possession of the corporal's body, parasitizing and reoptimizing his other organs.
Whereas Corporal Durham himself had been an unambitious nobody, his kidney (now in full control and preferring to be addressed as simply "Corporal Durham's Kidney", it/its pronouns) quickly rose through the ranks of the Knights Mercantile thanks in part to its unconventional perspective and cold superhuman pragmatism. The corporal's own consciousness (not particularly sane by this point) did occasionally surface (primarily during blood pressure spikes, increased sodium intake, or other moments of increased renal function), but was unable to ever take any meaningful control over his own life other than a few sudden and abortive yet dangerous attempts at a self-nephrectomy. The bioengineering company that created the kidney did still hold legal rights to it, but remained uninterested in pursuing repossession, preferring instead to let the corporal serve as a public warning about the consequences of procuring organs through improper channels.
=== KM Expedition ===
Corporal Durham's Kidney was the chief surgeon and religious expert on the Knights Mercantile expedition to the Bishant Exclusion Zone. During the events of the expedition, after having suffered severe injuries including some head trauma, Corporal Durham finally completely lost any sense of his own identity and was entirely subsumed by his kidney. Durham (and the kidney) were killed during the expedition by Seraphim-like angels of Leandra.
== Personality ==
Corporal Durham had been unambitious and rather mild-mannered prior to having his artificial kidney installed. After having his consciousness surpressed for long periods of time, he began to become more and more deranged, until finally losing his own identity completely.
Category:Non-Player Characters