Body Augmentation

Body augmentation is the practice of inscribing runes onto a living creature with the purpose of adding or improving bodily functions.

## History

The origins of body augmentation stems from the Earth Maidens in the form of Dark Scapers, these guardians were selected in times of need to expel or fight Devoid entities.

The Dark Scapers, also known as spiritual guardians were adorned with a unique rune language across their entire body, often the runes were written with a chalk paste which was resistant to water and stained the skin.

These guardians were not expected to survive their battles with the devoid and as such any rupture in their skin would result in a fatal explosion, so if a guardian looks to be failing in their fight they would intentionally cut their skin in an attempt to take the devoid with them.

Any who survive their encounters live in solitude to reduce risk to others, and only return when summoned for a purpose.

Over time, starting late in Era One, the earliest form of body augmentation became to take form. While highly illegal outside of the Earth Maidens at this time criminals began reverse engineering the body rune language.

During this period many willing and unwilling Astorians were subject to experimentation, most of which died, which slowed down any advancement. Initial attempts were replicate the chalk staining but eventually the process of tattooing was found to be more stable in comparison.

However in the early part of Era Two the Spires and Earth Maidens in an attempt to strengthen relationships between the two factions revealed the language of body runes in exchange for Envoker protection from Devoid forces.

Royalty and some experienced warriors were also granted the right to have certain body augmentation with approval of their respective Monarch.

Still to this day anyone who is not an Earth Maiden, Spire, Royalty or Warriors can be arrested for having body augmentations, with the potential of being executed depending on the augments.

## Current Usage

While Dark Scapers still exist in a very small capacity, a majority of body augmentation exists within the Spires.

There are four types of body augmentations; **Amplifiers, Protective, Offensive and Additives**.

Amplifiers simply improve or alter existing bodily functions, such as increasing reaction speeds, slowing weight gain, keeping a stable body temperature, etc. These amplifiers are the most popular with Royalty.

Protective augments require some essence control in most cases, but the most basic of which can allow the user to be resistant to Devoid influence. More active augments can cause parts of the user’s skin to harden, resist fire, change colour, or mend a wound dependant on how much essence is directed to the augmented area for example.

Offensive augments work in a similar way to protective ones in that they require essence control, however in this category the augments always require essence control for activation. The most common form of offensive augments is essence absorption which is used to strip devoid of any power, but also can be used on living creatures as well. Other forms of offensive augments include stunning any foreign object touching the user or flash heating the foreign object.

Additive augments grant the user abilities that would not usually be possible through natural means, and can require essence control dependant on how intense the added ability effects the body. A common additive augment would be to grant the user the ability to breathe underwater. More of this type of augment includes granting different vision types, such as thermal vision, wall crawling and water walking.

This form of body augmentation however is the most unstable of the four types, and often requires some body deformation, such in the case of vision augments which require the tattoos to be written directly onto the back on the eye and water breathing requiring specialized cuts in the skin to create pseudo gills in either the neck or around the torso.

As a result this category of augments are exclusive to high ranking Spires and specialised warriors, but highly sought after in illegal circles.

## Trivia

While most augments are visible on the skin, illegal augments are often masked via make-up, however they will glow if exposed to a forge stone.

Cutting or otherwise blocking part of an augment will no longer result in violent explosions of the user, but rather stop the inscribed effect until repaired.

Augments by default will glow white when essence is actively being channelled to it, colour augments were later added mid Era Three.