Fleshcrafters

*Life begets life.*

## Start of Darkness

Forbidden places in the human mind hide a dark legacy. Some are able to access this ancestral understanding. Those who can reach this intrinsic ability will inevitably be consumed by the urges that come with that knowledge. Instead of any having productive interests or passions, a Fleshcrafter has a compulsion to create abominations.

## Study of the Fleshcrafter

From the notes of Dr. Tarrin, lead psycho-surgeon of Portsmith medical society and Society of Inquisitive Minds member. Notes compiled after 12 hour (sanctioned) excruciation session of a captured Fleshcrafter, assisted by an unnamed associate.

*Hours and hours of constant questioning revealed almost nothing. There was no explanation that satisfied any of the observers, myself included. I will confess that it was absolute tedium to hear the same predictable lines of questioning for most of my productive day. Fleshcrafters have never described how they know the methods to create Deviants in the many hundreds of interrogations. Excruciations are almost a rite of passage in the Society by now. The answer required a much more objective view. Psycho-surgery is often unfairly categorized as “torture” because of the tangential lessons we learn from our patients.*

*This illuminating excruciation should put at least some of the efficacy concerns to rest.*

*The subject was frustratingly unclear on the knowledge he had of creating Deviants of any kind. According to reports leading up to the raid on the village (which succeeded in capturing the subject), several different people had gone missing before the Deviants had even shown themselves. His (the Fleshcrafter’s) “laboratory” was within an aberrant event that led into an oddly quiet field filled with jars, a burner, and other types of equipment one might expect from a biologist or chemist. This is roughly the same story as all the others, the details are mostly irrelevant.*

*It was only during a short break and an interesting conversation that the answer came to me. How would one who has never been around a society that allows for a natural passion or longing describe how they know that impulse?*

*We were circling in on an answer only after I broached the topic with one of the interrogators. Though Fleshcrafters could not be described as having a “creative” impulse, it’s clear that their compulsion and basic knowledge stem from a very similar idea:*

*Human impulses can be expressed in a variety of ways. However, the Fleshcrafter’s vitality is an almost scientific drive to produce Deviants. A Fleshcrafter’s productive impulse is cold and clinical. Why they exist and what parts of the mind hold the needed instincts to allow anyone to turn out this way is unknown. The inbuilt knowledge seems intrinsic to the mind, there is no other way to explain how they are able to learn this trait.*

*Whatever foul workings in the world allow for these sorts of impulses to manifest is currently unknown. My hope is that this study will encourage a new method of answering this question.*

*Addendum: While this is also touched on in the full draft of this study, I would be remiss to ignore the interesting parallels with other fields that have yielded similar results.*

## Psychology

Many similar themes are present in Fleshcrafters and multiple murderers. They share a proclivity for seclusion, capacity for regret, and seem affable. The disturbing insistence that they should be stopped and can’t help what they do is yet another parallel. Given that both Fleshcrafters and multiple murderers are enthralled by the death they cause (personally and as a result of their creations in the case of Fleshcrafters), it is not merely idle speculation that the two cases share many traits.

## Abominable Compulsions

Fleshcrafters have multiple stages of development. At a young age they appear to have a distinctive interest in anatomy or biology. Warning signs from youth are easily dismissed as simply being smarter than average. As they progress in age, a budding Fleshcrafter will display many similar indicators as serial killers: impulsivity, substance abuse, voyeurism, and an interest in harming animals. What truly sets them apart is their fantastical ability to create life from the raw materials of their victims, a process that eludes even those that study under them.

Creating a Deviant requires the flesh of recently deceased humans. Creating patchwork monstrosities from victims is a difficult task closer to civilization so Fleshcrafter will seek isolation while they work. More difficult areas of cities are the choice for those in urban environments while disappearing in nature works well for those in more rural settings. Aberrant events can be unexpected boons for Fleshcrafters given that they are cut off from the world.

Finding material is a must to create Deviants. If there is no morgue or other ready access to the recently deceased, a Fleshcrafter will readily kidnap and kill to take the flesh, brain, and bone of unfortunate victims. When their creatures are complete, the newly created Deviant will have a connection to the Fleshcrafter, readily taking orders from their creator or whoever their creator gifts them to.

A Fleshcrafter without access to much material will make creatures of lower quality than those with more ready access to what they need. The number of different corpses that are involved in making a Deviant informs that Deviant’s sense of self, each require at least two different bodies to complete the process. If only created out two different humans, a Deviant will be mentally closer to human. Some are even able to speak. The process renders a Deviant subservient to their creator, possibly out of choice (if the rare speaking Deviants are to be believed).

More complex Fleshcrafter operations (such as the massive, state run laboratories in the Technocratic Commonwealth) have a method of distilling of human flesh in nearly liquid form out of many different bodies. This flesh is stored in jars or bottles to be used in the process of creation. These more difficult Fleshcrafting studios create Deviants with less sense of self, even more akin to automatons than their cousins.

There are many ways to create Deviants and as many templates to create any of them. How or why these are created eludes investigators. The process is impossible to replicate by anyone who is not a Fleshcrafter themselves.

## Fleshcrafters and Cursed

Cursed and Fleshcrafters have an affinity for one another. The specifics of each relationship is different, but Cursed will usually set the general direction of a pair while Fleshcrafters end up as an advisor or less dominant member of the relationship. Fleshcrafters are the more grounded of the two and less prone to fits of insanity if they’re able to create their monstrosities. Cursed are the more flighty but have larger goals but can form a natural trust with their partner fairly easily.

The most established that exist far away from civilization have a self-sustaining ecosystem of sorts. Their creations capture more ‘material’ to make more Deviants to capture more ‘material’. If horror stories and rumor hold any truth, there may be whole kingdoms of livestock. Generations raised under the watchful eyes of their former friends and family, under the glamour of Cursed overlords.

## Fleshcrafter grafts

More experienced Fleshcrafters or those that find themselves in groups will often graft additional limbs or body parts to themselves or others in order to work more efficiently. The most experienced and well hidden Fleshcrafters can degenerate into a seething pile of body parts and organs if left to their own devices.