Physiology & Function
Arcanic functioning prioritizes that which the body needs to sustain itself off of arcana and survive in an evolving environment. Thus, several systems shut down or have limited functioning due to them being considered unessential. In most individuals, the gastrointestinal tract is shut down as the body begins using arcana (or blood or chlorophyll) as its sole food source. The body stops producing keratin and, in many cases, skin as well.
However, the biggest changes are neurological. Arcana usually does not deem cortex functioning essential, and so many outer areas of the brain are partially or entirely shut down, and several areas of inner and mid-brain functioning show diminished activity as well. Scientists on the globe theorize that the increased arcana
slowly 'eats' the cortex, thus the name 'hollowed'.
The Daermad Case Theory
The Daermad Case refers to a Protectorate arcanist case in the mid-fourteen hundreds; a young man named Novak Daermad who fled the Protectorate and disappeared somewhere off the isle of Cravven. Daermad had been employed by the Protectorate as a slighen for the previous decade, however he displayed acts of both blood and vale arcanic utilization shortly before his disappearance. Although he was never found, and there's no proven explanation for his display of abilities, three students at
Ethaeras University suggested what they believe to be the only natural explanation.
Found at the estate where he resided the month leading up to his disappearance were the remains of two women—sisters of a family that was brutally murdered almost a century before Daermad disappeared; one blood arcanist and one psychic arcanist. One of the students posited that the blood arcanist had been pregnant before her first death and had remained so throughout her hollowed state, feeding off the remains of the fully dead psychic arcanist and only delivering her child upon meeting her second death. It was suggested that Daermad subsequently may have been born hollowed himself, and that the ingested arcanic biomaterial from the psychic arcanist may have further altered the fetal development.
However, the theory was never fully developed. When the students brought up the initial idea to their superiors they were told to forgo the proposed thesis for a 'more appropriate subject' with warning that further inquiries on the case would be met with immediate suspension.
Resulting State of "Life"
It is entirely possible for hollowed arcanists to sustain themselves for years, or even centuries, with adequate consumption of arcana. There are a number of physiological and neurological differences in the hollowed individuals depending on their arcanic typing, and
blood and
vale arcanists are more likely to survive in the condition due to their ability to utilize arcana directly through biological matter.
However, with little to no cortex functioning, hollowed arcanists are much more limited in their mental capacity and essentially can't function in a society. They often exhibit erratic and dangerous behavior, especially when not ingesting enough arcana regularly, and usually have little to no social awareness or understanding. Thus, in most parts of the globe they are hunted and killed. Arcana is rare enough throughout the globe that in most instances, hollowed arcanists would not be able to find a consistent supply of arcana to sustain themselves, and so they are killed both to prevent them from harming or killing anyone else as well as to prevent their own painful starvation.
Avill Glen
Avill Glen, along with several other smaller circles throughout the
Etter, is one of the few places where hollowed arcanists are not killed. The Etter's vegetation provides more than enough arcana for any number of hollowed vale arcanists to survive, and the denizens of the circle are able to peacefully coexist in vicinity with the hollowed.
The circle refers to hollowed as 'feywild', and these hollowed often wander the Etter independently, occasionally finding their way back to the circle for short periods of time. While they rarely interact with the circle or its denizens, they do seem to sometimes recognize the faces of their close friends or family members.
I feel awful for saying it, but I almost wish. . . Inigo doesn't remember him from before he—before he, um, left. She only knows him as this figure that returns on my birthday each year. And I remember him so clearly from before. When he was really here; when he could talk, and laugh, and play with us. And it's just. . . it's awful, every time I see him again.
— Julen Alaniss
Slighen
Because slighen are not able to utilize arcana in the same way that arcanists are, their bodies react differently to becoming hollowed. They still function on, and must consume, arcana to sustain themselves, however having arcana actively passing through their nerves and bloodstream triggers a
slighen arousal response. Staying in this state for an extended period of time has a multitude of consequences. Over time, the arcana in their body prioritizes fight-or-flight functioning, and begins to send the body into overdrive.
Within several weeks of transitioning, the slighen will begin to experience severe headaches—the result of neurological dysfunction and stress on certain brain areas. In time, this will lead to overdrive of the adrenal glands and lead to abdominal cramps. Eventually, the adrenal glands will spontaneously rupture, which will kill the hollowed slighen.
Usually the slighen dies in this manner about a month or two after their first death, however there are a number of other effects that might also lead to their second death. Some may try to seek sexual release in attempt to end the arousal state, and in male slighen this can prevent bladder release and lead to eventual bladder rupture. Punctured or collapsed lungs may also occur and can kill the hollowed slighen as well.
A Guide to Death
There is no escape from the hollowed state, as there is no true undoing of death itself. However, the passage of life into death is a delicate affair in many places throughout the globe. A number of methods have been employed throughout history and across civilization to either alleviate the pains of such death—or exploit it.
A Rite of Passage
During the early centuries of the Second Era, the Cravven Imperium often used captured hollowed arcanists and slighen to give their soldiers—slighen and common—realistic, in vitro training. The hollowed would be forced to fight the soldiers, or other prisoner arcanists, to the death in large fighting cages.
For young Imperium soldiers, this was usually their first arcanist kill and used as a trial to judge their readiness for assignment to an Imperium company. The test not only required the soldiers to execute their arcanist efficiently but also to determine the arcanic typing of their victims, which may be ambiguous in a hollowed.
This tradition was mostly disbanded with the disintigration of the Cravven Imperium in the late thirteen-hundreds, however
several slighen monasteries within the Protectorate still engage in what is now considered to be an illicit practice.
A Bloodletting
Aggressive drainage of the body's blood has historically been a successful method for bypassing the hollowed stage of life. While it is extremely painful for the arcanist themself—it results in a rapid firing of arcana throughout the brain with the produced hormone rushing to both create more blood and plasma from itself as well as heal the lethal wounds that are usually consequential of blood drainage—several more intolerant nations have used it as a means of killing arcanists.
The Beourjen Confederacy is infamous in the modern world for engaging in such abuse during the
the Arcanic Purges, but accounts of arcanic blood draining date as far back as the eighteenth century of the First Era. However, many of the earliest accounts also detail the consequences of unsuccessful drainings: rabid and insane hollowed hunting down their killers for decades and inflicting all manner of perverse torture in retribution.
A Descent into Oblivion
Armistace, as well as many other cities in Avar, offer much kinder alternatives for dying arcanists. Voluntary or assisted death is the common term used across Avar, and arcanists who are either dying or ready to die may pay for 'treatment' at a number of physician's practices granted rights by the Armistace Guilds.
The preferred method of death in most areas is a combination overdose. Leeches and bloodletting may be used in addition, the bloodletting in these cases being a drastically different procedure from those otherwise mentioned.
Ethaeras University has also been purportedly studying the possibility of surgery to sever the spinal cord or remove the brainstem to the degree that it may not be repaired by arcana, which in the future could provide more humane release from the hollowed state while still keeping the body mostly intact.
This is creepy! A natural "undead" state - ew! Your world must be a harsh place.
Thank you for the feedback! This is definitely one of the creepier articles I've written so far but it is generally a harsh place!