Immortality
Immortality is not the end of death. Merely the eternal cycle of it.Immortality. A condition lusted after by many and achieved by none. On Earth, immortality is unattainable, but in Estya, it is a very real condition both sought after and despised at once. Immortality in Estya does not work the way it does other places, though, as immortals can still be wounded, get sick, and die. The difference between the mortal and immortal is whether the dead wake again.
Causes
Immortality is caused when enough magic is poured into an individual's Anchor, binding it shut and preventing the soul from escaping upon death. Typically, the amount of required magic is divine in nature, though enough sorcerers banding together could theoretically accomplish such a feat as well.
Symptoms
For centuries, immortality can be easily concealed. Simply don't die or don't allow anyone to know of your death . However, as time goes on, and deaths accumulate, the quantity of scars, both internal and external, can be identified by those familiar with immortals or immorality in general. Typically, immortals can be identified through patterns of fatal scarring that they have miraculously seemed to have survived.
Treatment
There is no known treatment for immortality, though some scholars have speculated that enough deaths will exhaust the magic holding the anchor shut, allowing it to be broken once again.
Prognosis
Immortals often spend their lives in hiding, and the only time one can be discovered is a few days after they are killed. Immortals' bodies will begin to mend any fatal injuries or illnesses a short time before their heart restarts and they awaken again.
Sometimes, a projectile or weapon is the cause of death, and in such cases, immortals require the help of friends or bystanders to remove the object in order for the body to heal. Without any intervention, for example, an immortal with a spear through their heart will be unable to heal, but will still resurrect, only the die once again not long after. It traps them in a cycle of death that some factions use as a means of "executing" discovered immortals.
Sequela
A key thing known immortals have noted is that non-fatal injuries-- even debilitating ones-- do not heal upon death. This has resulted in immortals, over time, gradually losing various functions of their body. In theory, they would have to either die permanently, or be caught in an eternal cycle of living and dying.
Knowing what awaits us in death, I can only pity them.
Cultural Reception
Because the nature of the condition defies the laws of nature as many Estyans understand them, immortals are rarely given warm welcomes anywhere in Estya. In factions such as the Darkforge and Ebonblade, authorities go so far as to attempt to permanently incapacitate or execute immortals, usually in the form of decapitation. If the authority is feeling particularly cruel, they may order the immortal killed, restrained, and tossed into the ocean to drown.
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