Ephemeral Death

Most immortals' aren't able to stay conscious and functioning when they deal with severe wounds. In some cases, because of the nature of the organ affected, or due to the loss of blood, they will not only black out or show a weaker vital signs, but completely lost them.
They don't seem to be dying, they don't seem to be dead. Their body IS dead.
And yet they are still healing. Even more so: in most cases, they are healing faster than they normally would.

Causes

The temporary or ephemeral death, also know as The Sleep, Fog, or Portico in some cultures, it's usually triggered by wounds that would be lethal for regular people. For certain races, it may be induced by the immortal to make the healing faster or less painful.

Symptoms

The affected person has no pulse, breathing or any function of the living body other than aging and reproduction of cells. While scientist agree that there has to be some sort of neurological function, none has been detected in any of the volunteers.
In some cases, depending of the kind of wounds, race of the immortal, magic involved and environmental circumstances, there is bleeding and even some symptoms of corruption of the body. In other cases, those reactions will stop too.
In some worlds with little technology and/or medical knowledge, it can be easily confused with torpor or even with the natural coma.

Treatment

None Required.

Make sure that nothing is keeping open any wound in vital organs.

Remove any object from the wounds

Clean the wounds may be helpful in some cases

Prevent any new damage to the person affected

Some people recommend to cause lethal wounds to trigger the ephemeral death when the process of healing is too long or painful.

Prognosis

As long as the healing process is working as expected in the abiding person, they will recover. In some cases, the death can't be triggered again if the cause is still present and, if an object is still affecting a vital organ it's possible that the person won't wake up until that is removed.

Sequela

None known.

Epidemiology

Not contagious.

Type

Physiological

Origin

Natural

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity

Rare

Affected Species

• The abiding

Kill your darlings
Some cultures consider it wise to induce a temporary death in children, either for practice or to make it less traumatic when it happens in an uncontrolled environment. The latter may or may not be true, but the former probably isn't. In Ogha this tradition has become a form of meditation.

The ultimate healing

All this time, we have thought that the Ephemeral is death, that the body gave up because it's to damaged to go on, and once the healing has done it's job everything turns back on. But what if it is exactly the opposite? The process is more efficient without the damage caused by the natural internal movement, you know? Maybe the body intentionally shuts down everything for maintenance. — extract from All Kinds of Death