Control and manipulation of physical bodies, encompassing healing, enhancement, and biological reconstruction. Corpus practitioners are the physicians and body-sculptors of the Weave, working at the cellular and molecular level to repair, improve, or transform living tissue.

Corpus resonates with the biological patterns within the Weave—the quantum signatures of DNA, cellular structures, and organic chemistry. Practitioners perceive bodies as living code, biological machines that can be debugged and recompiled.

Corpus and Luxomancy were discovered together, making them the second and third disciplines to be systematized (after Infomancy). This dual discovery is not coincidental—both work with living systems, and early practitioners found that healing the body without addressing emotional trauma often failed.

Why Corpus Came Early

After the collapse, survival demanded medical knowledge. Thread carriers naturally gravitated toward healing:

• Injuries from dangerous post-collapse world
• Diseases without modern medicine
• Desperate need to preserve human life
• Observable, immediate feedback (wounds close, bones mend)

Corpus provided clear success/failure indicators—patients lived or died. This immediate feedback accelerated technique development.

Cultural Significance

In Weaver culture, Corpus practitioners are called "Lifebringers" or "Fleshsmiths" depending on regional dialect and whether work is medical (healing) or enhancement (augmentation).

Traditional sayings:

• "The body remembers what the mind forgets."
• "Threads flow where blood flows."
• "Heal the whole, not the wound."

The Restoration Academy is the premier Corpus training institution, though they emphasize the Corpus-Luxomancy synergy. Pure Corpus specialists also exist in military medical corps, rural healing villages, enhancement clinics, and forensic reconstruction.

• Thread Color: Pale green or bioluminescent blue-green
• Glyph Patterns: Double-helix formations, cellular grids, organic fractals
• Manifestation: Luminous threads spreading through tissue, visible cellular repair, organic light patterns
• Emblem Style: Double-helix entwined with nanogrids

• Healing: Repairing injuries, mending broken bones, closing wounds
• Disease Cure: Eliminating infections, purging toxins, correcting genetic errors
• Enhancement: Strengthening muscles, improving reflexes, heightening senses
• Regeneration: Regrowing lost tissue or damaged organs
• Biological Sensing: Diagnosing conditions through Weave perception
• Growth Manipulation: Accelerating or stunting biological development

Corpus practitioners manipulate quantum biological processes—quantum coherence in photosynthesis, electron tunneling in enzymes, quantum effects in DNA. Threads create plasmonic cavities that couple with biomolecular systems, enabling direct manipulation of biochemical reactions at the quantum level.

Healing works by guiding quantum tunneling probabilities to favor correct molecular configurations (bone alignment, tissue repair). The "biological code" is the quantum wavefunction describing the organism's state.

Function: Reads biological state of a living subject within arm's reach, revealing injuries, diseases, toxins, or abnormalities. Provides sensory data about tissue damage, organ function, infection presence, and structural integrity.

Duration: Temporary (sustained concentration, typically 15-30 seconds)

Thread Cost: Low (5-8% of reserves for standard scan)

Applications:

• Pre-healing assessment (understanding full scope of injury)
• Disease detection (finding infections, tumors, toxins)
• Progress monitoring (checking if healing is working)
• Forensic analysis (determining cause of death)

Limitations: Requires physical contact. Cannot diagnose mental/emotional conditions (requires Luxomancy).

Function: Closes surface wounds (cuts, lacerations, punctures) by accelerating natural clotting and tissue fusion. Stops bleeding and prevents infection. Works on wounds up to ~10cm long, ~2cm deep.

Duration: Instantaneous tissue fusion, permanent healing

Thread Cost: Low-Moderate (8-12% reserves depending on wound size and depth)

Applications:

• Combat first aid (stopping bleeding quickly)
• Accident response (closing clean cuts, preventing shock)
• Surgical closure (finishing incisions)
• Minor injury treatment (kitchen cuts, workshop accidents)

Function: Repairs simple bone fractures (clean breaks, single-bone injuries, no displacement) by guiding calcium deposition and bone cell activity. Creates functional repair in 30-60 seconds, though full strength takes days of natural healing.

Duration: Permanent repair (immediate structural stability, full mineralization over 3-7 days)

Thread Cost: Moderate (15-20% reserves for standard long-bone fracture)

Note: Compound fractures require Advanced tier—see "Reconstruct" in intermediate catalog.

Advanced Note: This spell creates immediate structural stability (patient can bear weight within minutes) but full bone strength requires natural mineralization over days.

Function: Identifies and neutralizes toxins, poisons, or harmful substances in the bloodstream and tissues. Accelerates liver/kidney filtration and guides toxins toward elimination pathways. Effective on biological poisons, venom, alcohol, some drugs.

Duration: Temporary acceleration of natural detox (30-120 seconds active work, followed by hours of natural elimination)

Thread Cost: Moderate-High (20-30% reserves depending on toxin load and severity)

Applications:

• Poisoning treatment (food, venom, environmental)
• Overdose response (drugs, alcohol)
• Infection support (bacterial toxins, fever reduction)
• Hangover cure (alcohol metabolism acceleration)

Limitations: Cannot remove non-molecular threats (bacteria, viruses themselves—only their toxins). Works best within first hour of exposure.

Function: Reduces or eliminates pain by modulating nerve signal transmission. Does not heal the underlying injury, only masks pain response. Duration depends on severity and practitioner skill.

Duration: Temporary (10 minutes to 2 hours depending on power investment and injury severity)

Thread Cost: Low-Moderate (10-15% reserves for moderate pain, sustained 30-60 minutes)

Applications:

• Emergency pain relief (allowing patient to stay conscious/functional)
• Surgical preparation (local anesthesia for minor procedures)
• Chronic pain management (temporary relief, must be repeated)
• Childbirth assistance (labor pain reduction)
• Dying patient comfort (hospice care)

Ethical Note: Restoration Academy teaches that pain is diagnostic information—blocking it without addressing cause is poor practice. Soothe should always be followed by Diagnose and appropriate healing.

Function: Temporarily enhances immune system response to fight infections, diseases, or foreign bodies. Accelerates white blood cell production, increases antibody activity, and improves cellular immunity.

Duration: Temporary enhancement (6-24 hours of elevated immune response, then gradual return to baseline)

Thread Cost: Moderate (15-20% reserves for standard immune boost)

Applications:

• Infection resistance (before or during illness)
• Post-surgery support (preventing infection)
• Epidemic response (boosting population immunity)
• Chronic illness support (AIDS, cancer patients)
• Preventative health (maintaining robust immunity)

Limitations: Cannot cure diseases alone—only helps body fight them. Can be counterproductive in autoimmune conditions.

Function: Temporarily restores physical energy and reduces fatigue by optimizing cellular metabolism, clearing lactic acid, and enhancing oxygen delivery. Provides burst of endurance and alertness. Does not heal injuries, only masks exhaustion.

Duration: Temporary (30 minutes to 2 hours of enhanced energy, followed by "crash" requiring rest)

Thread Cost: Moderate (12-18% reserves)

Applications:

• Combat endurance (soldiers fighting prolonged engagements)
• Emergency response (rescuers needing sustained effort)
• Travel stamina (long journeys without rest)
• Performance enhancement (athletes, laborers)
• Recovery acceleration (helping exhausted patients rally)

Warning: Vitalize is not a substitute for rest. Overuse leads to severe exhaustion, metabolic damage, and potential organ failure. Restoration Academy limits students to one Vitalize per 24 hours on themselves, two per week on patients.

Function: Repairs complex bone injuries including compound fractures, multiple breaks, bone displacement, and fragmentation. Capable of rebuilding shattered bone structure at molecular level.

Duration: Permanent repair (immediate stability, full strength over 1-2 weeks)

Thread Cost: High-Severe (23-35% reserves for compound fracture, can go higher for complex injuries)

Applications:

• Compound fracture repair (battle wounds, accident trauma)
• Shattered bone reconstruction (crush injuries)
• Bone deformity correction (congenital issues, poorly healed old breaks)
• Forensic reconstruction (rebuilding skeletal remains for identification)

Risk Assessment: High-risk procedure. Misaligned fingers during Triad can redirect threads to practitioner's own skeleton, causing self-injury. Restoration Academy requires supervised practice on cadavers before live patients.

Function: Removes toxins, poisons, venoms, or harmful substances from bloodstream and tissues. More advanced than basic Purge, can handle exotic poisons and chemical exposures. Threads identify and neutralize foreign compounds, then guide their elimination through natural excretory pathways.

Duration: Active cleansing (15-30 minutes depending on toxin load)

Thread Cost: Moderate-High (25-40% depending on toxin severity)

Applications: Poisoning treatment, overdose intervention, venom neutralization, chemical exposure

Limitations: Cannot purge all toxins (some too deeply integrated), severe poisoning may require multiple sessions

Note: This is a more powerful version of the novice Purge (Toxin-Flush) spell, capable of handling exotic poisons and severe chemical exposures that the basic spell cannot address.

Function: Accelerates healing of soft tissues—muscles, organs, skin beyond simple wound closure. Can repair internal damage, restore function to injured organs, regrow significant tissue loss.

Duration: Tissue regeneration over hours to days (initial casting 20-40 minutes, body continues healing after)

Thread Cost: High-Severe (40-60% for significant organ repair)

Applications: Organ damage from disease/injury, muscle tears, severe burns, limb salvage

Limitations: Cannot regrow entire organs from nothing (requires surviving tissue), brain/nerve damage partially responds, extremely time/thread intensive

Function: Places patient in medical stasis—slows metabolism, reduces oxygen needs, prevents deterioration. Buys time for critical injuries until proper treatment available. Patient remains unconscious but stable.

Duration: Can maintain hours to days (requires periodic thread reinforcement)

Thread Cost: High initial (35-45%), Moderate ongoing (5-10% per hour)

Applications: Battlefield triage, disaster response, buying time for transport, preventing death from hemorrhage/trauma

Risks: Too long in stasis causes irreversible damage, improper release can cause shock/death, requires skilled practitioner for both suspension and revival

Function: Temporarily enhances physical capabilities—strength, speed, endurance, reflexes. Pushes body beyond normal limits without causing damage. Effects last 10-30 minutes before exhaustion sets in.

Duration: Active enhancement (10-30 minutes), followed by fatigue/recovery period

Thread Cost: Moderate (25-35% for full enhancement)

Applications: Emergency strength (lifting debris), combat performance, athletic competition (illegal), rescue operations

Limitations: Cannot exceed theoretical human maximum, exhaustion afterward proportional to enhancement, repeated use damages body, highly addictive

Ethical/Legal: Banned in sports, controlled in military, abuse potential high

Function: Comprehensive medical assessment revealing all injuries, diseases, infections, genetic issues, and physiological abnormalities. Far more detailed than basic Diagnose. Provides practitioner with complete health picture.

Duration: Active scanning (10-20 minutes for thorough assessment)

Thread Cost: Moderate (20-30% for full diagnostic)

Applications: Medical diagnosis, pre-surgical assessment, identifying hidden conditions, forensic analysis of cause of death

Limitations: Identifies problems but doesn't fix them, information overload possible, some conditions difficult to interpret

Function: Emergency revival of recently deceased or dying patients. Restarts heart, restores breathing, reverses shock. Can bring back patients within ~10 minutes of cardiac arrest if brain intact.

Duration: Instantaneous revival, but requires follow-up stabilization

Thread Cost: Severe (50-70% or more), often depletes caster completely

Applications: Emergency medicine, battlefield revival, accident response

Limitations: Cannot revive if brain dead (more than 10-15 min without oxygen), cannot fix underlying cause of death (may die again immediately), immense thread cost, high failure rate, traumatic for patient

Cultural Significance: Considered borderline forbidden—interfering with natural death

Function: Regrows lost tissue, organs, or entire limbs from remaining cellular material. Accelerates natural healing processes by thousands-fold, directing stem cells to differentiate correctly and rebuild complex structures. Can restore function to damaged nerves, regenerate severed spinal cords, or regrow lost eyes.

Thread Cost: Extreme (70-90% for major regeneration, scales with tissue volume and complexity)

Applications:

• Limb restoration for amputees
• Organ regrowth (liver, kidneys, heart)
• Nerve repair (paralysis treatment)
• Eye regeneration (blindness cure)
• Battlefield triage

Limitation: Requires some original tissue (cannot grow from nothing), time-intensive (hours to days even accelerated), thread-expensive, patient must be alive and stable, cannot regenerate brain tissue safely (consciousness risk), age-related degradation harder to reverse.

Function: Directly alters genetic code in living cells—correcting genetic diseases, modifying traits, or enhancing biological capabilities. Can edit single nucleotides (gene therapy) or rewrite entire chromosomes. Changes propagate through cell division, making modifications permanent.

Thread Cost: Very High (60-80% depending on edit scope)

Applications: Curing genetic diseases (sickle cell, cystic fibrosis), enhancing immune systems, increasing longevity, modifying appearance, strengthening muscles, improving cognition.

Ethical Catastrophe: Genetic Rewrite can alter identity (changing personality traits encoded genetically), create "designer people" (enhancement inequality), introduce unknown mutations (long-term consequences unpredictable), modify embryos/children without consent (parental genetic engineering), weaponize genetics (creating biological advantages for warfare).

Legal Status: Heavily Regulated—therapeutic use requires Restoration Academy certification and ethical review board approval. Enhancement use varies by jurisdiction (some ban, some permit with restrictions). Embryonic editing forbidden in most regions. Military applications classified.

Limitation: Cannot predict all effects (gene interactions complex), changes permanent (cannot easily reverse), some genes resistant to editing, off-target effects possible (editing wrong sequences), ethical burden enormous.

Function: Places subject in state of biological stasis—metabolism slowed to near-zero, aging halted, consciousness suspended. Far more advanced than Cryoarchitectonics preservation (which freezes), Suspended Animation maintains living state without deterioration. Can preserve subjects indefinitely.

Thread Cost: High initial (45-60%), low ongoing (5% per hour, can be maintained by rotation of practitioners)

Applications: Preserving dying patients until cure found, long-duration space travel (theoretical), avoiding death sentences (imprisonment in stasis), research subjects preservation, emergency medical stasis.

Psychological Effects on Subject:

• Short stasis (hours): Disorientation, time-loss confusion
• Medium stasis (days/weeks): Profound dissociation, depression, difficulty re-engaging with time
• Long stasis (months/years): Severe identity issues ("lost years"), relationships severed, world changed radically
• Extreme stasis (decades+): Existential crisis, feeling "out of time," difficulty finding purpose

Limitation: Requires constant thread maintenance (multiple practitioners in shifts for long stasis), subject experiences no time passage (not same as sleep—complete consciousness suspension), awakening requires careful reversal (too fast causes shock), cannot reverse aging already occurred before stasis.

Function: Restores life to recently deceased (within ~30 minutes of death) by restarting biological systems, repairing fatal injuries, and reigniting consciousness. Does not violate thermodynamic laws (cannot restore long-dead) but can reverse death if physical substrate intact enough.

Thread Cost: Extreme (80-95%, near-total depletion, requires immediate rest)

Common Failures:

• Too late: Brain death already irreversible (>30 minutes typically)
• Damage too severe: Cannot repair enough for viability
• Consciousness won't return: Body restored but mind doesn't reignite (vegetative state)
• Incomplete repair: Subject revives but with deficits (brain damage, organ failure)
• Thread depletion: Practitioner collapses mid-resurrection, both die

Applications: Emergency medicine (trauma, heart attack, drowning), battlefield recovery, assassination prevention, cherished loved ones salvation.

Restoration Academy Position: Resurrection permitted only for: (1) Patient had advance directive requesting it, (2) Death was traumatic/unexpected (not natural end of long life), (3) Quality of life post-resurrection expected to be acceptable, (4) Practitioner capable (sufficient skill + thread reserves), (5) No other patients in immediate need (triage priority).

Limitation: Narrow time window (minutes), requires intact body (severe destruction cannot be reversed), consciousness return not guaranteed, massive thread cost, ethical burden crushing, success rate ~60% in ideal conditions, practitioner risks own life from depletion.

Function: Reverses biological aging by repairing accumulated cellular damage, restoring telomeres, clearing senescent cells, and returning tissues to youthful state. Can regress elderly to middle age or even young adulthood. Not mere appearance change—true biological age reversal.

Thread Cost: Extreme (75-90% for significant age reversal, proportional to years reversed)

Applications: Life extension for valuable individuals (researchers, leaders, artists), terminal disease avoidance (resetting to pre-disease state), restoring function to elderly, vanity treatments (controversial).

Ethical Catastrophe: Immortality inequality (only wealthy can afford age reversal, creating biological class system), population pressure (if everyone lives indefinitely, overpopulation catastrophe), stagnation (elderly leaders/rulers staying in power forever), identity confusion (elderly person in young body experiences psychological disconnect), natural cycle violation (death gives life meaning—removing it may create existential emptiness), resource monopolization (immortals accumulate wealth/power across centuries).

Legal Status: Heavily Restricted—most jurisdictions permit for medical necessity only (disease reversal), forbid for life extension or vanity. Some ban completely. Black market age reversal exists (Shadow Syndicate involvement).

Biological Limits: Cannot reverse past biological maturity (cannot make 30-year-old into child), cannot prevent eventual cellular exhaustion (can reverse to ~25-30 but not maintain indefinitely), diminishing returns (each reversal less effective, eventually stops working), maximum lifespan still ~120-150 years even with repeated reversals, brain aging hardest to reverse (personality/memory changes risk).

Limitation: Extreme thread cost, diminishing returns with repetition, cannot extend maximum lifespan indefinitely, brain reversal risky, creates profound inequality, psychologically destabilizing, forbidden/restricted in most jurisdictions.

Function: Creates biological neural link between two minds—deeper than Infomancy Mind-Link (which uses EM fields). Neural Communion connects actual nervous systems, sharing not just thoughts but full embodied experience, muscle memory, autonomic responses. Ultimate empathy—experiencing exactly what other feels/thinks.

Thread Cost: Very High for both (50-65% each, synchronized)

Applications: Deep therapy (therapist fully experiencing patient's trauma), combat coordination (perfect teamwork), teaching (master sharing muscle memory), interrogation (experiencing suspect's memories), romantic intimacy.

Deeper than Mind-Link: Infomancy Mind-Link shares thoughts/data. Neural Communion shares entire nervous system state—feeling partner's heartbeat, muscle tension, hunger, pain, joy. True embodied empathy.

Ethical Catastrophe: Total vulnerability (cannot hide anything—thoughts, memories, physical sensations), consent complexity (once linked, difficult to withdraw consent), trauma contagion (sharing PTSD/pain damages both parties), interrogation violation (forced communion extracts all information—torture), manipulation (abusers could use communion to gaslight victims).

Legal Status: Heavily regulated, requires informed consent from both parties, therapeutic use only (some jurisdictions), interrogation use forbidden (classified as torture).

Limitation: Requires mutual trust (resistance prevents link), extreme vulnerability, identity bleed risk, cannot be sustained long (minutes maximum), psychological aftermath requires therapy, forbidden for coercive use.

Function: Rewrites human biology to transcend normal limits—eliminating need for sleep/food/air, achieving immortality through cellular perfection, gaining superhuman capabilities (strength, speed, regeneration, immunity). Attempts to "perfect" the human form beyond natural design.

Thread Cost: Extreme (90-100%, potentially lethal to practitioner)

Theoretical Results: No aging (cellular perfection achieved), no disease (immune to all pathogens), rapid healing (regeneration at will), enhanced capabilities (superhuman strength/speed/senses), reduced needs (minimal food/water/sleep/air).

Why Forbidden: Unknown consequences (no successful attempts documented), humanity loss (may create something no longer recognizably human—philosophical zombie, monster), genetic instability (might trigger catastrophic mutations, cancer, death), social disruption ("ascended" individuals would dominate normal humans), entropy catastrophe (perfect biology violates thermodynamics—infinite entropy debt), failed attempts fatal (all documented attempts resulted in death or worse).

Legal Status: Absolutely Forbidden—attempting Biological Ascension illegal worldwide, classified as crime against humanity, immediate termination order for anyone attempting.

Limitation: Theoretical only (no confirmed successes), likely impossible (thermodynamically), attempts fatal, may create monsters instead of perfected humans, violates natural law, forbidden globally.

• Overcorrection: Excess tissue growth, calcium buildup, tumorous formations
• Thread Backlash: Misaligned glyphs causing internal injury (shattered ribs, bleeding)
• Cellular Drift: Threads following natural Weave currents into useless configurations
• Genetic Cascade: Unintended mutations spreading through organism
• Psychic Burnout: Overextension causing neurological damage to the practitioner

• Deep understanding of anatomy and physiology
• Precise fine motor control for surgical-level glyphs
• Strong mental focus to maintain stability during cellular manipulation
• Emotional discipline (working on suffering patients requires detachment)
• Knowledge of biological systems and natural healing processes

Thread Economy

Corpus work is extremely thread-intensive. Complex healings like bone reconstruction can burn out thousands of nanobots in a single session, requiring days of recovery for the practitioner's marrow to replenish thread reserves.

Practitioner Notes

Corpus practitioners must maintain unwavering focus during healing work. A misaligned finger in the activation glyph could redirect threads to the wrong nanobot cluster, potentially causing catastrophic injury to both patient and healer.

The discipline requires mastering the Empathy + Detachment paradox—feeling the patient's condition without being overwhelmed by their suffering.