headcanon book

Civil wars

Alright, so as i've already meantioned, is that when a ch falls into a civil war, they go into a coma

(tbh i created this while thinking of the american civil war and not wanting to personify dixie as he'd live for like.. 4 years)

There are usually 3 types of ch who's survived a civil war: Unaffected, Shattered, and Lost (theres also dead, but they didn't survive)

The unaffected personifications are those whos been in limbo for less than a year and thus do not have the ability to return, but they also don't have any (or many) side effects when they do return. (although they will probably get some trauma)

The shattered are those who have been stuck in limbo long enough to feel some of the more long term effects there, but had yet to pass the point of no return and thus recovery is still possible should they return

The lost are those who have stayed stuck in limbo long enough to pass the point of no return, should they survive their civil war and return, recovery is impossible and they will eventually become the monster their soul took while in limbo.

Those who are there for less than a year are unaffected, but usually the point of no return is about after a decade of staying in limbo, although it is possible for that to change, as every person is different and some have more resistance to it, as well as the chance of the corruption (what turns someone into a lost) being amplified. Those inbetween the Lost and Unaffected are shattered.

Now, it is possible for a ch to die in limbo, but yet their country itself survives, at that point a new ch will be born either upon the ch's death or the end of the civil war, and the old ch's body will begin to decompose as if they had just died (which...they did)

When a ch comes out of a civil war there are usually some side effects because why not.

If they're an unaffected, there will usually be none or reduced side effects, this varies upon how long they were actually in Limbo.

If they're lost, then once they return, their minds have already gone and so will their bodies/forms start to change into the forms their souls had when they left limbo. Usually lots of screaming is involved as this isn't exactly painless, but they can't exactly properly communicate that so most people don't really know that. There is usually a fracture or 2 somewhere on their bodies.

The Shattered are the most interesting. They will usually have a fracture somewhere on their bodies as a scar from the war. They're still sane, and when they first wake up, there is some conflict within themselves as some part of them/their soul wants to change their form into the one they took as a lost, but part will usually lose to the actual sane part of them which wants to recover, although depending on how close they were to becoming one, it might be a bit of an internal struggle.

Sometimes, a shattered might have an 'episode' in which they will experience some pain and some bleeding from their fracture. It is worst when their civil war is recent as those episodes can be longer and more intense as well as more frequent. So within the first month, a recently shattered ch might have one every other day or once every few days, within the first year might be once a week or a few times a month, and it will probably last most, if not the entire day. Although after a century, they will usually get one every other or few years, and they'll last for maybe 5-10h rather than the entire day.

Also a shattered won't exactly have the best mental health (or unaffected for that matter) due to just being in limbo, but the shattered will be worst as they'll have some of the corruption attempting to twist their minds for some time after, although the unaffected won't, or not as much.

Most ch who go into a civil war often die, so a lot of times, when a ch has a civil war in their history, its assumed that the old personification died and a new one was born. Not much is known about civil wars as most people assume that they're in a regular coma, and most people who do go into one die, and those who do survive, will not exactly want to talk about such things.

A lot of the modern day ch who are in civil wars right now, are probably already dead in limbo, so either a new personification (or 2) has been born or will be when their war ends, usually a personification will be born when the war ends as compared to when the ch dies is how much of an actual government they have left and if it's recognized, so if the government is in shambles, or one side is and the other isn't recognized, then the personification will be born after the war, if only one side is function/recognized, then only the personification for that side will be personified during the civil war, and if both functional and recognized, than both will be born/appear.

Now, as i've mentioned, one of the abilities that a person can gain is being able to return to limbo/travel between the land of the living and limbo. But this is something that only the shattered can do, as the unaffected do not have this ability. Now as i've also said, is that limbo is not a physical place, and yet the living world is physical. So, when they travel between the worlds, they actually leave behind their physical bodies in the living realm, but they are also able to use magic to bring things to and from limbo. 

Although a lot of times, those who can go back into limbo would rather not go back, and try to stay as far away as possible.

One ability quite a few CH have is the ability to store things in a small pocket dimension, but only non-living objects. Very few things is really created in Limbo, so at some point, everything there had a physical form, the souls of the doomed/lost had once been human and thus physical bodies despite being dead. Not to mention that a lot of humans who show up in limbo often brought things with them to Limbo. So one can bring anything from limbo that had once been in the living realm. So when they take said object from Limbo to the living realm, they are putting back the non-physical aspect of the object into its physical form and taking it with them (more will be explained later if this doesn't make sense) 

As I've said, that is that usually those whos been in a civil war for less than a year is an unaffected, as by that point they hadn't or just begun to truly feel the effects of the corruption, and those who've been there for 10+ years are a lost, but that can usually very from person to person. So someone who's been in a civil war for about 11 months *might* be a shattered or an unaffected, or someone who's been in a civil war for a little over 10 years might still be a shattered or someone who's been in limbo for 9 years might already be a lost. 

There are going to be more details about this, but that'll be in the chapter with extra details about limbo