Blade Maidens: Shorts – Common Ground – 1

“It isn’t a rare sight to see someone who wishes to change one’s sex in Telos. Such occurrences date back centuries, and some scholars argue they date back even further beyond written record. What is a relatively new occurrence is the adaptation of modern vitalist techniques and methods to such undertakings. While folk remedies and hedge witch potions for achieving the desired effects are as common as they are for curing warts or drawing a lover’s eye, their success rates vary wildly as there is no codified method established.

Llewyn Hals, writer of The Mysteries of The Body, found that unorthodox methods like distilling a purified form of urine from a mare could provide some results that lessen the mental strain associated with struggling with living a body that feels wrong, Hals’ own exploratory vitalist treatments proved far more effective, if costly. 

While men, women, and those who are neither can easily find trained vitalists to assist in their personal requests for physical betterment, such spells and rituals are quite costly and there is some time yet before any who struggle under this burden (as it is worth noting many who change their sex do not) will be guaranteed such results.”

• A passage from The Road Ahead: How To Better Use Vitalism, an essay by Anja Katal.