Hraathkhild Gemstone Augments
by OneEyedZealKey to the Hraathkhild nation’s prosperity is their ability to alter and enhance their bodies with implanted gemstone. The gemstone redirects and changes the troll’s natural vigor and regenerative talents; different kinds of gemstone can have different effects, as can implanting gemstone in different parts of the body. Gemstone implantation is not a permanent augmentation, as troll blood will gradually corrode, splinter and dissolve the gemstone over time. A properly placed gem will confer augmentation for years or decades–more than enough time for the trolls to prospect for and find a replacement.
Gemstone implantation is immediately obvious. Even though the gemstone chip itself may be buried deep within a troll’s body, the surrounding skin and muscle shifts its color and shape to match, giving the impression of a huge chunk of faceted rock bulging out from the skin. This is cosmetic only–the affected tissue is not any tougher than normal, and bruises and bleeds normally when damaged.
The most common kind of gemstone augment is quartz in the head and brain. This enhances intelligence and cognitive ability–the larger and more cleanly cut the quartz, the greater the enhancement. Excellent-quality quartz is thus highly prized, and the subject of various schemes and intrigues to secure for one’s heirs or deny to one’s enemies. Every true Hraathkhild troll has been augmented with quartz since early whelphood; the rare Hraathkhildr who proves resistant to quartz augmentation is doomed to a short, unhappy life of near-slavery.
Quartz can also be implanted in other areas of the body–though this is uncommon, since it requires quartz that might be better used to extend cognition or uplift whelplings. Trolls with body quartz are often seen as arrogant, vain and conceited by other Hraathkhildr (a set of traits that many with body quartz welcome and lean into with their actions, mind). Quartz in the arms or hands improves strength and combat ability; quartz in the legs can enhance movement speed or agility; quartz in the torso and abdomen improves endurance, vigor and resilience.
Other kinds of gemstone can also augment a troll when implanted. Agate either enhances fine motor control within a limb or encourages the body to grow a new limb, depending on where it’s implanted. Tourmaline can harden the skin and reinforce bones, while garnet can improve resistance to different kinds of magic. Different kinds of jade alter natural regeneration; green jade allows acid damage to regenerate and is most often used by tanners and burrowworm wranglers, black jade enables regeneration from fire and is commonplace among smiths, red jade and white jade limit regeneration from bleeding and blunt force trauma and are sometimes forcibly implanted in criminals and the disgraced (as every troll has fists and fangs). Several other kinds of gemstone augmentation exist.
(Inserting an image here of a chart table, rather than wrestling with the BBcodes. Apologies for quoting/transcribing, I can share raw text if needed in a PM!)
Somewhat ironically, the rarer kinds of gemstone (emerald, ruby, sapphire, opal and especially diamond) have little or no known effect when implanted into a troll, or are outright debilitating. Several veins were undoubtedly discovered and abandoned as dross during the first millennium exploring the Hraathreach; after making peaceful contact with Barimoor, the trolls have begun some mining of these ‘useless’ gems as trade stock.
Soul crystals, smuggled out of the Shadow Elf Terrories with extreme caution, are the most recent addition to the Hraathkhild panoply. They appear to bestow and enhance magical casting ability–granting shamans and wokani a wider range of spell knowledge, and sometimes allow non-spellcasters limited access to spell use once implanted. The tendency of trolls augmented with soul crystals to eventually suffer debilitating withering, months or years after implantation, is surely just an experimental limitation that the Hraathkhildr will overcome with sufficient research and study.
The art of gemstone augmentation is in common use only by the Hraathkhildr. Other troll nations might be able to benefit similarly, but the ability to accept gemstone augments is not a universal trait (genetically recessive) and surface trolls will almost never experience gemstone augmentation, even accidentally. The Hraathkhild trolls are unique in having bred for gemstone augmentation, as well as constructing a society that applies it intentionally and often.