Kradarch Karsh'ga

The Bar'kashyr , children of the plains have little use for the delicate needlework that graces the houses of healing to the west. Their way of healing is as brutal and swift as their nomadic life across the sun-scorched steppe. Whether it is a deep cut to the bone or a bleeding gash, their wound care is left to the tireless, chitinous jaws of the plains' most furious creature: the Najl-Kharsh, or "Furious Fangs" in the common tongue.   The process is swift, cold, and utterly agonizing. The gash is first washed with a bitter herbal spirit, then stretched wide. A skilled handler, moving with frightening speed and precision, grabs the ants from a jar and places the massive head of one of these ants over the open wound. The ant, furious for its imprisonment and the grip, instantly clamps its powerful mandibles shut across the skin’s edges. With a quick, practiced twist of the wrist, the ant's body is severed, leaving the head and its vise-like jaws - locked in a final, iron grip - to serve as a stitch. This is repeated again and again along the entire length of the wound. But the true test of this rituals brutal healing is not the suture itself. As the ants clamp down, they unleash a burst of acid into the raw, still bleeding flesh. For the unfortunate recipient, this venomous death bite is a sudden, searing blast of pain, a deep-seated burn that makes the skin melt and all but the most courageous and stoic hearts scream in agony.   The resulting scar is a jagged, rippling line, often adorned with tiny, dark heads , holding on even in death until the sutures naturally loosen days later. These scars are worn with fierce pride - a show of trials and lessons learned, sealed within their flesh.