The Ashen Hands
The Ashen Hands is a humble but venerable charity dedicated to tending to those wounded in body, mind, or soul by the Rift and its lingering magic. They mend what others will not touch: the Severed, the Rift-sick, and the forgotten poor who live in the shadow of the Riftwatch Quarter.
Founded after the First Riftflare, they have endured centuries of quiet service — their healers and attendants recognized by their pale gloves, which they wear both to honor the dead and to protect themselves from the subtle stains of Riftlight.
Cultural Significance
In Nova Roma, the Ashen Hands are seen as both saints and ghosts — revered for their selflessness, pitied for their thankless burden. Riftborn and Severed in particular see them as kin, and some who are healed later join their ranks.
Structure
The Ashen Hands is less an institution than a quiet order of service, bound by humility and ritual. Its members are divided not by rank but by calling: those who mend flesh, and those who mend spirit. The Healers of Flesh tend to broken limbs, Rift-burns, and bodies mangled by failed rites, their craft a blend of medicine and minor, sanctioned magic. Alongside them walk the Healers of Soul, listeners and ritualists who sit with the Severed and the Rift-sick, warding their minds against the unraveling whispers of the Rift.
At each hall presides a Matron or Patron, not as a master but as a guide, teaching apprentices by example rather than command. Circles of younger Hands follow them from bedside to bedside, learning not only the craft of healing but the patience of enduring.
Culture
Their motto — “We do not turn away” — is more than rhetoric. Members are expected to endure what others refuse: the smell of Rift scars, the screams of the Severed, the bleakness of endless failure. They operate in silence where appropriate, their presence a balm of quiet mercy rather than spectacle.
Public Agenda
The Ashen Hands seek to ensure that no victim of the Rift is abandoned — whether they are deemed mad, unclean, or beyond help. They also serve to remind the Imperium that mercy and law are not always the same.
Assets
Their greatest asset is their presence — an unflinching willingness to go where others will not. The Hall of Quiet Mercy, their headquarters, stands as both refuge and fortress, its wards strong enough to shelter even the dangerously unstable Severed. Inside, narrow beds line the walls, nullstone slabs cooled by Riftlight breezes.
They possess a small fleet of Riftcarts, humble but sturdy, drawn by patient mules and painted with the faintly glowing sigil of the Ashen Hand. Shelves within the Hall hold Riftglass bowls for ritual washing, Codex-sanctioned medicines, and bundles of Rift-moss herbs known to soothe the worst of the Rift-sick.
It is not wealth, but readiness, that sustains them — and the quiet respect of those who understand what it means to touch the untouchable.
History
Founded by Matron Caritha Solven after she witnessed the dead left unburied and the maimed ignored following the Fall of the Outer Forum. Over time, the Ashen Hands grew from a street hospice to a respected — if grim — institution, its members learning to resist Rift-sickness and maintain calm even in the face of magical collapse.
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