In the Darkness there is Truth
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a darkside device that can be used for a twisted form of healing. This is a dark side version of items commonly used in Light Side alchemy.
- Image Source: Here. Picture of a Goa'uld hand device from Stargate. Found on arhivelestargate.com.
- Canon Link: N/A
- Restricted Missions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Manufacturer: Eidolon Supplies & Transport.
- Model: N/A
- Affiliation: Closed-Market, Covenant of Uriel
- Modularity: No
- Production: Semi-Unique
- Material: Alchemised metal, Force crystal.
Can heal grave injuries
Requires sacrifice
Corrupting
Strengths:
- Through the power of the device, the wearer is able to heal grave injuries, restoring a degree of functionality even to a severely injured body. An injured or poisoned body will be invigorated and be able to sustain itself for longer. However, it does not ensure perfect health or wholesome recovery, far from it.
- Extremely durable. The enchanted metal makes the device virtually unbreakable by conventional means.
- Ysalamiri and such make the device powerless.
- Vulnerable to Force Light.
- The gauntlet is rather difficult/painful to remove.
- As it is created via Sith alchemy and fed by sacrifice, it is corrupting for both the user and the patient. Those who are healed by it are infused with dark energies and become drawn to the Dark Side. They are inevitably tainted.
- To use the healing device is rather taxing and exhausting. This means that it is utterly impractical to use in the middle of combat, leaving the user vulnerable.
- The device hungers and must be fed to maintain full effectiveness, especially if the injuries it's supposed to heal are very severe or it's employed for a prolonged period. Draining the life force of a sentient being and feeding it into the ring can charge it. Bottom line, you sacrifice one life to save another. Tying in with the corrupting effect mentioned above, this leaves a mark on both patient and user, staining their souls.
- Sith healing is not as effective as healing with the light side and this device does not change that. Moreover, it is painful for the person who's being healed. Patients who've experienced the device have described the feeling as agonising. The device feeds on the pain and feelings of anger it produces, creating a feedback loop. Until the process is complete, dark side energies burn through a patient's body like a wild fire does through a forest. The pain is most grievous for those dedicated to the Light.
Force healing is generally considered to be the exclusive domain of the Light Side. However, this is a mistaken assumption. The Dark Side can be used to heal, but such power comes at a terrible price. In many cases, the results are only temporary or require a ghastly sacrifice. For example, one of the practicioners of dark side healing was Darth Bane, who resorted to a twisted form of Force healing to keep himself alive long enough to reach a real healer after being poisoned.
He accomplished this murdering a farmer's children before tha man's eyes and feeding on the pain that ensued. Millennia before he was born, Exar Kun's shattered body was repaired through the power of the Dark Side after being crushed in the tomb of Freedon Nadd. Both Darth Sion and Darth Vader are good examples of the twisted form dark side healing can take.
Uriel's Grace is another alchemised item Sumiko Tanaka created after taking control over the Covenant of Uriel. Like the Talisman of Uriel, it is supposed to strengthen the ruse of her being a benign prophet sent by the Avatar of the Light to help the downtrodden. At the same time, it can be made available to select clients.
The device is an attempt to channel the power of Sith magic to heal, though at a considerable cost. After all, the faithful expect 'miracles'. Conveniently, the Covenant teaches that the efficacy of a treatment has less to do with the competence of the doctor and more with the moral character of the patient. In other words, if you don't get better, it's due to some moral failing on your part because it all comes down to the will of Uriel. This is very convenient because dark side healing is often unreliable.
In essence, Uriel's Grace is a life transfer device. Imbued with dark magicks, the gauntlet draws upon the energies of life to heal wounds, even grave ones. While benign on first side, the device is far from it. It hungers and must be fed in order to work - and the only way to accomplish this by drawing on another person's life force. Take one life to save another. This makes the device corrupting, both for the wearer and the person who is being healed by it. Some people who were saved from dying by the item have even claimed they heard voices and experienced terrible hallucinations. Perhaps because it carries an echo of the person who was sacrificed.
It is also very taxing to use and thus not practical on a battlefield. In addition to being corrupting, the dark energies the device wills to flow through a patient's body cause the aforementioned patient great pain. This is part of the process because the device feeds on the pain and anger it produces. The pain is most grievous for those dedicated to the Light. Indeed, the item will actively seek to corrupt them and pull them further to the Dark Side. Needless to say it is a bad idea for a Light Side adept to use it.
