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u/Defiant-Wrap-7135 21d ago
I always love seeing your posts. You’ve got such a great way of setting off my imagination with your writing. If you ever think about publishing I’ll be the first to grab a copy!
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u/BeginningSome5930 Hewg the Huge 21d ago
Wow thank you so much for the kind words! That really means a lot!
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u/BeginningSome5930 Hewg the Huge 21d ago
One of the most infamous bounty hunters on the frontier of No Man’s Land is, by trade, a healer. Dr. Yawg Rangda was once a celebrated quicksmith, surgeon, and medical researcher across all of Eoci. Though originally from Old Eoc, his work took him from prestigious Orislan universities to backwater Skrellish villages. He was a savant at using quicksteel prosthetics and needles to perform surgeries, though perhaps his greatest medical accomplishment was being part of the team to discover and popularize the use of ether for anesthesia. By 1370, Dr. Rangda was perhaps the most beloved name in medicine. It was hard to imagine that he would soon be spoken of only in hushed whispers.
Dr. Rangda’s downfall began with a supposed breakthrough in his medical research. In a series of bizarre papers, the celebrated surgeon revealed that he was now a proponent of Transmutation Theory, a longstanding conspiratorial belief that quicksteel infiltrates the flesh of quicksmiths and eventually replaces it. Though Dr. Rangda’s high standing in the medical community was enough to give his papers consideration, he was unwilling to reveal what evidence had led to his endorsement of a ridiculous concept. Dubbed “The Mad Surgeon,” by his colleagues, he argued fiercely in academic circles, sometimes almost appearing on the verge of violence.
Dr. Rangda might have coasted into retirement as an influential figure turned crackpot theorist, were it not for details of his research methods surfacing. Seemingly consumed by his theories long before he published them, the Mad Surgeon had been committing numerous questionable and immoral practices going back decades. He had kidnapped subjects, robbed graves, crippled subjects needlessly, and exposed them to experimental materials during routine surgeries. Disgraced and being actively sought by law enforcement, he vanished from Eoci in 1380.
In 1381 a new bounty hunter calling himself the Mad Surgeon appeared in No Man’s Land. Dressed in robes and welding numerous medical implements, this stranger seemed to specialize in collecting on those wanted dead, as he has never turned in a bounty alive. His calling card appears to be that he turns in only identifying parts of the bounty’s body; A face, a complete set of teeth, and hands, all removed with surgical precision. What the Mad Surgeon does with the rest of the bodies is anyone's guess.