#sorry for no cool meur-powered prosthetic arms. i wish

[broncoburro]

does fg have prosthetics?

(This one was largely written by @lsdoiphin.)

Yes, but they’re nothing special for the time period. So, hooks and pegs for the lower class, with more aesthetically appealing, comfortable, and complex prostheses for those who can afford it.

If you were wondering about the prospect of meur-powered mecha arms, that’s something that would probably be feasible… in the far future. The field of prosthetics is slow to improve, and there are a few reasons the Tri-Kingdom isn’t actively pursuing refinement:

1. Vestur has been at (relative) peace for a long time.

In the real world, big leaps in the field of prosthetics tend to coincide with postwar periods. This only accelerated in the post-industrial age, when war became grisly enough to yield tens of thousands of amputees from a single conflict. Before that, amputees were sporadic enough to be considered unlucky individuals rather than a specific demographic to be accommodated.

In the setting, war on home soil is out of living memory; the Vesturian peninsula has enjoyed peace for more than a hundred years. When the Tri-Kingdom goes to war, it goes to war off-peninsula on its own terms. A foreign enemy’s most gruesome weapons couldn’t hope to match a red conductor’s fire or a green conductor’s brambles. Simply put, they aren’t getting injured as frequently or grievously as their opponents.

2. The work of white practitioners decrease the number of amputations that need to be done in the first place.

Another common reason for amputation is to control severe infection: if the limb’s too far gone, it’s better to have it cleanly removed. (And essentially get a fresh re-roll on the chance/severity of infection, in any age before antibiotics...)

But white meur allows practitioners to remove damaged tissue, repair flesh, and close wounds instantly. This drastically decreases the risk of infection, salvaging limbs which otherwise might not have ever healed properly. Granted, the patient still needs to have access to a white practitioner and have their wounds seen to in a timely manner, but the end result is still a kingdom where less amputations are performed.

Less, but not none.

3. The amputees of the peninsula tend to be common laborers.

Barring unfortunate carriage accidents, it's rare for a nobleman or a commoner of wealth to lose a limb. Most amputations in Vestur are happening in rural areas, or to patients who had to travel/wait a long while in order to be seen by a practitioner. The cultural image of an amputee in Vestur is probably one of the following:

a Southern sailor who developed gangrene out at sea

a Northern frontiersman, who lost a limb to exposure or had an amputation following a hare bite

a Midland farmer from the rural eastern coast who endured some livestock or farm equipment accident

Of these groups, few have the kind of guilder to motivate innovation. Some of them are lucky if they can afford something like a peg or the hook in the first place - it's a large expense. Some will scrimp to get a peg if it allows them to keep working, but these must be commissioned and fitted. For the most part, the poorest will use solutions the local craftsman can make (like crutches) or simply adjust to life with one arm.

The upper class can commission prostheses that allow some movement, but they’re solely mechanic in nature and custom-made to the buyer. Think of the IRL jointed peg legs invented by Ambroise Paré, or the metal hands of the 16th-18th centuries.

In short: it would probably take a large scale war to spark Vestur’s interest in prosthetics. (Either that, or it would need to become a personal issue for a very wealthy nobleman willing to fund research as a dedicated obsession. And the resulting designs would need to be cheap and easily reproducible by local craftsmen.)