Editing Binding (section)

=== Hallows ===
A hallow or vessel refers to an object, person, area etc. which is prepared for an Other, usually an immaterial Other, to inhabit.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /> Often involves symbolically cleansing the hallow of other influences first,<ref>To make a hallow, one makes a space for an Other. To make a hallow for a spirit, one would create a vessel, container, or designate an item (circles, glyphs, markers all help) and cleanse that item, emptying it of all other influences, spirits, echoes, everything else. Then you do what you can to encourage spirits of the right type to find the hallow. Again, having the right signifiers and spiritual signposts really help. If you've got a carved katana with red wrapping around the handles and a flame etched on the blade, you can guess what sort of spirits are going to move fastest toward the open spot. Regular cleansing keeps the 'pollution' out, and spirits or echoes in general will follow the path of least resistance. Then you just keep them there, locking the door behind it after it arrives. This 'locking' can be naming and clarifying the spirit, making a deal, exerting power, or drawing out a barrier or circle to close off any lures or awareness of the world beyond the hallow (if it's very dull or lacks much will of its own, this can work nicely). Or whatever else. The hallow can be a place or a person (including oneself), in addition to an item. Hallows tend to work better on immaterial Others and don't work on material Others (those with actual bodies, forms). - [https://old.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/f03xyr/_/fgrp79j/ Comment by Wildbow]</ref> and "hollowing out" the vessel.<ref name=":7">“Hallows. Making a place for an Other. They can occur in nature and may have been the foundation for the very first practitioners to learn how to deal with Others. Others, like us, need sustenance. The nature of that sustenance varies wildly, ranging from food, sleep, and drink for the most visceral Others, to specific sentiment or faith for the immaterial. The Hallow is a shelter that is intended for the long term, and spares most Others the need for sustenance, as the Hallow supplies. It is, if one dwells on the positive bindings, a place made into a long term home for the Other, within a person, place, or thing. The place must be hollowed out, treated, and the correct signposts must be set, to guide the right inhabitant to that space. [...] Immaterial Others are most inclined to inhabit a hallow. Spirits, echoes, and incarnations are diffuse enough that they could inhabit anything. For many visceral others, such as your common goblin or bogeyman, they may require that you break the body first. The goblin becomes its own hallow. The bogeyman can be slain, then trapped in an appropriate vessel. The negative binding, using opposites, then applies to seal the hallow, should you want to trap the Other within. Put the Bogeyman or echo into a container that suits them and their nature, then seal that container appropriately with something anathema to them, so emerging is harder. A rusty box surrounded by fine silver chain, an old fashioned syringe of emotional significance, buried in salt.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/27 Excerpt] from [[Cutting Class 6.1]]</ref><ref name=":8" /> From an Other's perspective, the benefit of a Hallow is that they don't need their usual sustenance (food, sleep, energy etc) while inside one.<ref name=":7"/>

* A [[ghost]] can be bound into an object connected with their nature, such as a bottle for an alcoholic.
* A [[Tortoise Spirit]] can be bound into something ritually washed with rainwater and marked with tortoise sigils. A vessel containing a Tortoise Spirit will be made tougher and heavier, possibly larger or slower as well.<ref name=":3" /> 
* A [[familiar]]'s animal form is a type of vessel for the transformed Other. If the normal familiar bond is damaged they may "leak" spirits and energy, but they can also accept spirits as a power source.<ref>I’m a container for spirits. I’m supposed to be a vessel for an Evan-spirit, but stuff got broke. Spiritstuff is leaking out like a slow drip, so we’ve been giving me more spirits to keep me going. So what I’m saying is, we stuff something inside me. Something like a megahuge ''fire'' spirit, and we let me blaze a trail. ''Literally''. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2015/02/03 Excerpt] from [[Judgement 16.4]]</ref>
* Blake speculated that a ghost's body serves as a vessel helping them stay anchored, which is why destroying it weakens them.<ref>“Tear me up… I’m tired.”<br><br>“I know,” I said. ''Your body is less intact, and your body is… some kind of vessel that’s keeping you anchored here.'' - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/04/12 Excerpt] from [[Conviction 5.2]]</ref>
* Many material Others, such as Bogeymen, can be trapped inside a vessel after their body has been slain. A possible vessel for a Bogeyman would be a rusty box.<ref name=":7" />
* An unborn child is a naturally defenseless hallow that could become a vessel for many things, but normally the mother's body serves as a barrier to protect it.<ref>I talked about Hallows, before. A child that is yet to be born has no defenses and forms a vessel that… ''many'' things could inhabit, let’s say. The body of a mother protects the child within, but it doesn’t readily protect the child from what’s already within the mother, or that which is part of the child. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/07/28  Excerpt] from [[Out on a Limb 3.5]]</ref>

Some Practitioners will create humanoid vessels to act as servants, such as [[Feorgbold]] and [[Terracotta Soldier]]s.

A hallow may be additionally surrounded with a negative binding (see above) once occupied to trap the target inside.<ref name=":7" />

==== Human Vessels ====
A [[human]] can be hollowed out, creating a [[Hallow]] inside them usable for a variety of Others. This might be done deliberately or accidentally. If too much is removed they may be left a [[vestige]] able to do little but serve as a vessel. [[Edith James]] is a natural example of such a vessel,<ref name=":8">These three were vessels. Like Edith was, but these ones were too neat, when he looked at them with the Doom’s eyes. Closer to the space he’d carved out for his Doom, but… a much, much bigger hole. There were practices that asked for high prices. Practices like the Heartless practice his father had conducted. Blood magic, host magic, cultists… and many preyed on innocents, or counted innocents among the collateral damage. When too much was taken out, there could be vestiges. Just enough of a person that it could stand, walk, and breathe, but something integral was gone and wouldn’t come back. A house with an exterior and little in the way of rooms or furniture, if it had anything at all. A practitioner could put ''anything'' in that space, really. Someone had probably done that to these four. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/24 Excerpt] from [[Back Away 5.d]]</ref><ref>A jockey that my family warned me about- an Other that takes over bodies. Like the Girl by Candlelight did with Edith, but hostile. They prey on those who take Others into their bodies, or innocents with vulnerabilities. [...] It stayed with its host too long. Became too intermingled. It died It was a relief when it did, especially considering how Edith James is the kind of vessel it would have loved. It was the kind of thing that we had to constantly keep in the backs of our minds. I made triply sure it was dead and gone. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/08/04 Excerpt] from [[Out on a Limb 3.7]]</ref> as was [[Blake Thorburn]].<ref>I was a vessel, and the spirits would fill in the gaps in the way that made the most sense. If I was damaged, they’d shore me up, but I’d become less ''me''. Already, some of the branches were raised, the skin rougher. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/08/09 Excerpt] from [[Null 9.6]]</ref> If done deliberately, care must be taken that something unwanted doesn't claim the vessel.<ref>A vessel, but the edges weren’t so neat. Some were, but it was like a space of a certain size had been measured out, and this figure had forced her way in, breaking and straining some parts of the container. [...] When a hallow or vessel was prepared, care was usually taken to guide the right things to the space created. Here, something had failed and an elemental Other with an affinity for mirrors or reflections had crawled inside. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/24 Excerpt] from [[Back Away 5.d]]</ref> [[Host Magic]] Practitioners deliberately hollow out parts of themselves to serve as Hallows.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":1" />

A hole in a person's skull is a natural hallow. Ancient Practitioners would deliberately create them using trepanation.<ref>Alexander would later compare the incident to trepanation.  An old custom of drilling holes into the skull, with skin replaced over the hole after, done as a spiritual thing.  It was still conducted as a medical practice in some areas, to alleviate building pressure within the skull.  [Nicolette] had a hole in her skull too, though not at the forehead, and it had and did let spirits and other immaterial things in. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/07/11 Excerpt] from [[Stolen Away 2.z]]</ref> Practitioners will generally anchor the hallow to one or more of seven [[Self#Chakras|standard points on the human body]] when creating a vessel: crown (top of head), mind’s eye (forehead), throat, heart, solar plexus, stomach, groin.<ref name=":9">He knew from his studies and work with the Doom that Hosts liked to bind things to key points in the body. It made sense that a Vessel would have their space carved out starting at one of those. He slammed his forehead into hers. The reaction wasn’t anything special. Which others? The Crown was one space, very top of the head, but he was pretty sure she’d manifest differently if the Other were housed there.<br><br>He punched her in the solar plexus.<br><br>She didn’t carry the mirror woman there. He hit her again, dead center of the stomach.<br><br>There. He could see the Other within her react. It looked like it was housed in two of the seven points. Stomach and groin.<br>[...]<br>When it slammed her into the tree, the branches of that tree and the branches it had put into place slammed through the seven ‘host’ windows of her body. Crown, mind’s eye, throat, heart, solar plexus, stomach, and groin. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/24 Excerpt] from [[Back Away 5.d]]</ref><ref>When putting stuff into the Self, there are a few windows or key points of the body that have been formalized. A lot of the more intense schools of practice will dig into these, either to harvest from others or remove from themselves. Hosts, for example, dig out a hallow in one of these areas, usually.<br><br>Crown – Spiritual [top of head]<br>The Crown is said to be where the Self extends out to the worlds/realms. Connection to greater world, practice.<br><br>Brow – Awareness [forehead]<br>The Brow holds sight and Sight, third eye and regular eyes, nose, and primary senses.<br><br>THROAT – Connections [throat]<br>The throat is where many common social connections are rooted. Word, breath, communication, society.<br><br>HEART – Health, healing [upper chest]<br>Physicality, health, healing. Mr. Palaisy went on a tangent about how a connection to someone can be rooted in any of these parts; the heart may be where someone good for you is rooted. Wellness.<br><br>SOLAR PLEXUS – Absorption [base of ribcage, top of stomach]<br>Processing & digestion of outside influences, deeper knowledge, spirits. ‘Wisdom’<br><br>SACRUM – Wantings [stomach]<br>Rude stuff, food, entertainment, and our own creativity. The fuel that drives us. This may be where Power in general sits, when we’re done digesting it.<br><br>THE WOOHOO – Legacy [groin]<br>Opposite to Crown. If the Crown is the tree extending its branches, the Woohoo (not the official term) is the roots. What we leave behind, family, deepest connections (deep, hee hee), fundamental power, and the nature of the work we do. (you better do some work while you’re there, boyo)<br><br>We can apply some of these core principles to Others and objects. Ghouls, for example, are pretty hungry guys and gals, and have weird vitality. And not a coincidence? Hearts & gut are weak points! - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/01/14 8.2 Bonus: Soul & Self]</ref>

Even an un-hollowed-out human can potentially serve as a vessel, such as a [[Practitioner]] who has willingly allowed themself to temporarily [[host]] an Other.<ref>“May I come in? Only a bit?”<br><br>“What happens if you ‘come in’?”<br><br>“I can reach through you, and you can draw on my power. Many practitioners act as vessels to hold spiritual power. You’d have a bit of me in every bit of you. You’d do it for a minute or so.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/06 Excerpt] from [[Back Away 5.2]]</ref> Some Others are [[Jockey|better able]] to occupy the vessel of a normal human body than the human [[soul]] is, allowing them to take possession of a person and squeeze the soul out.<ref>Or facing possession by something like Mr. Rudbeck, a snake slithering into you, nestling into a part of you deeper than biology goes, and squeezing you out, because he can occupy the vessel of your body more easily than your Self and Soul can, just as his flowers and grasses will grow through every place and everything nearby, making it his. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/27 Excerpt] from [[Cutting Class 6.1]]</ref>

Occupied human vessels are vulnerable to simple [[diagram]]s; since the immaterial Other within is more affected by them than the material human, they are jarred out of alignment somewhat, possibly damaging the vessel.<ref>She hit the line and staggered. A line could be considered the simplest of diagrams, and that thing that occupied her was more vulnerable to it than she was, and the momentary lack of synchronicity hurt her. – ''then do as you will, but''-<br><br>He closed the distance, stepping into a puddle, and he knew full well what that puddle was. He grabbed her wrist, pushing her back across the line. Same effect, but this time, he was rattling the bars of the cage his own Other was within. Testing the metaphorical screws, bolts, and welding. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/24 Excerpt] from [[Back Away 5.d]]</ref> However, they are infamously difficult to properly bind, since they can lean into their human or Other half to defeat a binding aimed at one or the other. A complex binding that targets both is required.<ref name=":10">[https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/26/6-9-spoilers-binding-countermeasures/ Bonus Material: Binding and Countermeasures]</ref>