Ostholm experiments: Difference between revisions
| Revision as of 20:50, 27 October 2026 HalvardK (talk | contribs) (See also: [[Brass Concord]]) | Revision as of 23:45, 27 October 2026 Ledgerwright (talk | contribs) (See also: [[The Book of the Open Hand]]) | ||
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| The '''Ostholm experiments''' were a programme of human experimentation carried out between 2034 and 2038 at a secret facility on [[Ostholm]], a small island off the western coast of [[Ulmarka]], by the [[Hand Physicians]], a breakaway faction of the [[Cult of Landon]]. Led by the physician [[Eskil Brenndal]], the faction subjected at least 31 people, most of them members' children and recruits from the movement's poorest houses, to experimental genetic alteration intended to produce what its writings called "the open-handed body": people incapable of violence.[1] | The '''Ostholm experiments''' were a programme of human experimentation carried out between 2034 and 2038 at a secret facility on [[Ostholm]], a small island off the western coast of [[Ulmarka]], by the [[Hand Physicians]], a breakaway faction of the [[Cult of Landon]]. Led by the physician [[Eskil Brenndal]], the faction subjected at least 31 people, most of them members' children and recruits from the movement's poorest houses, to experimental genetic alteration intended to produce what its writings called "the open-handed body": people incapable of violence.[1] | ||
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| == Survivors == Of the seven survivors found in 2039, five were placed in state institutions in [[Vharnhold]], where little is known of their fate. One died in 2042. The best known survivor is [[Casey]], who had escaped Ostholm the year before its discovery and is the only one living freely. | == Survivors == Of the seven survivors found in 2039, five were placed in state institutions in [[Vharnhold]], where little is known of their fate. One died in 2042. The best known survivor is [[Casey]], who had escaped Ostholm the year before its discovery and is the only one living freely. | ||
| Ostholm experiments | |
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 The former facility on Ostholm, photographed in 2046 | |
| Location | Ostholm, off the western coast of Ulmarka |
| Date | 2034 – 2038 |
| Perpetrators | The Hand Physicians, a breakaway faction of the Cult of Landon |
| Leader | Eskil Brenndal |
| Victims | 31 known subjects |
| Deaths | At least 24 |
| Survivors | Casey (escaped 2038); 6 others |
| Discovered | April 2039, by the Ring Guard |
The Ostholm experiments were a programme of human experimentation carried out between 2034 and 2038 at a secret facility on Ostholm, a small island off the western coast of Ulmarka, by the Hand Physicians, a breakaway faction of the Cult of Landon. Led by the physician Eskil Brenndal, the faction subjected at least 31 people, most of them members' children and recruits from the movement's poorest houses, to experimental genetic alteration intended to produce what its writings called "the open-handed body": people incapable of violence.[1]
At least 24 subjects died. The survivors were left with severe and lasting physical and psychiatric harm. One of them, Casey, escaped the island by boat in 2038 and has lived since on the remote islet of Skarnes, where he styles himself its king. The facility was discovered by the Ring Guard in April 2039, and the Ulmarkan Empire cited it as justification for the Hand Trials. The experiments are among the most widely condemned crimes of the century.[2]
Background
[edit]By the early 2030s the Cult of Landon had spread to Ulmarka, and a group of its members with medical training formed an inner circle that came to call itself the Hand Physicians. Its leader, Eskil Brenndal, taught that Landon's unconditional kindness could be made permanent in the body, and that the movement had a duty to bring it about. The faction leased Ostholm, an uninhabited former sealing station, in 2034, describing it to the wider movement as a retreat house.[1]
The experiments
[edit]Survivors' testimony and the faction's own records describe four years of procedures carried out in secret, without meaningful consent, on subjects aged from infancy to early adulthood. Most of the subjects had been brought to the island by their families, who were told they would be cared for in a house of the movement. The records document repeated serious harm, which the faction recorded as progress.[2] The facility's staff numbered no more than twelve.
Discovery
[edit]After the Cult of Landon was banned in Ulmarka in 2038, the Ring Guard searched the movement's properties and reached Ostholm in April 2039. They found seven surviving subjects, a burial ground holding twenty-four bodies, and the faction's archive. Brenndal and four staff members were arrested; Brenndal died in custody in 2040 before any trial.[3]
The empire publicised the discovery widely. Emperor Torvald cited it in the decree that began the Hand Trials later that year, and state media have since presented the experiments as the true nature of the movement.
Responsibility
[edit]The question of how much the wider movement knew remains disputed. Kaelen Vora, the movement's chief organiser, said in 2040 that the Hand Physicians had been expelled in 2036 and that the Gathering had no knowledge of the island; documents seized on Ostholm include letters to the Lantern House as late as 2037, though none carries a reply.[2] Landon has never spoken about the experiments.[citation needed]
Independent historians generally hold the faction itself responsible, while criticising the movement's leadership for the culture of total devotion that allowed it to operate unchecked. The empire's use of the experiments to justify executing thousands of unrelated believers has been condemned as separately as the experiments themselves.[citation needed]
Survivors
[edit]Of the seven survivors found in 2039, five were placed in state institutions in Vharnhold, where little is known of their fate. One died in 2042. The best known survivor is Casey, who had escaped Ostholm the year before its discovery and is the only one living freely.[citation needed]