Research of less-than-desirable topics (wounds, wound complications, etc.)
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@scoutfinch190 There’s actually a fairly short answer here: no. Not really, no.
Our bodies really like to be around 98.6 degrees in Fahrenheit. Water freezes below 32F and melts at temperatures above that. If you were to be in an absolutely frozen wasteland and got a massive bloody gash, some of the blood outside your body could freeze. The blood in your body is hot and would melt any frozen blood on the wound itself though. A cold environment can certainly slow the bleeding (due to cold weather being a vasoconstrictor) but if we’re talking about weather cold enough where spit freezes on the sidewalk, frostbite is a huge concern. Basically, the cells in your body are mostly water and when the cells freeze suddenly they just get shredded and die. Not a great time.
Basically: if it’s -20F outside right. You cut your leg WIDE open. The blood will run and not really freeze because it’s starting at close to 100F anyway. Cold weather will slightly mean your bleeding will be slower but not a ton. Any exposed skin/muscle will be at risk for frostbite and permanent damage. That’s usually why it’s so important to get the injured person inside and warm, so that you can remove their outer layers to treat the wound without the risk of frostbite.
Hope I could help!
"Only a Sith deals in absolutes"
-Quipmaster 2005Yoooo! So um not sure if this should be here but gonna put this here anyway. Thank you in advance for your help.
So first I want to figure out how much a 16 or 17-year-old would be affected by murder and stuff. And I also want to figure out how brainwashing works. And I want to be brainwashing a six or seven-year-old. So how does murder affect the 16 or 17-year-old? And how does brainwashing effect someone who’s 6 or 7 years old?
And I’m kind of thinking of like setting this in a dark age England kind of like place. So I don’t know if that helps at all. But yeah this is a story that I’m thinking about and I want to figure this out.
Thank you for your help. If any of you replied to this. Sorry for bothering anyone at 9:00 p.m.
If you want an example of how to brainwash children and young adults, look no further than the Army. Not to speak negatively on the brave soldiers who volunteer to serve and protect, but hear me out. Your average middle class American Joe Schmoe is not that violent of a person, nor that mentally tough. Part of the reason casualties in disaster or in mass shootings are so high is that most of us will freeze rather than fight or flee – we do not have effective responses to actual mortal danger.
The purpose of boot camp is not just physical fitness, but mentally conditioning every recruit to follow orders under even the most stressful of circumstances, and prepare them for the ugly reality that they may be required to kill another human being in the course of their duties.
We don’t call it brainwashing because that’s a very negative term in our language, but that is essentially what basic training is. Taking your soft, squishy, nonviolent, easily frightened civilian brain and tempering it into a strong, fearless, well discipline soldier’s brained who can kill to survive and won’t freeze up under fire.Now how that works?
Stress. A lot of stress.
The sleep deprivation, the constant yelling of the drill sergeant, the absurd mind games and disproportionate punishments for seemingly small mistakes, obsessive cleaning standards, and relentless physical exertion all works together to make your mind very pliable and inclined to internalize and obey whatever they tell you to learn. Praise and rewards are doled out sparingly amongst the constant stress to reinforce desired learning outcomes.
The name brainwashing unfortunately stems from Chinese; it was a term coined by communist Chinese political commissars for their process of turning dissidents or American prisoners of war (during Korea) into loyal communists, traitors and informers. The “good cop / insane torturer sadist cop” routine was very effective. Under extreme stress and pain, your mind tends to lock on to any instance of kindness or decency. This is related to Stockholm Syndrome – after a while of being a prisoner, your basic human tribal instincts take over and despite being at the mercy of your captors you also grow to be dependent on them.
Now we unfortunately come to children. Children are exceedingly easy to brainwash; they will accept simple explanations for why they have to do terrible things and will give in readily to avoid pain and receive promised rewards. Children are generally mentally predisposed to listen to adults which feed them and exert authority over them, and lacking the moral inhibitions of fully developed adults, children are frighteningly efficient as soldiers; they won’t hesitate to pull the trigger, while the soldiers they face often will in the face of a child. Look up our occupation of Afghanistan, the Vietcong in Vietnam, and African Bush wars for plenty of depressing and disturbing stories of child soldiers in action.
Now, one caveat with your chosen time period: the people of the medieval period were much more familiar with death than we were. While many people could live to their 50s and 60s, even in the lower class, death in childbirth was common, and many children died before the age of 5 from sickness or accidents. Those who lived past 5 could typically enjoy a full life, barring war or plague. Banditry was common, especially during wars, and people of all classes generally traveled armed. That’s not to say witnessing a violent death wouldn’t psychologically affect a young protagonist; but the effect would be dependent on the culture and community around him or her. Context is everything, and to the medieval human, death is an inevitable part of life that leads to a better world; the object is to not to live as long as possible, but to die meaningfully.
NOW finally to your setting specifically. Dark Ages England is a broad period of time. What do you mean by Dark Ages? Early Middle Ages, 600s-1000s? Arthurian legend? Pre Norman England? Or post Norman-conquest, 1066 and onward? All very different time periods with different dominant cultures. I am happy to help here as well but I’d like to keep this post focused on your main question about brainwashing and trauma.
Non nobis Domine, sed nomini, Tuo da gloriam.
@miller sorry I forgot to tag you in my reply
Non nobis Domine, sed nomini, Tuo da gloriam.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
And I have a lot of research I need to do… Thank you for that as well.
The story was honestly just a concept that just floated into my brain and I was like “hmm I haven’t had a ton of motivation to write, but the story makes me feel really excited” And then I realized that I would probably have a lot of work that I need to do with it.
When I’m thinking is a 16 or 17-year-old is an assassin and is given the mission to infiltrate a castle and assassinate the princess who is around the same age. But I want them to not do that. And have them have a big show off fight at the end with the person who hired them. But now that you’ve told me all this stuff I need to fix all of what I’ve thought about. Due to what you’ve told me.
( Also it is horrible that kids had to go through that)
And I have no clue what time period I want. I need to start thinking about a lot of things. Thank you!!
You’re very welcome! While this topic is normally about technical or clinical subjects you don’t want showing up in your search history, it’s absolutely expected that queries will branch off into tangents as knowledge is shared. If you have more questions about world-building, history, politics, psychology, whatever random questions you can think of – feel free to ask! I’m always glad to help, as are the precious wayward souls who haunt this thread.
Non nobis Domine, sed nomini, Tuo da gloriam.
@scoutfinch190 There’s actually a fairly short answer here: no. Not really, no. Our bodies really like to be around 98.6 degrees in Fahrenheit. Water freezes below 32F and melts at temperatures above that. If you were to be in an absolutely frozen wasteland and got a massive bloody gash, some of the blood outside your body could freeze. The blood in your body is hot and would melt any frozen blood on the wound itself though. A cold environment can certainly slow the bleeding (due to cold weather being a vasoconstrictor) but if we’re talking about weather cold enough where spit freezes on the sidewalk, frostbite is a huge concern. Basically, the cells in your body are mostly water and when the cells freeze suddenly they just get shredded and die. Not a great time. Basically: if it’s -20F outside right. You cut your leg WIDE open. The blood will run and not really freeze because it’s starting at close to 100F anyway. Cold weather will slightly mean your bleeding will be slower but not a ton. Any exposed skin/muscle will be at risk for frostbite and permanent damage. That’s usually why it’s so important to get the injured person inside and warm, so that you can remove their outer layers to treat the wound without the risk of frostbite. Hope I could help!
I’m a bit late, but I thought I’d just say “yes” to this ⬆️. I’ve lived (and been injured) in very cold climates (-45, plus windchill). Never have I or anyone I know had a wound freeze over. Though we do tend to stay inside a lot at that -40 mark 😂.
We are called to be lights in the cosmos.
May your inkwells never run dry!Hi guys!
I was wondering if a person could still hear with their ears cut off?
We crazy people are the normal ones.
I think yes! The “hearing” part of the ear is on the inside of your head, so unless the knife gouged into the person’s skull, hearing will still be intact 🙂 Although they’ll probably hear a bit differently, since our outside ear directs sound inwards, so things will probably sound differently.
(Someone correct me if that’s wrong XD )
“Enough! Be quiet! I can’t hear myself think! I can’t hear my teeth chatter!"
Thank you! I totally get it, when I was a kid, our minivan’s tires broke because of those temperatures, but at least school was cancelled and we got to go to I-Hop 😂.
We crazy people are the normal ones.
Thank you! that would make a lot of sense, I’m still trying to figure out the details of a character, and I was toying with the idea that his ears were cut off as a baby because he’s part human, part a race that has pointed ears (telepathic elves essentially, called Enteks), or leaving him as just human.
We crazy people are the normal ones.
@e-n-leonard Thank you! I totally get it, when I was a kid, our minivan’s tires broke because of those temperatures, but at least school was cancelled and we got to go to I-Hop 😂.
Ah, that’s too bad (and too good at the same time 😂)! Do you know if they were snow tires?
And I agree with @anne_the_noob14 ‘s assessment on cut off ears.
We are called to be lights in the cosmos.
May your inkwells never run dry!I honestly don’t remember, I was pretty young.
Thank you!
We crazy people are the normal ones.
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