Great questions!

While I don't know about the scurvy or how nutrition will work, other than diminishing returns, we do have some info on corpses.

If you are near rotting corpses there's definitely a chance of contracting a disease. Especially so if that corpse had a sickness when they died, TSP included!

But while it's not 100% confirmed I thought that regular cannibalism only darkens your soul, not extends your life. Unless of course that leads to the development a talent that does. Now cannibalism in the sense of the confirmed Litches and vampires, definitely yeah, though who knows if they eat the person or just suck their soul.

Now I need to know if we can embalm bodies or if food has nutrition.

I think this would be a great addition to the game and would love to see it, even for non-cannibalistic consumption of meat.

if cooked properly so that the entirety of the meat reaches temperatures of 70C to 80C (153F to 176F), it should kill the vast majority of pathogenic organisms; however, there is always the change that a new strain of thermally resistant <whatever> evolves and could cause havoc.

There are certain bacterial and fungal species which require a combination of extreme pressure, temperature and time to neutralize, such as 100C (212F) @ 200MPa (~2000 Atmospheres) for up to 2 hours (roughly speaking).

Not all of these are pathogenic to humans, but Elyria is not Earth and there is no reason why they couldn't be pathogenic :)

This could also provide the means for some generally species specific illnesses to enter the general Elyrian population producing formerly unseen illnesses in the community

Even non-cannibalism like if you eat infected monkey with Hep you get it even though cooking it if you eat it, same with deer. If you play with a dead rat that had plague you're going to pass that crap on lol

Yes! If we have cannibalism we should have kuru.

I also hope we have recipes for herbalists or alchemists that can make our blood or flesh poisonous. That sounds exactly like something a Kypiq would do. Maybe they could even put them in saltlicks for game to discourage hunting.

Cremation and grind the bones.

Dras

Posted By HajimeSaikou at 1:30 PM - Mon Oct 21 2019

I think this would be a great addition to the game and would love to see it, even for non-cannibalistic consumption of meat.

if cooked properly so that the entirety of the meat reaches temperatures of 70C to 80C (153F to 176F), it should kill the vast majority of pathogenic organisms; however, there is always the change that a new strain of thermally resistant <whatever> evolves and could cause havoc.

There are certain bacterial and fungal species which require a combination of extreme pressure, temperature and time to neutralize, such as 100C (212F) @ 200MPa (~2000 Atmospheres) for up to 2 hours (roughly speaking).

Not all of these are pathogenic to humans, but Elyria is not Earth and there is no reason why they couldn't be pathogenic :)

This could also provide the means for some generally species specific illnesses to enter the general Elyrian population producing formerly unseen illnesses in the community

Dont some organisms also create toxins that don't easily neutralize? (For example botulism IIRC?)

Like even if you kill the bacteria, the toxin is already there, and has contaminated the food.

Posted By zimmah at 08:39 AM - Tue Oct 22 2019

Posted By HajimeSaikou at 1:30 PM - Mon Oct 21 2019

I think this would be a great addition to the game and would love to see it, even for non-cannibalistic consumption of meat.

if cooked properly so that the entirety of the meat reaches temperatures of 70C to 80C (153F to 176F), it should kill the vast majority of pathogenic organisms; however, there is always the change that a new strain of thermally resistant <whatever> evolves and could cause havoc.

There are certain bacterial and fungal species which require a combination of extreme pressure, temperature and time to neutralize, such as 100C (212F) @ 200MPa (~2000 Atmospheres) for up to 2 hours (roughly speaking).

Not all of these are pathogenic to humans, but Elyria is not Earth and there is no reason why they couldn't be pathogenic :)

This could also provide the means for some generally species specific illnesses to enter the general Elyrian population producing formerly unseen illnesses in the community

Dont some organisms also create toxins that don't easily neutralize? (For example botulism IIRC?)

Like even if you kill the bacteria, the toxin is already there, and has contaminated the food.

Yes indeed and furthermore, actively killing some toxin producing organisms can result in a mass release of toxin from stores etc.

This is why the vast majority of self-limiting gastrointestinal infections such as some kinds of food poisonings are best left untreated to resolve themselves with purely supportive intervention.

At the very least the pathogen should be identified before even considering treatment because if empirical treatment is commenced without knowing which pathogen is the cause the resulting toxin release may significantly worsen the outcome such as at best kidney failure or even become life threatening.

An example of this is the toxin producing bacteria known as shiga toxin-producing escherichia coli which is actually ingested from contaminated meat; however, just like James T. Kirk and the Kobayashi Maru, there is not always a win or lose scenario. Sometimes you have to pick the least worst outcome which may result in serious morbidity such as kidney failure for a patient because the other option is death.

So it is entirely plausible in Elyria it could be that eating the raw contaminated meat gave you some really bad food poisoning with or without chronic sickness afterwards; however, if you cook the meat, the bacteria release a thermally stable toxin en masse effectively making the meal a death sentence

Sound like a great medieval tactic in biological warfare, to set up shop as a butcher or meat merchant and poison the populace :)

Posted By zimmah at 5:39 PM - Mon Oct 21 2019

Posted By HajimeSaikou at 1:30 PM - Mon Oct 21 2019

I think this would be a great addition to the game and would love to see it, even for non-cannibalistic consumption of meat.

if cooked properly so that the entirety of the meat reaches temperatures of 70C to 80C (153F to 176F), it should kill the vast majority of pathogenic organisms; however, there is always the change that a new strain of thermally resistant <whatever> evolves and could cause havoc.

There are certain bacterial and fungal species which require a combination of extreme pressure, temperature and time to neutralize, such as 100C (212F) @ 200MPa (~2000 Atmospheres) for up to 2 hours (roughly speaking).

Not all of these are pathogenic to humans, but Elyria is not Earth and there is no reason why they couldn't be pathogenic :)

This could also provide the means for some generally species specific illnesses to enter the general Elyrian population producing formerly unseen illnesses in the community

Dont some organisms also create toxins that don't easily neutralize? (For example botulism IIRC?)

Like even if you kill the bacteria, the toxin is already there, and has contaminated the food.

Yep -- and even worse, the disease associated with Cannibalism (kuru) is like mad cow disease -- caused by prions not toxins.