Hi, everyone. Here I am again asking for your help. The thing is - I want my main female character to be injured quite badly. I want the scenario in which the female character will get involved in an "assault" and the attacker will pour something on my female character. And the problem is in this "something". The story takes place in the 11th century in a made-up world, so I was thinking about some extract from a plant, for example Heracleum mantegazzianum which causes burns. I really doubt that a sophisticated chemical can be used, and acid would kill her . But there is another problem with this extract - how it can be made? Seriously, it would be much easier if this attacker just push my character into a field full of the plant I mentioned above. Well, if there will not be any better idea, I will probably do it that way , but it will the very last resort. My requirements are: this "something" has to leave scars, awful scars to be precise (the most damaged parts are the left part of her neck, the left part of her jowl, a small part of her left arm and of her left cheek); it must damage just the upper layer of her skin (it can´t damage her skin completely (all layers) or even corium); it must not kill her, she must live (she is the main character and the story depends on her, and this attack is not meant to kill her); the period of healing should be between one week to 3 weeks maximum; it should be quite painful; and it must be "manageable" in the 11th century (I mean no complicated procedures in curing and healing). This female character is 19 years old, full of life. She is good at treating injuries - she will treat a burn on her own forearm (2nd degree, less serious injury), she will treat her palm (a bolt from a crossbow in it), she will also save another very important character who will have an arrow in his trunk. She is capable and young. And the follow-up question - if this "something" gets into my female character´s ear and to her tympanum, will it have a negative effect on her hearing? I suppose it will, but I want to be sure. I know I am demanding, but if know of anything useful, I would be very grateful. If not, I will figure out something else. I am grateful for every piece of advice. I will be happy to add further information, should you need it.
Strictly speaking, the word chemical means "specific type of substance" Anything you end up using will technically be a chemical Have you looked into the substances that medieval alchemists used?
https://www.btny.purdue.edu/WeedScience/2007/DontTouchMePlants.pdf This could be helpful? None of these are too severe though.
Hmm you said that your world is fictional, but judging from your question, is your world's flora similar to the ones in real life? If not, why shouldn't you just create a fictional plant? Btw i think the closest thing to creating something from plants in the middle ages is by herbalism using herbs, spices, and resins. I don't think creating extracts back then is possible though.
If it's a made up world, you can use made up biochemistry as well. Why would acid kill the character? There are lots of very minor acids. The amount of damage an acid does depends on how it's electrons are configured and how stable the bonds are. It might be useful to not think about specific chemicals but more how they work. You want a chemical that will force hydrogen atoms to either bond with it or pop them off. That's the fizz you see when you drop metal in acid. HCl for example gets easily ripped apart by an oxygen atom, which biochemistry is full of. Furthermore, acid should really be concentrated if you want to hurt someone and 11th century humans didn't know how to do that. Sulphuric acid that you'd get from a volcanic hot spring would be so deluded that it'd be essentially water. For natural chemicals, what would be dangerous to your species would depend on evolution. For example: humans are horribly allergic to urushiol, but dogs are not. Its a completely different kind of reaction though, by itself it does very little, but it's our own immune systems reaction that causes the damage.
I can't think of a chemical but maybe some primitive fire bomb. Urn with oil/tar mixture and some way to start the fire. Boiling water (or oil that is much hotter)
I was also going to suggest that. Chemical warfare didn't begin with WWI, we just had modern chemistry then. In medieval times, boiling tar was a common anti-siege weapon and easy to get a hold of.
Boiling tar sounds appropriately awful. Another idea: might she be pushed into a dense thicket of thorny plants? Landing in cacti, rose bushes, and wild raspberry bushes could all inflict painful scarring that wouldn't be too difficult to manage first aid for. My dad had scarring on his arm from getting a bit too close to the jumping cactus in our yard while weeding. (Yes, it is a thing.) ETA: As I recall, some of the cacti needles took a week or so to come to the surface, because they broke off when he removed his shirt.
https://www.angstromsciences.com/sites/angstromsciences.com/files/files/msds/Zirconium.pdf I submit for your review. If your assassin were to have this finely ground particle upon his person, immersed in water, and he throws it at her/pours it on her, it'd likely produce the issue you're looking for. Perhaps even a small explosion. Since its never found as a free metal, and the main ore is found in deposits, this person could have easily acquired it from many of his previous travels. You can find this in a number of places. (USA, Russia, Brazil, Australia etc) The beauty of it is the word Zirconium sounds old, but familiar enough that it would be believable.
The first thing that popped into my mind was HF. I worked for the National Institute of Nanotechnology and we received strict training about how horrific, yet seemingly innocuous it was. HF, if it comes in contact with the skin may not produce any visible reaction on the skin, but actually eat through the bone and by that time it was often too late. We had a calcium gluconate solution/cream on hand to apply if you suspected it had gotten on you, through a thicker set of gloves, and you couldn't use a glass beaker, because this acid attacks glass in particular. Additionally, it had to be used in a specific laminar flow bench, and was one of the acids which didn't lose its effectiveness. https://www.inrf.uci.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/sop-wet-hf-2-percent-dip.pdf Its function, to remove the native oxide off of Silicon wafers..... evil, but efficient.
This is an excellent question for https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/ and some like this have already been discussed.
Well, let´s not argue about words. I meant no chemicals used in industry, like acids, whether organic or inorganic.
Well, yes, this fictional world is similiar to our real world, so I cannot just make up some herb, even though it would definitely solve this problem and I could start to write my novella/novel.
I read it, but I did not find any useful herb, besides above mentioned Heracleum mantegazzianum. But even this herb won´t work according the author of that article.
given that its a made up world why can't you just invent a herb that does what you want - thats the whole point of making up a world in the first place that aside the sap of a giant hogweed would cause most of the effects you are looking for
Di-Hydrogen Monoxide is used in industry quite heavily, as a solvent. Chemically, it is classified as an acid (Hydric Acid) but by itself it is nearly neutral. It does become more acidic when in contact with air, though. Some say it should be banned: http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html
