Human Mummy Confection

Basic Information

A Human Mummy Confection (also known as a Mellified Man) was a (possibly legendary) cure for such grievous bodily injuries as broken limbs dating to sometime before the 16th Century. According to one doctor/author in China at the time, this could be imported from India or Arabia, and found in street markets.

The creation of a Human Mummy Confection is an act of self-sacrifice for the greater good, and would take more than a century. The selfless individual who had decided to candify themselves would start by eating nothing but honey for period of several years. Eventually, they would begin bathing in honey. When they died, their body was placed in a stone coffin filled to the top with honey, to properly mellify the corpse. You'd store the body for a hundred years, and let the honey do it's magic. Then you'd break it up and scoop the bits to make medicine, which the patient would eat to get the full effect.

I imagine that in appearance it's something like honeyed or carmelized meat, possibly with a crystallized crust on it. One can only hope that it no longer resembles the human form… and it kinda disgusts me to contemplate that notably human-shaped bits are probably the most magically potent. *shudder*

Honey does have anti-bacterial and preservative properties. Just sayin'.¹

Sources

Bibliography

1. Non-Fiction Book: The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting

2. Non-Fiction Book: How To Mellify A Corpse by Vicki León

3. the other wiki on human mummy confection

Game and Story Use

• That would make an interesting alternative for healing magic or a healing potion. "A few fingers of a honeyed saint will work wonders on that broken arm you've got."
  • It could be a panacea (medicine), and potentially of interest to alchemists.
    • The creation process does arguably turn baser elements (i.e.: humans) into gold (e.g.: honey, medicine, or altruism).
  • No doubt a preferred healing item of cannibal adventurers everywhere.
• A monk, shaman or wiseman who was on the path towards one day becoming a human mummy confection could make for a very interesting character. I would assume one has to either be Lawful Good or at least quite generous and just really fond of honey to think this is a good career path.
  • Alternately, it might unlock some sort of unique magic (or prestige class) that can only be practiced by those have who have reached the enlightened state of karmic honey balance. Maybe being a delicious medicine a hundred years from now is just an afterthought or legacy that pales in comparison to the temporal benefits of honey submersion.
  • See mellification for some other ideas of what a walking honey-mummy might be able to do.
• An interesting variation on the confidence game of goldbricking could involve selling counterfeit, fake, or impure Human Mummy Confection. This gets extra interesting if the real deal is a potent healing magic.
• Between this and the mummia you have to wonder what was wrong with some of our ancestors…
• This kind of self-sacrifice might be an alternative to the Consolamentum or Endura Rite for the right kind of religion.
• Presumably "complications of diabetes mellitus" was a common cause of death amongst these folks.
• You could probably manufacture this stuff with a substantially lesser element of self sacrifice by using non-voluntary participants. A suitably dark setting could seen unwanted babies sold off to be weaned onto a honey only diet and brought on to adulthood for the trade.

Footnotes

1. And as we said on the mellification page: don't try this at home, kids.