A plain field guide to physical, fire, cold, lightning, poison, light, and dark harm, written to help a mixed expedition recognize danger and choose a useful response.
Soldiers, healers, armorers, and harmonic practitioners commonly divide combat harm into seven forms: physical, fire, cold, lightning, poison, light, and dark.
The division is practical. It tells a defender what kind of protection may help and tells a healer what injury may continue after the first blow. It does not claim that every culture explains the seven forms in the same way.
A single attack can carry more than one form. A burning hammer strikes with physical force and fire. A metal wall collapsing under lightning may crush someone after the current passes. Treat what actually happened, not only what the weapon was called.
Physical
Physical harm cuts, pierces, crushes, tears, or strikes through direct force. Blades, arrows, teeth, claws, falling stone, pressure, and most ordinary impacts belong here.
Armor is the main passive defense. A shield, guard, or well-timed block can keep the force from reaching the body cleanly. Distance, cover, and movement prevent the contact entirely.
Afterward, look for bleeding, broken structure, damaged organs, concussion, and injury hidden beneath armor that appears intact. A breastplate that stopped a blade may still have carried enough force to crack what was beneath it.
Fire
Fire harm delivers heat fast enough to burn flesh, ignite material, or damage a working mechanism. Magical fire can place a continuing burn on the target after the first impact. Repeated exposure makes the injury worse.
Remove the target from the heat. Extinguish burning material. Cool the injury with clean water when appropriate, but do not freeze damaged flesh and do not tear away cloth that has adhered to it. Watch smoke, fumes, heated metal, oil, dry growth, and sealed rooms where the air itself may become dangerous.
Fire resistance reduces how strongly the heat takes hold. It does not guarantee that carried equipment, nearby fuel, or the ground underfoot receives the same protection.
Cold
Cold harm removes heat or prevents the body and its equipment from moving it where it is needed. A first exposure may chill the target, slowing movement, attacks, and spellcasting. Severe cold can freeze a target already chilled and briefly prevent movement or action.
Move the injured person out of the cold. Replace wet clothing. Warm them gradually. Do not force stiff limbs, rub damaged tissue, or place numb flesh directly against extreme heat.
Cold also makes water expand, metal contract, seals harden, and glass or ceramic crack. The danger may remain in the room after the spell ends.
Lightning
Lightning harm passes electrical force through the target. It can burn, stop muscles from responding normally, disturb the heart, and damage nerves or machinery.
A shocked target is left unusually open to further harm for a short time. This is not limited to another lightning strike. The disrupted body and defenses receive later attacks more poorly until they recover.
Do not touch a target while current is still entering them. Break or isolate the source first. Water, exposed metal, damaged wiring, conductive dust, and linked machinery can carry the danger beyond the place where the spell first struck.
Poison
Poison harm comes from a harmful substance or pattern that continues working inside the target. It may be inhaled, swallowed, injected, absorbed, or imposed by magic.
Poison often lasts longer than fire, and repeated exposures can build upon one another. Remove the person from the source, identify the route of exposure, and cleanse or treat the poison itself. Closing the wound does not remove what entered through it.
Gloves, sealed clothing, clean air, safe water, and correct antidotes matter. A dead poisonous creature may still contaminate tools, food, and anyone who handles it.
Light
Light harm is concentrated harmful radiance. It is not ordinary daylight and should not be treated as simple brightness.
It can burn exposed tissue, overwhelm sensitive organs, and interact with mirrors, lenses, polished surfaces, and light-responsive devices. Shade may help against an ordinary glare while doing little against a shaped working that has already fixed on its target.
Protect the eyes, leave the path of the working, and inspect burns that may appear smaller on the surface than the damage beneath them.
Dark
Dark harm is shaped darkness used as a direct force. It is not the mere absence of a lamp.
Lighting the room may restore vision, but it does not by itself remove a dark injury or stop a working already in motion. Dark effects can strike a body, weaken a ward, or leave damage that must be treated like any other combat wound.
Do not diagnose dark harm only because a place is dim. Look for the point of impact, the caster's working, the target's response, and whether ordinary light changes anything at all.
Use the classification
Call out the form of harm when it becomes clear. The fighter choosing armor, the caster choosing a ward, and the healer preparing treatment all need the same warning.
If one defense fails repeatedly, change it. Heavy armor may answer a blade and do little against poison. Fire protection may save the wearer from flame and provide no help against a falling beam. A barrier may absorb several different forms, but it has limited strength and can break.
The seven forms are not seven opinions about whether an attack was serious. They are seven useful descriptions of how the harm reached the target and what may reduce the next one.
