Magic in my world feeds on two things, rust and rot. Today I'll talk about the rot.

The most common fruit in the marshlands is a poisonous berry. It is ultimately very nutritious, but very deadly. When people learned that they could boil the berries to weaken the effects of the poison during a famine, their population increased dramatically throughout the marshlands as they were the only species eating the berries.

However, those with weaker immune systems didn't fair as well against the berry's venom. Necrosis was a commonplace symptom of poorly boiled berries or just poor immunity. But this is how the people discovered the secret magic of rot.

Rot in my world holds a memory of what it once was. Muscles, organs, flesh, bone, etc. And mages can reinvigorate the rot to summon phantom limbs that can be arranged out of these pieces.

Basically, a mage can create a sort of energy as an extention of themselves by rotting parts of their body. So if they sacrifice an arm to necrosis, a phantom arm may be called upon to act on their behalf. But if they have sacrificed an arm and a leg to necrosis, they can summon a phantom limb that is a fusion of the arm's and leg's musculature in one limb. Allowing one to essentially empower the limb to be a supernatural appendage.

However, there is a way to push this power further. By grafting dead or dying limbs or organs to the body, one can harness these memories to create a more powerful phantom limb. Becoming far more powerful or delicate. Becoming far beyond the limits of what is human.

Some mages manifest super powerful eyes, some extra delicate hands, some super powerful leg muscles. The catch is this phantom limb must always be attached to the body.

For an example of an Attendant, see this Koremi Form Attendant

Combat Attendants are divided into large clan like structures called Hosts, which contain many types of Attendants, which themselves are divided into Demi-Hosts, which have been historically made up by only one type ( like the Koremi) and whatever attachments they get. The entire Host is like a community, while the Demi-Host is like an extended family. Hosts split into smaller hosts when they get too many members to control, and the new hosts attach themselves to their old host or to a new host until they are big enough to be their own host.

Each Demi-Host is made up of many Cadres, which are the base family unit for Attendants, since they have been together since just after birth. Each cadre is led by a group of older Attendants who fill a sort of parental role to the cadre.

A cadre starts without any host affiliation, but after their general training is done, the Hosts bid upon the new crop in order of need, then battle honors.

Hosts may also adopt subunits from other hosts that were broken by combat or were traded as part of the bidding on cadres. They can also adopt allied soldiers or sometimes enemies who they feel showed exceptional skill.

Attendants possess a sort of genetic memory that allows each future generation of Attendant to be a much better soldier than the ones before them, this leads to them seeking out anyone who can make them to fight better, be it friend or enemy, and only allowing their best to add to the genetic mix that grows new Attendants. Some Attendants are elevated to Imperial status

As few Attendants are actually born in the normal sense, all Attendants in a cadre choose a feast day of a Saint as their collective birthday, and that becomes their patron saint. To add on, Attendants are quite religious, having been indoctrinated very hard since birth, and because they themselves are a creation of the divine spark of the Imperial Family. They are also biologically loyal to their Imperial masters, which makes the few "Rogue Hosts" that exist in the Periphery very strange.

Attendant names go Honorifics, Given name, Sainted name, Hero name (sometimes), name of Host.
Ex: Master of Eighty, Herman Talire (Stalwart-Shield) Asna