There is a world in which some of the human inhabitants can "bend" the four elements to their will. For the sake of analogy (and also because it's easier for some of you to relate to) let's say that "element bending" works the same way as it does in "Avatar: The Last Airbender".
The question concerns earth bending, which in this world refers to the ability to control solid substances and even small particles (on a cellular level, for instance). Now, one of the characters can bend earth, but in their youth they tried bending it without supervision and as a result they ended up bending the "earth" in their own body, which resulted in vein-like patterns forming on the palm of their hands. The way I envisioned it, the patterns are formed by concentrating carbon (with slight traces of other elements like calcium and magnesium, but mostly carbon). They are also very small (roughly as thin as a hair strand) but stretch across the whole surface of the palms.
Now, what I would like to ask is:
- How much of this mixture of mostly carbon would it be required to form such patterns?
- Would creating these patterns have any severe negative effects on the character's health and development (given the fact that this happened while they were a child)? Would it be possible to fight off any negative health effects through a basic diet or would they have irreversible effects on their growth (similar to a chronic avitaminosis)?
I understand that chemical elements in nature are rarely in pure form, but in mixtures, so I would be willing to go with a mixture of carbon and calcium oxide in the form of graphite, if this would make more sense. The questions about health effects still apply.
