Healer

One who provides medical care through mundane means has many names (doctor, physician, etc.), but those who use celestial energies are called healers. The power of tabait derives from blood, and healers draw their own to create medicines. This is augmented with other medical skills, mundane and supernatural, but in direst times, they use their own blood to heal.

Healing Magic

To become a healer, to have blood that is imbued with tabait, one must make a great sacrifice. One must devote themselves to the healing arts and use them for years before they are worthy, and then they must prepare a special concoction, a medicine, in a special kind of pot.

Training

To become a healer, one must first live it. If one devotes onself to the study and practice of medicine, this is the first step. Once they have done this for at least six years (usually more), proving themself every step of the way as a devoted healer, they may be taken under the wing of a healer. Their mentor will teach them the six esoteric arts of the healer - blood of life, clay of life, true listening, empathy, guiding flow, and careful binding. This usually takes between three to six years.

The most important part of becoming a healer is the sacrifice one makes - their entire life. This is more than a vow or oath. This is more than an attitude or lifestyle. It is constant devotion. It is putting others above oneself entirely. It is pure selflessness. And to achieve this, they must complete their training. Once they understand the six esoteric arts, they must prove they are worthy. They will be tested by their mentor in knowledge and skill, and then they will be sent to create a special pot to create a concoction to prep themselves for the final act.

Pots

The pots, called mittee ke bartan, were originally made with the clay of a taala, but as the practice spread to other cultures, any neutral or celestial form of clay was used instead. Each pot is designed with etchings that symbolize the body: blood and heart, bone, flesh and muscle, viscera, the mind, humors, and hair and nails. How these are symbolizes varies by culture, but it is always a combination of image and writing.

Once the pot is designed and fired, it is left outdoors for a week and a day. Anything that has entered the pot in that time is then taken, along with the pot, to a nearby body of water. The pot is half-filled with water, stoppered, and sunk into the body of water, where it is left again for a week and a day. It is then taken to the healer-in-training's home and it is unstoppered. The healer then puts some of their own blood and other parts of their body into the pot (hair, nails, skin, other humors, etc.). It is re-stoppered and placed next to or under the bed or sleeping place of the healer for a week and a day. After this period, the pot is heated or frozen in some way for a week and a day (this varies by culture and location). Finally, it is taken to a place of healing, and then concoction is smeared on the bodies of 40 patients or as many as are present (whichever is fewer), and then remainder of the medicine is drunk by the healer, who will then pass out.

If they are worthy, if they have done everything right, they will awaken in a week and a day with the blood of life in their veins. If they have failed in any way, they will get very sick for a week and a day.

After they have done this, they can do it again to create new medicine for use to recover from blood loss used to heal.

Self-Immolation

The final act of a healer's training is when they awaken with the blood of life. They will sense someone nearby in need of healing (this is inevitable unless they are absolutely alone). They will feel the compulsion to give their blood to this person. When they do, they will feel their blood begin to burn. If they let it touch air, they will erupt into flame. Knowing this, knowing they will die in this moment, they have the choice - die or let someone else die. Those who choose themselves lose their powers. Those who self-immolate by opening their veins to heal another feel ecstasy and power, and forever after they can heal with their own blood and use the other powers of a healer.

When performing their sacrifice, the healer rolls their WIL plus a bonus for their degree of devotion to healing and their desire to help others against the difficulty of surviving and recoverying from catastrophic self-combustion (16 plus 1 per every point of STR over 19). If they get to the point where self-immolation is even possible, their bonus is already +12, but it can go much higher (cap is 42 total WIL+bonus for standard mortal). Success rate determines the base power of their lifesblood:

• Exceptional failure: death.
• Special failure: permanent power loss and bodily dysfunction.
• Failed roll: they chicken out and either have to try again or lose their powers.
• Tied roll: power of 7.
• Normal success: 10.
• Special success: 13.
• Exceptional success: 16.

Diagnosis

The strength of a healer's lifesblood has a base determined by their sacrifice and medical knowledge. If they have a correct diagnosis of a problem, that is +6 to healing and allows them to address the source. If they know only symptoms, it is +3 to addressing the symptoms. If they know nothing, they can merely apply their base power to alleviate any kind of general discomfort reported or perceived.

Increasing Lifesblood

The blood of life can grow in power as the healer makes more sacrifices using the blood. This is to say, every time they mortally wound themselves (that is, draw a mortal wound's worth of blood) to heal someone with a deep or mortal wound, the lifesblood temporarily gains a +3, and for every eight times they do this, they permanently gain +1. This can only be done if the mortal wound is done to engage a wound directly, not if done to draw blood for use later.

Recovery

Recovering from blood loss takes time, but healers recover faster than others. They view using another's lifesblood to recover from blood given freely to be a waste of lifesblood, so they recover on their own by use of special diet, exercise, meditative and rest practices, and doses of their original medication. Flesh wounds heal almost instantly. Normal wounds heal after a day. Deep wounds become normal wounds after a week and heal in a day after that. Mortal wounds become deep wounds in a day, then take a week to become normal wounds, then heal in a day. Total exsanguination will kill them, but it will heal anything.

Note: the above refers only to blood drawn safely for use in healing, not for actual wounds caused by battle, accident, etc. Wound ratings used above refer to amounts of blood lost.

Powers

The six powers of a healer are

• Blood of Life: the sharing of healing blood for rapid healing.
• Clay of Life: the sealing of a person's body in blood-enriched clay that will heal more slowly but effectively.
• True Listening: the art of hearing what is truly wrong with a person, no matter what their words say.
• Empathy: sensing what a person is feeling and why so that they may be better diagnosed.
• Guiding Flow: guiding the flow of life within a person through touch, breath, and words.
• Careful Binding: using clean, special bandages to trap illness, pain, trauma, or other maladies within a part of a person in order to defeat them.

Blood of Life

The use of blood to heal is never the first-resort unless it is obvious a person is in dire straits. The method by which the blood is given determines the potency of its healing, and the amount does as well:

• Washing: to wash someone in healing blood works best for smaller external injuries and minor maladies.
• Drinking: to have someone drink healing blood helps with internal injuries, gut conditions, and moderate maladies.
• Transfusion: to tranfuse healing blood into someone is to give them a complete healing.

Amount

The amount of blood translates into a direct bonus:

• One drop: no bonus / standard application.
• Three drops: +1.
• Five drops: +2
• Flesh wound's worth: +3
• Normal wound: +4
• Deep wound: +5
• Mortal wound: +6
• Instant death: +7
• Total exsanguination: +8

Blood Loss

When a healer uses their own blood, it must be fresh or preserved. Preserving blood requires use of their mittee ke bartan, but preserved blood takes a -1 penalty for every eight days it is out of the body. Fresh blood is best, but of course, the healer experiences the negative effects blood loss.

Clay of Life

The clay of life is created by mixing healing blood with neutral or celestial clay (or taala clay). Encasing someone in clay of life has the same effect as healing blood, but it can handle greater injuries with less blood - it just takes longer and their whole body must be encased.

True Listening

True listening is a passive art used by all healers who have completed their training. They gain a +3 to +6 bonus to diagnosis if they listen to a patient for more than five minutes.

Diagnosis

Diagnosis is necessary to a healer's craft. They cannot heal that which they cannot identify. They can merely treat symptoms if they do not know the cause or condition they are addressing.

Empathy

Healers gain weak empathic powers that can be grown with use. The stronger their empathy, the better their diagnosis and listening skills are. They can also use it to address emotional issues by guiding a person through their trauma.

Sensing Wounds or Illness

Via empathy, they can also sense where pain, injuries, and illness are in the body.

Guiding Flow

A healer can guide the flow of lifeforce, ashar, through a body with their touch, with breathing exercises, or with special calming words. In doing this, they can promote healing in different parts of the body without using their blood.

Careful Binding

Healers can bind malady into certain parts of a body, drawing disease, pain, trauma, cancer, or esoteric energies into a specific spot so that it can be addressed more directly. They use special bandages to do this.

Bandages

The bandages used in careful binding are either neutral linen or some celestial fabric, touched with the blood of life. Using the control of the flow of life to isolate negative energies, pathogens, pain, etc., the healer can then bind them in place with these bandages and apply their arts directly to the trapped malady.

Surgery

Sometimes after binding, they must cut someone open to address their malady. They do this with special scalpels made from neutral or celestial metals and whetted on opals. A transfusion of preserved lifesblood is usually set up for the surgery.

Limitations

There are three main limitations: infernal beings, beings with different kinds of bodies, and toxic beings.

• Lutipariants and the contagion are infernal beings with toxic bodies / forms. People infected by the contagion can be healed via tabait, but the contagion itself is killed by tabait. Lutipariant is similarly affected.
• Some beings are too filled with or otherwise composed of infernal powers for tabait to work on them. The undead are simply destroyed by tabait (if they have bodies). Demons, the Eldritch, infernal Aeonians, infernal dragons, abominations, and hollow children are all harmed by tabait. Other infernal-oriented folk, including cythreuliaid, inimica, and tantum, are all healable via tabait, though they prefer other forms of healing culturally. Destroyers cannot be healed by any means, tabait or not.
• Beings without bodies cannot be healed by lifesblood, and thus, insubstantiates are unaffeced by it. Other forms of tabait may be applied to them if they are not purely infernal (froemmlers). Beings such as some viridianites, mechanoids, gargoyles, golems, and crystal folk who do not have blood or have metallic or stone bodies cannot be healed by lifesblood but may be healed by other forms of tabait. Similarly, plant folk and myconians require a variation on lifesblood (dryad healers have lifessap, for example).

Inventory

The basic tools of a healer are

Blood

The blood of life is created as seen above. It can be stored for a brief period for use, but fresh lifesblood is best. It turns black when preserved, but it is redder than red when fresh.

Pots

See above for the mittee ka bartan.

Extractor

An extractor is a needle and tube set that removes blood from the healer and drains it into the mittee ka bartan. These are made of neutral or celestial metals and basic rubber, usually, though sometimes other materials are used for the tube.

Transfusor

A device for blood tranfusions. It can be a modern system made from neutral or celestial materials, or it can be an extractor with a needle on the other end as well.

Bandages

Bandages must be made of neutral or celestial cloth, kept very clean except for the drop of lifesblood on them, and are best kept warm unless used on a being who needs the cold. Healers usually keep bandages in tight rolls that are wound up into wheels of linen called pahiyon (pahiya, sing.).

Scalpel

Their scalpels must be made of neutral or celestial metals, sharpened on opals or stones with tabait in them, and steamed clean after every use. They must be kept sharp, clean, and at the ready, and thus, they usually are kept in a specially oiled leather case. If used for anything other than healing, even just opening an envelope, they must be re-cleaned, re-sharpened, and then washed in lifesblood for eight days.

Variations

Some variations include

• Art therapist: mixing a few drops of lifesblood into paint and letting people paint with it promotes emotional healing through art therapy.
• Anveshak: using empathy and true listening, they investigate the sources of diseases and maladies, usually tracking down the cause of pandemics or plagues.
• Aushadhi mahir: using lifesblood as part of the nurturing of healing plants, they create gardens for herbalists and healers alike.
• Boksi: a Majonese healing witch.
• Gerente: a usually retired or partially retired healer who works as a hospital administrator, using true listening and empathy to coordinate their staff.
• High surgeon: the leader of a group of healer-surgeons. These are the most respected healers in the world.
• Kechalla: those who make mittee ke bartan as their primary focus.
• Music therapist: those who wash their musical instruments in lifesblood or carry them in lifesclay cases in order to make them soothing.
• Shodhakarta: those healers who use true listening, empathy, and other arts to do medical research.
• Yaunchikitsak: those who use lifesblood for sexual intercourse or sexual purposes as a matter of healing.

Specializations

Just as mundane doctors specialize, so too do healers. The general rule of thumb is that -ogist becomes -oger for esoteric practicioners; sometimes other variations are done. Some examples include

• Anesthesiologer: healers who specialize in esoteric anesthestics.
• Cardiologer: healers of the heart.
• Geriatritor: healers of the elderly.
• Gynacologer: healers of women's issues.
• Healer-Surgeon: a healer who specializes in surgeries and binding.
• Immunologer: healers who improve or heal immune systems.
• Neurologer: healers of the brain.
• Oncologer: healers of cancer.
• Pediatritor: healers of children.
• Physiologer: sports healers.
• Podiator: healers of the feet.
• Psychologer: healers of mental illness, trauma, etc.

Any actual medical specialty has an esoteric variation on Shem, even if not listed above.

Variations by Species

Some specializations focus on a species or subspecies of mortal:

• Facet Healers: crystal folk have no equivalent to blood, so they are healed via tabait as light.
• Fey Healers: the fey can be healed by tabait as normal, but they can also be healed by a softer form of tabait formedin dreams called opal froth.
• Green Healers: any green folk have very different rites that involve sap or other humors not present in animal-mortals.
• Storm Healers: tempests have bodies made from cloud and water that can be healed through tabait in vapor form.
• Transcended Healers: transcendentals can be healed via tabait light but they have no bodies to be healed via blood.

Some beings are healable via tabait but avoid it culturally for various reasons. The Horde, goblins, some kashirum, meshetani, wekufe, the Wild Hunt, cythreuliaid, inimica, tantum, fuliginites, enders, dreordomne, harpies, menywod, elves, cephalans, athaks, giants, undines, ysians, merfolk, sylphs, and viridianites tend to use other means of healing.

Similar Occupations

Other users of tabait include

• Doctor: those who mix possibility and tabait to approach healing more scientifically.
• Kallawaya: wandering healers of eastern Palhur who are mostly women. They are often also shamans or bard-like.

Other Healing Arts

Those who use healing powers with other energies include the following. There are many variations of other occupations who practice some form of healing which are not listed. See healers for more.

• Aganakti: healers among the nunnehi who uses yahas to bond and share energies in order to heal.
• Cerrah: physicians who use kakraohy to hone their healing skills and arts.
• Chymosian: physicians who use the science of humors to heal.
• Cryogenecist: doctors who use hvittdogg to preserve people in perfect cold.
• Euoptician: healers who use euphotonia to heal eyes.
• Herbalist healers who use prasinofos and other green aethers to create and use healing plants.
• Leecher: those who draw blood and use questus to heal with infernal arts.
• Malmedician: those who use infernal arts to trade one condition for another in order to heal.
• Mender: those who mend True Names.
• Midwife: healers who use banaru to heal, protect, and help children, pregnant people, and new parents.
• Plague-Bearer: those who use vile energy to gather up sickness in nets and spread it.
• Plague Doctor: those who use every art available to fight plagues and pandemics.
• Quacksalver: fake doctors selling fake medicines.
• Street Medic: healers and physicians who use any art available along with gemtkhereg to provide healing on the streets.
• Uinyeo: nurses who use unified action to heal and treat women.
• Veterinarian: doctors who use nzwara murazvo to treat and heal animals.
• Vitalist: healers who use ashar to heal with.
• Wisin: healers who use mijjit to heal with.

Societal Role

Healers are prized even in the most evil societies. In major capitalist countries, they are co-opted by the ruling class into complex economic traps in order to force them to work for for-profit institutions. In ancient slaving countries, their role is one of service to the ruling class. In feudal countries, they are usually connected to either a religious structure or the nobility, as those are the only ones who can afford the training. In matriarchal socities, they are honored and integral parts of the community, and in socialist countries they are respected members of the community who provide their services completely free, supported by the state.

Some cultures favor different forms of healing and view healing magic skeptically. Others fear its power and prefer malmedicine or blood magic, which are more exacting and cruel but provide greater control. Others still simply have a cultural preference, for instance, for vitalism or humors. Only in the most brutal socitites are healers outlawed, but even in the gentlest cultures, there is some regulation or oversight on them.

They are amongst the most valuable and expensive slaves.

Skills

Skills include but are not limited to

• Medical focus (whatever their specialization is)
• Medicine
• Medical lore
• Herbalism
• Gardening
• Surgery
• Sewing
• Anatomy
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Experimentation
• Research
• Studying
• Writing
• Pottery/ceramics
• Cleaning

Medical Arts

Beyond use of their esoteric powers, healers always supplement with medical science and lore. They often specialize just as mundane doctors do, though their choices for specialization are more expansive, as they can address supernatural maladies more ably.

Stats

Modifiers from base of nation/species:

PRO -1
ATH /
STR +1
AWA +4
WIL +4
STH -1
PRS /