Writing the Codex Healartum

As your pen glides over the pages of this book, may you grow in the courage of your mother, the wisdom of her father, and the cunning of his aunt.

— The Codex Healartum to Ida Reyneke, The Sorrow of Souls, Book 2

The Codex Healartum is a scared Raskvaerii text that is only owned by Healers. It is a book that is treated with extreme reverence by its owner, and any acts of desecration against the pages are treated as severely as a crime committed against the Healer themselves. Although Healers often refer to their Codex when performing a diagnosis, making remedies or growing medicinal plants, it is rumoured that no two are ever the same.

Description

While some Raskvaerii and Kredasene booksellers claim to sell printed fascimilies of legtitimate Codex Healartums, these claims are vehemently rejected by Varsii immigrants in both societies. Very little is actually known about Codex Healartums, other than that those treated by Healers have claimed that the text were hand-written by the

by Kelly Sikkema

Healer in a language distinct from Varsii. When pressed, these individuals were unable to identify the letters are relating to any of the Saeric alphabets. Many of these books are said to have been in the Healer's family for many generations, and while they are constantly being annotated or added to by their current owner, there always seems to be a fresh page ready and willing to be filled.

Theories

It has long been rumoured that the Healers' natural talent and skill in their art is not learned; rather, they have formed a symbiotic relationship they allegedly shared with so-called Patron spirits that grants them the use of their own Power. It is therefore the suspicion of many Raskvaerii Saint-Servant scholars that the Codex Healartums are somehow authored by these Patron creatures, using the hand and pen of the Healer as a means to transfer their knowledge to paper.
Other scholars have suggested that the Codex Healartums themselves are a form of Patron spirit, or relics of lost Power from the Hubraic Era. In this way, the Codex could be seen as a repository of knowledge collected from generations of Healers, and only presented to the current owner in times of need.

Scholarly Study

Only a single book, believed to be a Codex Healartum, has ever fallen into the hands of scholars. The text was said to have belonged to a Varsii imigrant Healer in Kredashmi by the name of Rosen MacKerrow, who was murdered by her husband in his family in 237 SGC. Saint-Servant Pasha Zhuko studied the book for two years before concluding that the book was a forgery, and burnt it - contrary

to the orders of the Mother Temple in Latharin. He was murdered by a ex-patient of MacKerrow, Tarron Wearn, not three weeks later.