St. Helja's House of Healing (/hel-yaa/)

St. Helja was a dwarven healer a thousand years ago. Famously, she was a warrior and a healer, and made her name in her early years during a brief war between the Cities on the Mountain, Doth Zozi and Doth Kalesh, and the united forces of Harmesburg. After the war was over, ending in defeat for the dwarven forces, St. Helja was instrumental in helping to negotiate a peace on behalf of the dwarves, and ultimately was a major contributor to the strong alliance between the Cities on the mountain and the growing coalition to the south.
After returning home to Doth Kalesh, surrounded by glory and newfound riches and power (it seems the nature of famous adventurers is to get wildly rich after their adventures have come to an end), St. Helja decided to create a hospital where she would train her apprentices to channel her magic. She bought a large plot in the bottom level of the city at the time, knowing that the best healing practice would come from the poorest members of the population, and built a grand temple upon it, which was to serve as a House of Healing. Helja was also a strong believer in the the legend of the The Architects of the Mountain, so perhaps she was motivated to help the city to continue to expand into the depths.
Helja continued to distinguish herself later in life, eventually making a breakthrough in divine healing which allowed healers across the world to heal diseases which arose from contaminants in the body, rather than from bad air, uncleanliness, or magic. The prime example of this was black lung. Before this breakthrough, the gods' grace was unable to grant relief to victims of these conditions, such as black lung, or pneumonia, as curing the symptoms would not remove the resultant contaminant from the victim's body.

Purpose / Function

St. Helja's is a hospital first and foremost. In fact, since the death of Helja herself, many healers from religions other than the dwarven worship have come and joined the team at Helja's in an effort to discover new breakthroughs in healing. Relatively recently, a new wing has been built which specializes in alchemical treatments.

Alterations

New wings have been added onto the hospital to expand it's capacity and to lend space to new research avenues. Most notable of these are the Curse-Breaker wing and the Alchemical wing. 
The Curse-Breakers seek to find ways to remove magical curses that do not respond to traditional dispelling. They also work with victims of possession, assuming the victim can make their way to the hospital of their own volition.
The Alchemists work not on new diseases, but with new methods, hoping to make healing achievable simple through the appropriate mixing of magical ingredients, rather than relying on the individual power of each healer, which can often be a limiting factor for the hospital, as extensive knowledge does not always translate to expanded means of healing.

Founding Date

348

Alternative Names

St. Helja's (for short)

Type

Hospital