The Healer

(a.k.a. The Merciful, Goddess of Mercy, Mistress of Peace, the Guiding Hand)

No other deity in the pantheon of the Gods of Caelestra enjoys the adoration and appreciation that The Healer receives from mortals. The Goddess of Mercy is widely seen as one of the gods most compassionate towards mortals and mortal concerns. As the goddess of healing and compassion, her portfolio ties into aspects of life that all mortals share – pain, suffering, and illness. All mortals, from the weakest peasant to the mightiest orc warrior experiences pain, injury, and disease any number of times throughout life. Thus, The Healer is a goddess understood and beloved by almost every creature in the mortal worlds.
Even though The Healer’s church is no longer as strong or connected, her clergy still enjoy a measure of grace and appreciation throughout Caelestra. Most civilized creatures will not attack or willingly harm a servant of the Goddess of Mercy. This often includes bandits and brigands, and even cutpurses within towns and cities. Outside of the boundaries of civilization, however, many creatures care nothing for The Healer’s clerics or their beliefs, and offer no special treatment.

Divine Domains

Main Domain: Healing, Community
Other Domains: Rune

Holy Books & Codes

The Healer’s Scrolls.
According to legend, in the earliest days there existed a woman renowned for her skills in the healing arts and herbalism. She taught others her knowledge, and she devoted her life to helping others with little regard to her own needs. One morning, The Healer appeared before the woman and graced the woman with inspiration. For the next year, the woman wrote every fact she knew in regards to healing. By the end of that year, she had completed a large but concise work that became known as The Healer’s Scrolls.
In the many years since those days, The Scrolls have been expanded, updated, and improved many times by men and women blessed with The Healer’s inspiration. Over time, the Scrolls became a repository for a vast sum of medical knowledge.
Most Heartmender clerics carry a book (often condensed) encapsulating much of The Scrolls. The work is also popular amongst herbalists, physicians, and other healers. Overall, the book combines sound advice, training in medicine, and divinely inspired wisdom.

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Unexpected and unsought after acts of kindness and acts of compassion are said to be hallmarks of The Healer’s influence. 
When someone needs help, an answer, or just the presence of a friend, The Healer sometimes offers just the right thing at the right time. There are often times, of course, where there is a difference between what mortals believe they want, and what they actually need. The Healer understands the mortal heart more than any other god, and she is thus in tune with what people truly need. One facet of The Heartmender faith is that even the smallest act of compassion at the right moment can have momentous effects.
It is widely believed that The Healer, renowned for her legendary patience and compassion, has no use for grim omens or portents of her wrath. She is not, however, above inflicting discomfort or embarrassment on those she deems cruel, arrogant, or uncaring.

Tenets of Faith

Heal the injured, cure the sick, show compassion in the face of suffering. 
This tenet forms the core of all Heartmender beliefs. Clerics of The Healer are placed in the world to use their skills and talents on their friends and enemies alike. In a world where bloodshed, chaos, and destruction have become commonplace, it falls on The Healer’s Chosen to help those in need without regard for compensation or reward.
Share your knowledge, your experience, and your time with those in need. 
There are often times where someone needs healing but no clerics of The Healer are available. Small villages, isolated hamlets, and individual farm families, for example, cannot rely on the presence of a healer. It is appropriate and necessary for all Heartmenders to share their skills, but also their knowledge, with anyone interested. Amongst the faith of The Healer there are no secrets where the healing arts are concerned.
The Healer’s clerics take time to train and teach people how to set broken bones, mend torn flesh, fight off fevers, and remove blood poisoning. They are called to share their knowledge with the town healer, the village Wise Woman, and the family’s herb-gatherer. Her clerics are always looking out for someone with natural talent, and many of her clerics take on one or more apprentices. Often, these apprentices go on to become clerics, but just as often they return home to serve their community.
Seek out, gather, and protect knowledge of the healing arts. 
Clerics of The Healer are charged with the task of seeking out and gathering every scrap of medicinal lore they can find. Heartmender clerics scour old libraries and ruined monasteries in pursuit of even the tiniest piece of healing lore. They must remain willing to learn new techniques (which are, in fact, old techniques lost or forgotten by others) from village herbalists, healers, and Wise Women. The Healer calls upon her clerics to retain an open-minded attitude and follow a spirit of humility; no one person can ever know all there is to know about healing and medicine. You never know when you will learn something new or something superior to what you already practice.

Holidays

Healer's Help (Frostfall, 22)
On this day, clerics of The Healer offer free healing and other health services to those in need. Often walking the poorer districts curing disease and illness.

Divine Classification

Deity

Religions

• The Heartmenders

Church/Cult

The Heartmenders