Healers

A Healer, also called a Class 2 Paragon, is a type of Paragon who can speed up and manipulate the immune system of both themselves and other humans. Thus they can seal up wounds and spur the immune system to attack illnesses faster. The most skilled Healers can force the immune system to attack cancerous cells.
For obvious reasons, Healers are in high demand all over the world. I will focus on their treatment in the Kingdom of Crathlia, though I'll mention other nations as well.

First Healers and the Colonial Era

As Healing is such a useful skill, shapeshifters have long cultivated it as one of their primary abilities. Thus, during the Colonization, many human children of shapeshifters scoring above 300 also learned how to heal.
Though the vast majority of shapeshifters' children with only one ability were not Healers, those that were were singled out and specifically trained for that purpose. Female Healers were often trained as midwives, while male Healers were combat medics. They formed a crucial part of Colonial society and were encouraged to reproduce, since most Healers' children were born Healers themselves. However, their population was still limited, as they tended to be targeted by naer attacks.

Healers in the Kingdom of Crathlia

After the Crathlian Revolution, Healers were free from the shapeshifters' rule--but most were immediately taken captive by more powerful Paragons and forced to heal the members of that clan. When the feudal society of the Dark Age developed, it became a mark of a powerful clan to have its own Healer. They were fought over and captured by rival clans. Some were mistreated due to the belief that Healers would become better if they had to heal themselves often, but most were pampered slaves.

Rise of the Bloodbournes

In the Duchy of Evenbrook, one young Healer had been tossed around too many times. Mildrythe Wellbrook was said to have belonged to four different noble clans, each treating her worse than the last, and her beauty was such that every young man of each household wanted her. After she was captured without her year-old son, she vowed to be free of them once and for all, a liege lord in her own right.
From Amalgam martial artists she learned the art of bladework. Since she could easily heal herself, she could best better blade fighters and Paragons with more destructive abilities. She mustered an army from the rivals of the clan that held her son, then convinced some of them to stay with her. Her eventual vengeance was so legendary that she gained the name Bloodbourne--born of blood.
The clan descended from her became the first and only major clan of landed Healers. They held the title of the County of Bloodbourne.

Healers in the Alderley Clan?

He held me.
I could barely fathom it - the man who had grabbed the traitor by the wrist and the hair, the traitor who had screamed and then was silent, cold, dead. The man whose touch was deadly.
He ran his killer fingers gently, so gently, over my bleeding forehead.
And the pain evaporated.

— Diary of Queen Aveline Ashdown Alderley, Diary 1 (995)

Queen Aveline's diaries claim that King Percival was a Healer, but also had the ability to kill with a touch. It has been argued that he scored above 300 and thus had all the possibile abilities of Paragons and human-bodied shapeshifters, but I and most modern scholars find it likely that he would have displayed other abilities, such as fire manipulation.
Ruling that possibility out, there exist two other options for his ability. Alderley scholars throughout history have put forth the idea that he wasn't a "classical" Healer and had abilities pertaining to both life and death. The other theory is that his identical twin brother Prince Roland (believed by some to be a Drainer) pretended to be the king every time he performed an execution. While the latter theory is supported by the surviving pieces of Queen Aveline's diaries, the topic is still heavily debated.

The Industrial Age and Healers

By the Industrial Revolution, Crathlia's nobility had been at peace for a hundred years, leading to a more stable Healer population who was no longer outright fought over. However, they still answered to one particular Count/Countess or Duke/Duchess.
With the explosion of cities in the 1100s, particularly Lexport, Masthead, Golton, and Blackyard, there were not enough urban Healers who served the counties in which the cities were built, and disease begun to run rampant. Golton and Blackyard particularly suffered due to their postition in the same county. Countess Stelworth went before the Senate and demanded extra Healers from the more rural counties, which, she argued, had too many Healers.
The Senate decreed that Healers were no longer bound by their oaths of alliegance to their respective noble clans, instead being bound to the Alderley Clan and thus the good of the Kingdom of Crathlia. Since then, the High Healer of Crathlia has set guides of how many Healers ought to reside in any particular county, strategically placing new graduates of Healer schools in areas where they're most needed.

Demotion of Noble Healers

When the nobility was re-defined as all Paragons scoring above 125.00, most Healers, including the Bloodbourne Clan, were demoted to non-nobles. There are only two living Healers who have attended Everdon Academy and thus are considered of noble status. Alan Desfade Weatherby, brother to Katherine Weatherby and son of Flora Desfade, is, of course, an odd case in that his mother is a Drainer. He currently works like any other Healer in one of Masthead's hospitals. The other is Reece Ironwood, the illegitmate son of Maeve Ironwood and an unknown Healer. He will likely follow Healer Weatherby's example and obtain a job at a hospital needing more Healers.

Modern Protection Measures

Since 1241, all Crathlian Healers are required to be chipped in the right arm whenever they show signs of power, usually between 6 to 8 years old. They also must make formal requests to leave the country. Failure to comply with these measures of protection can result in steep fines and/or forced unpaid healing in a hospital in need for a set period of time.

Written by Cordelia Colbreak Evenbrook

Parent ethnicities

• Paragons

Encompassed Species

Humans

Languages Spoken

Crathlian

Significant Presence in

Kingdom of Crathlia

Major Historical Figures

Mildrythe Bloodbourne
King Percival Alderley Ashdown (debated)
Kiera Bloodbourne Wellby

Surnames

Like all Crathlians, Healers possess two surnames: one for their father's clan, one for their mother's. When they get married, they lose a surname of their choice, usually the name of their less-powerful parent. This list, unlike that of the Drainer clans, is non-exhaustive. There are many other names borne by Healers; these are just the most common Healer-specific surnames.
Additionally, compared to the surnames of Drainers and Paragons, you'll find a surprising number of names of uncertain meaning or origin. Many of these names originated sometime during the Dark Ages, when Healers were being held as slaves by Paragon warlords. Viewing the Healers as incredibly valuable serfs rather than Paragons on their own level, the warlords often failed to keep records of the origin of their Healers' surnames; some seem to have been given by the warlords themselves to differntiate them or commemorate specific feats.

• Wellbrook: perhaps the oldest of the Healer clans, this name was given after the Crathlian Revolution to a Healer related to the Evenbrook Clan.
• Bledwell: another old Healer clan. According to popular legend, this name is believed to be based on a gallows-humor joke by the original bearer, who often told his patients that they'd bled well. The name of the original bearer, if he existed, has been lost to time, but it's often given as Bran or Brandon.
• Bloodbourne: origin detailed at left. It is hard to say which spelling of the elements "blood" and "born" was preferred by Mildrythe, since she was inconsistent. Her noble descendants adopted this longer spelling.
• Bloodborne: origin detailed at left. This spelling was used by the non-noble branches of her clan, apparently at the behest of their noble cousins, who wanted to have the longest spelling of the surname.
• Wellmaker: presumably referring to the act of a Healer of making someone "well" rather than "ill," this name's origin has been lost to time.
• Bloodwell: likely a misspelling or divergence of Bledwell, either accidental or an intentional breaking away from the Bledwell Clan. In either case, the clans are currently considered seperate.
• Whitepar: combination of the elements "white," probably referring to the Healer's clothing, and "par," an element of uncertain meaning. The name's origin and meaning have both been lost to time.
• Wellby: combination of the elements "well" and "by." Theorized to be a contraction of Weatherby, a noble Paragon clan that may have held the original Wellbys as Healer serfs.
• Healer: a straightforward name identifying the Healer's usefulness, this surname belongs to at least three unrelated clans.
• Heler: an alternative spelling of Healer.
• Felgood: probably a contraction of "feel" and "good."
• Nightwell: according to popular legend, this name refers to a Healer who saved the life of her lady in the dead of night three times.

Healers in Other Parts of the World

The overarching thread, whether Healers are found in countries with high Paragon populations or those where Paragons are a barely-believed rarity, is that Healers are wanted desperately. Nations will do battle over them, capturing those who aren't carefully protected by their homelands.
The only exception is found in Frigora, where they and all other humans with abilities (whether aignaoi or naer in nature) are believed to be unnatural and evil. However, I would not be surprised to find that even the Frigorans would take a Healer in a time of need.

Lumen Empire

In the Lumen Empire, Healers are highly valued and only accessible to the wealthy. Even the rich and powerful must travel to the major cities of the Lumen Empire to recieve healing. Otherwise, most diseases and injuries are dealt with naturally or by modern technology, with the worst cases flying to one of the Aviumi city-states for treatment. The only exception is the military, which posesses the largest number of Healers in the Lumen Empire, conscripted by Empress Calida herself in order to maintain military supremacy. Soldiers thus have the most access to Healers of anyone on Morion.

Avium

The western Aviumi city-states typically are based on one type of power (water, light, etc.). Neither Drainers nor Healers have developed there. Some scientists believe that Drainers and Healers are descended from a particular shapeshifter, or that they may be the result of inbreeding during the Colonization. In any case, both Paragon minorities are rare in Avium in particular. Aviumi medical technology is the most advanced in the world, but it still can't compare to a Healer's ability.

Republic of Notia

The Republic of Notia has long kept its very few Healers hidden; for years, we and the rest of the world believed they had none. Now we know that like other Paragons, they were being trained in labor camps from childhood and then used in military operations.

Shui Equivalents

Shui Lu's naered have the capability to gift humans with an ability that mimics the Paragon version in everything but the telekinesis that all aignaoi-descended humans who score high enough posess. Shui Healers can thus be of any ethnicity or background, and Crathlian intelligence suggests that they are often gifted when they are as young as two years of age. They are believed to be somewhat more numerous than Paragon Healers, in the range of 500,000 to 1 million, in order to meet the needs of Shui Lu, which is larger than Crathlia. It is unknown whether all of these Healers are first-generation (i.e. gifted personally by a naer) or if gifts are inheritable through the children of gifted humans. Personally, as the granddaughter of a gifted human, I am inclined to believe the latter, though I of course also have aignaoi blood, which may make a difference.