Stitcher

Career

Qualifications

Stitchers require ample knowledge of medicine and anatomy, as well as steady hands, to perform their work.

Perception

Purpose

Stitchers are the surgeons of Velhamia. They are not doctors, but typically have a fair amount of medical expertise. Stitchers mend wounds, heal broken bones, and, if necessary, remove body parts.

Social Status

Stitchers get payed well enough to live fairly comfortably in most cases. While most people avoid going to the stitcher at all cost due out of fear, the prices charged for their services typically allow them to make ends meet. Stitchers are viewed with a mixture of fear and disgust. This perception is likely influenced by the Restitution Church, which sees their work as blasphemous, but is recognized as a necessary evil, and so is not strongly persecuted against aside from the perpetuation of stitchers being butchers. Among scientific communities, however, skilled stitchers are regarded with utmost respect, as their research helps to further the understanding of the human body.

Operations

Workplace

The workplace of a stitcher varies depending on what is available to said stitcher. A high-class stitcher working in the upper levels of Galderhame would have access to sterile operating tables and seats, a room well-lit by gas or possibly even electric light, and access to intravenous devices designed to deliver milksap and ichor to numb any pain. Rural stitchers in the backwoods of Velhamia, however, may be confined to working out of a barn, on a wooden operating table without anesthetic, working by candlelight or with a gas lantern.

Provided Services

The work of a stitcher is to aid in recovery from injury. Stitchers are sought out when bones are broken, skin is torn open, or infection has set in. They also serve as dentists, removing and replacing teeth as they need to. Stitchers try to promote full recovery as much as they can, but sometimes the removal of body parts via amputation is necessary. In cases where body parts are removed, a skilled stitcher may attempt to graft on a new organ, or replace it with a prothesis of some sort. Lastly, stitchers serve to perform autopsies on the deceased to potentially determine cause of death.

Alternative Names

Mender, Limb Butcher

Type

Medical

Demand

Stitchers are in high demand, to the point where illegal practice, especially in rural areas, has become somewhat commonplace

Legality

In the Empire, stitchers are required to have an up to date license obtained through years of practice and study both in school and as an intern. Illegal practice is considered mutilation and desecration of flesh, a crime which, depending on severity, is punishable by anything from five years in prison to execution. However, this has done little to stop the practice of illegal stitching, especially in rural areas, where local law enforcement typically overlooks the town stitcher's lack of license.