Chardastes Wing, Temple of Khoronus

For everyone their full span of time

The Church of Khoronus concentrates on learning and education, and teaches the rhythm of the seasons, the cycle of life and death, respect for life, and acceptance of death when it comes. While its clerics, naturally, enjoy and employ healing magic to aid people who might otherwise die prematurely, healing is not the primary focus of the church. And so it may be considered surprising to find a whole wing of the Temple of Khoronus dedicated to healing and to the study of maintaining and restoring health and life.
The patron Immortal of healers is Chardastes. He* was a magic user from the former Traladara (now The Grand Duchy of Karameikos) who studied the use of herbs, plants and natural ingredients in curing ailments and disease, and founded the Healing Order for others to study the same. He quickly discovered that the wizards who came to study with him tended to be less interested in healing and more interested in power, so they left fairly quickly, and he found himself surrounded by druids and clerics instead.
He became an Immortal of the Sphere of Time, and used his new position to fight diseases which could harm mortal races. He charges his followers to offer their services to anyone, and not to accept payment in return. Obviously this rather reduces the number of people willing to pledge to him.
Celia Rebello was a minor member of the Toney family, and about sixty five years ago, she travelled to Karameikos on a trading mission. While there she was attacked on the road and left for dead, but fortunately for her she was found by the Healing Order, taken in and nursed back to health. She found herself curious about the treatment provided to her, and then to the other patients, and she started helping out. She discovered an aptitude for both the use of herbal cures and magical healing, and became ordained as a fully-fledged cleric of Chardastes.
In time, homesickness drove her to leave the order and return to her home city of Akorros. She was struck by the afflications of the poorer people in Akorros, and determined to do something for them, but since she was prohibited by Chardastes to take anything in return she needed some way to survive.
After receiving direction from Chardastes in her prayers, she approached the Archbishop of the Temple of Khoronus, asking if he could sponsor her to set up a place where the poor people could come for healing. After praying to Khoronus, he said she could use a spare room in the west wing of the temple as her consulting and treatment room, and that she could live with the novices.
Several years later, she had built up a small reputation, and the archbishop had allowed her to take on a couple of apprentices from the novices. A dreadful plague struck Akorros, and as usual it hit the poorest people (who were crammed together, and couldn't afford clerical healing) worst. It responded to Cure Disease spells, but there were far too few clerics to be able to heal more than a tiny minority of the population.
Celia spent a whole week in her apothecary, mixing different plants and trying different combinations and active ingredients, and those nearby said there was a glow coming from her rooms and she didn't sleep at all. There was also mention of a mysterious dark-skinned stranger working with her, who no-one had seen before.
At the end of the week, she came out of her rooms carrying bottles full of a cloudy purple liquid, and went out into the nearest poor area of the city. There she treated all the sick people she could find with this liquid, before returning to the temple. She went straight to the archbishop, and asked for all his clerics to help - the fate of Akorros depended on it, she said. Bemused, he followed her to where she had a scroll with a recipe, and lists of ingredients to source. She also took him to the area she had dispensed the treatment, and he saw all the people she had treated already recovering.
He made over the full resources of the temple to producing the cure and to distributing it widely among the people of Akorros, and very soon the plague was brought under control and eliminated from the city (except in a few small pockets where people refused the potion).
In recognition of her services, he made over the whole west wing for her use, dedicated to the service of Chardastes, and provided living for her and all those who joined her in her endeavours, on condition that she treat or train anyone who asked, and that she build a library devoted to healing within the wing.
Now the wing has fourteen trained disciples of Chardastes, with several hundred who have trained over the years and moved out as itinerant healers. It has three main treatment rooms, plus two wards with beds for up to thirty and various smaller rooms for consultations. Many people over the years have been "taken under the Wing of Chardastes". There are also twenty small clinics spread throughout the poorer areas of Akorros, marked by a bell with no clapper affixed above the door.
They also continue their research. A notable recent discovery by Iorwen Glorfindle and Maidel Silvertongue has been the Ophio anaesthetic.

* Most sources refer to Chardastes as "he" and his standard avatar on the mortal plane is of a 40-year-old Traladaran man. However, there are some dissenting sources which suggest that Chardastes might originally have been female.

Type

Hospital