Achean Guild Mage Healing

Utility

The healing arts as they are taught now started with the basics of healing wounds and broken bones - ways in which the actual anatomy of the body has been changed. It is the simplest way to do magical medicine, as the main idea is putting things back as they belong. Excising things such as tumors or stones is also a common use for magical interventions. Infectious disease is much harder to cure by magical methods, though some methods exist, such as "burning" out pathogens by locally heating blood to a temperature high enough to kill pathogens but not damage the blood itself. This is reserved for the more elite members of the guilds in Acheos, as the practice is inherently dangerous.

Access & Availability

In Acheos and Ayefor, mages are available for hire as healers, but it is generally a service available to the wealthy (especially in Ayefor - in Acheos there are at least some, such as the temple conclaves, and even the Pentarchy on occasion who provide healing services on a charitable basis). A middle class family would have to save a significant portion of their money in order to obtain treatment from guild mages, though it is not unheard of for families to do so for severe ailments where other treatments have failed.

Complexity

It takes years of specialized training to master the many procedures used by the guild mages, however the rudiments of medicine, such as knitting shallow wounds or checking the body for problems is fairly intuitive for most mages, and many are able to grasp at least the basics.

Discovery

Healing is one of the oldest forms of magic, though various techniques have been discovered and fallen in and out of favor over time. The current methods practiced and trained in the guilds of Acheos are a system based on anatomical training and strict adherence to certain procedures for the non piercing use of magic on the human body.