Healing

From Mizahar Lore

"One of the hardest and yet most rewarding part of being a healer is healing without judgment. For if Rak'Keli grants you her gifts, she demands it be used for whomever needs it regardless of their social status, religion, personality, race, or sex." - Karmina Natura - Syliran Healer and Konti Seer

Healing

Gnosis
One needs to love life in all its uncertainty in order to be a good healer.
Granted by	Rak'keli
Positive marks	Healing
Negative marks	Augmentation of Illness
Pos. mark appearance	Twisted Swirling Sigil in Shimmering Opal; Winged Serpant
Neg. mark appearance	Twisted Swirling Sigil in Grey or Brown
Mark location	Face, Shoulder, Hands
First mark	Birth +
Champion	None

Healing is the power of being able to take something living that is damaged and return that living thing to a state of normal operation or function almost instantaneously. Damage can be defined as physical wounds, disease or mental illness. Healers, through their link with Rak'keli, borrow from her domain and channel the essence of her powers through themselves to repair damage.

Rak'keli long ago discovered the need for healers throughout Mizahar. Humans, and their brethren races were often fragile and prone to damage. Rak'keli is very free with her gnosis marks at lower levels. She shows no preference for race or sex even though she dwells with her sister on Konti Isle. Her only demand in retun for granting a gnosis mark is that the recipient swears an oath to never turn their back on the opportunity to heal that which is damaged. That healing must be offered freely to both friend and enemy alike. It is a serious oath and one that, if broken, can result in a gnosis mark turning negative or the loss of the mark completely. Because of this fact, Healers may train in weapons and physical skills like wrestling, brawling, and unarmed combat for defensive reasons, but they make terrible soldiers and warriors because it is spiritually damaging for them to take another life willingly. Self-defense is another situation altogether. Healers can inflict wounds to defend themselves in self-defense situations, but again they are compelled to heal immediately after the battle if their opponent still lives. Violence, though a necessary part of Mizahar, has an incredibly negative impact on healers. People predisposed to this sort of mentality who bear a gnosis mark from Rak'keli often suffer deep psychological damage when suffering repeated physical abuse, acts of violence, or even slavery. It takes another healer with more marks to truly help them if they cannot help themselves.

Healing takes no formal training, though it does take a deep and devout faith to Rak'keli and the belief that one CAN HEAL. Healing rarely works for those insecure or uncomfortable around wounds, disease, or other forms of illness. Thus, Rak'keli, though generous with gifting marks, makes certain she only gifts marks to those who exude calm confidence and conviction in their own ability to heal. Rak'keli's marks tend to take the form of swirling sigils that are obviously dedicated to her. They tend to appear on faces and other places not easily concealed.

Mark Progression

Marked [Cursed] - 1 Gnosis Mark
	Healers can close shallow wounds, cure headaches and common colds, ease strained or tense muscles, and take care of minor rashes, allergies and depression. They can also deal effectively with snake bites, insect bites, and skin irritation due to plants such as poison ivy, and heal minor bruising. Healers with a singular gnosis mark can also purify deeper wounds with their touch, improving sanitation and eliminating the threat of dangerous wounds going septic or developing infection. A cursed individual tends to cause wounds to fester and go septic around them. All allergies are accentuated. Common colds tend to escalate into pneumonia. People with negative gnosis marks aren't only affected by themselves, but affect other people around them. They tend to easily lose friends or companions. While the 'curse' generally isn't life threatening, it can be extremely annoying.
Favored [Despised] - 2 Gnosis Marks
	A favored healer will suddenly be able to deal with broken bones, deep lacerations, and serious illnesses caused by infections of various substances. Secondary marked Healers can also treat damaged major organs such as weak hearts, bad lungs, and so on. The usefulness of these healers is evident. They often are retained by city leaders to man healing stations, join organizations such as the Opal Order, or work privately for individuals dedicated to various causes. A despised individual is a bringer of illness. If people have inherent tendencies to get sick, being in the presence of these despised individuals can truly cause these conditions to bloom. Heart disease suddenly come into being, tumors to grow, cancers to spread, and coughs to get significantly worse. Despised individuals aren't affected by these things themselves, but their very presence endangers those they love and doesn't allow them to grow close to anyone for fear of that individual becoming seriously ill with any manner of things.
Priest/Priestess [Adversary] - 3 Gnosis Marks
	These healers can treat long-term problems like curvature of the spine or diseases that make tremendous impacts on populations like plague, cholera, or malaria. Especially bad trauma, such as from a fall or a war, can be dealt with by these individuals fairly easily. Diseases including consumption (tuberculosis), mental retardation, and even cancer can be corrected and cured by tertiary marked healers. Healers at this level are not infallible though. They are limited in how much trauma they can heal or how many diseased people they can clear out in a single day. Their exertions tire them and if they do not rest, they can actually infect themselves with that which they are able to cure. Rak'keli has never marked anyone with a third mark. If so, they would be walking death, spreading disease and disorder wherever they traveled. Great plagues could be potentially caused by individuals with these marks wandering the world.
Champion [Nemesis] - 4 Gnosis Marks
	These healers can bring the seriously ill back from the brink of death. It is said that Rak'keli's champion can defy even death herself, snatching souls back from passing to the beyond. They can make the extremely old young again. Legends of the Fountain of Youth probably originated not from any true fountain, but rather refer to the past champions of Rak'keli. There has never been a nemesis of Rak'keli, or anyone so marked.