OK guys, here’s a quick explanation of healing magic in Idenau.
First, a recap: healing magic basically just accelerates the body’s natural healing processes. So, a human in Idenau can’t regrow a limb using magic, but cuts and bruises and other things that will eventually go away on their own can be quickly healed. This process expends a lot of energy and requires even more concentration on the part of the caster, so you often find wizards who specialize in healing as opposed to offensive/defensive light/dark magic.
In Ancient Idenau, magic was used to heal others in a much more general sense. Because the people of Ancient Idenau didn’t really understand the finer points of biology, they tended to throw random spells and potions at the problem to see what stuck. So, “doctors” at this used basic strength and fortitude spells to help a patient heal just a bit faster, and possibly to reduce the amount of pain they were in. As medical science progressed in Idenau, healing magic did as well. Modern Idenian doctors use a combination of standard medical knowledge and tools with magic to accelerate the more minute natural healing processes.
For example, a broken arm might be healed more quickly by setting the bone using a spell. Instead of having a clunky cast around the arm, a spell can create a more precise “cast” around the break itself. Because the spell is more flexible, it can keep the break together without requiring the patient to limit motion at all. In time, the bone would heal itself as usual, but the patient would never really notice a difference.
Of course, Idenian doctors can also accelerate a bone’s healing process if they understand how it works at an even more granular level. The same goes for diseases, if the disease actually has a cure; a doctor can use magic to manipulate the body’s response to a sickness and possibly cure it from within. However, this is considered to be a very high level of healing magic; a doctor would usually have to specialize in a certain type of care and do a lot of research to understand how best to manipulate a patient’s body with magic.
Medical research in Idenau isn’t much different from our own world’s, but once a disease or other ailment is better understood through science an Idenian doctor can usually use magic to make the healing process much faster and easier. As such, you rarely find doctors in Idenau who can’t use magic.
Now I wonder about how advanced Lorelei’s magic is. She heals everyone in the castle after all of Skærva’s defeats, but those seem to be similar injuries, just a lot of them. I don’t know if she’s even set a broken bone or anything, it mostly seems like cuts, bruises, wait yeah she fixed Skærva’s arm back when. So, that would give her an understanding of how the bone works at the granular level.
That’s basically a doctor specialization, yeah? So, at # years old, the girl’s a specialized bone doctor, in addition to anything else she might have done off-screen.
With her knowledge base equal to or greater to that of a specialized doctor, my next question is… How does the doctor power the healing magic? Is is ‘expensive’ calorie-wise? Lorelei heals the entire castle on the way to Skærva without having to take a food break. Perhaps we are grievously underestimating her.
Maybe Lorelei is actually really old, is actually Skärva’s mom or grandma or great grandma, and figured out how to get eternal life or turn back into a child or just a midget.
Well! That’s one possibility
Yeah, it takes a lot of energy, so doctors have to consume a lot of food and drink, and stay healthy and energetic themselves! Lorelei is… well… different. She’s not necessarily a genius at biology. As she told Skärva, she doesn’t know how it works, she just does it.
http://thefourthcomic.com/?comic=lol-title-11 Oh my. This takes me back.
Woah, I just realized: Lorelei is a healer => healing comes from seventh fonons… hmmm.
What is a seventh fonon?
Jeez, how did you miss the encyclopedia entry about Fonons?!
No, it’s from this game called Tales of the Abyss. If you want a headache, try to wrap your mind around that game’s plot and magic system. I don’t even think the writers knew what was going on. The characters are great though. They also have a god (or… more specifically, a personification of a certain level of magic) named Lorelei. Well, I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be genderless but it definitely has a male voice and is named Lorelei.
Pfft. We thought her and her story up before I played that game. Which made hearing about the Order of Lorelei all the time kinda weird.
There’s only one thing TotA inspired me to do for this comic and that’s beautiful sideburns.
Oh. Those are some really nice sideburns, though. If that is the pic that you intended…
Ahhh dang. Try this
http://gallery.abyssalchronicles.com/displayimage.php?album=231&pos=5
Ah, I think I remember you linking that before. My statement still is effective, however.
Luke has my favorite hair, like, ever. He cuts it halfway through the game and it sucks! I guess he’s sort of the reverse-Skärvs because I made his sideburns multiply their length within like a day of comic-time.
Although I like to believe Skärva’s hair is somewhat like Harry Potter’s in that it’s magically infused and grows really fast when it wants to.
Or hair can be magically extended. You say healing magic just speeds up the process of healing, right? So couldn’t it also be used to speed up hair growth?