How mundane and magical healers interact and relate to each other

There are sixteen commonly known divine spheres for theurgists and two of these spheres apply direct to medicine, Healing and Purification.   In both cases, a theurgist with either or both of these spheres can use the divine magic more efficiently if he or she is well trained in mundane medical knowledge. With enough empathy and strength of will, a Scarterran can manifest magical healing without receiving any medical training, but she is going to be a lot less effective at healing than a magical healer who has strength of will, empathy, and advanced medical training.   On some level, this doesn't make sense. Channeling the power of the Nine is a matter of faith and understanding medicine is a matter of science. Most Scarterran science and crafts at least indirectly owe their origins to the divine Gifts.   The Nine are powerful beings, but their power has limits, so just like mortals, they seek tools and techniques to improve efficiency and get maximum results for the least effort.   Mera is the goddess of medicine and healing, both scientific and magical healing. Because Mera gave mortalkind the seeds of scientific medicine, each and every mundane physician and every bit of medicinal lore has Mera's divine fingerprints on it. Mera can channel her divine power into almost anything or anyone, but it takes her less effort to channel her power through objects or people metaphysically connected to her.   The rest of the Nine finds it useful to empower some of their theurgists power. They found it easier to copy Mera's methods rather than to recreate new methods of magical healing from scratch. So when any Scarterran god or goddess empowers their theurgists with healing power, the magic flows easier through mortals who are well-trained in science-driven healing arts.   This metaphysical relationship ties mundane and magical healers closely together. So this pushes mundane and magical healers closely together.

When a mortal manifests theurgy, their first divine power reflects their talents and skills. The various priesthoods know this, so they will try to teach their new recruits skills likely to manifest in types of theurgy they covet. Very frequently, priesthoods will make their acolytes study herbalism and medicine.   Only a relatively small fraction of clergy manifest theurgy, so a lot of priesthoods end up with several well-educated physicians, herbalists and midwives that don't have magic healing powers. That doesn't mean they can't be useful.   Even if they aren't ordained as priests and priestesses, a lot of physicians, herbalists and midwives engaged in training at a temple. A lot of them were trained by non-magical priestly healers. Some of these secular healers beat the odds and become the so-called "self-taught" theurgists. Self-taught theurgists are rare in general, but a disproportionately high number of them began their lives as mundane physicians.   But either way, mundane and magical healers know each other well because they probably trained side-by-side.

Healing power can be stored in a potion, wand, scroll, or powder to be used later. This is expensive. A healing potion typically sells for about 65 silver pieces. For context, that much money can feed an average Scarterran high quality meals for two months or a survivalist diet for four months.   Like most real-world healers, most Scarterran healers believe in the value of a mortal life. A lot of mundane physicians have a couple potions or potion-equivalents in their medical kits, but only for true emergencies.   A seasoned adventurer probably drinks healing potions frequently, but an everyday Scarterran physician only breaks out the magical healing when it is literally life or death. For instance, a midwife generally won't break out the magical healing until and unless the mother or infant's life is seriously endangered. Having a dose of Healing Powder is helpful to make a Cesarian procedure a lot safer, but its no midwife's or physicians first choice.   When possible, priesthoods such as the Tenders will distribute magical healing items to physicians for free.

-Beslyfle, matron of the Fumayan Tenders

 

At high enough levels, Purification magic can heal almost any disease or poison. Everyone who has an inconvenient illness would love a theurgist to snap her fingers and make the ailment go away, it can be annoying to have a horde of people wanting us to help them with every single case of the sniffles.   If I had the power, I would spend all day as a conduit of Mera's power to cure each and every ailment of my parishioners, but I can only cure so many ailments or injuries in a single day.

  If an injury or ailment can be treated without theurgy, it probably should be treated without theurgy. This is why we usually make petitioners for aid go to the physicians before they see the theurgists.

  Most of the time, if a person wants healing, they are required to go to mundane physician first. If the mundane physician thinks a patient's condition is severe enough to require magical healing, they will give the patient a referral to a magical healing. Much like in the real world going to a general practitioner before seeing a specialist.   Other times, a patient who is not very patient can plop down a sack of coins and provide a donation/bribe in order to go straight to a magical healer. Draw a comparison to real world modern medicine if you wish.