physicians in Scarterra

Full time physicians typically make about 3 silver pieces a week with very famous and celebrated physicians making as much as 15 silver pieces a week.   A lot of Scarterrans moonlight as physicians and practice medicine as a side hustle to their main job. Such as the old grandmother in the farming village who is locally known to be the wisest in herbal remedy or the goat herder who also knows how to deliver human babies in between delivering livestock. These sorts make a lot less.   A lot of healers are empathetic sorts and don't like the idea of charging people money for health. Some physicians are too nice for their own good and are living at an economic level below their perceived social status.

The Tenders try to encourage the proliferation of healing lore, so they tend to extend a lot of courtesy to physicians.   It is relatively easy for physicians to get in the good graces of the Tenders, and those who can call upon the Tenders are likely to free food, discounts on medical supplies, free or discounted education, and even occasional magical assists.   The Tenders aren't the only priesthood in Scarterra that likes to make friends with non-magical healers.

To heal or at least mitigate injuries and illnesses and promote general health.

Scarterra is a rough place and while Scarterra has many healers of various stripes, it also has a wide variety of things that cause injury and disease. If someone is sick or injured and time is a factor, than instead of accepting the best there is, someone has to accept the best available.   The best there is is a healing theurgist with advanced medical training. The second best is a non-theurgist with advanced medical training.   But there is a big gray area between "no medical training" and "advanced medical training".   Many healers in Scarterra are very specialized. A seasoned midwife probably doesn't have a lot of experience stitching up battlefield wounds but she is a better than nothing if you need to stitch up battlefield wounds. Likewise, a seasoned combat medic probably doesn't have a lot of experience delivering babies but he is better than nothing if there a woman is in labor nearby.   Sometimes substitutions get even more desperate. A person who only helped deliver foals and calves may be called in to help deliver a human baby. Sometimes herbalists step in as physicians in a pitch or visa versa.   ven in real world medieval history,, there is a lot of precedent for people receiving medical treatment from unorthodox sources. One might even see a tattoo artist have to stitch a wound or a black smith to pull a rotten tooth. E sometimes executioners moonlit as physicians. They worked for cheap, so sometimes this was the best a peasant could afford.

Maylar is the god of disease, and Mera is the goddess of medicine and the two deities are fighting by proxy in the material plane.   Maylar isn't just the god of disease and Mera isn't just the goddess of medicine, so they don't spend all their time trying to one-up each other, but it's a conflict that is ongoing, and will probably never stop. Testers (Maylar's primary followers) and the Tenders (Mera's primary followers) certainly fight a lot, but the godly proxy war is not limited to just these two groups.     This proxy war between Maylar and Mera means that Scarterra's physicians are much more knowledgeable than Earth physicians during the Middle Ages. Maybe even more knowledgeable than Earth physicians during the Renaissance.   Most physicians in Scarterra are at least loosely allied to the Tenders and the Tenders do not support the hoarding of knowledge, they want to spread knowledge.   If a new health discovery is made, the Tenders will spread it till it becomes common knowledge. Things most people know in the 21st century but were not always obvious to medieval Earth people are fairly well known in Scarterra such as:   -Alcohol is a disinfectant.   -Linen bandages result in fewer infections than wool bandages.   -Drinking lead contaminated water is a really bad idea.   -Don't dump your waste products into your drinking water   And other brilliant gems are all considered common knowledge, thanks to the Tenders.   On top of this, Maylar's periodic "tests" that he inflicts on Scarterra means that physicans need to be clever and resourceful.   In the proxy war between Maylar and Mera, Maylar is winning in the sense that disease is never ultimately defeated but Mera is winning in the sense that fewer Scarterrans die of infection or illness than medieval Earth humans.   When it comes to Maylar's divine imperative to spread misery and disease, he has some support from the goddess Greymoria, but in Mera's quest to spread medicine and healing, she enjoys support from almost all the rest of the the Nine. The main difference is that Mera's followers usually heal people for free and the other deity's followers ask for payment for healing, but they are still at least against disease together functionally giving Mera a 7 vs. 2 advantage. It also helps that not all Testers are gung ho about spreading disease.  

by Eron12 on Hero's Forge

-Ujarek, moderate member of the Testers

 

"Some peasants expect every Tester they see is going to infect them with a horrible disease but that isn't true.   Khemra may be the goddess of the sun, but she doesn't need her followers help her move the sun through the sky. Likewise mighty Maylar doesn't need his mortal followers to foment disease on his behalf.   Maylar isn't trying to fill Scarterra with disease-ridden corpses. He is not offended when mortals recover from their illnesses, far from it.

  He teaches us that surviving suffering and hardship makes mortals stronger in the long run and disease is but one of many possible ways a mortal can prove his or her strength and resilience.   With a few unpleasant exceptions, we Testers bear physicans no ill will. A surprisingly high number of Testers actually moonlight as healers. I am one of them, but I only treat those who are strong."

  If someone is going to die otherwise, the physician can break out their magical healing potion. Otherwise, if a patient's life isn't in danger, a physician will probably not break out their healing potion, even if the patient is in pain.   For example. Healing potions can expedite the recovery of a woman after giving birth, but midwives only break out their emergency healing powder if they have to perform a cesarian procedure.

Scarterra isn't just dangerous, but it's messy. Physicians have to deal with blood, vomit, excrement and other less than pleasant products of mortal bodies. Ick factor aside, this also exposes physicians to potential for infection themselves.   A battlefield surgeon of course has to go to battlefields which is obviously dangerous. Any proactive healer is likely to have to go to dangerous places to practice their trade.