Practical uses of magic in medicine
I was thinking about the use of each dragon’s magic in their occupation while re-writing one of my dragon’s bios. Thought it might be fun to write up something for it here. I may be stretching what each elemental magic can do, but I tried to pick fitting skills and applications.
Ice healers often make excellent surgeons due to their ability to keep calm in stressful situations!
Conjure ice: For use in treating swelling and overheating. Condense and freeze water particles from the air to form a solid lump of ice. Alternatively, condense a thin layer of ice directly over the area to form an ice pack. (though this is less secure than simply wrapping ice around the injury with cloth)
Lower temperature: Multiple applications. Useful for treating fever and swelling when applied to the patient, or in treating hyperthermia, or can also be used ambiently to provide a more sterile environment for surgeries.
Shadow healers are often wonderful therapists! A skilled shadow healer can help a dragon reduce negative symptoms of many conditions.
Induce sleep: Used to help dragons with insomnia or other sleeping problems if used lightly. When used heavily and persistently, it can allow the patient to stay unconscious during surgery or other incredibly painful procedures, though this does require the shadow dragon to continuously apply the spell throughout the surgery.
Conjure Illusions: Useful in therapeutic applications depending on the situation. May also be useful in providing visual reference when explaining things to patients.
Wind dragons are often combat medics or emergency responders. The fact that they don’t mind going wherever they’re needed most means they fit right into the job!
Fast movement: Allows the dragon to act quicker to help the patient. Useful in many situations but is one of the main reasons wind dragons make good first responders for traumatic injuries.
Manipulate air flow: Useful in a more effective cpr. Can go horribly wrong if the user is untrained and it is recommended to use normal cpr if they are not. Can also be used to generally treat any form of troubled breathing.
Water healers tend to feel at home doing bloody work or water based therapy.
Manipulate water: Dragons of most breeds and elements have blood composed mainly of water. Careful mastery of this skill in the application of moving blood can prove very useful in the medical field. Transfusions can be done without much equipment if the area is sterile, and it makes transfusions with proper equipment easy and fast. Blood Flow can be controlled as well for many used including: Stopping bleeding, bringing a concentration of blood into an area for venepuncture, or directing blood away from a limb for cleaner amputation.
Conjure water: Generally useful when working on a patient. If it is to be used for cleaning a wound make sure the air around is clean.
Nature dragons are wonderful pharmacists. Most potions on the market are exported from the Viridian Labyrinth. Many denizens of the Viridian Labyrinth also swear by homeopathy.
Enhanced plant growth: Used to enhance the effects of healing compounds in plants. These distilled compounds can be ground and made into pills, or used on a seed to produce a fruiting plant that can make powerful potions. It is also used in homeopathic treatments to a lesser degree.
Conjure plants: Conjured vines make an excellent temporary cast or can be used to apply pressure to an area when proper bandages are unavailable.
Light dragons tend towards physical therapy as their line of work or just general healers for their clan.
Accelerate healing: Once thought to be a cure-all, this spell is not a miracle healer. While it appears to magically heal wounds and relieve even chronic or severe pain with a bright heavenly light it’s effects are only barely skin deep and any injuries more serious than a cut, bruise, bite, or fractured bone should be seen to with other methods. This is most useful for combat medics or for light wounds and first aid.
Most of the more advanced medical equipment comes from the Shifting Expanse and often requires a lightning dragon to power it outside of the Shifting Expanse where electrical power is much less readily available. Because of this, lightning dragons tend to make great medical technicians and will often take on the role of a nurse as well.
Generate electricity: With an amount of control, this can be invaluable in trauma situations where the heart is beating irregularly. The doctor should generate small bursts of electricity directly into the patient in case of the heart stopping. Lightning element dragons will need a large dose of electricity for this to work but any more than a very small amount for any other dragon could simply kill them.
Fire dragons are frequently rescue responders and combat medics.
Raise temperature: Multiple applications. Can be used to treat cases of hypothermia by warming up the patient’s body temperature, but can also be used with high intensity to flash-sterilize instruments used in surgery as well as boiling water to sterilize. An intense focus of raise temperature on a metal object can allow it to be used to cauterize a wound in a pinch.
Conjure fire: Most useful when cauterizing a wound. Can also be used to burn bodies in emergencies or in the case of the death of an imperial on the battlefield.
Arcane dragons are masters of magical afflictions and are the most effective at healing those kinds of diseases in a timely manner.
Manipulate Arcane energy: When dealing with a dragon close to death’s door, a magic transfusion can often give them the extra push needed to stay alive. An arcane doctor can transfer the magic of a dragon the same element as the patient into the patient, or in the case of none being available transfer his own magic reserves or that of another arcane dragon to the patient. Beware of transferring too much. A dragon’s magical reserves are closely linked to its general wellbeing and life force and if a dragon is drained of too much of their magic they will inevitably perish.
Plague dragons invented the vaccine. After taking notice that newcomers to the scarred wasteland were mildly sick for several weeks but much stronger after getting better, some plague healers began to experiment with controlled exposure to viruses to build immunity for those who didn’t have it yet.
Conjure Infection: Though it sounds counterproductive, plague healers often will treat one disease with another. Sometimes one harmful disease is beat out by a population of another, benign, disease.
Sense Infection: Though this is not an active magic power, many plague dragons can simply tell if one is infected by anything. With more careful training and a closer examination, plague healers can often pinpoint diseases accurately for diagnosis and can even catch deadly infections before they become life threatening or untreatable.
Manipulate disease: Though not nearly as powerful as other “manipulate” elemental powers this one can be used to draw contagents in a small area to the user, effectively sterilizing a small area around a wound or surgical incision. It is to be warned though that it this is used, the user should not touch the patient afterwards or they will put them at risk for potent infection.
While Earth dragons don’t have many healing spells at their disposal, the most prestigious medical schools are located within Dragonhome. Without much magic to help them, they are the most skilled at traditional methods of healing and have perfected it to an art!
Feel free to add onto this with more!
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