faith magic and its practical application
please note! this is just my headcanon. you don’t have to ascribe to it but it will apply in my writing with my characters, doubly so for mercedes and marianne.
despite its precedence in game, faith magic is by far not the be-all end-all of medical care, and those who learn it do not suddenly become doctors, nurses or experts in healing. its practical application is rooted in the physical act of mending flesh, which renders it nearly useless against ailments born of disease or ill-health. that much is evidenced by the remire calamity, and how manuela became quite busy trying to learn the cause of it, so she could begin finding a cure. that’s because manuela is a healer!
most commonly, the branch of faith magic taught in garreg mach (even to students of the gremory or priest classes!) is the art of field healing. a field healer’s studies focus on strengthening their skills in:
healing at a distance. healing is much more effective with the boon of physical contact, and it takes a great deal of strength and focus to learn to do so across great distances.
healing at large. if untrained, the healing produced by someone attempting to portion it out across several bodies will be weak and possibly ineffective.
managing the intensity of healing --- especially across distances, and across multiple people!
the greatest concern in the art of field healing is that it can be just as dangerous to the patient as the injury itself. generally, field healing is seen as a short term measure to give an army a second chance in the current conflict. though the other option being death in the field makes the practise worth it, the risks involved in field healing are astronomical. healing a broken bone that hasn’t set right could require surgery to fix. sealing over an open wound that hasn’t been cleaned of dirt, blood or poison can lead to lethal infection. indeed, one of the first things a field healer in training will learn is that infection is a far more common cause of death post-battle than the injuries themselves, and if these infections have been sealed in by a field healer, they’re that much more difficult to treat.
that is where healers come in. far more versed in traditional medical care than your average field medic and almost always trained by the church, healers serve as day to day doctors. they go through intensive training to become professionals in longer term healing, including infection and disease treatment, physiotherapy, and surgical medicine. often working out of churches and under church supervision, it’s these healers that the general population will turn to with sickness, injuries and health issues. naturally, there will always be healers among the ranks of armies too, taking care of the sick and wounded outside of battle. mercedes is in training to become one of these specialised healers.
it’s worth noting that there are no traditional ‘doctors’ in fódlan. given what we know of rhea seizing control of technological advancements specifically in the medical field, the art of healing is massively entwined with faith and irrefutably connected to the church, only intensified by the fact that all healers are exclusively trained by the church and provided with the otherwise expensive tools and resources they need by the church. those practising medicine without the training provided by the church are likely considered some measure of heretical, allowing rhea complete control over the craft.
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