Tavi of Calderon (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
student_of_impossibility) wrote2012-10-11 03:22 am
student_of_impossibility) wrote2012-10-11 03:22 am
Entry tags:
- codex,
- furycrafting,
- info,
- ooc
[OOC] On Furycrafting: Healing by watercrafting
In trying to edit/update this post, it dawned on me that the capabilities the healing talents of watercrafting are way too detailed to include if I wanted to make that post accessible either as a 'quick reference' for myself or other Aleran RPers, or anyone wanting to read about this.
As a result, here now are collected observations on what watercrafting can heal, with some notes on power level. Keep in mind that this is very quick-and-dirty, as there is a continuum of talent and skill, not discrete values. It is also done as much as possible by book canon; however, some inter-and-extrapolation was necessary.
A general rule is that watercrafting does take energy out of both healer and healee, but surprisingly little, for the most part. How exhausting any one injury is seems to vary inversely with skill, and how much seems to depend a lot on context (and possibly mindset). The standard Healer's Mantra to a patient (especially of an injury) after healing is, "Drink lots of water, eat lots of meat, get lots of rest."
Healing Injuries
- Apply to: bruises and cuts/anything bleeding, sprains, broken bones, internal organ damage to some degree
- Lower/middling capable healers' limits: reasonable, easily stitchable kinds of wounds/sprains/etc; internal organ damage is probably not possible except upper-middling; bones can be set and encouraged to heal more rapidly, but not Fixed
- Yes, high-power healers can Fix a broken bone.
- Sufficiently skilled and powerful healers can restore slashed eyes (probably between five and fifty people in the Realm, which is probably something like 70 to 100 million)
- Burns are very nearly the hardest to heal
- If a wound is attended to quickly enough, the healer is good enough, and/or wound is small enough, scarring can be prevented. If necessary, go by case-by-case basis.
- Epic-level capable healers have been known to heal someone half sliced through
- No, limbs cannot be reattached (At least probably, I haven't done enough reading on current medical advancements in it; depending on what they say, there may be a way)
- However, combined with some expert work by metalcrafters, metal prosthetic limbs are doable, and probably more advanced than modern Earth's.
- IMPORTANT NOTE: cauterized wounds cannot be healed (possibly they could bycutting away the cauterized part, but I'm not sure)
- As healing takes something out of the body, severe injuries will take years to recover from, if at all. (Example: major, major bone and organ damage will, in the hands of the right healer, not shorten a lifespan. And might be mostly-recoverable with years. Given a lot of luck.)
- Powerful enough crafting can push someone from what would take up to weeks (at least?) to recover from to battle-capable in a matter of hours. Emergencies and usually royalty only, but it is possible. All the same, with bad enough injuries, even most powerful crafters can only do so much without allowing time for recovery. And either way, there will probably a bill in sheer exhaustion for it at some point.
Infection, Poisonings, Degenerative Diseases, Autoimmune, Cancer, etc.
- Overall, this is a more complicated subset than injuries. Individual injuries may be more difficult/complicated than some individual infections/etc, but I'm pretty sure it's more complicated in the theory of it.
- Anything which needs to be treated consistently by our medicine is not just handwave curable. Probably regular sessions ('regular' ranging from daily to some other interval, whatever) could stave off some of the effects, slow down the progression, or ease the pain.
- As noted, healing takes energy from healer and patient: fighting any of these can be a lot more taxing on a healer and thus dangerous or even deadly to attempt.
- Lower/middling capable healers' limits: The average kinds of infections, some poisonings (probably most non-fatal things, maybe staving off death long enough for a body to process), the above pain-management and some (lower) degrees of managing other illnesses.
- Knowledge of infection has helped them identify the carrier of a plague (AKA, they stopped the black plague before it happened), so probably there is some degree of 'recognition' of an illness by some kind of vague watercrafting feeling.
- At a guess, cancer is probably treatable as an infection or poisoning (albeit one of the more difficult ones) which requires regular attention. Cancer that has metastasized or isn't in clearly defined tumors (more or less) is much more difficult to deal with. Either way, 'cure' is no more possible than by today's standards (remission only, and only by good luck) but treatment is probably cheaper.
General notes
- A watercrafter is going to be somewhat more healthy as a rule (better internal defenses). Also, while obviously a healer could heal themselves in a tub, it is also possible that fighting one's own infections/poisoning/disease/effects of aging is a kind of internal watercrafting, as the human body has so much water in it. This is also possibly the only manifestation of healing skill in low-power watercrafters.
- As implied above and in the main furycrafting post, a certain power level and above, watercrafting slows aging down visibly, if not internally. At the levels of the high nobility, there is little change after adulthood until about forty years old, at which point it usually tends to half the crafter's actual age, give or take five years. It is also possible this is a conscious choice as well as an automatic result: at least one High Lord might have chosen not to bother with that vanity, or else might not have been that powerful a watercrafter, but we never find out for certain (his daughter's skill in healing implies the former).
- Healing without a tub: just about any healer can heal small things without a tub (or some other 'immersed in water'): paper/otherwise small cuts, light bruises, probably your basic cold, etc. They make it easier, but generally aren't worth it (except for colds, that might be). Once you get further than that, ability to close injuries without a tub varies directly with skill and power; I think any other kind of healing requires a tub.
- Surgery: External kinds are obviously possible a la injuries section. I am not certain if this applies to cosmetic surgery or not, meaning I am not sure if a watercrafter can alter someone else's features that much. I suppose it's hypothetically possible. Some kinds of invasive surgery are going to be doable without any kind of opening-up-of-a-person. I would hypothesize that cutting out dead tissue/removing something lodged/surgically attack cancer would require making cuts, but probably keeping someone stable is somewhat easier (to a degree).
- On a related note: it is possible to stunt growth from an early age. It requires constant attention, though, and really subtle work; approximately all the furies in the immediately need to be attuned to the command of stopping that growth. As a result, this is only possible over smaller areas. Still, that it is possible implies some kinds of cosmetic surgery could be done.
- Some level of anesthesia is possible, and certainly someone can be put unconscious. Waking them from that, though, is nearly impossible, and certainly risky for healer, patient, or both. It's been termed 'mad' before. The rare (see slashed eyes stat, maybe lower) healer can do it.
- A fantastic line both for humor and for an idea of how some injuries/poisonings work: "The actual trauma wasn’t bad. The poisoning was acute, but not as difficult to overcome as others might have been. The only issue was keeping you breathing, for a while." (Codex Alera book 6, Chapter 44) I.E.: sometimes the hardest thing is keeping the patient alive long enough to be healed; after that, it's clear sailing.
- Fun with furycrafting: a certain level, probably mid/upper-mid and up levels of healer can block pregnancy from occurring. I am presuming that it blocks implantation. I could be wrong. It does need to be 'turned on' but it's a thing. Note that I am fairly certain there is no "make an amulet or something to block pregnancy" thing going. It is not a far reach to consider that possibly STDs are similarly blockable. (Watercrafting for safe sex? Watercrafting is already so overpowered I wouldn't be surprised.)
Questions/comments/concerns, get in touch!
As a result, here now are collected observations on what watercrafting can heal, with some notes on power level. Keep in mind that this is very quick-and-dirty, as there is a continuum of talent and skill, not discrete values. It is also done as much as possible by book canon; however, some inter-and-extrapolation was necessary.
A general rule is that watercrafting does take energy out of both healer and healee, but surprisingly little, for the most part. How exhausting any one injury is seems to vary inversely with skill, and how much seems to depend a lot on context (and possibly mindset). The standard Healer's Mantra to a patient (especially of an injury) after healing is, "Drink lots of water, eat lots of meat, get lots of rest."
Healing Injuries
- Apply to: bruises and cuts/anything bleeding, sprains, broken bones, internal organ damage to some degree
- Lower/middling capable healers' limits: reasonable, easily stitchable kinds of wounds/sprains/etc; internal organ damage is probably not possible except upper-middling; bones can be set and encouraged to heal more rapidly, but not Fixed
- Yes, high-power healers can Fix a broken bone.
- Sufficiently skilled and powerful healers can restore slashed eyes (probably between five and fifty people in the Realm, which is probably something like 70 to 100 million)
- Burns are very nearly the hardest to heal
- If a wound is attended to quickly enough, the healer is good enough, and/or wound is small enough, scarring can be prevented. If necessary, go by case-by-case basis.
- Epic-level capable healers have been known to heal someone half sliced through
- No, limbs cannot be reattached (At least probably, I haven't done enough reading on current medical advancements in it; depending on what they say, there may be a way)
- However, combined with some expert work by metalcrafters, metal prosthetic limbs are doable, and probably more advanced than modern Earth's.
- IMPORTANT NOTE: cauterized wounds cannot be healed (possibly they could bycutting away the cauterized part, but I'm not sure)
- As healing takes something out of the body, severe injuries will take years to recover from, if at all. (Example: major, major bone and organ damage will, in the hands of the right healer, not shorten a lifespan. And might be mostly-recoverable with years. Given a lot of luck.)
- Powerful enough crafting can push someone from what would take up to weeks (at least?) to recover from to battle-capable in a matter of hours. Emergencies and usually royalty only, but it is possible. All the same, with bad enough injuries, even most powerful crafters can only do so much without allowing time for recovery. And either way, there will probably a bill in sheer exhaustion for it at some point.
Infection, Poisonings, Degenerative Diseases, Autoimmune, Cancer, etc.
- Overall, this is a more complicated subset than injuries. Individual injuries may be more difficult/complicated than some individual infections/etc, but I'm pretty sure it's more complicated in the theory of it.
- Anything which needs to be treated consistently by our medicine is not just handwave curable. Probably regular sessions ('regular' ranging from daily to some other interval, whatever) could stave off some of the effects, slow down the progression, or ease the pain.
- As noted, healing takes energy from healer and patient: fighting any of these can be a lot more taxing on a healer and thus dangerous or even deadly to attempt.
- Lower/middling capable healers' limits: The average kinds of infections, some poisonings (probably most non-fatal things, maybe staving off death long enough for a body to process), the above pain-management and some (lower) degrees of managing other illnesses.
- Knowledge of infection has helped them identify the carrier of a plague (AKA, they stopped the black plague before it happened), so probably there is some degree of 'recognition' of an illness by some kind of vague watercrafting feeling.
- At a guess, cancer is probably treatable as an infection or poisoning (albeit one of the more difficult ones) which requires regular attention. Cancer that has metastasized or isn't in clearly defined tumors (more or less) is much more difficult to deal with. Either way, 'cure' is no more possible than by today's standards (remission only, and only by good luck) but treatment is probably cheaper.
General notes
- A watercrafter is going to be somewhat more healthy as a rule (better internal defenses). Also, while obviously a healer could heal themselves in a tub, it is also possible that fighting one's own infections/poisoning/disease/effects of aging is a kind of internal watercrafting, as the human body has so much water in it. This is also possibly the only manifestation of healing skill in low-power watercrafters.
- As implied above and in the main furycrafting post, a certain power level and above, watercrafting slows aging down visibly, if not internally. At the levels of the high nobility, there is little change after adulthood until about forty years old, at which point it usually tends to half the crafter's actual age, give or take five years. It is also possible this is a conscious choice as well as an automatic result: at least one High Lord might have chosen not to bother with that vanity, or else might not have been that powerful a watercrafter, but we never find out for certain (his daughter's skill in healing implies the former).
- Healing without a tub: just about any healer can heal small things without a tub (or some other 'immersed in water'): paper/otherwise small cuts, light bruises, probably your basic cold, etc. They make it easier, but generally aren't worth it (except for colds, that might be). Once you get further than that, ability to close injuries without a tub varies directly with skill and power; I think any other kind of healing requires a tub.
- Surgery: External kinds are obviously possible a la injuries section. I am not certain if this applies to cosmetic surgery or not, meaning I am not sure if a watercrafter can alter someone else's features that much. I suppose it's hypothetically possible. Some kinds of invasive surgery are going to be doable without any kind of opening-up-of-a-person. I would hypothesize that cutting out dead tissue/removing something lodged/surgically attack cancer would require making cuts, but probably keeping someone stable is somewhat easier (to a degree).
- On a related note: it is possible to stunt growth from an early age. It requires constant attention, though, and really subtle work; approximately all the furies in the immediately need to be attuned to the command of stopping that growth. As a result, this is only possible over smaller areas. Still, that it is possible implies some kinds of cosmetic surgery could be done.
- Some level of anesthesia is possible, and certainly someone can be put unconscious. Waking them from that, though, is nearly impossible, and certainly risky for healer, patient, or both. It's been termed 'mad' before. The rare (see slashed eyes stat, maybe lower) healer can do it.
- A fantastic line both for humor and for an idea of how some injuries/poisonings work: "The actual trauma wasn’t bad. The poisoning was acute, but not as difficult to overcome as others might have been. The only issue was keeping you breathing, for a while." (Codex Alera book 6, Chapter 44) I.E.: sometimes the hardest thing is keeping the patient alive long enough to be healed; after that, it's clear sailing.
- Fun with furycrafting: a certain level, probably mid/upper-mid and up levels of healer can block pregnancy from occurring. I am presuming that it blocks implantation. I could be wrong. It does need to be 'turned on' but it's a thing. Note that I am fairly certain there is no "make an amulet or something to block pregnancy" thing going. It is not a far reach to consider that possibly STDs are similarly blockable. (Watercrafting for safe sex? Watercrafting is already so overpowered I wouldn't be surprised.)
Questions/comments/concerns, get in touch!