Difference between revisions of "Healers' Guild"

Latest revision as of 17:04, 23 July 2017

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Despite the relative safety Negav offers to humans and other small races, accidents are a frequent occurrence, particularly within its more violent and lawless districts. Adventurers rarely return from an expedition in the Felaryan wilderness in one piece, and though the power of the soil allows most injuries to heal more rapidly and helps ward off illnesses, certain maladies prove resilient enough to pose a hazard, especially to off-worlders who haven't been exposed to its energy for most of their lives. The Healers' Guild, colloquially referred as merely "the hospital", therefore exists to provide succor to the sick and wounded, as well as those who have fallen prey to a curse or ran afoul of baleful magic. One of the tallest edifices in the Middle Tier, it is easily recognizable by its striking ivory brick construction and large sign displaying its symbol (TBD)

The Guild

The Healers' Guild is renowned for utilizing Felarya's soil extensively to allow for a speedy and thorough recovery. The mattresses that make the patients' beds are filled with high-quality soil coming from some of the most potent parts of Felarya, allowing its energies to seep directly into the body. Water at the guild is infused with minerals to help cleanse the body of impurities and further improve their physical condition. The guild eschews most standard equipment used by traditional hospitals in favor of alchemical remedies, all using Felaryan soil as a base reagent for increased potency, as well as magic items made to assist in diagnosing illnesses and trauma. Instead of using an IV drip to administer blood or painkillers, a patient would be offered a potion that helps the body replenish lost blood or an ointment that numbs part of the body wherever it is applied. Likewise, instead of injecting a patient with anesthetics prior to an operation, a healer might cast a spell that puts them in a deep, magical slumber. Rather than use bulky and clumsy machinery to perform a radiography, a healer may instead opt to use a handheld lens to peer inside a person's body to find out what ails them.

Healers working at the guild are known as doctors. Their uniform is a predominantly white robe with a short hemline and light green highlights and accents. As implied by their title, they are experts in the use of curative magic to tend to wounds, treat diseases, and free victims from enchantments and curses. Although they specialize in magical healing, a number of healers are also trained in traditional non-magical medicine such as surgery for treating ailments against which magic might be inefficient or impossible. Guild nurses wear a simple short-sleeved white robe that lacks much of the embroidery of full-fledged doctors. Female nurses occasionally wear a white hat bearing the guild's emblem. Compared to healers, most nurses possess little training in healing magic beyond brewing potions and crafting simple magical medication. Regardless, they are an invaluable asset to the guild in ensuring an optimal recovery for patients, and are always in high demand.

Becoming a healer is very difficult and demanding, requiring excellent academic credentials in a number of specific subjects. Along with healing magic and their chosen specialty, they must achieve high marks in alchemy, herbology, anatomy and medical science, as well as possess advanced knowledge of curses and enchantments. Only a handful of students who achieve the highest grades in all the required classes graduate each year. The typical training course to become a healer in Negav is a four- to five-year program at the Isolon University of Magic, followed by a minimum three-year residency training at the guild before one can be eligible to obtain a full medical license. The qualifications to become a registered nurse at the guild requires one to graduate from a nursing program. The program, along with other rudimentary subjects, include practical courses in first aid, long-term care, anatomy, physiology, biology, herbology, alchemy, and basic magic theory. Depending on the degree, completing nursing training can take anywhere between two to four years.

The Healers' Guild is open to all people of all races who wish to find relief. This warm hospitality should not be mistaken for lax security, however. A strict code of conduct and a guideline of gifts that are allowed in the hospital is enforced upon all visitors to ensure the safety of the patients. Any who fail to follow these rule is immediately and swiftly evicted from the premises. The current Guildmaster is Cynhar Gorobel. He is a stern middle-aged man who, although genuinely caring and wishing to help people, is very critical and possesses a notoriously acerbic tongue, often rebuking his employees with a long-winded and sarcastic rants whenever they slip-up.

Structure

The main building is structured similarly to a modern hospital. Each level of the main building corresponds to a ward consisting of multiple floors that serves to address a specific type of ailment or service, and are accessible via either an elevator or a flight of stairs. To the left main building is a landing pad big enough to accommodate a pair of ambulances, and it connects directly to the first floor. Wards are further divided into smaller sub-wards that play host to patients with a non-human physiology or anatomy, pediatric services, as well as to keep certain species separate from one another so as to maximize the well-being of all patients. In general, wards that require swift response from staff or are prone to complications are located closer to the ground floor, while wards that offer longer term treatment are found on higher floors.

• The ground level is the Reception Area as well as the general Outpatient Department. It is where the staff room is located and where most doctors have their offices. Visitors who enter from the main entrance can make an appointment with a healer, receive general information at the help desk, as well as relax and socialize with other people in the lobby. Often, if a patient's condition doesn't require immediate treatment, they will be diagnosed here before being admitted. Most ambulatory care for patients who are admitted for a period of less than 24 hours are administered on this floor.

• Up on the first level is the General Emergency Ward. It addresses unscheduled patients, such as those arriving via ambulance, suffering from illnesses or injuries requiring immediate medical attention. As its name implies, it provides initial treatment for a broad spectrum of ailments, some of which might be life-threatening. Depending on the nature and severity of their condition, a patient admitted to General Emergency may need to be transferred over to a different ward to receive further treatment. It also houses the Detoxification Ward for the removal of toxic substances from the body. These include various common and uncommon poisons and venoms, drugs that the body can't easily get rid of, and parasitic and fungal infections for which a surgical removal might prove unnecessary.

• Directly higher on the second level is the Intensive Care Ward. It caters to patients with severe life-threatening illnesses and injuries requiring constant, close monitoring and support. It is one of the only places in the guild where one can find state-of-the-art medical equipment provided by the Vishmitals, typically absent in most other wards.

• On the third level is the Magical Ailment Ward. Like the General Emergency Ward, it addresses a number of maladies of various severity, the one common thread uniting them being that they are the direct result of harmful magic or a botched spell, and cannot be treated by non magical means. These can range from undoing a curse or a hex that has turned the patient into a toad or a statue, removing a cursed artifact that has left them completely paralyzed, treating a magical sickness caused from ingesting a poorly brewed potion resulting in a virulent pox, and more.

• The fourth level is home to the Maternity Ward. It focuses on providing care to women and their children during childbirth. When a woman becomes pregnant, they advised to make an appointment with a doctor, who will then schedule for them to be admitted at the ward at least a few days before the expected date of delivery. It also features a nursery for looking after ill and premature newborn infants.

• The fifth level hosts the Surgical Ward. It addresses injuries and diseases that cannot be treated with healing magic without an operation. These include reattaching an amputated limb, replacing a ruined organ, mending an open bone fracture, removing a foreign object from the body, etc. In the event that a severed limb is lost, it may instead be replaced by a prosthesis. Prosthetic limbs at the guild generally take the form of articulated metal arms and legs that are enchanted to respond to neural signals the same way as a normal arm or leg would once it has been surgically attached to the stump.

• The fifth level is also home to the Rehabilitation Ward. It provides physical therapy to patients whose certain neurocognitive functions have been diminished or lost by disease or trauma, or following a surgery.

• Lastly is the Psychiatry Ward, up on the sixth and highest level. It addresses patients suffering from psychological trauma and other afflictions of the mind. Unlike other wards, which are handled by nurses and doctors, the staff of the psychiatry ward is largely comprised of psionics, who delve into the minds of their patients to find the cause of their ailment and to better treat it.

In addition to the upper floors, the guild features three major basement areas. The first basement houses the guild's cafeteria, which prepares most of the food offered to the patients and the staff and a shop where visitors can purchase gifts that conform to the guild's rules and regulations for patients. The second basement is a large alchemy laboratory. It provides the guild with all the remedies used every day in the various wards. Due to the large amount of magical chemicals, reagents and equipment found there, access is strictly forbidden to the public. The third basement is where most utility rooms are located, such as the laundry room, furnace room, and even the morgue. Naturally, it is also closed to the public.

Further below the third basement is a vast research complex. Healers and alchemists working in these underground laboratories are laboriously researching new spells or possible medical application of more common spells, as well as testing a experimental formulae or improvements to common remedies used daily at the guild on willing subjects. Most tests are performed in a controlled environment, in a room lined with Tazarin to reduce the potency of experimental spells and formulae, thereby decreasing the risk of malignant side effects. The research center also acts as a quarantine ward of sorts. If a patient is diagnosed with an ailment never before seen that normal treatments prove ineffective against, they are sent to the research center where their condition can be studied more thoroughly away from prying eyes, and more importantly, away from normal patients and other staff members. The research center is only accessible via an elevator located outside the main building. It is kept under constant lock and key, and is further reinforced with a multitude of protective wards and spells to make sure unauthorized and unwelcome stay out.

• Credits goes to Shady-Knight for designing the Healers'guild.