Imperfections of Deitic Healing
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Some injuries are resistant to holy magic
Should provide more proper medical roleplay and stop holy magic from being god healing of all injuries ever
Being around holy magic a lot makes it more likely
So does sustaining the same injury
Proper standard treatment the best way to fix these injuries
Sometimes a fuckton more holy magic will heal it, albeit slowly and very inefficiently
Also sometimes another person's holy magic will be more successful than yours
All of this is purely at the discretion of the injured individual. The healer cannot force this upon someone or deny them this right.
Garion clutched at his chest as he ascended the stairway, letting out another violent cough to echo through the halls of the near empty Keep. With his next step he noticed the flecks of crimson dotting the stairs before him, speckled with color by his own blood.
When he finally reached his room, he undid the straps of his armour one by one, occasionally interrupting by more coughs. When he’d finally shed the plate covering his torso, the source of his pain was apparent. Upon the left side, a large, brown mark expanded around much of his rib cage and below, blood flowing from a wound inside his fellow Paladin had somehow failed to heal.
He raised his hoarse voice, holding in another violent outburst long enough to utter a quiet prayer, his eyes illuminating in a miraculous golden light. Mist of the same color would begin to form about him, coalescing around his right hand.
Once enough of this holy light had former, he’d draw his hand close to the wound, allowing the mist to seep in and do its work. A sensation of dull warmth overcame the man, allowing his eyes to close as Xan’s mist did its work. It was only a few seconds before he uttered another harsh cough, surprising the man and forcing him to peer down.
What he saw was inexplicable… this was a routine issue that he’d resolved many times before, yet the brown splotch of blood seeping within his body did not heal itself. There was no sign of shrinking, no sign of progress as a result of Xan’s light. As he poured more into it, his will did not overcome the wound. By all counts, Garion was failing.
He doubled his efforts, pouring more mist into the wound, yet it was to no avail. Heavy beads of sweat dropping from his chin and drawing ragged breaths whenever he was uninterrupted by coughs, Garion finally withdrew his hand, the mist dissipating. The great Paladin slumped down on his bed, folding his hands weakly to offer a silent prayer to Xan.
He was unable to heal himself. He was uncertain.
So here’s the deal friends. Holy magic healing is really neat. It saves lots of lives, is fun to roleplay if you do it correctly, and a lot of folks enjoy having Clerics and Paladins around as a result. That being said, there are presently not former downsides or failings of it other than that it’s very draining. I seek to change that.
What I’ve shown above is an injury that is incapable of being healed by holy magic. Before I get into the details of this, however, I seek to share my intent. There’s no point of becoming a doctor when you can become a Cleric or Paladin, because the latter always heals injuries better. Well, **** that noise, let’s try something else. I believe that making some injuries resistant to holy magic will increase the importance (and therefore regularity) of normal medical roleplay, and as a result create more room for better roleplay.
To clarify, this is something that can already be done; technically, holy magic can fail if the person being healed OOC’ly doesn’t want the injury to be fixed. That being said, I’d rather formalize that, as I believe by doing so it’ll make it more common and create some neat roleplay!
So, let’s get on with the show, shall we?
So, how do wounds like this occur? To be honest, it’s totally random. For some, wounds unable to be healed by holy magic are just more common, while for others it will never happen in their lifetime. It’s not truly a common occurrence, but instead a rather rare one, though there are certain factors that make it more common. In the end, though, it is at the full discretion of the individual who has sustained an injury to determine whether or not it’s resistant to holy magic.
The greatest irony of holy magic is that the more one is around it, the more likely they are to sustain such an injury. Whether you are a user or simply around many users casting their light with frequency, you will be more prone to this type of injury. As such, individuals within holy orders might actually need to seek out proper medics more often than most individuals, or learn proper healing techniques without their magic.
Another way to increase the frequency of this occurrence is to sustain the same injury several times. As it so happens, Garion’s injury was a result of being stabbed in a place where he’d already been stabbed many times before. It’s uncertain why this happens, whether it be the fact that one’s natural, healed state seems to be one of injury to the Patron, or merely for some other unknown reason, but regularly sustaining the same injury results in a greater likelihood that the injury will not respond to holy magic.
With these two factors in mind, these shouldn’t be super common occurrences. I say this not because I want to keep Clerics and Paladins in the spotlight, but instead because I think all Clerics and Paladins will just learn proper healing methods and once more eliminate the need for doctors if this becomes too common. These injuries are meant to be jarring and causing confusion, not just fuckery to deprive groups of their roleplay.
And lastly, we have how these injuries can be dealt with. In the end, this is once more at the discretion of the person who has sustained the injury. The simplest way to heal these is through standard medical procedures that one would usually use to treat an injury.
However, there are times when immense amounts of holy light, far more than one would typically use to heal the injury, would do the trick. A draining amount of light would not be enough to find progress, so one Cleric or Paladin would need to undergo several “rounds” of treatment, or find several other holy magic users to assist them.
There are also times when it seems that one individual’s holy light is less effective than that of another. For whatever reason, one Cleric will prove ineffective while another will do better. Once more, this is up to the injured individual, and simply another way to resolve this.
Hope y’all enjoyed and will embrace the idea that the magic myself and others have ain’t quite so perfect. Gimme dat good good support if you enjoyed (rep is always appreciated), and constructive criticism if you did not.
