Healing Magic

> *This post refers to a single spell or group of single spells that can repair damage done to the body. For magic that helps the body to recover on its own, see Healing Enchantments.*
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## Healing Magic

### Applicable Focus Themes

Healing, Helping, Fixing, Saving, Body, Health, etc.

### Uses

Doctor, Nurse, Medic, Vet, etc.

Healing Magic refers to a single spell or group of single spells that can directly repair instances of specific damage done to the body by seeking out physical brokenness within a living being and repairing it. It falls under the category of Life Magic, and is popular among Mages with a focus themed around healing, helping, fixing, saving, body, health, etc.

It should be noted that healing magic is not a cure-all, and rarely will it replace the aid of a doctor.

## Process

In practice, the usage of magical healing is more about feeling than seeing. It's about using your powers to feel out for a thing that is broken and guiding it back to its normal state.

To explain this process, I'm going to compare it to the time I "fixed" my computer in middle school:

> When I was about 13, the screen of my computer broke. Every so often, the back cover would somehow detach from the wiring or whatever on the inside, causing the screen to get fuzzy with static. Usually, it would fix itself when I closed it and opened it again.
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> However, one day, closing and opening my computer didn't fix it, no matter how many times I tried. Out of frustration, I slapped my computer, which miraculously fixed the static. I realized then that the impact from closing or hitting my screen would temporarily force the bad wiring or whatever back into place.
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> The next time I got static, I figured out what part of my screen was the most static-y, lined up my hand, and slapped the back of my computer screen behind that spot as firmly as I could without breaking the rest of it. Lo and behold, it would fix it. Suddenly, I had a consistent way to fix my computer whenever the screen broke again.
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> Does this example show that I know exactly how computers work? No. Does it show that I am an experienced computer hardware technician? No. Was it the perfect way to fix the problem? No.
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> However, it does show that I was able to intuitively seek out the source of the problem through an external indicator (static or magic) and use the tools at my disposal to fix the issue.
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This is how magical healing works, and therein lies the downside.

## Risks

Magical healing does not require any medical knowledge. You don't have to know what is broken or why it's broken; you just have to find the broken and make it un-broken as best you can.

This is fantastic for fixing simple problems such as cuts, small fractures, and simple respiratory issues. These are usually one-step solutions (close the cut, repair the fracture, remove the lung gunk) that don't have any potential complications or specific concerns to think about while fixing them.

However, for more complicated issues, such as nerve repair, tiny joints, muscle tearing, etc, a magical healer with no outside medical training might try to repair the injury and repair it *incorrectly*.

### Responsible Use

That being said, there are plenty of magical healers who also get medical training with the Lifeworker Institute and are just as qualified as the local surgeon. Other mages will use healing magic to aid a professional doctor by pointing out the location and severity of the damage, which will then either be treated by the doctor or repaired by the mage with the doctor's advice.

Most other mages with an applicable magical focus use healing magic as a handy tool for minor injuries, referring more serious damage to a doctor. Despite the risks, it's still a very useful skill, especially when the choice is between certain death and post-healing complications.

### Pain

Unfortunately, even when performed by a professional, healing magic is not a pleasant feeling when you’re the one being healed.

For a non-magical example, imagine that you’ve dislocated your shoulder. Between the lack of mobility, pain, and the odd angle of the shoulder, you’ll likely know exactly what’s wrong. Thankfully, there’s also a relatively simple means of fixing it that only requires a single movement... and a LOT of pain.

Similarly, healing magic can be very painful. Usually, the pain is similar (if not identical) to how it felt to get hurt in the first place. Thankfully, after the healing process has ended, the pain drops significantly, eventually fading with a bit of time and rest. In cases where the injury is causing constant pain, the victim might not even notice the pain from the healing until they start to feel better.

Since ordinary healing magic cannot cure long-term damage due to a disease or other chronic issue, the pain is usually pretty predictable. You don’t have to wonder what two weeks of a cough will feel like when compressed into a single healing session.

As a result, there are people who will prefer to let an injury heal on its own instead of having it healed magically. Depending on the severity of the injury and how quickly it needs to heal, someone might decide the intense pain of magical healing isn’t worth the efficiency.

## Exceptions

### Disease

While normal healing magic is simply a matter of finding and fixing a few individual points of damage, diseases don’t work that way. It’s not a matter of just “taking it out” like a tool that accidentally fell in a machine; diseases spread through your body on a microscopic level.

As a result, trying to use normal healing magic on a disease is an exercise in futility. You can treat the damage and symptoms caused by the disease, but you can’t remove the disease itself. It’s simply too widespread. Instead, the magical treatment of diseases requires the use of Healing Enchantments.

### Overuse Injuries

For similar reasons, magical healing is very ineffective at healing overuse injuries.

Most acute injuries are incredibly easy for a mage with the appropriate focus to detect and address because they result from a single, traumatic event. One problem, one fix, albeit a painful one.

On the other hand, overuse injuries are the result of repeated, tiny amounts of damage caused by the titular overuse of a muscle, joint, bone, etc, and can also occur if an acute injury was not allowed to heal properly.  Just like a disease, an overuse injury is not a single instance of damage, but countless micro-injuries that would have to be individually detected and repaired.

Technically, it’s possible, though it would take forever. However, it’s not just about patience. Healing magic is all about sensing something that’s fundamentally wrong, so the mage has to be a good enough healer to be able to detect such small damage in the first place.

Moreover, overuse injuries have the annoying habit of making themselves worse. To give an example from my own experience, swelling in my ankle will rub against the other muscles in there, irritating them and causing inflammation, which makes it swell even more, and I think you can see where this is going.

Therefore, if a magical healer wants to stand a chance at actually healing an overuse injury, the patient will have to try their absolute hardest to not move the injured limb. Which is easier said than done, and in some cases that won’t even stop the injury from exacerbating itself.

### Aging

This is a bit obvious, but in case anyone was curious: no, healing magic cannot stop aging, for the exact same reasons as the ones explained above. After all, what is aging but a long-term overuse injury in the whole body? Sorta.  ¯\\_(ツ)\_/¯

That said those with access to healing magic would have a higher life expectancy, but their life cannot be dramatically extended.