Healing Magic

Magic is often used to provide medical treatment to wounds or energize an exhausted body. This is typically combined with expertise in general procedures: cleaning the wound with antiseptic potions, sewing up cuts, applying clean bandages, etc.

Holy
One of the most common affinities of healers, and nigh synonymous with the field. The concept of hope and defense used in order to heal, Holy healers are the apex of relieving pain, although, most surprisingly, one of the worst at treatment beyond first aid. Ever favored nonetheless, the ability to bring an end to suffering is prized in the field, allowing other, more mundane workers to do their job in repairing the body.

Holy magic is capable of sealing minor tears and scrapes and avoiding scars. One of its worse aspects is in handling burns, fractures, and other complex tasks of healing, often a very superficial method, but invaluable in its ability to bring about deliverance from the agony. However, another benefit of holy magic is that it works with far less training than almost every other discipline in academic aspects of healing as a dedicated school. Holy magic works based off of belief and faith, healing by transmitting well-being, rather than needing careful direction, making it also incredibly reliable.

Holy healing is very unpleasant for those with dark affinities. It reacts poorly with their aura, and while it is still capable of healing them, the process is a painful and stomach churning experience.

Water
Another common affinity, water is known for its practical applications in healing; by charging one's body with mana and exuding it into pure, charged water, it soothes the body, mending wounds with a mixture of magically-enhanced liquid, purifying the blood, and healing burns. Water Magi, unlike the holy-imbued, rarely tend to focus in this aspect of their craft, mostly using it within combat to fight problems within their own body.

Misusing water magic for healing is dangerous, capable of diluting blood and instead encouraging it to pour from a body. Making a mistake and flushing someone's blood of oxygen and life has happened in the past, part of why some people would be leery of a water magi's touch versus an antidote or herbal remedy.

Holy Water
Most of the most dedicated healers, however, pursue the distillation of water in relation to holy magics... Allowing them advanced abilities in combining the above to quell internal bleeds, alleviate even the worst of pain, and balance the body, purging them of all but arcane plagues at the hands of the most skilled. Practicioners of holy-water magic are almost always specialists, making the concept of pure, divine water a prominent image and factor in most schools of healing.

Having the most pertinent drawbacks of the above, although the infusion of holy magic often renders it far more safe for the body- Holy magic is inherently protective and formed of faith, belief and succor, allowing for less need for nerve wracking precision, the infused water inherently seeking out the threats to the person's well being. One of the most pleasant aspects is that anything short of truly killing the skin in terms of burns can be healed with almost no evidence.

Nonetheless, dark magi users tend to find this healing, if anything, more painful as the holy magic is coalesced in a physical form within their blood. It is able to even go so far as to legitimately burn and poison them rather than its intended usage; depending on how much control vs. potential the dark mage has.

Holy Lightning and Holy Fire
These two elements are easily grouped together due to their similar nature in the field of healing: energy. The infusion of holy into these elements reflects their natures back into their casters- holy lightning energizing with the static jolt of electricity, and holy fire's burn only intensifying the flames of righteousness within its users. One of its common tricks is to invoke them in order cauterize and seal wounds in battle, in order to press on with fervor, or stimulate the body to scab over quickly. This becomes useful in skirmshes and duels, when one's opponent is seemingly tireless, unrelenting, and unstoppable.

Nonetheless, more than other magics, they have a tendency to leave unsightly scars behind them.

Darkness
Few would acknowledge darkness magic as one of 'healing', but ignoring its abilities to siphon and empower the user would be foolish to any, be they studying the occult or seeking to combat it. Darkness works in a twofold fashion- by shunting the dark magi's pain onto others, and by forcibly stealing the victim's well being, as the opposite of holy. As its counterpart, it also shares similar weaknesses- as it is based around the concept of stealing and inflicting, precision in healing oneself is impossible. Usually it rips open an identical wound to the caster's as it seals their flesh. Nonetheless, wounds healed by dark magics tend to scar and warp the body, leaving indeliable contamination behind.

While it is theoretically possible a dark mage might be able to heal someone else with this power, it absolutely must come from a victim, and it would be so difficult to use and with so little reward that it would only be useful for combat wounds, outside of combat. Dark magic can only be wrought at the cost of misery. Suffice to say, most dark magi never even consider this given the nature and futility of it in their craft.

Nature
Certainly an avenue some healers go... however, not one often favored by dedicates over the power and ease of holy water. Particularly given the effort that needs to go into using the druidic arts in a non-selfish nature, very few nature practicioners tend to focus on the healing aspects of the craft to exclusivity, despite the potential.

Most nature magi are capable of manipulating the 'life' of plants, and with their own affinity, are capable of reaching out across networks of roots and pulling the power into themselves- with the inherent nature of it making it one of the most wholesome restoratives, capable of rejuvenating the user intensely. This method, however, is not quite practicionable on others. Most tend to infuse their mana into a plant capable of explicitly converting energy between fauna and flora, rather than trying to sort out such a confusing process themselves. The medicinal nature of most plants lends themselves well, but a healer in the field of nature is often required to be an academic, moreso than almost any other craft.

Nonetheless, used indirectly, the magic is invaluable for the field. Capable of pouring life back into herbs and poultices, encouraging mosses to weep once more the fount of life, the process is invariably slow, but capable of lending aid to even the mundane, non-arcane healers by replenishing their medicines and stock.

Time
A field never considered traditional healing, nonetheless, time magic's 'repairs' are almost invaluable, given the implicit difficulty of chronomancy. Healing via time magic is not healing- it is reversion, literally undoing wounds so as to have made them never have occured. A time 'healer' will never leave a scar. It is valued due to this, despite the lack of focus it is especially effective.

It's difficult for time mages to impact those not in the same stream as they are for such major revisions, and far beyond the point of origin for the wound is simply impossible, even by a few seconds or a minute for a very strong magi- reaching very far into the past cannot be done. A time magi's lack of need for stopping after a pitched battle should be taken into consideration- and fear. For its constraints, it is devilishly effective for an opponent.

A time mage might be able to use it in conjunction with other arts to give themselves a look into how a wound or piece was formed in the past for greater accuracy.

In addition, a time magi will find it impossible at 'best', and dangerously unreliable at worst, to specify on a particular wound. Instead, they are best in giving out vague, strong commands, that focus in healing the entire body, manipulating their time stream and fixing minor cuts and bruises at random. For example, a time magi restoring the arm they lost in a recent battle is incredibly difficult, and doing so could result in more damage than good.

Cosmic
Cosmic magic is rarely considered a true healing art- but in its own way, it is truly unique in what it 'heals': the user's spirit. The magi takes from the star's role in the life stream to borrow pure, barely refined power and replenish their very aura. A cosmic magi has absolutely no ability to 'heal' others of wounds, but their ability to rejuvenate the spirit with mana is unmatched, and can provide them the will to overcome fatigue and put more of their body to work.

The inherent secrecy of the inheritors of the star's knowledge makes it difficult to gauge how effective this is, but their arts cannot be approached in this field.