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DerynifanK

March 17, 2024, 03:48:44 PM
Happy St Patrick's Day. Enjoy the one day of the year when the whole world is Irish.

Healers outside Gwnnedd

Started by whitelaughter, February 01, 2017, 12:08:47 AM

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whitelaughter

Healers being wiped out in Gwynnedd is understandable with the witch hunts, but is it ever explained why healers didn't continue to thrive in Torenth etc? I would have thought that the nobility in particular would have gone out of their way to encourage them.

DesertRose

There's an indication (I believe mentioned in Codex) that Torenth tried to establish a Healer's school but couldn't keep it going because their experienced Healers kept getting killed in conflicts with Gwynedd over Festillic attempts to retake the Gwyneddan throne.

As to why no one else in the world could keep a tradition of Healer training up, beats me.
"If having a soul means being able to feel love, loyalty, and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans."

James Herriot (James Alfred "Alfie" Wight), when a human client asked him if animals have souls.  (I don't remember in which book the story originally appeared.)

Bynw

For some reason, yet explained, the best Healer schools were in Gwynedd. The Vanarite and Gabrialite. No idea why other kingdoms with high Deryni populations didn't have their own schools for Healers. It really doesn't make sense since you wouldn't want your healers trained by a potential enemy. Especially given the ability of the Deryni to bend minds, plant suggestions, and program actions of sleeper agents. Including those of other Deryni.
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Laurna

#3
I believe it is said that the Airsid, the original Deryni, moved into Gwynedd, Old Mooryn, and Torenth from the far north. They occupied the Rhendall mountains and constructed the complex used by the Cambarian council. Over centuries Deryni moved south and east, and joined their blood with the royalty of other kingdoms. (I mean to say, if you had that kind of power, would you not align yourself as one of the nobility and wealthy members of society.) The only exception would be those who joined the church. However, in this instance, they do not count as they did not pass their abilities to the next generation.

I believe the Horts were like the Haldanes, with Deryni blood infiltrating their family line later as had the Haldane line. The Families of Joux were Deryni, as were Andelon and Bremagne, but the Moors may not have been Deryni until around 917 when the Michaeline Knights moved their sanctuary to "the fortress of Djellarda, a seat of the small independent Christian state of that name." Codex page 33. We know the royal family of R'Kassi did not become Deryni until the end of the 900's. This may have been true for many of the southern kingdoms.

By that time, the late 900's, with only a few exceptions, Healers had already been thinned to near extinction. As DersertRose and Bynw have stated, and it is documented in the Codex that the last of the healers were conscripted by the royal houses. Their demise came in 1025 when tens of thousands of men died at Killingford.

I for one am holding my breath to read the Road to Killingford.
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revanne

I also seem to remember reading, though I have no idea where, that healers were limited in Torenth  because of the idea that their talents should not be wasted in treating commoners.
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Evie

When I was writing The Least of These, I looked up something in the Codex that seemed to indicate that there was a training school for Healers outside of Gwynedd or Torenth (I think it was in Thuria, perhaps, since that's where I had my characters end up), but it ended up being destroyed.  I can't remember the details anymore about whether it was an accidental destruction (s/a due to a fire) or if the schola or order was attacked and deliberately destroyed.  But that detail from Codex is why I had my refugee family escaping to that part of the Eleven Kingdoms.  I felt a bit sad, knowing that if they ended up having Healer descendants, chances were likely that they'd have ended up at a Healer institution that was destined for eventual destruction anyway, though at least not until after their time.  :-(
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Elkhound

Quote from: revanne on February 01, 2017, 01:27:20 PM
I also seem to remember reading, though I have no idea where, that healers were limited in Torenth  because of the idea that their talents should not be wasted in treating commoners.

The Codex explains that various disasters pretty much wiped out Healers in the West, as they spent themselves trying to deal with the various illnesses and carnage of the wars and plagues.  Torenth tried to bring Healers from Byzantium and other far Eastern countries, but not many were willing, and those who did come couldn't really adapt to the very different cultures, and wouldn't stay. 

whitelaughter

thanks everybody.

It makes a lot of sense if the Healers largely died out due to them trying to heal diseases that their powers were useless against (IIRC there's something to the effect that their powers are far better at injuries than diseases) and being infected by their patients; didn't the RW church take a hammering during the Great Plague for tor this reason?

Elkhound

Quote from: whitelaughter on March 15, 2017, 10:41:25 PM
thanks everybody.

It makes a lot of sense if the Healers largely died out due to them trying to heal diseases that their powers were useless against (IIRC there's something to the effect that their powers are far better at injuries than diseases) and being infected by their patients; didn't the RW church take a hammering during the Great Plague for tor this reason?

Yes, that was why the educational level in the clergy at the time of the Reformation---there were documented cases of priests who didn't recognize the Lord's Prayer or know were to find it in the Bible.  The losses among the clergy were so great in the Black Death that to just get enough warm bodies at the altars the Church had to waive or lower educational standards.