Colors: White and Red
Current Guild Leader: Durmont Lorness, Cleric of Silveen, Order of Hospice
Requirements to Join: Must take healer’s oath, (unless of the masked Order) sponsorship
Requirements of Membership: Must report deeds and findings to the guild every 3 months
Majority Composition: Clerics
Minority Composition: Bone Setters, Potion Makers
On the Guild Council?: No

As the Guilds quickly rose in power, from a fledgling government struggling to gain respect, to a force to be reckoned with, a change in philosophy started to shift within the church. While many Clerics still felt, and feel to this day, that their highest and only responsibility is to serve their god faithfully and dutifully, many felt that they also had a duty to their fellow man. These Clerics expressed interest in concentrating on the side of the divine that helps humanity and seeks to reward those who try hard and do well. Antheas, now a very old woman, looked to the Guilds for a place for these healers, who did not do well in the traditional system of the High Church. Normally, Clerics were encouraged to take a short-term period of questing, followed by tutoring new Clerics as a Headmaster, and ending by taking on a more sedentary life as a Priest. These new Clerics wanted to continue questing through the land, helping people who were wounded, ill, or needed comfort, and did not wish to continue on to either join the Adventurer’s Guild in violence or join the High Church in more solemn duties of worship. Though Antheas did not live to see its acceptance, the Guilds did eventually accept the Healer’s Guild into its own structure, and popular support combined with church support, and currency, has kept it there to this day.

As a Guild, the Healer’s Guild may not have members that rise above the rank of Cleric in the High Church. To this end, many members who join this Guild leave later on in pursuit of rank within the church, although they might still keep the tenants of the Healer’s Guild. The Healer’s Guild has its own ruling body, however, with provincials acting to elect the Guild Leader, who in turn selects the other members of the Order. With the exception of the Masked Order, all members of the Healer’s Guild must take the following oath, the Masked Order serving a special function within the Healer’s Guild that requires that they not take it. Any member found in violation of this Oath, once spoken, finds himself removed from the Healer’s Guild as well as the High Church, for violating the Oath of the order as well as an Oath unto the gods. The Oath of the Antheas is as follows:

I swear by Silveen, Goddess of Healing, and Orn, God of Knowledge, and Eraen, Goddess of Life, and Garguth, God of Death, and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill, according to my ability and judgment, this Oath and covenant:
To hold him, who has taught me this art, as equal to my parents, and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage, and to teach them this art, if they desire to learn it, without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me, and to pupils who have signed the covenant and who have taken an oath according to the Healer’s Guild, but to no one else.
I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.
I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not harm any living creature, at risk of mine own life. In purity and holiness, I will guard my art against uses foul.
I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are skilled in this work.
Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief, and in particular of any harm to any person, be they guildsman or not.
What I may see or hear in the course of treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account ought to be spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.
If I fulfill this Oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.

The presence of this Oath, and the service of the healers who keep it, has made this Guild very popular amongst the common folk of Torodan, and many parents have told me that they would love for their children to one day take up the Oath of Antheas if they see fit. Most healers charge little to nothing for their services, seeking only to pay those expenses they have accumulated in pursuit of their art and require for their basic needs. Fortunately, the people of Torodan recognize the value of the Healer’s Guild, and most are honored to give a member shelter for a few days, until they move on to the next town, helping the people there. In contrast, the Healer’s Guild is not very popular among the higher-ups in the Guild structure, and is often seen as a pawn of the High Church to politically influence the Guilds. Some even claim that the Guild attempts to violate the laws that keep those of above Cleric rank from being Guildmembers, but this is mostly rumor, with a few incidents of Priests giving up their rank to join the Healer’s Guild being the only activity suggesting this from ever happening.

The Order of Antheas

Symbol: A red staff on a white field
Current Order Leader: Benedict Stillson, Cleric of Silveen
Requirements to Join: Must take the Oath of Antheas, sponsorship and review
Requirements of Membership: Must provide healing service to those towns that need it whenever possible

Named after the High Cleric of Silveen who originally brought the High Church into contact with the Guilds, the Order of Antheas is in charge of the most basic mission of the Healer’s Guild; to travel across Torodan providing help and healing to those who need it. Despite its presence as a whole throughout Torodan, the Order of Antheas maintains few offices, with over 99% of its members traveling at any given point in time, stopping in towns for a maximum of two or three days. Members who do become sedentary usually drop out of the Order, either joining the Order of Hospice or leaving the Guild altogether and becoming Headmasters and Priests. Most popular among Clerics of Silveen, the Order of Antheas has strong support from the clergy of Eraen as well, although many worshipers of Fiera and Sond cannot understand why some of their clergy have turned to such a pacifistic order, they are supportive of the decision to join none-the-less.

The Order of the Rose

Symbol: A red rose on a white field
Current Order Leader: Lieutenant General Colon Garden, Cleric of Fiera
Requirements to Join: Must take the Oath of Antheas, sponsorship and review
Requirements of Membership: Must provide healing to those in battle or defense, must enlist within the military

While maintaining the pacifistic Oath of Antheas, the Order of the Rose goes to battle daily alongside the armies of Torodan, its members eager to help defend the interests of Torodan abroad. The Order of the Rose does not have its members fight in battle, but rather heal the sick and injured, as well as drive off the undead. To be clear, they are never to harm another living person with divine magic, but the undead are not considered “living men” under the Oath of Antheas, and so many of the Order of the Rose use their abilities to defend against cultists of Rend, bringing down the dead as surely as they are brought up. This is the only “violent” aspect of the Healer’s Guild outside of the Masked Order, and even most of the members of the Order of the Rose prefer to use their powers to help the living, rather than hurt the undead.

The Order of Hospice

Symbol: A red building on a white field
Current Order Leader: Gabriella Coston, Cleric of Silveen
Requirements to Join: Must take the Oath of Antheas, sponsorship and review
Requirements of Membership: Must work at a house of healing, or hospice, within the realm of Torodan

As power shifted into the Healer’s Guild over the centuries, one of the things that came into it was Houses of Healing. Formerly aspects of the High Church, more and more Guildmembers of the Healer’s Guild found themselves running such operations, the High Church being fairly glad to commit itself to other interests, letting the Healer’s Guild take over bit by bit. Eventually, the Order of the Hospice was formed for those members who worked at or ran said Houses of Healing, now termed hospices. Today, the Order of the Hospice controls all of what were Houses of Healing, though it still receives large subsidies from the High Church. Mostly, the Order of the Hospice works in the attempt to cure and help those with long-term, debilitating conditions that cannot be served with divine power, as well as providing healing the wounds of those who come to the Order’s houses in search of it.

The Order of Droughts

Symbol: A red potion on a white field
Current Order Leader: Desmona Doricks, Potionsmith, Guildmaster’s Advisor on Medicine
Requirements to Join: Must take the Oath of Antheas, sponsorship and review
Requirements of Membership: Must work in the production of potions of healing, must not produce potions of harm

Not all people feel the power of divine magic equally. In particular, those who would turn their back on the gods have a harder time feeling their effects, for good or ill. Many human mages, in their search for power, find themselves jaded against the divine and stop worshipping the gods. It is not for these people alone that the Order of Droughts was created, but it certainly might have influenced the decision. Potions, in addition to being easy to create for one of skill, can be given away or stored, unlike the powers of the divine, and thus are often useful in times of great strain, where enough healers cannot be brought, but a few potion makers can be. On top of this, while many distrust those who make potions, this stigma does not extend to the Order of Droughts, as its members are not allowed to produce those things which harm another, nor recommend them at any time.

The Masked Order

Symbol: A red mask on a white field
Current Order Leader: General Patrick Timon
Requirements to Join: Sponsorship and Review
Requirements of Membership: Must work in the elimination of plague and illness not curable through the will of the gods

150 years ago, a plague hit southern Torodan. Some say that worshipers of dark gods created this plague, others say it was a particularly insidious plot by the Dark Elves. Whatever its origin, it killed many, and was unable to be cured by any known tincture or divine magic. It was from the survivors of this plague, who seemed oddly resistant to it, that the Masked Order was formed. Far more brutal than most Orders, the Masked Order certainly seems out of place in the Healer’s Guild. The masks the Order bears originally served to cover up the faces of those members scarred by plague, but today serve to distance the members of the Order from their subjects, or victims, however you want to put it. The Masked Order has the sworn duty to defend Torodan against lethal infections that prove immune to drought or magic. To this end, they quarantine houses until the inhabitants starve, burn buildings, and sometimes kill people where they stand, whether they appear infected or not, to stop the possibility of infection spreading across the countryside. They cover their whole bodies in white robes in an attempt to stop infection, but should a member become as such, they have proven more than willing to engage in mass suicide rather than allow the infection to spread. The Masked Order trains most of its members from birth, with whole schools existing from the remnants of those families fallen victim to plague, disease, and famine, all of whom the Order takes in with a mixture of kindness and fanaticism. While many fear the Masked Order, tales of Plague are told to this day, leading many more to fear what would happen without the Order. So within Torodan it is seen as a necessary, if pungent, evil.