The Medical Order

Preface

The practice of medicine in the Crossroads is not left to change or whim. At its heart stands the Medical Council, a government-sanctioned authority that answers directly to the Council itself. It sets the standards by which healers must work, keeps the record of outbreaks, and levies taxes on those groups it chooses to recognize. The Medical Council alone holds the power to suspend or strip recognition from any order or practice it deems dangerous to the public good.

Command

Chief Physician-General (NPC)

At the head sits the Chief Physician-General, the highest voice of medicine in the land. Their office is charged with issuing decrees on public health, overseeing triage in times of war, and directing the response to plagues, curses, and other threats that cross the boundary between natural and supernatural illness.

Regional Medical Offices

Beneath the Chief Physical-General are the Regional Offices, each assisted to a town or region. Their duty is to keep a registry of local healers and medical groups, to serve as intermediaries between government law and independent practice, and to settle disputes when custom and regulation clash.

Recognized Practices

The Medical Council does not claim that healing comes in only one form. Instead, it recognizes several distinct traditions, so long as they adhere to standards set.

  • Licensed Clinics: state-backed establishments found in larger towns, staffed by accredited physicians.

  • Coven Practices: covens that mix medicine, alchemy, and ritual. Though they are often met with distrust, their skill has proven time and time again to be too valuable to be denied.

  • Apothecaries & Herbalists: small shops providing tinctures, teas, and salves. Lightly taxed as common businesses, but expected to maintain accurate records of what they sell.

  • Field Medics: wanderers and battlefield surgeons who travel with militias or caravans. In times of crisis, they may be deputized by the Oathkeepers to serve the public directly.

Purpose

The Medical Council provides a central hand to guide the practice of healing without stamping out its variety. It ensures malpractice is answered, imposes licensing and regulation, and collects fair taxes from those who profit from the work. Whilst it does impose oversight, The Medical Council leaves room for independence in the form of covens, apothecaries, and field-workers who may carry on their trade, so long as they do not stray too far from the standards that keep people safe.

In this way, the land holds both order and freedom, binding together the scattered traditions of medicine into a whole that can endure plague, curse, and war alike.