Damacest

Damacest is patron of the healing arts, both medicinal, alchemical and magical.

Motto:  Strike Not the Innocent

Glory be to Damacest

To the Strong Gentled

To the Blow Checked

To She who holds her Hand

Above the Holy Innocent

Healing aside, Damacest looks kindly on those who tend to other hurts; aiding those who help reconcile differences, bring warring sides to the table and make repairs to communities after damage has been wrought.

Whenever disease and pestilence stalk the land, folk will give offerings to Damacest for a protection or a cure. Those wishing for children will pray for fertility, while the lame and sick often travel in search of hallowed centres of healing. Soldiers will always give offerings and prayers before heading to battle, hoping to avoid injury or to attract the ministrations of a healer.

Shrines to Damacest can often be found by fountains, wells and streams where water is drawn. Many temples often serve as houses of healing or asylums, whilst the largest minsters may be located at the site of mystical healing pools and vapour vents. Pilgrims may travel across Albion to visit a particular church that is known to cure specific ailments.

Priests of Damacest are friendly and welcoming people, offering warmth and hospitality to all. They seek to help those afflicted with sickness, to advise kings on how to ward off plagues and tend to those injured in conflict. Those who have been blessed with the powers of corporeal magic are often drawn to hosts of war where their skills are always welcome.

Chalices, healing rod or sheaf of herbs are symbols often associated with Damacest. The most commonly used symbol is that of the healing hand. The swallow and stork are two birds often associated with the Goddess of Healing.

Although associated with healing, Damacest carries the Spear of Life into battle, a weapon that warms the hearts of the faithful as it drinks on the blood of the enemy.

Church of Damacest
The high seat of the Church of Damacest is located in Wells Cathedral, on the border between the Kingdom of Sussex and the Kingdom of Oxford. The rotunda and many cloisters are filled with baths fed by hot springs that rise from the deep earth. Many pilgrims travel to Wells to seek cures for all manner of illnesses, while those skilled in the medical arts come to learn from apothecaries and surgeons in the houses of healing, and from where the anointed of Damacest journey from to combat plagues that stalk the land.

Other important churches and holy sites of Damacest include:

Temple of the Eternal Springs in Bath - known for the magical waters that can heal all ills.

Shrine of Sebastian the Kind - dedicated to a knight who spent his life caring for the poor and needy

Hospitaliers of Damacest
Capable warriors and wise in the medical arts, these knights can often be found escorting pilgrims to remote healing springs or watching over healers during a battle. Even fully clothed in their war garb, they know enough to staunch the flow of blood and aid the fallen until help arrives.