Humoric Medicine

Despite all the advancements Altairius has ever made in medicine, humoric medicine remains the best way to understand and treat magical disorders in magical beings. Similar to the practice of Ayurveda, humoric medicine sees illness as a product of imbalance between certain elemental energies in a being. It uses this framework to adequately diagnose and treat chronic conditions that crop up without apparent cause.

Application

Humoric medicine is applied to non-pathogenic conditions. It is not an adequate framework for working with contagious illnesses, though conditions that are treatable with humoric medicine often contribute to the contraction of pathogenic diseases.

Most often, humoric medicine is used to combat chronic illness. To get certain elements back into balance, healers use different herbs that carry the energies of these different elements. It is based on the premise of "As Above, So Below." It aims to treat the entire being, reasoning that persistent illnesses have roots in a person's Anima itself, rather than in any particular organ system. This is why it is so effective against chronic illnesses; rather than merely treating the symptoms, it works by destroying the sickness at its root.

Elemental Imbalances and Sickness

In humoric medicine, illness can be understood as an imbalance of Animal (as in, of Anima) energies. An individual's optimal Animal balance will depend most on their racial element and their daemonic element. Ideally, these two energies are the most abundant, with those directly flanking them on the Anima sigil only slightly higher than usual. If this balance is disrupted somehow, a myriad of illnesses can result.

Different illnesses result from different kinds of imbalances. Some examples are outlined below:

Treatment

In humoric medicine, the primary form of treatment involves potions concocted with certain herbs and spices. Different plants possess different kinds of magic, and by consuming a potion made from a plant of a certain medicine, one can correct the imbalance within the body. For any element that's out of balance, consuming an herb whose energies are opposite those of the imbalanced element on the Sigil of Anima will bring said element back into balance.

Since everything in Altairus is associated with one or more elements, even one's own food can restore or throw off the balance of the elements inside the body. For this reason, managing diet is a major factor in practicing humoric medicine. In fact, most humoric medicine focuses on prevention by encouraging Altairians to maintain nutritious diets suited to their race and live physically active lives.