Okayy here is a WIP. All the bones are there. Just gotta write out backstory as a cohesive [i]thing[/i]. Posting this slightly unfinished because I'd like others' input. 

Please let me know if you want to flesh out an existing relationship with Isylt! This will likely influence how I write the proper write up for backstory, so I wanna do this first.

And finally please let me know if you have any cool ideas on mundane or magical healing. I kinda have the very basics here, such as limits and stuff. But yeah, any flavour would be neat.

[hider=Doctor Isylt Drottaak of Pharazon]
[color=549bd5][b]Concept:[/b][/color] An esteemed doctor who performs magic through her practice, speeding up healing processes. For the efficacy with which she works, she is often labeled a "thaumaturge", though she vocally distances herself from such "crass" practice.[hr][color=549bd5][b][h3]What's on the Surface?[/h3]
Names: [/b][/color]
[indent]- Doctor Isylt Drottaak of Pharazon
- Professionally known as Dr. Drottaak
- Isylt to acquaintances
- Friends call her Isy[/indent] 
[color=549bd5][b]Age:[/b][/color]
[indent]- Somewhere between 25 and 32. She lost count.[/indent]
[color=549bd5][b]Appearance:[/b][/color]
[indent]Isylt's face is defined by sharp and contrasting features. Messy waves of black hair hang over a gaunt face. Shadows gather under each bone, and her eyes are dragged down by heavy bags. Her frame is short and wiry, almost petite. Only, without the implied grace, she's all skin and bones. Her arms are often crossed over her gut, holding her elbows and shielding her from prying eyes. Her skin is pale and clammy from a lack of sunlight.[/indent]

[color=549bd5][b]Notable Achievements, Laurels, and Skills:[/b][/color]
[indent]Isylt is a widely respected physician and Doctor within her field. She considers herself a scientist first and foremost, and a mage second. She's published works in the fields of medicine, astrology, and alchemy. Most of these have been well received but relatively minor in terms of discoveries. 

Her most major work to date was one which presented a high-quality analysis of the skeletal system, and compared it to the geometry found in astronomical and astrological formations, a study known as "syndéology". The paper found strong correlations between such formations and skeletons, and speculated on the usage of such correlations in the field of medicine. Prior to this, syndéology had only been used to examine arcane phenomena, so this extension to the mundane was considered revolutionary.

Her greatest skill lies in medicine. She can use purely mundane means to treat all kinds of wounds, provided she has the correct salves and tools. Unless the injury is life threatening, her first option is usually to use mundane methods. This is because reckless use of magic can bring unforseen complications into the mix and make a situation worse. Most commonly, it can cause "false flesh", a condition where the surface of the injury heals more quickly than the inside, leaving a painless cavity under the skin. This can trap spirits of disease inside, and frequently causes internal necrosis. If this necrosis can be seen at skin level, this condition has become advanced and is very difficult to treat. Amputation, serious injury, and death are common.

That being said, she is not opposed to using magic. It's just that when she does, she opts for long-form rituals with low rates of failure. She is rigourous in her application of proper technique, and ensures she has correctly studied appropriate factors. She will consider the day's horoscope while implementing finely tuned arcane tools, such as specially cut nodal gems and soapstone sigils. While fast healing magic does exist, Isylt turns her nose up at it. She cites its dramatically increased chance of false flesh, stating that it's "imprecise and clumsy". She is capable of such spells in a pinch, but will always perform follow-up examinations which reopen the wound for proper healing.

If her mundane healing was impressive, her magical healing is nigh miraculous. She's been known to heal split skulls, burst eyes, and mangled arms. There is a limitation to this, however. Magical healing, and by extension Isylt, cannot reverse anything that has become permanent, nor can it heal magical wounds. This means that magic cannot reverse death, grow back severed limbs, treat false flesh, or close wounds caused by a curse. If magic is used to treat a magical injury, the spell will simply fail. No scholars know why yet, though there are several who are studying the phenomenon.

It is important to note that the threshold of "permanent" injuries is one that is still hotly debated in the medical community. There are many edge cases of this that might fall one way or another. For example, an eye that has been plucked out cannot be treated, but an eye that has burst in its socket can be. In OOC terms, cases like this that pop up during play would likely be worked out on a narrative level. What would keep the story interesting?[/indent]

[color=549bd5][b]Notable Shortcomings:[/b][/color]
[indent]Isylt has led a very scholarly life, and has faced nearly no physical adversity of her own. As such, she is about as physically robust as a sack of grain. She cannot fight, is not stealthy, and could barely run 50 meters without stopping for a break.

Her scholarly nature also causes her to question things to no end. This works wonderfully when she's studying, but can be a huge source of tension with authority. It can also cause her to question things that simply do not need questioning in a given moment, causing her to ask tactless questions and/or hesitate at the worst of times.[/indent]
[hr][color=549bd5][b][h3]What's Under it All?[/h3][/b][/color]

[color=549bd5][b]History/BS:[/b][/color]
[hider=Dot point version until I feel like i have the mental capacity to flesh it out]
- Born to a Darkwatch mage who died in this recent attack (father, Gaston), and an apothecary who lived on a border town (mother, Monika)
- Lived in an apartment above her Mum's old practice in the city
- Apprenticed first to her mother at age 7, mostly just watching and learning literacy at this point
- Lots of books, lots of new people to heal. etc.
- Dad was often out doing things, but wasn't completely absent. The three were close
- Isylt became an assistant apothecary about 14, doing proper lab work and shit
- Monika's old master visited and it was like woah, big reunion
- Dude's old as fuck because magic or whatever. May or may not be part of the Synod
- The old master met Isylt and saw her lab work, offered to take her on like he took Monika on
- And so... apprenticeship 2: electric boogaloo.
- Isylt was in this one for another like 7 years
- Turns out she was capable of magic where her mum wasn't, so she learned that from old master man
- She graduated apprenticeship, got a license, became a member of the National Physician's Society of Azon, and started her own practice
- Treated clients by day, experimented by night.
- Eventually released something which caught the eye of the Society
- Society was like "yes, it's grant time, take our money"
- She started writing the skeleton space book
- An undefined timeskip later, a perfect storm happened!
- The former royal physician died
- Isylt finished the skeleton space book just a few days prior
- the Crown decided they wanted a young new physician (due to the controversies, many speculated this was because they wanted to cut costs with hiring a third time)
- The Society decided to sponsor her and a few others for the role, but Isylt had the more impressive resume
- Bam, hired, been in this job for four years. 
- Before all this current day murder, she was working on a sequel to her last big paper. This time it will be on blood.
- Now she's either running away with the king, or sticking with the uncle. This entirely depends on the PCs involved.[/hider]

[color=549bd5][b]Drive:[/b][/color]
[i](this describes her reason to go do anything of her own volition)[/i]
[indent]- Discovery. [/indent]

[color=549bd5][b]Beliefs:[/b][/color]
[i](this describes her morality, and how she views the world and its inhabitants)[/i]
[indent]"Lives are precious gems that need preservation, no matter what. Bodies are simply vessels, and need to be treated like the tools they are."
"Knowledge is not power. Anyone who says otherwise deserves to have neither."[/indent]

[color=549bd5][b]Instincts:[/b][/color]
[i](this outlines her automatic thought process and reactions to external stimuli. each action can be beneficial, but also has potential to become a flaw.)[/i]
[indent]"Always do it properly."
"Always keep my physician's kit stocked and close at hand."
"Never possess dull tools."
"If I don't know, I must find out"[/indent]
[hr][color=549bd5][b][h3]Relationships[/h3][/b][/color]

hmu. Can't fill this out without others.
[/hider][hider=mental list of things that need to be fleshed out]
- Alchemy
- Consequences of magical healing
- The National Physician's Society of Azon
[/hider][hider=Sample Post]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVVf-X1Q2Qw]Atmosphere[/url]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnuQE8S5TCs]More atmosphere. Go on, do it.[/url]
[hider=Image][img]https://i.pinimg.com/564x/b1/cd/c5/b1cdc5beae156238a08548daa41449f3.jpg[/img][/hider]

[b]Some days ago[/b]

It wasn't the jewels that she found valuable in the dirt-covered caskets. Corpses had a certain significance when dug up under a full moon. It was a well-studied fact.

The caskets were carried down the stairs into her laboratory one-by one. The servants took care to lay them in the moonshine beneath the skylight, surrounding the centerpiece. Strips of shadow laced each casket, twisting around corners, representing a distorted version of the window she knew quite intimately. Pungent smoke clogged the air, writhing its way out of censers and into noses. Anatomical figures and star charts painted on canvas lined the walls where shelves full of vessels and glassware and books did not. Racks of apparatus hedged a maze on the main floor. Scissors, scalpels, saws, hooks, thread, cloth. 

The centerpiece was a cold stone slab. There was a body on it. Clammy and blue. Just resting. A slanted lip rose from the main surface, breaking only to create a small funnel, for pouring. 

Isylt sat on a velvet-cushioned stool in front of a dark wooden writing desk off to the side. Codices and scrolls sat in neat stacks to her left, inks and pens in small divots to her right. In front of her was her new codex. Or, rather, the cheap parchment on which she scribed relevant data. It was to be about blood. Why, how.... what?

She set down her blunt pen and picked up a wicked sharp scalpel. It was always the fine tools in medicine, the ones that blunt quickly and need repair. She plucked the latest page from the stack and hosted herself up to walk over to the slab. Scalpel met skin, connecting hand to body, tracing intricate and precise lines along limbs and flesh. It was not blood that sprung from the cuts, but stench of putrid air. The incense smothered those demons which crawled out, but that made the air no less unpleasant.

She peeled skin and severed veins all night long, laying them out side by side and drawing the results. For this, she used a brush on vellum - pens on parchment were not delicate enough. After she was done with each corpse, she sealed it back in its casket and sent it off for re-burial and moved onto the next one. She repeated this until the sun rose. Then, she went to bed.[/hider]