Dragonhealing is the art of applying surgical and curative knowledge to dragons. It could safely be assumed to be that a capable dragonhealer is a type of dragon doctor, able to provide advice on the care of, and to cure various ailments and injuries of, dragonkind. Dragonkind would apply to dragons, firelizards and to some extent watchweyrs too.

It is important to note that a dragonhealer is not a healer! He or she can’t treat people, but likewise he or she does not have to be a member of a craft to be a dragonhealer, indeed, dragonhealing is commonly thought of as a secondary skill that those in a Weyr attempt to acquire so as to be of more use to the Weyr.

As P’ter found out in his early days at Igen, it is not sufficient to just be a novice dragonhealer in order to be of use to the Weyr; during the time that you progress up you need to be of use in other ways in order to earn your keep. More about this later.

It will be canonical and consistent. Dragonhealers need to know basic facts. For example, dragons blood is not blood, it ichor, and its green, not red.

This will take time. A large part of dragonhealing roleplay is the roleplay of learning. Your character will not / should not progress overnight. Gradually the skills will develop and gradually the knowledge will appear. This is a key to roleplaying a novice or training dragonhealer.

It is a consensual activity. Roleplaying as a dragonhealing normally brings you into contact with dragons and firelizards. Sometimes these are NPCs but normally they are puppeted by their players and here skills need to be employed to ensure that all goes well. No one wants their dragon misdiagnosed or classed as badly injured without prior knowledge and full consent on an OOC basis. Shandra has a wonderful document on the principles of consensual roleplaying which I strongly advise that all dragonhealers read.

The SrDH is there to resolve conflicts should they arrive, to liase with the Weyrleaders, to make the final decisions on dragonhealing matters (under the direction of the Weyrleaders of course)

Are you a resident, crafter, child, rider or general layabout at Igen? Then you can be a dragonhealer. Dragonhealers are trained in the Weyr, by those of the Weyr. To quote The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern:

The Weyr trains its own dragon healers, mostly from riders who show an aptitude and an interest in healing, though anyone with training and knowledge can help heal injured and burned dragons. Dragonriding takes up most, but not all, of a rider's time. The Healer Hall instructs all healers in basic techniques of first aid, but apprentice dragon healers learn from others in their Weyr.

If you’ve read up on the consensual roleplaying document I pointed to above you’ll know about the importance we put on good roleplay with the dragonhealing program. Your roleplay skills are important and before you are accepted onto the program we expect that you have a certain level of skill in roleplaying and that you apply that skill to Igen’s particular fashion of doing things. This comes about by the simple expedient of roleplaying at Igen for a time, learning the conventions of what to do or what not to do as time goes by. If anything crops up you could always contact a member of Igen’s Role Play Council for advice, try +lhelp roleplaying for details.

The things you will need are:

Once you have those requirements the SrDH will arrange an interview with you. This will be OOC where the Senior will go over your characters background and what if any healer or dragonhealing background you have (not that you need healer or dragonhealing background) The Senior will be looking for realistic expectations of what you want from the program and of what your character can currently accomplish with his knowledge and skill. The interview will also cover the players goals and wished for rate of progress.

Once that interview has taken place the Senior will try to roleplay with you, or assign someone trusted to roleplay with you should there be scheduling problems. The senior may also +watch your roleplay. The aim of this is just to see you in day to day roleplay to asses your skills. By approaching the senior and asking to be considered for the program you've already given your permission for him/her to look at your RP.

Once accepted into the program you will receive a document with details about roleplaying a dragonhealer and information on basic dragonhealing information.

And please remember, don’t try to heal people!

Welcome to Dragonhealing at Igen Weyr

Roleplaying as a Novice

Roleplaying as Training Rank

Roleplaying as a Capable Dragonhealer

Basic Information: Anatomical notes

Basic Information: Dragons and firelizards

Basic Information: Herbs and treatment