How you fluff a lawful evil god of healing?

Healing costs money, no exceptions. If they want free healing stop being lazy and become my cleric.

Basically a caste system enforced with healthcare.

Profit-motivated. You heal those who can pay, and too bad if they can't. Maybe those who don't have the coin can pay with blood, 'life essence', a portion of their soul, or something more esoteric. Or perhaps the healing could work via an an eye-for-an-eye deal. To be magically healed your injury is 'transferred' to someone else in physical contact with you, and they don't necessarily have to be willing. Some victims for this could include vagrants, slaves, mentally-disabled people, etc. The temples have a supply of slaves for this, usable for a fee, or you can provide your own transferee.

There's no Hippocratic oath either - ethics are at best flexible, and at worst non-existent.

This. An LE healing god's followers swore an oath to keep as many alive as possible for as long as possible. They also promise to try and do no harm, however this occasionally comes into conflict with the first bit. It's because of this that the god will occasionally look the other way if their followers inflict suffering if it means the patient lives. After all, what is a promise to try when compared to a sworn oath? The patient will live at all costs. Even when the condition they are left in can barely be considered "living", they will not be allowed death so long as this god's followers are in their midst. Followers of this god should be seen as necessary evils, vile and repulsive, and yet like vultures, vital in the role that they play. Coincidentally, like vultures they should also pick at corpses, if only to find usable organs in the fresh ones for transplants and the like.

Death doesn't even have to be Good. Just better than the little shit who won't let you have a nice lie down and a snooze.

Also works well when other worshippers who are rather keen to see their god in the after life are being denied the ability.
As well as being just the absolute worst for those who believe in reincarnation or enlightenment.

Another possible take on this: Healing is free. Pain relief is not.

Sounds more like a God of On the Verge of Death, honestly.

Anyone else getting a strong SOMA vibe here? Be a damned good way to punish war criminals and the like. Even the most bloodthirsty fighter has a limit to what they can stomach. The only question is how many times can they be disemboweled and patched up before they beg for the executioners axe?
>pic vaguely related

Simple emphasize the 'lawful' aspect, make it so for every healing the perform an equivalent amount of harm must occur.

Yes, and?

Can't be healing people all the way to full, then we wouldn't have enough magic to save other lives. No no, it's far more efficient to heal them just enough to live, then move on.

I had a series of deities that are all LE - the father was LE and sired three sons. The youngest son was jealous of the oldest son's position as next in line for being the main deity, and left seeking power another way. Predictably the youngest returns and kills the father before just walking the world sowing the seeds of warfare and gaining power on the back of conquest, pestilence, famine, and prolonged conflict. The oldest son, feeling guilt for his part in the youngest killing the father follows the youngest son around as a god of healing restoring order through efficient means. The middle son, horrified by the chaos in his family leaves and no one knows what he is up to.

So:
>LE god of order/humanity's expansion
>LE god of restoration and healing (bringing peace and order from war)
>LE god of ???
>LE god of (profiting from) conflict and warfare

Gotta heal people so they can stay healthy and fulfill their duties and torture the fey folk.

First, Orzhov style extortion but for real help. Trade years of your life for health, or even trade time to serve after death as undead (ghost or physical, either way).

Second way, mostly philosophical, that the common people should work solely for the profit of their lords or owners, therefore we must keep them unable to improve. Only the dumb and weak would be culled from jumping into a pile of pitchforks, but if we heal them their average ability is a little less. Combine that with a harsh caste system and possible taking the very skilled serfs to a craftsman guild or even as soldiers, and boom: insta-LE.

Third, through methods. If necromancy in your setting includes controlling pain and death as well as the undead and spirits, have the deity simply be a strict douche with a large organization. All forms filled in triplicate before healing but rest assured mam, your baby will still be part of our afterlife if we don't save it in time.

>it's far more efficient to heal them just enough to live, then move on

They still need to be effective user. At least some of them anyway. The important folk get healed a bit better than the others so they can do their jobs, the others will just have to tough it out until there's time for them to get a proper healing.

What about just keeping them preserved until labor is needed? Alive, but with massive gaps in their lives while they age in stasis.

The spiteful sibling to the god of death. His goal is to prevent death as much as possible so his dickbag brother doesn't get any of those souls he loves so much.

>LE god of healing
The healed are beholden to the healer.

That's more of a slaver thing. I'd imagine this god's followers are at their best when they're in the field of battle. Keeping the armies marching on whatever appendages remain.

Now I'm picturing a LE making intelligent undead and bring all "alive enough, ain't ya?" before commanding them to some action a few weeks later.

This is easy. God of Sickness. If you get the plague, get poisoned, get an infected wound, whatever, he's responsible. However, he can reverse his handiwork, but only if you make a deal with one of his creepy priests or make a significant offering to his cult.

That's super NE territory

The american health system

"Pound of flesh bound by barbwire mesh brings new life to the world~"

Simple. There's always a cost.

>I'd find the concept thematically unsound and somewhat distasteful, since it seems like an intentional subversion purely for the sake of being a subversion.

Pretty much this.

Most of these don't even sound like gods of healing, regardless of alignment, and require healing magic to not work like most RPG systems healing.

If healing is central to the gods area of influence the healing should be the focus and not a means to a end. The healing for profit or healing to cock block a death god are using healing to do something else and might as well be gods of profit or of "fuck that death god."

Most healing can occur naturally or with not!magic. Why would anyone go get themselves worked over by these assholes unless there was no alternative? Not being allowed to die by a god with the main tenet of "you don't get to die" is still you being alive. Where is that evil? Where is that even changing anything? How is this even being enforced? Can't you just die if you don't want to go to the temple to not die? Or is the god of healing somehow making EVERYONE not die, unless he is being nice and then he lets them die?

Nah, was more thinking along the lines of "I'll heal you, but you owe me" becoming a thing once the healer has ingratiated themselves to the group.

What you're suggesting fits more with the Orzhov folks, I think.

Bretty gud answer m8.

Extremely popular among adventurers because her priests are all cheap mercenary healsluts with no ethics except to protect their chosen party. Her other domains are Corruption, Law and Evil.

lol

>implying that Orzhov healing isn't real healing.

Pretty simple, in my opinion.

Every time you are healed, your sickness goes to somebody else. You don't know who, and you have no way of knowing it - only that somebody, somewhere, will suffer what you refused to suffer.

Everything has a price, and nothing can be eradicated - only shifted into a new location.

Heroes never die! ...for a price.

But seriously, whaddaya say, kid? You could fix all of this. You could save lives. You could save the world! Immortality is at your fingertips, and all you have to do, is let go of what you're holding to grab it. A simple, one time payment. That's a better deal than you're going to get anywhere on the material side, I'll tell you that much. C'mon, now, what good is a soul when you're gonna live forever?
So whaddaya say, kid? I think your life has only just begun.

>tldr the pharmaceutical industry

Death is forbidden. The Undying One has declared it to be Aathema. Life is Antagonistic to death and seeks to prolong itself, to endure and spread.

They will buy slaves and they will buy prisoners.
They will experiment o them, mutilate and even torture them in the name of medicine, to preserve life.
The only thing they won't do, not even to prisoners, is to allow them to die.

They are Doctors, Researchers, Virologists and Necromancers.

They will heal all free Citizens, and they will heal every Serf who obeys the Law and his Lord.

They will even keep your soul i this plane and reanimate your body to keep you "alive."

Their empire is ever growig, cemeteries are eigh unheard of, and those few who do die will have all parts of their bodies harvested and distributed to preserve the life of others - ad to live on as part of another, thus preventing "ultimate" death.

Slave master.
Your pawns are no good to you dead.
Of course, every act of healing increases your debt.

Make the god of healing also the god of debts

Saving someone's life means they owe their lives to you in a bond of servitude. Or at least that's what the priests of this god preach.

Keep it on /pol/ faggots

It has been mentioned a few time already but I think a god of deceptive pacts is a pretty elegant way to go if you don't want body horror stuff.

A god who is outwardly about strength, vigour, prosperity, renewal and promises. It teaches that strength comes from your pacts and that pacts matter more than anything. Fulfilling a deal, no matter how arbitrary, takes priority over family, safety, or petty personal codes. A man who does not meet his end of a bargain is not a man at all.
Individual worth is lie, personal strength is an illusion, only through a web of promises are you made real. Only through your pacts will you find immortality. The god will mend you, strengthen you, make you more than mortal as long you keep true to your word.

However the substance of the bargain is not important. His holy texts are a kafkaesque nightmare of labyrinthine rulings and sub-rulings, loopholes and cosmic legal jargon. In the end it's all designed to benefit those who are the best at exploiting the letter of the law rather than the intent. Intent is after all a mortal aspect which comes and goes as easily as life. The will is as ethereal as the flesh and it will be bent to serve the pact.

The god's sigil is a phoenix, lion or muscular man held aloft by chains.
The god's priests are usually quiet and intense. They have demeanour similar to pic related. They are often very active in their communities but are careful not to reveal to much about their religion. Holy texts may only be seen by the initiated. In many ways the order is seen as a very accessible mystery cult, which can be found in large cities or small country hamlets alike. Despite the odd behaviour of it's representatives it seems very eager to help in miraculous ways.

Mercy on the poor outsider who stumbles upon a priest's secret ledger. And may the good gods help the fool who views the cult's Grand Timetable which foretells DOOMSDAY when all depts will be collected.

kys

he is the patron of doctors. they will let you die if you don't give them money to pay off there rediculas student debt that he forced them to take

This reminds me of Marvel's Cancerverse, though I think that would be more NE to CE.

kekeke

Only heals White people

All should suffer. The loyal and obedient may be spared the worst of it.

Go with the Haemonculi from 40K or those doctor-cenobites from Witch Doctor. Healing at a price.

adventuresinpoortaste.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/48zz.jpg

But that's lawful good

>"Sure, I'll grow a new arm for you"
>"Wait. This isn't my arm, it's a crab claw."
>"I NEVER SAID I WOULD GROW YOUR ARM, KEITH. THERE ARE RULES AND SHIT TO FOLLOW"
>"Well shit, it's better than nothing. Plus it's its own weapon with good AC. Thanks, Kurgethreyumek!"
>"No problem, just be sure to be more specific and shit next time. Monkey's Paw rules."

>pic related

Black magic to heal Black people, White magic to heal White people.

Lawful Evil? Easy, order shall be enforced both within and without. The body will be returned to it's balanced state.

But it's gonna hurt like a bitch, and it should, because you've failed yourself, your nation, and your god by letting your body be damaged. That's property of the state right there!

Also healing is never free. Like, if you heal yourself you owe service in measurable hours beyond your normal work to your God. Not because he needs it, no, but because you need it! It's not about what the lender needs, but about what you owe that needs to be returned.

Stuff like that, where being in debt is a moral failing. Oh, and everyone is in debt to the evil God for sustaining them, to an extent they can never pay back, but they should still try because that's the thought that counts.

Personal time is a privilege given so that the weak can maintain their body and soul and not burn out. Truly, taking less personal time is admirable in both motive and deed!

However it's not really much more overall than you would give, so the God encourages his followers to work smarter, not harder. Education and literacy is widespread as well as respect for Academics. Improving crop yields, discovering a new slave race that can be broken first to the fields and factories and then assessed for possible welcoming to the folds, organizing trade routes and managing the convey masters etc are what everyone should strive for. Force multiplication.

And naturally, since your time is just this side of "not worthless", achievements such as this make it more than reasonable to take increased personal time to ensure efficiency, and to request access to calmer areas whose aesthetics soothe the soul and mind, better food for health, resources for new projects such as exploring beneficial architecture on that ridge there and living there with your family as part of it's assessment for wider integration.

See where I'm going?

>This works perfectly if God of Death is Good.
I'd go Chaotic Neutral rather than Good. Death is change in the Tarot, and this evil health god is clearly stasis taken to an extreme. Good and balance lies somewhere in the middle. (Not the same balance as the True Neutral, can't be arsed with anything, Beige Lantern Druid balance though.)

I would see them as being fairly non-aggressive since war is expensive, personally for the person responsible for the losses. God is okay, just disappointed in you, and he hopes you'll put your everything into paying back your increased debt.

Just because, I would say they have a large undead workforce that supplements as well as works to pacify the slave forces. Made of people who died with more debt than they were born with, the more debt the more intelligence they have and the more power they can call upon - and the longer they are trapped in undead bodies, always starving, suffocating, never feeling pain nor rest and filled with a manic desire to repay their debt from live so their soul can return to their god for it's final balance.

Even the afterlife is not free. The undead zero out and are devoured for their final payment. If one has been productive in life, they are given duties and privileges to match their capabilities. The most successful may even become heralds of God and return to the Gilded Peak to guide the nation and share their wisdom and talent. In times of extremis, or in a potlach that is a promise to God to do so much better that the waste is acceptable, the may even be called down into physical form again to walk the land. In War unstoppable, in Celebration giving out shards of divinity to remind the people that God does not need your worship, your sweat, your devotion, because he is powerful and rich.

You need it. To give meaning, to separate you from the beasts of the field, to give worth as a man that can be measured against a god,. Never equal to him, but able to be recognized.

Labor Capitalism?

Second this, is this for a PC who wants to be lolevil and also a healer? If so you chop them in the neck and them to stop being edgy, they're scaring the children.

>Pic related

Leviathan, god to the cenobites of the Order of the Gash.

They are about imposing order on flesh. They don't allow death in their realm.

I didn't come up with that by the way. I've just been way into the Hellraiser franchise lately.

Sadly, "Gods of Egypt" might help you figure that out.

For a split second, I only read "God" & "Egypt" and thought you were talking about the dreamworks cartoon about the old testament. I was happy.

But you aren't, aren't you ?

But Leviathan isn't a god of healing he's a god of sensation.

The god hates imperfections; injuries are imperfections of bodies.

>How you fluff a lawful evil god of healing?

A God of Justice.

You have been sentence to three consecutive lifetime sentences in jail. Our healers are here to ensure you serve your sentence.

>can make lifesaving medication for a few cents
>sell it for thousands of dollars a dose
Sounds pretty evil to me

>Death is not allowed, the dead do not serve

>Survival is paramount, suffering is acceptable

>Healing to those that bring my deeds

>Healing for those under my rule, i need healthy servants

One of those

And order. He can have a wide portfolio. Gods from mythologies from over the world aren't usually specialized in one game element.

See Hades. He was associated with wealth. Why? Because there's precious metals in the underground. In the same vein, Leviathan might be associated with health because he keeps people from dying and is capable of extreme body modification. In the comic (by Clive, the author of the movies and books), immortality is one of the reasons people turn to hell. I recall one leper who sacrificed people to hell so he could be granted an undying, working body.

So basicaly Nurgle?

You misspelled socialist.

Those. Healing has a cost, well maybe not the basic "cure light wound" heal, but as soon as we're getting into serious wounds / near death / limbs, whatever, there'll be a cost.

And a serious debt to pay.

"Lawful" in DnD just means "authoritarian" and "Evil" means "capitalist," so start there.

>How you fluff a lawful evil god of healing?

You may want to read on Mother Theresa's uuuh...."darker side", OP. I think that might help you.

You drop alignment utterly.

Gods aren't lawful evil, their followers interpret them as such.

[citation needed]

>Capitalist
>Evil

Wew

Anjezë Bojaxhiu never healed anybody. She made shitholes for people to die in basically unaided and kissed the first worlds ass for money she never bothered to spend. Because she thought if she somehow immersed herself into enough suffering she'd start believing in God again.

If you want Lawful Evil "healers" look at the people who used her instead of helping her.

(disclaimer: Anglican)

Exactly. RL morality doesn't translate very well to DnD.

I wouldn't say Discworld Igors are evil.

If they lend you a hand they will patiently wait until after you are dead before they come to collect what they need from your corpse.

And why do they need assorted organs and parts?

Because some other unfortunate soul has had a crippling injury or illness and needs patching up. And they in turn will be harvested in time to help more people.

Their favourite saying is what goes around comes around. But if you don't let them take what they are due then what goes around comes around. And stops and they won't ever visit that village again.

Their payment is usually skimming the best parts for themselves because you should never turn down the opportunity for self improvement.

Not necessarily evil, but i liked the idea of blood magic being just as useful for healing as all the spoopy shit it's usually associated with.

The sum total life energy in the universe is finite. Done.

A sadist that wants to prolong your suffering as long as possible.

expanding on this anons idea...
There is a limit to how much healing a person warrants. After all, the more life you put into one person, the more something else dies somewhere. You can narrow this down a bit of course by volunteering yourself (or someone else, with or without their consent...) to offer up their own life force in order to cure their injuries, heal the sick, or prolong the life of the old. Think of it like vampirism, or return healing to it's old domain of necromancy - life for life. You're just transferring it. Want to cure your moms cancer? Sure, give me three years off your life. Or someones life. Or split it among yourselves. Whatever. Oh, and I keep 10% of that life for myself, to offer back to my God so he can KEEP THE FUCKING UNIVERSE FROM DECAYING INTO ENTROPY. And also to keep myself healthy, because i'm surrounded by plague diseased fucks all day.

Man you know who would be good for this? Kids. Kids are chock full of life. So much of it they don't even care! What child wouldn't give a few years to save mommy? Sure they don't *really* understand what they're doing, but they'll never miss it.

You know who else is useful? The dying! Well, how do you think healing potions are made, soldier? The syringe men go from body to body, looking for the wounded \who don't have much of a chance without magic, and taking what they have left. They're the enemy and they're going to die anyway, so who cares how the last dregs of their life is spent? Pump a few dying men dry and viola, you have a tonic that can mend a gut wound and cure gangrene of the leg. Don't think of it as parasitism. Think of it as... pragmatic recycling. You know what happens if life force isn't properly harvested? It rots. Do you want zombies? Because that's how you get zombies. Why do you think so many battle fields are plagued by undead? Shoddy syringe work, that's why!

Now drink up, grab a needler and go out and jab a few live ones.

Of course once you understand that life itself is transactional you begin to realize not everyone's life is equally valuable. Peasants may think so but they're smelly uneducated peasants. The nobility is educated and trained to rule, the loss of one of them hurts society far more. So much so that a greater premium can be placed on extending their lives. How much is an extra century or two worth for a wise leader? A few hundred men and women? Probably

There are limits of course. Diminishing returns. A young man might be cured and kept alive with the felling of a stag. A three century old king? You would need to blight an entire forest of life. Hence the need for human sacrifice, they're worth more. Of course at that age, you would quite literally need gaggles of folk to buy the old coot even a few more months. Returns diminish. Even the powerful have to die. Eventually. Takes a while though.

Life is suffering.
Any you're duty bound to prolong that suffering for as long as possible.
Every day above grounds is another that person is denied their just deserts.

Remember a lot of medical precedures are far from pleasant, especially without anesthesia. They might not used aniseptics either, so they can come back and treat the infection.

They could also take payment in unpleasant methods. Like literal arms and legs. (What they do with those arms and legs is up to you.)

They may refuse to heal people who are known to be jovial and happy.

Close to its last breath
Close to its last breaaath

Expanding on this. The ten commandments of this.

1: thou shalt not heal the sick or the injured without just compensation, for to do so is to steal from your god.

2: thou shalt not allow the debtor to default on his debts, for that is an insult to the divine. If the debtor should default, take back what was given and return all wounds twice over.

3: thou shalt give healing first to those that may pay the most for it, for good health is best enjoyed by the highest.

4: if a being has no wealth to purchase healing for another but offers their own health in trade, then thou shalt accept, for it is better to waste the life of another than to give out healing to a parasite.

5. If a plague rises or a war starts, take no effort to end it but encourage it in all things to endure, for suffering brings high demand for your god.

6. Thou shalt not allow another to heal for free. They are heretics and should be made to suffer.

7. Heal no more than you must. Cure no disease that can not be delayed, cleaner no poison that cannot be made to linger in a hidden fashion.

8. If a man should die from lack of healing, it is their own fault and no fault of the priesthood or the divine. If they wanted to live, they would have avoided sickness and injury.

9: thou shalt debt a portion of all your profits to the church and obey them immortal priests in all things, for their long lives are proof of the guys favor.

10: thou shalt not allow the debtor to escape into the grave. Debts do not end in death.

"only in death does duty end"

I'd hardly call Truth Lawful Evil because it punishes those who let their hubris overtake them as was the case for the Dwarf in the flask. However, the idea that you have to give something up in exchange for healing could work.

The pill you swallow cost a few cents.

The original version of that pill cost more than your family will make in their entire lives.

Grants unnatural immortality to his followers so they can spread his evil worship further. Cares more about domination than actual death. His agents are essentially unkillable.

All serve the God and none may be week due to illness or injury. His work mist continue. The master keeping his property in top shape so it serves him better.

There's an article on Critical Hits that features an excellent writeup of an evil (or at least ambiguous) god of knowledge. Personally, I think "profit" and "lolkeeppeoplealiveatallcosts" are a bit lazy.

Off the top of my mind I cannot remember any actual execution of the concept (although Nurgle would fulfil at least the evil and healing parts). The premise of "Blade of the Immortal" (beware: Mango) is that the main character is cursed with a bunch of symbiotic worms that can regenerate almost any injury. I can totally imagine a LE god "blessing" their minions with such things.

Another, although still lazy, variant would be the old, evil, totally-not-catholic faith.

They're also a god of War. The Healing Portfolio keeps Bodies on The Batlefield.

Deadly poison can be healing medicine in small amounts