I am curious about the origin of the power to instantly heal someone else's wounds or injury, in myth, religion, etc.

I find plenty of examples of "laying on hands" to cure disease or alleviate conditions (e.g. blindness), but still looking for the magical (or miraculous) healing of actual injuries.

Is this a thing prior to D&D lore?

The big one would be all of Jesus' miraculous healings.

One in particular would be when Peter cut off one of ears of a man who came to arrest Jesus and then Jesus touched the ear and it was healed.

Restoring body parts severed by a sword is healing an actual injury.


And remember - "Jesus saves. Everyone else takes full damage."

Quote from: Chris24601 on January 22, 2024, 08:08:29 AM
The big one would be all of Jesus' miraculous healings.

One in particular would be when Peter cut off one of ears of a man who came to arrest Jesus and then Jesus touched the ear and it was healed.

Cool, I hadn't heard about that one, definitely injury!

I've always felt that healing in D&D was firmly based in Christian myth, so this makes sense. I'm also wondering if anyone knows of examples outside of Christianity.

I'm not thinking of any that work like D&D spells, but if you extend the idea of "spell" to be more broad, there are other examples.  The one that immediately springs to mind is "The Dagda" in Celtic myth, with a cauldron  capable of healing.  Not exactly instant, but ritually very fast.  That kind of thing is probably the origin for druids having access to healing spells. 

More further afield, there is Aragorn's "hands of the healer" applying to wounds--in D&D, rangers having druid spells.   

Quote from: Zalman on January 22, 2024, 10:19:31 AM

Quote from: Chris24601 on January 22, 2024, 08:08:29 AM
The big one would be all of Jesus' miraculous healings.

One in particular would be when Peter cut off one of ears of a man who came to arrest Jesus and then Jesus touched the ear and it was healed.

Cool, I hadn't heard about that one, definitely injury!

I've always felt that healing in D&D was firmly based in Christian myth, so this makes sense. I'm also wondering if anyone knows of examples outside of Christianity.

Oh, early D&D cleric spells were most definitely based on biblical miracles. Walking on water, raising/lowering water, creating/purifying food/drink, flame strike (almost certainly from Elijah's contest with the priests of Baal), getting divine insight, etc.

I don't recall seeing much of anything outside that general source until the fictional polytheistic angle got firmly established as the default for D&D settings.

Deities & Demigods focused heavily on real world mythological deities (plus Moorcock, Lovecraft, Lieber and Arthurian legends), so I'd suspect that the Greyhawk and then Dragonlance settings were probably the standardizers and opened up the cleric to a broader array of "spheres" for their spells.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on January 22, 2024, 10:47:09 AM
I'm not thinking of any that work like D&D spells, but if you extend the idea of "spell" to be more broad, there are other examples.  The one that immediately springs to mind is "The Dagda" in Celtic myth, with a cauldron  capable of healing.  Not exactly instant, but ritually very fast.  That kind of thing is probably the origin for druids having access to healing spells. 

More further afield, there is Aragorn's "hands of the healer" applying to wounds--in D&D, rangers having druid spells.

I also think this cauldron might be the root of the "holy grail" in arthurian legend.

Quote from: Zalman on January 22, 2024, 08:00:43 AM
I am curious about the origin of the power to instantly heal someone else's wounds or injury, in myth, religion, etc.

I find plenty of examples of "laying on hands" to cure disease or alleviate conditions (e.g. blindness), but still looking for the magical (or miraculous) healing of actual injuries.

Is this a thing prior to D&D lore?

Jesus Christ's and the Saints miracles is what Gygax most likely used as inspiration for cure wounds. Although if Jesus would have taught his disciples to kill those pesky armadillos or those dirty Uzbeki's /SCTV

CURE WOUNDS:
Luke 4:40, "...all those who...were sick...were brought to Him, and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them."

CURE BLINDNESS:
9 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

3 "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. 7 "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means "Sent"). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

8 His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, "Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?" 9 Some claimed that he was.

Others said, "No, he only looks like him."

But he himself insisted, "I am the man."

10 "How then were your eyes opened?" they asked.

11 He replied, "The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see."

CURE DISEASE:

8 When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. 2 A man with leprosy[a] came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."

3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. 4 Then Jesus said to him, "See that you don't tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."

-Didn't Gandalf heal one of the giant Eagles at some point? I have a vague memory of this happening. I mention this because in Blackmoor, healing was something Wizards could also do (as seen in FFC and Van Grastek's Game of Dungeon)

-Father Christmas gave Lucy a healing potion in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

-From Robert E Howards "Slithering Shadow" about the Xuthal: "They are a fast-fading race, drowned in lotus dreams, stimulating their waking hours by means of the golden wine which heals wounds, prolongs life, and invigorates the most sated debauchee."


I know that today there is a clear distinction between a healing potion and a healing spell, but in very early D&D this wasn't the case. In Blackmoor, spells were created from ingredients and acted very much like potions.

There are also gameplay reasons to have quick healing. Otherwise characters would end up sidelined for months, or just crippled, because they went out and tried to be heroes.

World mythology is full of examples. Here's two from Greece and one from Epypt. Source: Wikipedia.

Aesculapius is a hero and god of medicine in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Asclepius once started bringing back to life dead people... Others say he brought Hippolytus back from the dead on Artemis' request, and accepted gold for it.

Chiron (a centaur) was known for his knowledge and skill with medicine, and thus was credited with the discovery of botany and pharmacy, the science of herbs and medicine. While Chiron is examining Hercules' weapons, one of the arrows dipped in Lernaean hydra venom falls on Chiron's left foot and poisons him. Chiron then tries to use herbs to heal himself, but fails.

Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion.. she resurrects her slain brother and husband, the divine king Osiris.. Her maternal aid was invoked in healing spells to benefit ordinary people. According to one such story, seven minor scorpion deities travel with and guard her. They take revenge on a wealthy woman who has refused to help Isis by stinging the woman's son, making it necessary for the goddess to heal the blameless child.

Quote from: Zalman on January 22, 2024, 08:00:43 AM
I am curious about the origin of the power to instantly heal someone else's wounds or injury, in myth, religion, etc.

I find plenty of examples of "laying on hands" to cure disease or alleviate conditions (e.g. blindness), but still looking for the magical (or miraculous) healing of actual injuries.

Is this a thing prior to D&D lore?

There are many cases of miraculous healing in myth, legend and fantasy prior to D&D. However, that said, I think it's fair to say that none of the Appendix N works have healing spells that can be cast on a daily basis.

For example, Elrond is described as a gifted healer and treats Frodo's wound, but it still takes him weeks to recover. Likewise, there are other skillful healers like Chiron, but they just accelerate natural healing. Instantly healing wounds is most often a divine miracle. Lucy's cordial in Narnia is probably the closest parallel, but it is essentially a limited use divine gift.

Various legends and religions have them to some degree. Or magic items that do the same. It is fairly common that a pantheon has at least one healing type god.

There are also shamans and witchdoctors and even a few witches accredited with healing powers.

Quote from: jhkim on January 22, 2024, 10:51:01 PM

Quote from: Zalman on January 22, 2024, 08:00:43 AM
I am curious about the origin of the power to instantly heal someone else's wounds or injury, in myth, religion, etc.

I find plenty of examples of "laying on hands" to cure disease or alleviate conditions (e.g. blindness), but still looking for the magical (or miraculous) healing of actual injuries.

Is this a thing prior to D&D lore?

There are many cases of miraculous healing in myth, legend and fantasy prior to D&D. However, that said, I think it's fair to say that none of the Appendix N works have healing spells that can be cast on a daily basis.

For example, Elrond is described as a gifted healer and treats Frodo's wound, but it still takes him weeks to recover. Likewise, there are other skillful healers like Chiron, but they just accelerate natural healing. Instantly healing wounds is most often a divine miracle. Lucy's cordial in Narnia is probably the closest parallel, but it is essentially a limited use divine gift.

I wonder how much of the existence instant-heal spells like Cure Wounds or Lay on Hands in D&D is owed to literary inspiration, versus how much of it is just a necessity of the game design. It's hard to picture an resource/attrition-based dungeon crawler operating without a ready source of healing. I've never seen a dungeon crawler, either tabletop or computer, work without it, and it's notable that classic RPGs that don't include it (e.g. Call of Cthulhu) are decidedly not designed for dungeon crawling.

EDIT:

Quote from: hedgehobbit on January 22, 2024, 04:35:19 PM
-Didn't Gandalf heal one of the giant Eagles at some point? I have a vague memory of this happening. I mention this because in Blackmoor, healing was something Wizards could also do (as seen in FFC and Van Grastek's Game of Dungeon)

I know that today there is a clear distinction between a healing potion and a healing spell, but in very early D&D this wasn't the case. In Blackmoor, spells were created from ingredients and acted very much like potions.

Gandalf is said to have healed Gwaihir the chief eagle at some point before the Hobbit, but I always read the implication that it was more done by herbology/medicine than by magic. But then in Tolkien the line between craft and magic is a blurry one.

Healing is a Wizard ("Sorcerer" in that game) thing in Dragon Warriors too. I'd be curious to know if it's the same case in other early fantasy games like Chivalry & Sorcery or Fighting Fantasy.

From what I've heard, the Cleric class was developed as part of the Blackmoor Campaign, so that's probably a critical point for the history of healing magic in RPGs, but I don't know much about it.

To clarify, what I was getting at with the first part of my comment above is that healing magic of the kind you get in D&D is a pretty logical outgrowth of an HP system. HP is a resource that naturally depletes as you delve a dungeon, and so it makes sense to include a means or refilling it as part of the game's resource management. The only real alternatives are either making your heroes phenomenally difficult to wound, or cutting short the number of hazards in an adventure.

The reason why it doesn't crop up in a lot of fantasy fiction is probably that fantasy heroes are a) often amazingly good at defending themselves, and b) don't get in nearly as many fights in a day as a D&D character does. One example that does pop into my head is Stormbringer, which I believe heals Elric's wounds as part of its soul-stealing properties.

EDIT: Stormbringer puts me in mind of the fact that when you do see this kind of healing in fiction, it's usually tied to necromancy or other evil powers. Think vampires, that sort of thing. In literature, it's the kind of power you give to villains to make them scarier. Most authors want the audience to think that if their protagonists get wounded, they're in serious trouble.