Pharmacopoeia Arcanum

The Pharmocopoeia Arcanum is considered one of the texts which defined the Fourth Age. Pharmacopoeia of the Third Age dealt almost entirely with the practicalities of illness and the physical properties of remedies, but the P. Arcanum is one of the first written records detailing the results of an experimental approach to magic.
The book describes 148 treatments for conditions ranging from the purely physical - broken bones and childbirth - to the neurological - P. Arcanum contains an early description of what is now called "battle fatigue" - to the entirely arcane - curses and possession. Given the demographics of Iasteron at the beginning of the Age, these monographs are directed exclusively towards conditions afflicting yutaaq.
The Healer-Priestess Erishti-Aya-Ii collated P. Arcanum, documenting the practices of healers and scholars across Iasteron. In addition to the ingredients and methodologies of drug-makng and early surgical techniques, the P. Arcanum details seasonal and weather conditions appropriate to gathering herbs and plants, identifies deities and spirits with influence over particular body parts, diseases, and cures, and details the prayers, songs, offerings, and sigils with the greatest effect over given circumstances. The book provided the first empirical proof that the influence of gods and spirits ofthe world could be studied and harnessed, leading to the development of the healing arts by witches, cunningfolk, and medicinieres.
Although the extinction of plants, animals, and languages have rendered many of the remedies in the book obsolete and medical science has developed more effective and more widely available cures, P. Arcanum is not entirely a historical curiosity. Many of the early sigils and prayers are still effective and not all of the spirits named in the book have faded into Dream. In particular, Sābbide, and Kasāē have been elevated from the familiar spirits of a single healer to the realm of gods, while Ariinuur, their witch, was raised to godhood alongside them as the triparite god, Arisaadāē, who governs birth, death, and the body among the Kure people.

Authoring Date

4.63 (approximate)

Location

Iasteron