The Four Kinds of Doctor

    Medicine is a sacred and revered practice in Descent. Medical knowledge and research are passed down through generations, from master to apprentice, an unbroken, branching chain stretching back to before the Long Walk. These doctors dress akin to plague doctors, with their masks resembling different birds signifying their order.

    The first order is the Crows, the most akin to the common conception of the plague doctor, dressing in black robes with black masks and top hats. They deal with the dead. acting as coroners, morticians, and gravediggers. Their duty is to ensure that passing is peaceful, and to restrain the returned dead before burial. 

    The second order is the Doves, surgeons and biothaumaturges, clad in white robes with white masks. They're the ones you call when someone high-profile needs a life-saving procedure done. They're also some of the only ones who know the secret to creating Oncemen, grotesque, mutated fusions of what once was human, now made to serve a specific purpose.

    The third order, the Owls, are general practitioners clad in grey and brown. These are the doctors you would see if you had a cough, or a broken bone, or had come down with a case or parasitic muttonchops. The average Descentian would seldom encounter any physician but an Owl.

    The fourth order, the Hawks, are only given baseline medical training. Their primary focus is not healing, but harm. They are combat medics, emphasis on combat. They are often hired by the Bluebacks and the Church in equal measure. In addition, they often guard graveyards from interlopers. Their brown-and-red robes often conceal cudgels, pistols, and daggers.

    I must confess, dear reader, I have not been entirely forthright with you. There are, in fact, five orders, though the fifth is entirely unofficial. They are known only in whispers, from someone who knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy. They are called the Vultures. The Vultures are not really doctors, not legally at least. Being branded a Vulture is akin to losing one's medical license, but despite this there are some doctors who wear the title proudly. Vultures have no specific discipline, and can come from any of the other four orders. In short, nobody sets out to become a Vulture, and being known as one is a sign of immense dishonor. 

    The Vultures are a uniquely Descentian innovation in medicine. The first Vulture, some say, is now known as the Grand Chirurgeon. They are a mass of flesh, hundreds of bodies fused together, covered in tarps and greasy rags stretching sluglike through the hidden places of the city. Urban legends claim that they have 101 arms, each with a specific medical purpose. If you want expert surgery done for a strange and esoteric price, the Grand Chirurgeon is more than happy to help you. Just hope, for your sake, that the price is one you can pay.