Stone tending

Stone tending is a human healing art from the Duchy of Aldora, a province in the Turamzzyrian Empire. Stone tenders believe that illnesses are caused by a division between the waters and the airs in a person's body, and that proper application of aspects of the earth can reunite these two forces. A stone-tender will give instructions as to how certain gems must be placed on a person's body and for what periods of time to relieve the illness. The most expensive stone-tenders use emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds, while less skilled (and affluent) stone-tenders treat illnesses with quartz, peridot, and spinels and tourmalines of various hues.

In-Game Lore

At the 2007 Ebon Gate festival, a merchant named Sealuna had a shop called the Stone-tender's Cottage. In it were enhancive stones for humans, half-elves, and human and half-elvenempaths, as well as scripted stone-tending stones for all.

There was a tapestry in the cottage that had the following poem:

In the Common language, it reads:
Mother told me to learn the words well-
Mother told me to sit and listen a spell.
Heed the seer-stone on thy brow -
Learn its songs that answer why and how.
 
Amber in your pocket, you'll always come home-
Agate in your pocket, and to Gosaena you'll roam.
To cure your diseases always see Alabaster -
Give sobriety an Amethyst to avoid Disaster.
 
Sympathy and trust go to the aquamarine -
And prosperity and strength to aventurine.
If Beryl gives you weakness of spirit -
Then Alexandrite gives you the peace to bear it.
 
Bloodstones protects against all foul magic -
While Carbuncle is purely necromantic.
Chalcedony is all about mercy and kindness -
While Chrysoberyl is the foul spirit that binds us.

Chrysoprase will cure you of painful ailments-
And Coral will protect you from the elements.
Coredelite is a weak-watered dish-
But Deathstone is an ill-begotten wish.

Despanal will give you skill and power-
Yet, it's Diamond that allows it to flower.
If Demons you fear then of Diopside beware-
So too of black Diopside if you despair.

Blue Dreamstone makes an understanding wish-
And Feystone speaks of only the foolish.
Emerald can offer you poison protection-
But Firestone is Disaster's Prediction.

Dark Garnet is the tool of deep Passions-
While blue Geode is an empathic distraction.
If mental prowess you seek, then try glimaerstone-
Find Heliodor to gain control of your own.

Brown Jade gives you the Arkati's Blessings-
But black Jasper is an unreliable assessing.
A gift of jet is a blessing of Shadow's Dance-
And Labradorite is protection from chance.

Lapis lazuli reduces fever or body ache-
But always use malachite when forgiveness is at stake.
In Sapphire you'll find Niima's graceful elation-
And in moonstone a hidden secret spell's revelation.

Morganite means a child is harmed-
But in obsidian with Onar you are armed.
Opal screams madness, and Pyrite claims False-
Quartz begs you to the shadows a waltz.

Use a black Pearl to dispel Sardonyx's troubled Spirits.
And blue Peridot absorbs anything near it.
Summon strength in Rhodochrosite-
And a Ruby means your heart is in sight.

A Sard gives a false sense of security-
While Shimmertine speaks of your Fragility.
Tiny sapphire eases a lonesome mind-
And violet Spinel will heal it in kind.

Tigerfang speaks of Transformation-
And white Starstone of Divination.
Sunstone is strength, but Topaz is cautious.
And pale to Tourmaline which makes you nauseous.

Find meaning in stones, she bade me to do-
But always use your heart to find the one that's true.
Her words I will pass down, in needle and thread.
But her memory, I beg you, keep in your heart and your head.

Another sign was in her shop that related to the stone-tending stones she sold:

Emerald - Cure Blindness
Bloodjewel and Turquoise - Cure Poison
Ruby and Sard - Limbs
Diamond and Sunstone - Organs
Beryl and Spinel - Neck and Head
Moonstone and Tourmaline - Nerves
Despanal, Opal and Alabaster - Disease
Sapphire and Rose Quartz - Blood Loss
Chrysoprase - Pain
Lapis Lazuli - Fever
Amethyst - Sobriety

Sealuna's Stone-tending stones in use

>wave sunstone at Kembal
1d100: 89 + Modifiers: 101 == 190 
  
You move to Kembal's side and carefully lay your coppery sunstone upon his brow.
You close your eyes and concentrate upon the healing properties of the coppery sunstone, and it begins to warm in your hand.
You lift the coppery sunstone from Kembal's skin and step back.

Play.net website lore

Benign power is attributed to rose quartz; it is used to restore lost blood, to lessen bruising, and to mend cuts and scratches.

Rock crystal is considered a very potent tool, particularly in the intact crystals. It is said to be good for clearing an addled mind, removing diseases from the blood, and protecting against poisons.

Use ruby to try to drive poisons from the body. Rubies are strongly affiliated with blood and can therefore cleanse the blood of toxin. Aging and superstitious humans often seek to wear a piece of ruby to strengthen their hearts.

Emeralds are often used as charms against poisons, particularly snakebite. They can also be used to avert panic and seizures. In Aldora, emeralds are avoided as jewelry stones for precisely this reason -- in a place where stone-tenders are so common, routinely wearing an emerald suggests that the gem was prescribed to help combat an ailing will.

Sapphires are considered a bad-luck gem for royalty -- with their influences over the realm of air, they disconnect the royal mind from concerns of hearth and home, which endangers the safety of the realm. Less exalted people are encouraged to wear them, however, as the gems are supposed to encourage imagination and creativity.

Magically, spinels are fairly bland, but they do have some use in empathic arts (not merely in stone tending, but healing arts practiced throughout the continent of Elanith.) Empaths use red spinel to reduce inflammation and blue to bring peace and rest to suffering patients. Pink spinel is a less effective form of red, and purple spinel is considered efficacious in both tasks.

Sunstone is good for healing deformities and removing scars -- there is a purity about properly cut sunstone that can be used to remind the flesh of its proper shape. Sunstone’s power to enhance transformative spells, however, is slight in comparison to its power to enhance spiritual spells of all kinds. In spiritual matters, it is the one of the most efficacious jewels in Elanthia.

Human belief holds that sunstone will inspire hope and confidence in its wearer. It is also said that wearing sunstone will make a man more fertile -- and, for this reason, many human men refuse to wear it, saying they have no need of assistance in that matter! Those who do wear it for traditional causes tend to wear it discreetly, in a pendant slipped under the shirt or concealed on the underside of an armband. In contrast, human women are encouraged to wear sunstone, for it will enhance their fertility and bring Phoen’s blessings upon their children.

Although Chrysoprase cannot be mined in the duchy of Aldora, it is extensively imported. Chrysoprase is noted as a sovereign remedy for pain.

Mermaid's-tear sapphires can be used to help overcome the effects of breathing water, but they also say that doing so may bind the patient's will to the water, encouraging the patient into future danger.

Proper application of moonstone will draw a person from a coma, but it is usually better to let the mind heal at its own pace.

Fire opal is used to treat skin diseases and white opal to treat blindness. Wearing opal jewelry or gazing over-long into opals is discouraged because opals can diffuse the mind and invite madness.

Resources

• Traveler's Guide to Aldora
• Mist Harbor Herbalist
• Aldoran Healer jewelry
• Aldora