No one remembers the Black Death better than healers. Both metaphorically and literally, these cats that caught the plague rats were put to the sword and forced to go underground. They memorized and burned their literature, and they say the bonfire was so large it could be seen from France to the Vatican. Mothers taught daughters under the guise of "religious studies", and when the priests came knocking, they held out biblical commentary on how this plague was a punishment from the Lord.
Many, many times they thought of emerging from the shadows, but between the witch burnings and rampant colonialism that followed the Middle Ages, there were few safe places for these families. Most of them worked as physicians or nannies, hoping that their jobs would give them some cover for their more... subtle forms of magic. After all, they still wanted to heal. It was, often literally, in their blood.
However, all these years of hiding had taught them that plain sight was the best place for their operations. When they were working stiffs, people noticed how their families never got sick, and when they would visit plague-ridden children, they woke the next day miraculously better. Perhaps it was an unwillingness to question what little working medicine they had, but the townspeople forgave those of them who did this in doctor's garb. After all, your appointment with one of these mysterious healers was better than any plague doctor.
That realization washed over them slowly as the 20th century began. From the Bibles they carried with them to the medical societies that denounced them as quacks, they had always adorned themselves in what hated them. Then the "Roaring 20s" came.
The children of these healers found themselves taking things a step further, and when they went to parties surrounded by their own, they danced in plague doctor masks. Hundreds of black robes whistled under electric light, and the whole room smelled like sweat and potpourri. They had truly gone all in, and surprisingly, their parents applauded it. Besides, the war against death had a new enemy by the name of polio, and they needed all the help they could get.
Now came their time of light. They began to transcribe their histories, first in scraps on secret notebooks, then heading towards the libraries they still waxed poetic about. Where the pre-medieval healers had groups, they formed societies that stretched across the world.
The most famous of these societies, known as Life's Cavalry, led the charge. Its members were young and ambitious, and they recognized that their abilities were a double-edged sword. So, it comes as no surprise that when it came to picking a uniform, they chose the garb of plague doctors.
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