Doctor Hunt

Wapol’s state-led purge of all non-state-licensed physicians on Drum Island. First named in Ch. 141 (p. 6, Wapol: “the last survivor of the great Doctor Hunt”).

What we know

• Ch. 141 p. 6 — Wapol confirms the great Doctor Hunt is his historical state-led purge of non-state doctors; Kureha is named as its last survivor.
• Ch. 141 p. 11 — Drum citizens were conditioned to “call the Twenty Doctors” and to “beg Wapol’s forgiveness” rather than seek treatment from non-Twenty practitioners; even mortally ill patients refuse free treatment from non-Twenty doctors out of fear of state retaliation.
• Ch. 141 p. 12 — Wapol’s security force is the Doctor Hunt’s enforcement arm; they open fire on Hiriluk on sight in a snow-village.
• Ch. 141 p. 13 — by the flashback frame (~6 years before the Drum arc), the Hunt had driven every non-Twenty doctor either off the island or underground. Dr. Kureha confirms: “Except for the Twenty Doctors, you and I are the only doctors left on this island.”

Mechanics

• Wapol established a state-licensed cadre of Twenty Doctors as the only legitimate practitioners of medicine in Drum Kingdom.
• All other doctors were declared illegitimate and actively hunted by Wapol’s security force.
• Citizens were conditioned to call the Twenty Doctors and beg Wapol’s forgiveness rather than seek out non-Twenty practitioners.
• The Hunt drove every non-Twenty doctor either off the island or underground. By the present-day frame of the Drum arc, only Dr. Kureha (Ch. 141 p. 6 — “the last survivor of the great Doctor Hunt”) and Hiriluk (deceased, off-page, ~6+ years prior) are named as having survived its early years.

Political-economy consequence

The kingdom-of-doctors that Drum was reduced itself to one doctor — not by accident, but by Wapol’s atrocity. Ch. 135’s “a kingdom of doctors with one doctor left” premise is, in light of the Doctor Hunt, engineered medical destitution. The Drum arc is fundamentally a liberation-the-doctors arc, not a find-the-doctor arc.

Chronology

• ~6+ years before the Drum arc: Doctor Hunt in full swing; Hiriluk and Kureha are the only non-Twenty doctors left (Ch. 141 flashback, pp. 9-17, Kureha aged 133).
• Between flashback and present: Hiriluk dies off-page (cause not yet on-page); his castle is not Wapol’s seat — by Ch. 0141 it has become a mausoleum for Hiriluk per Wapol’s framing, which Kureha occupies.
• Present-day frame (Ch. 141): Kureha is the last survivor; Wapol returns to retake the kingdom and erase the Hiriluk memorial.

Open questions about this topic

• When did the Doctor Hunt begin?
• How many doctors did Wapol kill/exile, and who are the Twenty Doctors by name?
• Are the Twenty Doctors competent, captive, or complicit?
• Did Wapol himself execute Hiriluk, or did the security force / circumstances do so?

Cross-links

• Characters connected: Wapol, Dr. Kureha, Hiriluk
• Foreshadowing seeds about this topic: Doctor Hunt Wapol Purged All Doctors Save Twenty Backstory
• Predictions that depend on this lore: —
• Related world-building: Twenty Doctors
• Locations: Drum Kingdom