Arcane silence

When you wake up night after night after night because you felt your heart being ripped out, that's the moment you know how i have been feeling these past 5 years. Do you want to understand?

— Zembu to king Fenrir.

Arcane silence is a curse where a caster is deprived of using their magic, severing them from it through an ancient ritual believed to be forgotten in history. The caster, unable to cast spells, feels as a part of them is missing and will never feel whole again unless they go through the Arcana awakening.

Type

Magical

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Unique

Causes

The silence is caused by a magical ritual. The victim does not necessarily need to be in the ritual (althought it helps with the ritual) but only a piece of their person (hair, nail, etc). This ritual, believed to be forgotten in history, is recorded and stored in Thraksark and some of their protectors know of it and are able to use it. The use of this ritual without other protectors' permision and knowledge is seen badly and can carry consequences.

Symptoms

• Loss of magical powers.
• Weaker body's defences, and in conseqüence, they get sicker more easily and the sickness are more dangerous.
• Physically weaker
• Victims who were used to constantly use magic feel like their heart is being ripped at random times.
• Feeling like they lost a body part
• Victim may develope anxiety and/or depression

Sequels

If the victim can treat it, they would still have their defences weakened, and they will never reach their true magical potential; even if they were able to reach it before the curse. Recovering the magic collapses the victim's senses within moments and after that feeling goes away, they do not feel again the "missing member" or the "ripping of the heart".

Woman's portrait photo by Camila Quintero Franco

Treatment

To get rid of this curse, a different ritual is needed. Arcana awakening is a ritual that is only remembered by the protectors of the Dracus temples and is also recorded and stored in the temples. The ritual itself need to be casted by the person that cursed the victim; it could be casted by another caster but the mana used on the ritual goes up by a lot and only powerful people could cast it and yet, they would be exhausted.

As previously mentioned, it can be treated with an Arcana awakening ritual, but before doing so, there are a couple of tests to be done to protect the victim's health. These tests are performed because, while Arcane silence stops teh victim of using magic, the body stills accumulates mana and finds new uses for it to avoid getting Mana excess. These new uses are often seen as boosts to the organs, to healing, or even as a weapon used by the immune system (albeit there have been two recorded cases of people getting their body destroyed by magic that fought the immune system).

Since the victim's body might have gotten used to use the excess mana as a vital living resource, a ritual of Arcana awakening might kill them, as the user regaining the use of mana, their body will return to expelling excess mana with small but constant spells rather than using it for the body, and such changes might be lethal for the victim.

History

Many tales have been born after someone being cursed or meeting someone with Arcane Silence but most of them stayed as tales, staying as a tale to scare a young mage into being good, and because Dracus have been very reluctant to share their magical knowledge to other species, people never believed the tales unless they meet or where someone with the curse. Thus, cases of Arcana Silence, while its believe to be many, very few are known.

Most important and well known cases at present times are the cases of Zembu and Eva Thervert.

Zembu a mage close of the deceased latest king of Eshines, was cursed by the new king of Eshines, Fenrir, and then exiled. He has been traveling around the world, seeking asylum to other countries that once knew him as a powerful mage and second hand of a king. This has made rumors of the Arcane Silence expand and make people doubt if these tales are only tales or something more.

Eva Thervert, another case of this curse, is slightly less known but slowly growing as she is believed to be the first person to break the curse on her own. Cursed by Kin'rah Shanan, she break out of the curse while traveling back to her homecountry of Eshines followed by the one who cursed her.

Time lapse photography of woman by Marten Newhall

Breaking out

Some beings, powerfuls ones, have been known to break the curse by themselves without using the ritual to cure them. This is something that was believed to be impossible althought one person (Eva Thervert) managed to do it. Other cases of people doing this are unknown.

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