The Tearing

History

Every Age has its darker side. This is particularly true for the Ages most prosperous. With technological and magical progress come not only advantages for the general population but also cruel ways to abuse and twist that progress to one's own benefit and enrichment.
The Tearing is one such thing. It was originally developed as a last-ditch way to prevent the Ley-Line Frenzy by tearing the connection between a person and the Ley-Lines permanently asunder. The ritual left thousands of children unable to draw on the Ley-Lines and strongly stunted the magical capabilities of society as a whole. Its use was only approved for children suffering from the Frenzy. There was much controversy about the usage of this ritual, but in the end, it was decided that new-borns most likely would not remember what it was like to be able to use magic - and that it was better for a child to live than to die, even if it came at the cost of their magic capabilities.
In rare cases, the Tearing was also used as a punishment against people, who misused their magical abilities particularly callously.

Execution

With the receding amount of cases of Ley-Line Frenzy and the discovery of a solution with less severe side effects, this ritual quickly fell out of practice. Thus, the knowledge of how to execute it has been mostly lost to the annals of time.

Written for Spooktober 2022
Prompt 30: Tear

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Primary Related Location

Krom