Veilmynde

The thoughts that pain you are gone, locked away behind a door you cannot open. Wake up, and be free.

— Veilmynde practitioner

There are spells and wounds that leave injuries lasting an eternity, imprinting their message deep in their target's psyche. Worse, still: those same wounds can be caused by enduring trauma and war, inflicting near-incurable lifelong struggles with mental health on those who have survived. The Kitti-Fae are one way of helping with these deep mental woes, but some pains go beyond what companionship and love can manage.
A variety of different therapies are practiced for those in distress, ranging from teaching methods of coping with their troubles to tackling fears head-on. Practitioners of these 'mental arts' can be found in most large hospitals in areas where mental health is taken seriously and is well-studied; Celesthem Temple has been one such location for many years now.
However, psychic magic has begun to arise - and with its arrival, more attention has turned to the mental arts. Techniques such as faith healing may be exclusive to those with psychic mastery, but other methods can be learnt and adapted to arcane and even divine magic depending on their use. One of these methods - one that originated with psychic magic, allegedly, and was then shared to other forms of magic - is the veilmynde technique.

What is Veilmynde?

The veilmynde technique is named for what it does: it creates a barrier, or a veil, in one's mind that certain thoughts, feelings, and memories can be locked behind with the consent of the target. It is not a painless process. The person undergoing the technique must focus on the memories they wish to conceal and relive them; the practitioner must, in turn, endure the distress themselves.
Unfortunately, this makes veilmynde a rather cyclical trauma device for most practitioners. Whilst they are able to help countless others, they must bear the burdens in their own minds. Some resort to modifying their own memories with spells that erase recent memory; others simply seek treatment for the trauma they undergo. All, however, see it as worth the risk.

Parent Technologies

• Arcane Magic
• Divine Magic
• Psychic Magic

Inventor(s)

no specific name recorded

Access & Availability

must be accessed via trained veilmynde practitioner; forbidden to practitioners themselves

Complexity

high-level magical work; knowledge of at least 5th level spells required

Discovery

5500s; contributed to the healing factor of Takawaoku's Great Eruption

The Risk of Veilmynde

Those who practice veilmynde are prohibited from using it for their own relief. This is not a code of conduct, but a danger of the technique: the few attempts at this have created a feedback loop that renders both practitioners unconscious.
Additionally, it is very challenging to undo the veiling once it has been placed - if the original practitioner has died or is no longer available, the memories locked away may not be retrievable without significant effort.

Discovery

I can remember that those.. things... happened, but... I can't touch the details..? What is this?

— early patient

The technique originates on one of the many volcanic islands skirting the southern continent of Takawaoku, where the standard understanding of magic and her rules is somewhat more vague. Psychic magic arose quite naturally in those fringe civilisations and freely spread from island to island; like many of the techniques used in Istralar's south, the rest of the world did not learn of veilmynde until it had grown well past the boundaries of psychic magic and transcended into a standard magical technique used by certain psychologists.

It is said that the technique first had its rudimentary beginnings towards the beginning of the 5500s, but was not refined until the back end of the century by healers looking to assist with the trauma of the Great Eruption and its resulting destruction.
Records kept by the Keepers of Divinity indicate that the rest of the world first heard of the technique in 5607, when a conference was held in the country of Elouera to discuss differences in continental medical techniques.
Whilst all parties involved drew much from the exchange, veilmynde was one of the few that surprised healers from other lands due to its innovative approach and ties to mental magics usually used for domination.

Psychic Magic

The majority of Istralar is still unaware of the prevalence of psychic magic, and those who can cast with it usually hide their powers. Something dark threatens those who wield it in the open - all who have done so openly have perished very swiftly.
Given that the number of psychic practitioners is increasing, it is likely that critical mass and public awareness will both soon happen in quick succession: with any luck, the actions of the world's Champions will prevent another Worldrend.