Preface: What is a Veil?
The Veils are not mere magical seals.
They are empathic bindings, woven from a combination of emotion, will, and ancient elemental law. They are not meant to lock power away like chains—but to hold it within, layered like skin over a star.
Each Veil restrains a core truth of the soul it is bound to.
The stronger the soul, the more layers were required.
đź“– I. The Age Before Balance
Long before the birth of kingdoms, before the rising of oceans and the splitting of continents, the world was not ruled by nations or kings—but by Essences.
There were the Stoneborn, who shaped mountains with thought.
The Firewrought, who burned false futures into ash.
The Skybinders, who sang winds into obedience.
And the Veilborn—a name whispered in awe and fear.
The Veilborn were not of element alone.
They were synthesis.
Flame and stone. Magic and memory.
Will and emotion.
But power without purpose is like fire without fuel—ravenous and wild.
The Veilborn grew unstable. The more their power bloomed, the more untethered from mortality they became. Time slipped. Empathy cracked. Some became gods. Others became monsters. And the worst became both.
⚖️ II. The Sundering
The Veilborn were both loved and feared.
But one of them—Velmira the Flameheart—went too far.
She tore down the fortress of Cael'Dure in a single breath, believing the future it would create was unjust. In doing so, she unraveled a leyline and collapsed the surrounding lands into what is now the Griefed Hollow.
She wept afterward.
But her sorrow came too late.
The world leaders and remaining elemental orders convened at the Sanctum of Nine Pillars, the only place untouched by any one essence. There, they did not sentence the Veilborn to death.
They chose something worse:
Containment.
đź”— III. The Forging
Six ancient orders, each tied to a primal force, came together to forge the Veils—not as curses, but as blessings in restraint.
Each Veil would suppress a different aspect of a Veilborn's soul:
Veil
I. Strength
Bound Aspect
Physical Power
Forged By
The Order of the Deep Stone
Veil
II. Magic
Bound Aspect
Creative and Destructive Will
Forged By
The Cinderglow Circle
Veil
III. Life
Bound Aspect
Empathy, Desire, Connection
Forged By
The Kin of Root and Bone
Veil
IV. Memory
Bound Aspect
Knowledge of Past Selves
Forged By
The Seers of the Echo Vault
Veil
V. Emotion
Bound Aspect
Intensity of Feeling
Forged By
The Crying Blade Monks
Veil
VI. Fate
Bound Aspect
Awareness of Destiny
Forged By
The Order of the Shattered Star
Each Veil was layered through ritual, sacrifice, and emotional resonance. They weren't locked in place like cages—but grown into the Veilborn's soul like bark around living wood.
To make a Veil, one had to:
Channel the Veilborn's essence into symbolic form (stone, flame, water, air)
Bind it using a willing emotional mirror—someone close who would reflect the burden
Seal it not with incantation, but a truth left unspoken
Thus, the Veils were not simply magical.
They were emotional architecture—a sacred silencing of parts too powerful to be free.
IV. The Hidden Flaw
Only a few ancient texts speak of the flaw:
"The Veils do not destroy what they silence.
They teach it to dream.
And in dreaming, it learns to return."
The Veils can only hold as long as the Veilborn refuse to feel.
The moment they feel deeply—fear, love, grief, purpose—the Veils weaken.
And when one breaks, the others begin to shiver.
Because emotion, not strength, is what makes a god.
V. The Twin Veilborn Prophecy
A forbidden verse, etched in faded red beneath the Mural of the Bound Colossus, reads:
Born in bloodlight, not of one, but two—
Flame and Stone, not split but braided.
When the Sixfold Silence fails,
and the soul speaks without shame—
The world shall break,
or begin again.
Scholars later concealed this passage, believing it referred to a myth.
But those who knew the true origin of the Veils always feared one thing most:
Not the breaking of a single Veil.
But the awakening of both.