The Veil

Oh no, I think its great that we know about all the magic now. So many cool things we can now see. Like dragons are real! Though sometimes I wish the veil did keep the real scary stuff from us.

— local newspaper comment

The veil is an ancient phenomenon that conceals mythical and supernatural creatures and events by subtly filtering perception and manipulating the mind. These effects ensure that supernatural communities remain hidden from the mundane world and from each other.
  However, the veil is not omnipotent; many can overcome the perception filter and memory manipulations with enough exposure. In most communities, there are people who know more about the hidden than others. Many secret societies and organizations were founded to share, protect, and utilize this knowledge.
  The veil never affected babies in the same way. This allowed those who grew up around a specific group of supernatural beings to remain aware of them. However, exposure had to be regular and reinforced by adults during childhood for memories of the supernatural to be protected from the veil's manipulation. This also had the side effect of causing young supernaturals raised outside their community to lose all memories of themselves if they didn't have active powers. Many Therians ended up being raised oblivious to their own nature, only to lose control and usually die during their first forced transformation.

Origin

It is not known why the veil existed. There are many different theories among mystics and scholars, but the three most prevalent theories are that the veil was created by ...

• ... a secret cabal of mystics to hide themselves and their machinations. The veil was more of an unintended side-effect. Critics of this theory argue that mystics are simply not powerful enough to create a mystical ritual of this magnitude.
• ... an ancient deity or god who wished to separate the mystical worlds. Be it to create peace for their worshipers or any other reason. There are many different ideas about which deity or deities are responsible. Often whomever the mystic in question reveres the most.
• ... the world itself. This theory is often proposed by naturalists, spiritualists and animists. The idea is that a natural force is responsible for the separation of the worlds. However, this theory has difficulty explaining why the veil ended.

 

Effect

The barrier works in two ways. It is an advanced perception filter that hides mystical effects from the perceptions of anyone around. The strength of this filter has its limits. A person who witnesses the transformation of a werewolf or a demonic summoning ritual will be able to see, hear and smell it. The filter is simply not powerful enough for them to ignore these unbelievable events.
  This is where the secondary effect kicks in. Once someone has broken through the perception filter the memories of these events are slowly suppressed by the veil. Once a witness to a transformation or other mystical event leaves the scene they will begin forgetting what had happened. The brain then attempts to fill in these gaps with various stories that make more sense to this witness. This effect does not only affect the witness itself but anyone who they tell of their encounter as well. It usually takes between one and two hours for an occurrence to completely vanish from the memories of anyone involved.
  These repressed memories are not lost, however. Forgotten traumatic events can still severely affect the mental health of witnesses or victims of a mystical assault or occurrence. Sometimes with the use of certain drugs or rituals, these repressed memories can even be brought to the surface temporarily. Most myths and legends which were written down were often created by witnesses recounting real but suppressed experiences in a way that makes sense to them.
  The effects of this veil apply to synthetic sensors and digital memory as well. Camera's can't properly record a transformed therian. The only way to circumvent the veils filtering is to write something down