Senthien
A coldness hides inside you. You smother it with smiles and plaster over the cracks with jokes. When you lie in bed, the chill gnaws at you, nipping at your wrists and snarling in your thoughts. You aren't alright.A senthien is a healer, of a sort, in the spiritual traditions native to Myrkalla. Where most healers would tackle injuries of the body, a senthien is a healer of the mind and soul. They are an exclusively magical order overseen by the Myndir, and are extremely cautious with who they treat. Their treatment methods are delicate and private, and are best known for the way they can remove harmful emotions from thoughts to allow a chance at healing.
Pleading by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
To speak with a senthien, even casually, is to place one's self in the path of a weighty set of eyes; it is said that it often feels like they weigh one's soul within the few words of a conversation. They are trained to understand, intimately, the woes and joys of mortal lives, and such a thing cannot be easily turned off.
Due to this, senthiens typically develop an intentional mental switch for their work versus their personal lives. Some go further with this and completely change their identity in the workplace as a protection method for both their own minds and those around them. When the burdens laid upon them are too great, a senthien with this disconnect is far less likely to succumb to the pain of their life's work.
Senthien techniques are a well-guarded secret within Myrkalla. Those suffering pains that they cannot escape are welcome to seek out a senthien and request their rites, but never may a senthien train another in their ways or reveal the hidden workings of their techniques.
Perception
Purpose
Wet, it was wet... storm'd come in two days prior. The rocks were slippery still, shrouded from the sun. I told him to stay by my side. Told him that we needed to be careful. But sweet Inge - Inge, from the village out west - she'd fallen, and he'd always been so damned sweet on her. He tried to grab her arm, caught her at an odd angle. I held onto him so tight, yelled at him to be careful... it just wasn't enough, it's never enough. Spirits... Every time I close my eyes, I see the panic in his eyes, green like his father's. The way his mouth twisted, just like my ma's did when she was worried... I hear the yell every time I try to sleep. Even in my dreams, I'm not strong enough to keep hold. The river's too damn powerful. Please - please, how do I move forward? How can anyone move on from the death of their son?!A senthien occupies a rare slot in society. They stand between the realms of health and spirits, of minds and men. Theirs is a heavy burden, but what they carry does not stay with them for long. Other cultures may have therapists; their methods are not quite as effective as the methods used by the senthiens. They are mind-healers, yes, but also soul-fixers and spirit-carers. They could not manage what they do alone; they do not share the whispers of their unseen partners.
This is because a senthien's true abilities, those known only through observation and never in detail, are tied to the wooden pots that fill their huts and homes, and the spirits that agree to aid them.
In truth, a senthien is a mage with strong emotional understanding who is trained in bonding with the spirits of both land and men. They walk a careful balance between balancing the demands of the natural world or the dead, and the cruel emotions that tear apart the mortals that beg their aid.
They are highly respected yet often isolated, due to the strange and intrusive nature of their craft. Outside of Myrkalla, it is incredibly rare for anyone to have heard of a senthien. This is perhaps for the best.
Myrkallan natives understand the spiritual nature of a senthien's work, and though the suffering they undergo is intense when exposed to a senthien's rites, they are thankful for the peace.
Nature Bound by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Operations
Tools
We do not ask the Sairebrec, for they do not wish to help. We do not ask those near the borders, for they wear the scars of war. We seek those that have had long lives, and who have much to give. We do not take what cannot be replaced. In harmony do we live.A senthien's training is especially varied. Their magical specialisation does not matter - wizards may become senthien as easily as druids - but one is required. Magic is an essential piece of their work, for they must enter the realms of necromancy to speak with the spirits that help aid their rites.
Making a Kisvithar by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Similarly, those without druidic training must endure something very much like it. A senthien must be in tune with the natural realm to ask for nature's blessing and peace; they cannot release the horrors that haunt their patients into nature's embrace if they are not aligned with the world itself.
Many senthiens-in-training also undergo medical training while working on their natural attunement due to the time both aspects take; the meditative nature of, er, nature complements the stressful endeavours of medical training.
Perhaps the most mysterious aspect of a senthien's training to outsiders is their skill with woodworking. While a senthien's magical ability need not be perfect and their connection to nature is able to be light (with some slight risks), woodcraft is ultimately the most important aspect of a senthien's role.
The wooden pots they craft, known as kisvithir, are made of wood gathered with permission from the trees of the local area.
Provided Services
Think of all the sadness, the betrayal, the hurt. Hold it in your mind now. The pain lingers now, but it shall not last.As previously mentioned, senthiens practice a form of therapy. At the most basic level, senthiens are capable of standard empathy-based therapy; they train in extreme situations to handle any emotional burden and to recognise the signs of hidden emotions or lingering problems within those who speak to them. They are gentle in this, involving little magic.
More serious problems mean kisvithir need to be drawn out, and a ritual must take place. Though the details of senthien rites are not for the commonfolk to know, those that undergo it tell of a solemn, steady ritual. Those who suffer are given room to suffer, to let their pain swell, to break down any barriers that linger.
If they struggle to do so, the attending senthien will aid them; no barriers can stop the rite once it has begun. A mind consenting to a senthien's treatment shall have no resistance to their commands.
The pain of the emotions, the weight, the burden - it is drawn from the mortal mind by a spirit, called to the scene by the senthien. These are not angry ghosts; they are remnant souls or aspects of nature that linger in places meaningful to the patient or senthien in question. The negative energy held within the dark emotions is fuel to these spirits, and they consume them as easily as an orc with bread. It is not nearly as painless as it sounds: to have one's emotions torn asunder is excruciating.
Withdrawn by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Senthien Identities
While only some senthien choose to cloak themselves away from their profession by living a half-life, there is significant social etiquette around the senthien themselves. It is generally understood that if a senthien wishes to be identified as such, they will wear some aspect of their expected uniform: a green cloak fixed with a silver brooch in the shape of an eye. Identifying a senthien as their role when they are trying to live their normal life, especially around outsiders who may not understand the delicate balance a senthien walks, is highly rude. Though not illegal, it does bear significant social consequences.
Grief's Hold by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Hazards
When playing with spirits and nature, it is all too easy for something to go wrong. Fortunately, this rarely affects patients. Senthiens who fall out of alignment with nature or who trust spirits they should not risk the sanctity of their own soul. While they may be known as soulwhisperers, they cannot repair damage done to their own soul, and their rites may leave scars that even the leaders of the Myndir may not repair. Their training and rites are not kept secret solely to hide them from outsiders, nor because of their sacred place in Myrkallan society. No - it's more because of the danger. Over eighty percent of would-be senthien fail to complete their training. Some flee in fear. Some experience injury. Many die.
Necromantic Communion by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
I asked for her to take the joy out of your memories. You have wounded me. Again, again, again, your words have hurt me. You play the victim. You attempt control. I cannot act without your permission. Well - no longer. The dead shall have the joy we once shared, and I shall be free to move on. One day, you shall rot alongside it.
This is beautiful and sad. I like the uniqueness and their connection with nature.
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