An expert from The Sage of Truth's renowned book, 'The Myths of Magic - A Debunkening and Study of all the Magical Mysteries in this World'.
"Memory Alteration Magic" is a mythical form of the magical art that's existence has been debated for nearly a century now. This type of magic would allow one to modify their own, or another's memory- implanting false truths into their head or completely getting rid of a memory. With my students from the Sixth and Seventh years of the Academy, we have come to the conclusion that this Magic does not exist and never has.
However, several guesses have been made on how this type of magic would work if it did exist. These guesses have come from mostly fiction writers, however us knowledge finders did make some hypothesis while studying this myth.
The Initial Spell-Casting
Some of us say that a concoction must be made to modify one's memory. However, while making this book, I have found that the most written about and known method for modifying another person's memory is that one would simply place a hand on the other's head, and either chant an incantation or channel the other's energy in some way. There are also ways that would require you to connect your magic or your thoughts and feelings to another.
There are also methods of modifying your own memories that have been written about in the past, one of these being to channel your unwanted memories into an object or another being.
The Effects of Memory Modification
Memory modification has been portrayed in many ways throughout history. Some are simple and minor- headaches, for example. However, most works of fiction I have read with this type of magic have made it so that memory modification can be incredibly dangerous and have fatal effects on an individual if done sloppily. Examples include: not being able to control your own body (e.g. inability to walk, not being able to raise your head up all the way, unable to move arms, et cetera), loss of all appetite and the inability to feel hunger and thirst, and even death or fading (see glossary on page 380)
The Permanence of the Modification
While most individuals therorize and write that memory modification or removal is permanant and you cannot get back your memories any way, I have also seen a rather interesting portrayal of the opposite theory in fiction, specifically through Linjeo Zera-Ringer's renowned novel, 'A Mystery in the Back of My Mind'. In this portrayal, we see that, after a while the memory magic starts to go stale, wear off, and memories start to return, or decay. However, these memories are not like the original memories that were taken from the character- they are blurry, audio is distorted and echos, faces are hidden or blacked out completely. False memories implanted in one's brain start to fade, decay, and it becomes harder and harder to recall them.
The memories never truly leave, or have left your mind in this portrayal, but once the damage is done, you cannot get them back fully either.
