@cerebrate magical antiseptic/local anesthesia maybe? (I know nothing about this setting)
Well...
I'll spare you the very lengthy 11-part argument I've been having with myself on this, and sum it up simply as - well, based on what we know so far, I can envision a Thedas in which it's not possible, and I can envision one in which it *is* possible to a very high standard thanks to the local magic, but I'm having a lot of trouble coming up with one in which it's both possible and still leaves serious scarring behind.
...yes, I'm a terrible worldbuilding consistency geek,
Yeah, plenty of battle scars around the place. On the other hand, it's also possible that this is the case because of a combination of the Chantry and popular prejudices against magic combined with it being a rare, hence expensive, magical specialty, leading to a lot of non-magical healing techniques in use, and non-magical medical knowledge seems not the greatest, elfroot aside.
(Thedas lore summary I found here, for reference: https://www.tumblr.com/dalishious/705175055472132097/magical-non-magical-healing-in-thedas ).
@cerebrate @cinebox Huh. Sparkly, thanks.
@ilzo @cinebox
I feel like I should note that I'm not arguing that it's impossible, I just want to know the parameters of the possible.
Because I have all these IDEAS involving the Orlesian plastic surgery industry and smug Tevinter magisters preening about these southern barbarians and their meatball surgery when in Minrathous they just use blood magic like civilized people.
"You start with four healthy slaves, and a little bit of totally-not-human-sacrifice later, behold, lyrium tits!"