The Time Arcana handles temporal relationships. It is the arcana known for great prophets and oracles, and feared for its potential for great calamity and the creation of paradoxes. However, for a time mage, the past and present are both tools to manipulate the present.
This arcana lets casters divine future events, recall past events, briefly rewind time, and copy things from the past to the present.
Knackless:
The Time Arcana lacks the diversity present in most other Arcana, as there are not “different types of time.” As such, all space spell components are Knackless, or have an optional knack when combined with other Arcana.
The mostly immutable past:
Regardless of the public’s perception and many mage’s hopes, the past cannot be changed. However, many chronomancers have found a loophole in this law. Although the past cannot be changed, it can be enhanced. A chronomancer cannot alter the past in a way that would change the present, but they can alter the past in a way to provide the present with more opportunities to change the future.
The mostly mutable future:
Chronomancers have many options to view and alter the future. However, while the past inherently resists change, the future is always changing, especially when knowledge of it is used in the present. Therefore spells that target the future are often expected to have a level of uncertainty and lack of precision compared to other spells.
Sympathetic Reliance:
Time magic often deals with unseen and abstract targets. As a result, time mages often need to use sympathetic ranges to focus on places and events in order to regularly use them for their spells.
When the range is temporal, directed at an event, a mage must use something as a focus which represents the event, but the focus thing must be distinctly tied to the event in question. If the assumed event never happened, the spell automatically fails.
Alternatively, a mage might not know the event tied to an item, and may instead use postcognition to see what noteworthy event, if any, is tied to it.
- Examples of strong connections:
- A scratch and “the event that created this scratch”
- A wedding ring and “the wedding ceremony” from when it was given.
- Some spilled water and “the time this liquid was spilled.”
- A gun used once for a single murder and “the time this gun was used”
- A bullet shell or any broken item and “the time this item broke, or this bullet was shot.”
- Examples of poor or vague connections:
- A well-used tool and a single, specific item it created or event it was nonchalantly tied to.
Spell Components
Level 1:
| Spell | Effect | Potential | Cost | Scope |
| Time Sense | Determine and measure time perfectly. Detect if an area has been temporally tampered with. | – | Free | – |
| Delayed Spell (modifier) |
Add this component to another spell to delay the spell activation up to 10 minutes from when the spell was actually cast. This component can be stacked to add additional time to the delay of a spell. Only one spell can be delayed at a time. When the mage cast another delayed spell, any untriggered delayed spell fizzles out. For spells with a concentration duration, the caster only needs to start concentrating on the spell when it activates. |
– | Glance | – |
| Prediction | Gain insight about the immediate future related to a specific object or action. (Up to 1 hour from the present). Each use of this component allows the caster to ask one general yes or no question regarding the future around the target. The GM then describes a brief, blurry vision of the future with enough details to answer the question if possible. |
– | Hit | Knack |
Level 2:
| Spell | Effect | Potential | Cost | Scope |
| Post Cognition | Review the past events of the current location. The viewer can either watches time occur in reverse starting from the point of time this spell is cast, or if focusing on an event, review a past event with normal time flow. | – | Glance | – |
| Echo | Target a brief event that occurred within the last 10 seconds and cause it to happen again. | – | Hit | – |
| Create Overlapping Flashback | While the target is affected by this spell component, they may spend Fortune to take a complex flashback even if they were otherwise occupied at the time of the flashback. The duration of the spell must equal the time required for the activity in the flashback. (Note that other limitations of flashbacks still apply: the flashback cannot change the past and the character must still have been capable of doing the actions in the flashback). |
– | Hit | – |
| Extend Moment | Each second while maintaining the spell adds a second to the length of the day. This spell does not require an area component since it affects everyone outside of a temporal ward, though its effects diminish over great distances away from the caster. (Example: a mage can make a clock say “12:15” for 10 minutes, and everyone in the world will gain free time, but only those closer to the target area will gain enough time to notice the change) |
– | Hit | – |
Level 3:
| Spell | Effect | Potential | Cost | Scope |
| Accelerate Spell (modifier) |
Add this component to another spell to double the speed at which the spell’s effects take place or to double any time limitation on the component. | 1 | Glance | – |
| Slow Spell (modifier) |
Add this component to another spell to half the speed at which the spell’s effects take place. | 1 | Glance | – |
| Slow | Cause the target to move through time at half pace. This component also creates a 1 die “Slowed” aspect on the target that can be repeatedly used for the duration of the spell. | 2 | Hit | – |
| Accelerate | Cause the target to move through time at double speed. This component also creates a 1 die “Accelerated” aspect on the target that can be repeatedly used for the duration of the spell. | 2 | Hit | – |
Level 4:
| Spell | Effect | Potential | Cost | Scope |
| Send Ahead | Send the target up to 30 seconds into the future. Upon returning, the target returns to the same location or the nearest unoccupied spot. | – | Hit | – |
| Send Back | Return a target to a younger state up to 30 seconds in the past. The target appears in the same location as to where they were at that point in the past, or in the nearest unoccupied spot. The target’s physical health and condition also returns to the values from that point of time, but only for the duration of the spell. |
– | Hit | – |
| Rewind Time | Rewind time within the area of the spell. While concentrating, time flows in reverse from the present. Doing so returns all actors to the same physical condition and position to their state in the past (Mana, Stress, and Fortune are not affected). Actors may naturally be pushed out of the spell’s effect area early. You must make a concentration check each 10 minutes while casting the spell. Individual targets of the spell are aware of the shift in time. |
– | 2 Hits 1 Mana |
Knack |
Level 5:
| Spell | Effect | Potential | Cost | Scope |
| Reach Across Time | Summon a copy of something from the past to an empty location in the present. | – | 1 Glance & 1 Hit | – |
| Destroy Event | Target a brief event that occurred within the last 5 seconds and cause it to have never happened, even after the spell ends. | – | 2 Hits 1 Mana |
– |
| Stop Time | The target perceives time to be frozen and may move around freely within the spell’s range. The spell ends as soon as the target becomes inanimate or interacts with a non-target (something frozen in time). |
– | 2 Hits 1 Mana |
– |
Time Splices
The Frozen; The Aged
Chronomancers eventually find themselves forever entwined with events from their past. Visually, splices often affects parts of the mage’s body, locking them in time, maintaining youth or age. The splices remember the events around their creation. Old wounds from past fights literally reopen as new injuries close. Those spliced with time magic may experience unavoidable PTSD as their worse experiences are dragged before them to relive again and again.
Time splices have Ties representing the time and place of when the splice was taken or enhanced. Spliced effects can draw from any of these Ties and multiple at once, but paradoxical Ties cannot occur at the same time (1 is chosen at random).
Tier 1 Splices: The initial splice is rarely immediately noticeable. A limb or other body part gets sympathetically tied to the time and place of the splices creation or target, forming a moderate connection to it. The affected body part no longer ages and flickers back its Tied condition during the mage’s sleep. The body part acts as a moderate sympathetic link to the events from its ties.
When first creating a spacetime splice, record a short descriptor of the Tie, including what caused it and anything unique about the body part at that point of time (on fire, holding an item, etc).
Tier 2 Splices: The affected body part starts to warp time around it in small ways, moving with a soft blur with events affecting and affected by it occurring milliseconds late or early.
When the splice activates, the affected body part reverts back to the state it was in during one of its Ties. Anything held or on the body part from the Tie reappears as long as the splice is active.
Tier 3 Splices: The splice now strongly links to the events around when it was created and enhanced. Focusing attention on the body part will allow peripheral glances of the events connected to the splice. The affected body has lingering scents and other traces of the splice’s Ties and now serves as an intimate sympathetic link to them.
The splice gains the ability to remember additional traumatic events. When the splice activates it gains a new Tie based on the current situation.
Tier 4 Splices: The splice is now strongly connected to its Ties and is constantly reverting to them. At any time the mage or GM can willingly randomize which Tie the splice is currently connected to. Consciously moving and manipulating the affected body part requires concentration and it otherwise simply gets dragged along by the Mage.
When active, the splice creates a copy of a memory from one of its Ties, similar to the Reach Across Time spell component. Specifically, the splice will try to create a copy of whatever caused the creation of the Tie or the events around the creation of the Tie.