Chronos (Art)

Once the purview solely of noble houses and the sidhe, the commoner Kithain now consider time magic fair game. Many sidhe remain jealous of this Art and may react with hostility when they see a commoner wielding it. At first, changelings studying Chronos deal entirely in the perception of time, but with sufficient practice (and courage) the Kithain can learn to relive a moment or stretch something temporary across eternity.

## Unleashing Chronos

The changeling distorts time around her, slows down her foes, grants sight into the past or future, and confuses the normal order of chronological events. A changeling wielding Unleashed time magic can seek vengeance by making a wound refuse to heal (“suffer eternally”), cause those around her to lose days, and possibly even travel into the recent past.

## Chronos Bunks

Bunks for Chronos cantrips most often depend on a using a confluence or repetition of some sort, but also tend to use timepieces or clocks, or objects that are either ancient or brand new. Example bunks: Smash a clock just as it strikes midnight, repeat a poem three times, cast the cantrip as the sun eclipses the moon, walk backward in slow motion, or sing a song in reverse.

## Chronos Cantrips

### Backward Glance

To start, the student of time magic learns to look backward in time. Although considered a rudimentary use of Chronos, the cantrip’s utility makes even novices sought after in freeholds and motleys. A sidhe investigating the disappearance of her vassal looks through the past of where she was last seen. Suspicious of his lover, a troll peers into her day and sees a rendezvous with her paramour.

**System:** The Realm determines the focus of the postcognition, while the number of successes determines how far back in time the changeling can look. The player can specify a time or event on which to focus, but if the event she looks for is outside of the timeframe allowed by the number of successes rolled, the cantrip fails.

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**Type:** Chimerical

### Effect and Cause

The first cantrip dealing with time distortion, Effect and Cause scatters the normal progression of time for the target of the cantrip. The sound of shattering glass might precede the tumbler falling to the ground, or a body would hit the floor prior to the gunshot ringing out.

**System:** The cantrip’s Realm determines the focus of the magic, and anyone or anything perceiving that target experiences the distortion. Only a sentient creature can suffer the effect imposed by the cantrip, because this level of Chronos does not alter the flow of time, just the perception of those around the target. Effect and Cause creates serious confusion in anyone trying to view or interact with the target, causing a three-die penalty for anyone experiencing the cantrip’s effects.

Characters with knowledge of Chronos or similar magical mastery over time may take an action, and the player rolls Wits + Gremayre (difficulty 8) to ignore the negative effects for the scene.

The number of successes determines how long the cantrip lasts:

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**Type:** Wyrd

### Set in Stone

Minor manipulations to the flow of time precede the Kithain learning to dam the river and temporarily stop time itself. Casting Set in Stone on a target prevents the normal effects of aging and exposure to the outside world, but does not prevent the target from normal interactions or intentional destruction. Time no longer has the same effect for the target, preventing growth, aging, deterioration, and sometimes progress. Weather patterns could remain constant for weeks, while food would stay ripe and edible indefinitely. The cantrip does not prevent intentional harm or damage, meaning the Kithain’s car may never need maintenance, but would still sustain damage in a crash.

A boggan determined not to lose her aging dog keeps it from growing any older. Determined to extract valuable information, a sidhe torturer keeps any of his victim’s wounds from healing. A troll stops progress on the construction of a new bridge, despite a construction crew continuing work every day.

**System:** The Realm determines the target and the number of successes indicates how long the cantrip removes the focus from the normal flow of time. Note that sufficient levels of Fae allow the character to prolong other cantrips with Set in Stone, but the specific interactions should be arbitrated by the Storyteller.

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**Type:** Wyrd

### Deja Vu

Beyond the manipulation of temporal perception, past halting the flow of time around the target, the changeling next learns to relive a recent moment and re-experience the present armed with future knowledge. As time moves forward, the branching possibilities make any long-term application of the cantrip useless, but for up to a few minutes, the adept of Chronos becomes a time traveler. With such undeniable power, the changeling also accepts the risk of becoming overwhelmed with possible futures. Repeated use of Déjà Vu during the same scene becomes increasingly more difficult as the threads of fate become tangled.

A piskey courier relives the moments before she is cornered by her rivals and avoids the danger altogether; the troll bodyguard sees his client gunned down, but then experiences the moment again to push her out of the way and take the bullet; a dying selkie relives her final breath to kiss her true love one last time.

**System:** The Realm determines who or what is sent back in time, although anyone subjected to Déjà Vu without warning will be disoriented and justifiably confused. Even the caster and other masters of time magic must overcome the strain of traveling through time in order to change the future. The turn the player declares her character has used Déjà Vu, the target(s) (including herself) cannot take an action while they orient to the current flow of time.

The player must describe any bunk her character used while casting the cantrip and the Storyteller lowers the difficulty appropriately. After the player rolls the cantrip, the target(s) receive a –3 to the difficulty of all rolls for a number of turns equal to the number of successes from the cantrip roll.

Each use of Déjà Vu increases the difficulty of the next use of Déjà Vu during the current scene by one.

**Type:** Wyrd

### Time Dilation

The source of the Rip Van Winkle legends, dilating time pushes the target forward through time and sends her out of sync with the rest of the world. The target will age and suffer the normal effects of time passing, but the world around her barely changes.

Helpful and generous, a troll quickly ripens fruit to help feed some lost children. Furious about the motley aiding his enemy, a powerful sluagh ages their house a century, causing it to rot and decay before their eyes. Under the care of the boggan gardener, newly-planted saplings grow into towering trees in a matter of moments.

**System:** As with the previous Chronos cantrips, Realm determines the target(s) but successes dictates the amount of time the subject experiences. The entire cantrip lasts mere moments even when decades pass for the target.

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**Type:** Wyrd