Time
Purview: Prophecy, change, postcognition, time travel, time
contraction and dilation,
Time and Fate rule Arcadia; Time is the gross Arcanum of the
pair, governing the progression of events through the ever-ad-
vancing present in a way perpendicular to Fate’s subtlety. Some
Acanthus liken Time to a loosed arrow, and Fate to the archer’s
aim. Time governs the history and diverse potential futures of
the Fallen World. All things must pass. Legends rise and fall.
Even gods die and fade into obscurity. Nothing is eternal, save
perhaps for time itself.
Spinning the Thread of Time
Sleeper philosophers and scientists debate and make infer-
ences about the nature of Time, discussing theoretical problems
and paradoxes, measuring the distortion in the light of distant
stars, but always knowing that they are locked into Time’s end-
less march. Mages who study the Time Arcanum have practical
experience to marry to Sleeping theory, and quickly discover
that while some thinkers have approached something like the
truth, thought experiments don’t fully prepare them for the
reality of temporal magic.
Sleepers often describe time as a river, but traditional Acan-
thus instead describe it as a spinning wheel, gathering strands
of unspun material and binding them into a tight thread.
The Future is Unwritten
The unspun material in the metaphor, the future is protean
and ever-changing. Using Time spells to access the future only
reveals the most likely future at the time the spell is cast, and
foreknowledge can and often does then immediately change the
outcome. Advanced Time spells rewrite the future like any other
Pattern, dictating how immediate events will go or constructing
theoretical futures mages then examine and let dissipate into
the shifting flow of probability.
The Past can be Rewritten
In contrast, the past is like the spun thread — set and decided,
unless magic alters it. Sleepers theorize about temporal paradox-
es; if someone goes back in time to avert a disaster and succeeds,
surely they would never then have to travel back, so would never
have changed events? Magic defies causality; a mage who travels
back in time can alter the cause of his own trip and more, the
magic accounting for any contradiction caused. When an object
or person is in the past, the distortion is visible to onlookers
using Active Mage Sight with Time, and as she changes history
everything she alters also picks up a telltale temporal aura.
Histories Unwritten
The principle drawback of time travel in a
Storytelling game is that the time traveler doesn’t
undo just her actions, but those of the other player
characters as well. This problem is exacerbated
when only one character has access to time trav-
el. If a player has gained a Beat through circum-
stances that are then erased, the Beat doesn’t
vanish. If that player’s character earns more
Beats by different means in the second version of
events, those Beats stay as well.
 Temporal Sympathy
Temporal Withstand Withstand (Temporal
Sympathy Description (Connection) Sympathy)
Unchanged The subject has not changed with intervening time. A sealed room 5* 0
left untouched, a diamond in the same setting, a person who has
not spoken to anyone or been anywhere since the target time. The
connection is unassailable without Unmaking magic and casting
using the sympathy is not Withstood.
Strong The subject has not significantly changed; a person days later who 3 1
has not changed physically, or hours after an injury, a street after
hours of foot traffic or a building after days of habitation, a gun
that has been fired.
Medium The subject has significantly changed; a mage before joining a 2 2
Legacy, a person before a prolonged illness, an item that has been
broken or built, a street after several businesses have changed, a
building under new ownership.
Weak The subject is vastly different; a mage before her Awakening, an 1 3
item before being imbued, a different building on the same lot, a
ruin when it was new.

* “Unchanged” sympathy may only be removed with Unmaking spells.

When a time traveler returns to the present, any changes he
made to the timeline “set,” becoming Lasting, and the distor-
tions vanish. Dying while in the past “sets” any changes made
up to that point. Travelers are insulated against the alterations
of history; a mage who prevents her own birth returns to a world
that does not know her, but does not vanish from existence.
While still in the past, if the spell that projected the traveler
backwards is dispelled, he returns to the present but any changes
he made to history are reversed.
The Present Moves On
The Fallen World has a present, the point at which the future
becomes the past, which constantly advances. Mages who travel
back in time and look forward find that the intervening span is
still set, spun from probability to realized future history. While
it may be their subjective future, it’s in the Fallen World’s past.
From their perspective, the present is frozen at the moment they
left — if they “catch up” to it, anything they changed becomes
real, and the normal flow of time resumes. Spells to travel into
the future jump the subject out of time until the destination
becomes the present.
Temporal Sympathy
The “spun” time of the past is both more certain and useful
to examine with magic but harder to affect, as a mage must
contend with the weight of all the intervening history. Much as
two subjects may have sympathetic links crossing Space marking
how magically related they are, a subject has temporal sympa-
thy with its own past selves, which influences magic used with
a past version of an object, place, or thing as its subject. The
more a subject has changed in the intervening time, the harder
it is for a mage to look back at it but the easier it is to affect
that sympathy itself. Just as Space magic that alters sympathetic
links has consequences for the people or objects concerned,
manipulating temporal sympathy can provoke subtle effects;
increase a woman’s temporal sympathy with her youth and
she’ll become highly nostalgic, perhaps trying to recapture it.
Destroy a building’s temporal sympathy with its past and people
will forget its history.
Magic that affects the “unspun” time of the future is unaffect-
ed by temporal sympathy; the shifting potential timelines have
no “substance” for magic to contend with.
• Initiate of Time
Divination (Time •)
Practice: Knowing
Primary Factor: Potency
Suggested Rote Skills: Academics, Empathy, Investigation
The mage can look into her subject’s most likely future.
Without Reach, the mage can only see generalities: “Will I
meet Anna again soon?” is a valid question, while “What time
will the police arrive?” is too specific to return an answer. This
spell can see far into the future, such as telling the mage that
a young cashier might eventually become a state Governor,
or that a child prodigy might become a superstar, but look-
ing too far from the present increases the likelihood of the
answer being superseded by the point the future becomes the
present. The Storyteller must decide what the future holds,
taking into account the nature of the story as well as cues
from the mage’s questions. The caster can ask one general
question per level of Potency, receiving answers of “Yes,”
“No,” or “Irrelevant.”
 +1 Reach: The mage can ask more specific questions and
receive mostly accurate answers. The answers need not come in
the form of “Yes,” “No,” or “Irrelevant.” Instead the mage can
ask questions like “Will Anna marry?” or “Will I ever bear a
child?” and receive more information, such as “Anna will meet
an old flame, Jason, and the two will reunite and one day marry.”
Green Light / Red Light (Time •)
Practice: Compelling
Primary Factor: Duration
Suggested Rote Skills: Computer, Larceny, Subterfuge
The mage may manipulate the subtle timings of events,
smoothing or obstructing her subject’s progress. Cast positively,
the subject finds elevators and taxis arrive just as he needs them,
stop lights turn green, and he arrives on time for meetings. Cast
negatively, anything that can delay the subject will delay him.
Momentary Flux (Time •)
Practice: Knowing
Primary Factor: Potency
Suggested Rote Skills: Investigation, Streetwise, Survival
The mage can sense whether a subject will prove beneficial
or baneful in the most likely future. The mage can see whether
the stranger crossing the street to approach her at night is as
threatening as he seems, or whether he has come to offer advice,
for example. The spell itself does not tell the mage exactly what
will happen, only whether it will prove good or bad for her. The
stranger may augur as a bad omen for her; this could be due to
his malicious intent — or maybe he’s running from some danger,
or even carrying a cold.
Although often used to assess potential dangers, mages can
cast this spell with themselves as the only subject, assessing
whether their own actions will help or harm them.
Mages with Time •• may use the Temporal Sympathy Attain-
ment to cast this spell on a subject in the past, but the spell still
reveals positive or negative outcomes for the future. The spell is
Withstood by temporal sympathy.
+1 Reach: When reacting to the information gained from
this spell, the mage gains a bonus to Initiative equal to Potency.
Perfect Timing (Time •)
Practice: Unveiling
Primary Factor: Duration
Suggested Rote Skills: Empathy, Socialize, Streetwise
The mage knows just the perfect time to act, whether it’s
with a kind (or condemning) word, a punch, or even simply
slipping out a door at the right time. This spell does not di-
rectly alter time or affect others, but rather grants the subject
a perfect temporal assessment of the situation. Others might
describe her as “in the zone,” mistaking her preternatural sense
of timing for incredible focus.
The subject can spend a turn during the spell’s Duration
planning an action. The subject loses any Defense and must
remain still while planning. A turn spent planning grants a
bonus to the next action equal to Potency. This bonus can only
be applied to mundane instant actions; extended actions and
spellcasting rolls do not benefit from it.
Postcognition (Time •)
Practice: Unveiling
Primary Factor: Potency
Suggested Rote Skills: Academics, Empathy, Investigation
The mage can see into the past of a subject, witnessing events
as though she were physically present to view them. By default,
the caster may only view Unchanged subjects, but with Time
•• she may view the more distant past, in which case the spell
is Withstood by temporal sympathy.
The mage views the subject in “real time” from a moment
declared when casting until the Duration of Postcognition
expires. While viewing the past, the mage loses all Defense and
may not take any actions or cast further spells.
+1 Reach: The mage can “scrub” the vision like a video,
speeding it up, slowing it down, rewinding it, pausing it, etc.
+1 Reach: The mage remains aware of her surroundings, and
does not lose Defense.
•• Apprentice of Time
Choose the Thread (Time ••)
Practice: Ruling
Primary Factor: Potency
Withstood: Resolve
Suggested Rote Skills: Occult, Science, Subterfuge
Glimpsing the many potential futures of her subject, the mage
selects the optimal course. The subject’s player rolls twice for
her next mundane dice roll, and the mage’s player selects which
dice roll takes effect.
+2 Reach: The spell affects spellcasting rolls and super-
natural powers.
Constant Presence (Time ••)
Practice: Shielding
Primary Factor: Duration
Suggested Rote Skills: Occult, Persuasion, Survival
Mages versed in Time know the tell-tale signs of disruption
to the Patterns of time travelers, and not many Awakened are
willing to trust that a traveler has honorable intentions. This
spell preserves its subject against alterations to the timeline. Any
alteration to history through the action of time travel provokes a
Clash of Wills. If the mage wins, the subject is treated as though
she were returning from a trip to the past herself when history
settles, safeguarding her against being rewritten.
Hung Spell (Time ••)
Practice: Ruling
Primary Factor: Duration
 Suggested Rote Skills: Crafts, Occult, Expression
With this spell, the mage captures pure expressions of magic —
spells — at the moment they enter the Fallen World, suspending
them before they take effect but preserving their Duration from
decay. The subject must be a mage, who must deliberately build
his Imago to take advantage of this spell’s effect and pay one
Mana when casting. Hung Spell may entrap up to its Potency
in spells, which remain in their caster’s spell control but do not
take effect until Hung Spell is canceled or runs out of Duration.
When Hung Spell ceases, the trapped spells immediately take
effect and begin their own Durations.
Many mages use the Fate 2 Attainment to set a Conditional
Duration on Hung Spell, so that it releases the trapped spells
in response to set conditions.
Shield of Chronos (Time ••)
Practice: Veiling
Primary Factor: Duration
Suggested Rote Skills: Academics, Stealth, Subterfuge
The mage shields a subject against temporal senses. While
under the protection of this spell, any magic viewing the subject
through time (whether looking at the shielded Duration from
the future, or predicting the subject’s future while in the present)
provokes a Clash of Wills.
+1 Reach: Instead of simply preventing magic from uncovering
the subject during the Duration of the shield, the mage may
design a false series of events that inquisitive powers “uncover”
instead of the truth. Attempts to magically discern the illusion
provoke a Clash of Wills.
Tipping the Hourglass (Time ••)
Practice: Ruling
Primary Factor: Potency
Withstood: Resolve
Suggested Rote Skills: Athletics, Crafts, Investigation
The mage can momentarily alter the flow of Time, causing
it to speed up or slow down for a subject, but not drastically.
While the spell might allow the subject extra time to dodge an
oncoming car or slow an enemy’s movements as though he were
drunk, it won’t let her go back in time to avoid the car or the
angry assailant entirely. The caster may add or subtract Potency
from the subject’s Initiative. Subjects who have already acted in
a turn before having this spell cast upon them do not act again
on their new Initiative rating.
Veil of Moments (Time ••)
Practice: Shielding
Primary Factor: Duration
Suggested Rote Skills: Medicine, Investigation, Subterfuge
The mage can ward off the deleterious effects of advancing
time on her subject. This spell cannot undo effects, but can
create enough of a buffer between the subject and Time’s endless
march to buy what a mage needs most — time to think.
While this spell is active, the subject becomes immune to
things that worsen with time. She will not bleed out from her
wounds, and poison and toxins effectively halt their duration,
as does the progression of disease. New Conditions and Tilts
cannot be imposed on the subject while the spell remains in
effect. Supernatural powers that impose effects provoke a Clash
of Wills.
The downside of the spell’s protection is that the subject no
longer heals naturally during the spell’s Duration. More dramat-
ic effects such as Pattern Restoration or Life magic can still heal
her. More importantly, the subject cannot regain Willpower or
Mana, or spend Experiences while under the spell’s effect. The
subject ceases aging during the use of this spell.
+1 Reach: The subject may ignore Persistent Conditions
during the spell’s Duration. Time spent under this spell’s ef-
fects does not count toward any time necessary for Conditions
to lapse.
+1 Reach: The subject may heal naturally while under the
spell’s effect.
+1 Reach: The subject may regain Willpower while under
the spell’s effect.
+1 Reach: The subject may regain Mana while under the
spell’s effect.
••• Disciple of Time
Acceleration (Time •••)
Practice: Perfecting
Primary Factor: Potency
Cost: One Mana
Suggested Rote Skills: Athletics, Drive, Stealth
The mage can greatly accelerate her subject’s temporal mo-
tion. From the perspective of onlookers she becomes a blur as
if moving in fast motion, acting with impossible speed. At high
enough levels, mundane creatures simply cannot perceive her
at all, save perhaps for hair raising on the neck or a gut feeling
that something is not quite right.
Multiply the subject’s Speed by Potency. While under the
spell’s effect, the subject always goes first in a turn unless he
chooses to delay his action, in which case he may interrupt any
other character’s turn with his own as a reflexive action, then
return to the front of the Initiative queue the next turn. Other
characters using pre-empting powers provoke a Clash of Wills.
Acting in such accelerated time makes the subject very hard to
hit, but only as long as he is able to concentrate; his Defense
does not change, but add Potency to Defense before doubling
it for Dodge actions (p. 217). He may employ Defense (and
Dodges) against firearms.
+1 Reach: Divide the time per roll of extended actions taken
by the subject by Potency. The spell has no effect on the ritual
casting interval of mages.
+1 Reach: For a point of Mana, Dodge actions taken while
under this spell’s effect have the rote quality.
Chronos’ Curse (Time •••)
Practice: Fraying
Primary Factor: Potency
Cost: One Mana
Withstood: Stamina
Suggested Rote Skills: Academics, Occult, Intimidation
The mage slows his subject’s experience of time to a crawl. To
the subject, everything seems to move at dazzling speeds, while
she feels like she’s caught in a dream, unable to run or punch
or move properly. She can’t even speak normally to others while
affected — while from her perspective her words are clear enough,
to everyone else they’re a long, impossibly drawn-out sound.
Divide the subject’s Speed by Potency, rounding down. If
Speed reaches 0, the subject is effectively moving so slowly she
appears rooted to the spot. While under the spell’s effect, the
subject always goes last in a turn. The subject’s Defense is also
reduced by Potency.
+1 Reach: For a point of Mana, the subject loses Defense
against attacks.
+1 Reach: Multiply the time per roll of extended actions taken
by the subject by Potency. The spell has no effect on the ritual
casting interval of mages.
Shifting Sands (Time •••)
Practice: Fraying
Primary Factor: Potency
Suggested Rote Skills: Academics, Occult, Survival
The mage may step back through time a short distance, un-
doing a few precious seconds. This spell sends the subject back
through time a number of turns equal to Potency. The subject
retains any injuries and Conditions gained in the undone
turns, and spent Mana and Willpower do not return. Spells
cast on her person in the undone time remain as long as she
cast them. All other spells she may have cast or had cast on her
in the intervening time are canceled. Until the subject catches
up to the present, the distortion caused by this spell is visible
under Active Time Mage Sight. Once she does so, any changes
she made to history become Lasting.
+1 Reach: The subject travels back a full scene. This Reach
effect may be applied multiple times.
Temporal Summoning (Time •••)
Practice: Weaving
Primary Factor: Potency
Suggested Rote Skills: Athletics, Investigation, Persuasion
time 189
 We are all the sum of our previous selves, and with this spell
a mage can call those afterimages forth. Cast upon an object,
area, or living being, this spell replaces its subject with an earlier
version of itself, chosen by the caster. Without the Temporal
Sympathy Attainment, only Unchanged pasts may be brought to
the present, but this is still sufficient to remove most Conditions
and heal injuries. By employing Temporal Sympathy, the mage
can restore ancient ruins to their inhabited state, return her en-
emies to childhood, or even bring the dead back to life. When
the spell’s Duration ends, the subject immediately returns to its
present self. Injuries, Conditions, and other effects imposed on
the subject while Temporal Summoning is in effect transfer to
the present version of the subject when it returns.

Weight of Years (Time •••)

Practice: Perfecting
Primary Factor: Potency
Suggested Rote Skills: Crafts, Intimidation, Medicine
Structures decay, bodies age. Toxins build up in muscles, and
materials become brittle. The mage can inflict these processes by
Perfecting the passage of time on her subject. This is an attack
spell, inflicting its Potency in damage to objects and structures.
This damage directly affects the object’s Structure, and reduces
its Durability by 1 for every 2 points of Structure lost. When
used against living things, the spell deals bashing damage equal
to Potency. At the Storyteller’s discretion, immortal creatures
like vampires might be immune to the damaging properties of
this spell.
+1 Reach: The spell reduces living subject’s Athletics by
Potency through sheer exhaustion.