Frozen Moment Magic

Purpose/How It Works: Slowfall of Dust drastically slows the settling of drifting matter in a small area. Notable Exceptions: Strong wind disrupts the effect. Example Use: Conservators inspect debris in a collapsed archive before it blankets the floor. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Open-palm slowing cast, a breath. Lens focus, a few breaths. Range/Duration: A small patch within sight. A few moments, rarely longer.

Purpose/How It Works: Chill Arrest pauses rot, melt, spoilage, or similar ongoing change for a short span. Notable Exceptions: It delays processes rather than curing causes. Example Use: Hunters keep fresh meat from spoiling until camp is reached. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Touch and stilling phrase, a few heartbeats. Wrapped preservation seal, a short chant. Range/Duration: Touch. A short while to most of a day.

Purpose/How It Works: Held Breath extends the usable span of a breath or heartbeat by slowing metabolic urgency. Notable Exceptions: It cannot save someone already starved of air for too long. Example Use: Divers reach a submerged latch in one controlled descent. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Chest-touch cast, a breath. Self-breath discipline, a heartbeat or two. Range/Duration: Self or touch. From a few moments to the length of a long dive.

Purpose/How It Works: Lag Step makes a target’s movement fractionally late, just enough to spoil timing or balance. Notable Exceptions: Very fast or highly disciplined targets can compensate. Example Use: A duelist ruins an enemy lunge by stealing the rhythm from their front foot. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Point-and-delay cast, a heartbeat. Marked line snare, a few breaths. Range/Duration: Within a few strides. A few heartbeats.

Purpose/How It Works: Moment Seal suspends a tiny mechanism, trigger, or event at the instant before release. Notable Exceptions: It works best on small defined systems such as locks, latches, and spring traps. Example Use: A thief freezes a needle trap long enough to remove it safely. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Pinching seal gesture, a breath. Fine sigil touch, a few breaths. Range/Duration: Touch or arm’s length. A few moments.

Purpose/How It Works: Delay Wound postpones worsening in an injury by slowing bleeding, swelling, and tissue collapse. Notable Exceptions: It does not replace healing and can create a false sense of safety. Example Use: A soldier remains alive long enough to reach the surgeons after a gut wound. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Hand over wound, a few heartbeats. Bandage seal, a few breaths. Range/Duration: Touch. A while, sometimes through the day.

Purpose/How It Works: Winter Coat slows heat loss or gain around a body, bundle, or room-sized space. Notable Exceptions: It fails under extreme elemental assault. Example Use: Caravan guards survive a bitter pass with reduced fuel consumption. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Self-wrap cast, a few heartbeats. Cloak or blanket anchoring, a short chant. Range/Duration: Self, touch, or a small shelter. A while, sometimes through a cold night.

Purpose/How It Works: Still Edge holds a blade, tool, or instrument at perfect ready-state without tremor or drift. Notable Exceptions: It steadies readiness, not accuracy or strength by itself. Example Use: A surgeon holds a scalpel immobile through shaking fear. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Tool touch, a breath. Grip discipline, a heartbeat. Range/Duration: Self or touched object. A few moments to a short while.

Purpose/How It Works: Pause Flame reduces a fire almost to stasis without fully extinguishing it. Notable Exceptions: Large infernos overwhelm the spell. Example Use: Archivists preserve a lamp from going out while they move through a sealed vault. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Pinch-and-hold cast, a breath. Lantern focus, a few breaths. Range/Duration: A small to moderate flame within sight. Moments, or long enough to cross a vault.

Purpose/How It Works: Suspended Drop traps a droplet, spark, insect, or similar tiny moving thing in place. Notable Exceptions: Best on very small targets and short durations. Example Use: An alchemist freezes a venom drop mid-fall before it contaminates the bench. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Pinpoint focus, a heartbeat. Lens-assisted stilling, a few breaths. Range/Duration: Close, within clear sight. A few moments.

Purpose/How It Works: Age Quiet slows visible aging, weathering, and surface wear on a small subject. Notable Exceptions: It is preservation, not rejuvenation. Example Use: A noble keeps a ceremonial banner vibrant through one more generation. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Surface stroke cast, a few breaths. Case or cabinet rite, a minute’s chant. Range/Duration: One object or part of a body. Days to years, as the caster’s strength allows.

Purpose/How It Works: Thickened Second makes an instant feel longer to the caster, giving more time to choose and react. Notable Exceptions: The world does not fully stop; it only feels expanded. Example Use: A duelist reads a triple attack as though it came in slower beats. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Reflex cast, quicker than a blink. Prepared focus bead, the instant it is triggered. Range/Duration: Self. One expanded moment.

Purpose/How It Works: Anchor Now fixes attention in the present and prevents panic-driven rash action. Notable Exceptions: It cannot erase fear; it only keeps fear from running ahead of judgment. Example Use: A commander stabilizes a formation during the first shock of a breach. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Spoken grounding phrase, a breath. Hand-to-heart discipline, a heartbeat or two. Range/Duration: Self or touched ally. Through the first shock, a short while at most.

Purpose/How It Works: Stasis Band holds a limb, object, or wound in delayed motion, reducing worsening and unwanted movement. Notable Exceptions: Strong force can still break through over time. Example Use: Healers immobilize a crushed arm before transport. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Wrap-like gesture, a few heartbeats. Cloth or band focus, a few breaths. Range/Duration: Touch. Through the carry to the healers, or longer.

Purpose/How It Works: Frozen Threshold preserves a doorway, hatch, or seal against ordinary wear, movement, and degradation. Notable Exceptions: It does not make the threshold unbreakable. Example Use: Archive vaults remain unopened and untarnished for decades. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Threshold touch, a few breaths. Doorframe rite, a short ritual. Range/Duration: One threshold. Seasons to years.

Purpose/How It Works: Lasting Bloom keeps a living plant or cut flower fresh beyond its normal span by slowing decline. Notable Exceptions: It does not replace water or sunlight indefinitely. Example Use: A coronation garland remains perfect through an extended ceremony. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Stem touch cast, a few heartbeats. Vase or garden rite, a short chant. Range/Duration: A single bloom or small arrangement. A day, sometimes several.

Purpose/How It Works: Slow Torrent heavily reduces movement through an area by making time feel thick within it. Notable Exceptions: Extremely fast projectiles may still pass before the field fully takes hold. Example Use: A retreating party turns a bridge approach into a near-wading pace for pursuers. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Area cast, a few breaths. Field anchor rite, a minute’s chant. Range/Duration: A small lane, room, or gate. Moments, or a short while when anchored.

Purpose/How It Works: Preservation Vault establishes a chamber of reduced change for relics, bodies, or dangerous delicate materials. Notable Exceptions: It requires a stable room or container and maintenance. Example Use: A monastery preserves saintly remains and brittle documents in one sealed crypt room. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Chamber rite, a long chant. Full vault installation, an hour’s ritual. Range/Duration: One chamber or chest. Many seasons, often years.

Purpose/How It Works: Arrested Blow partially halts an incoming strike, arrow, or projectile just enough to spare life or spoil force. Notable Exceptions: Works best on one attack, not sustained barrage. Example Use: A bodyguard catches the king’s assassin’s knife in a drag of slowed time. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Reflex intercept, faster than thought. Ready stance trigger, a heartbeat. Range/Duration: Self or nearby ally. One attack.

Purpose/How It Works: Hourglass Ward converts sudden force into drawn-out pressure, stretching impact over more time. Notable Exceptions: It reduces spikes of damage but may still leave crushing strain. Example Use: A gate survives a ram strike long enough for braces to be set. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Defensive ward cast, a few heartbeats. Fixed ward inscription, a minute’s careful work. Range/Duration: Self, object, or doorway. A few breaths, or a little longer when inscribed.

Purpose/How It Works: Cold Span stretches the usable duration of a short ritual, defense, or prepared effect by slowing its rate of expenditure. Notable Exceptions: It cannot sustain a collapsing spell that lacks energy entirely. Example Use: A healer keeps an emergency breathing charm alive through a second operation. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Link-and-stretch cast, a few breaths. Clock or sandglass focus, a short chant. Range/Duration: One active effect. Lengthens it by moments or by a night, depending on scale.

Purpose/How It Works: Quiet Decay directs wear and ruin into near-standstill, often on fragile sites or objects awaiting repair. Notable Exceptions: Structural collapse already in motion may only slow, not stop. Example Use: Conservators keep a mural from flaking apart until scaffolds are raised. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Surface-wide stilling cast, a few breaths. Preservation net rite, a long chant. Range/Duration: A small object up to part of a room. From part of a day to a season or more.

Purpose/How It Works: Museum Sleep preserves a relic, corpse, or document in suspended condition with stronger stillness than ordinary preservation. Notable Exceptions: It is energy-hungry and unsuited to regular living use. Example Use: A dragonbone fragment is kept unchanged until scholars can safely study it. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Reliquary sleep rite, a long chant. Vault-suspension rite, most of an hour’s ritual. Range/Duration: One relic, corpse, or container. Seasons to generations.

Purpose/How It Works: Frozen Moment arrests a narrow scene in near-complete temporal stillness at severe cost. Notable Exceptions: It affects only a tightly bounded area or event and risks backlash or collapse if overloaded. Example Use: A master warden freezes a falling gate just long enough for hundreds to flee beneath it. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects. Casting Methods: Emergency stilling cast, a few breaths. Major prepared rite, a long ritual. Range/Duration: A very small scene, doorway, or knot of fighters. A few heartbeats, a few breaths at most.

Purpose/How It Works: Quickened Pulse thins the target’s experienced time just enough that movement, reaction, and action occur faster than surrounding pace.
Notable Exceptions: It burns stamina badly and often leaves trembling exhaustion once it ends.
Example Use: A duelist closes ten feet, parries, and strikes before the crowd fully understands what moved.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects.
Casting Methods: Touch or self cast, a few heartbeats. Chronal sigil trigger, a heartbeat.
Range/Duration: Self or touched ally. A brief burst to a short while.

Purpose/How It Works: Honeyed Hour thickens local time around a target so motion, thought, and reaction lag behind the surrounding world.
Notable Exceptions: Strong will, prior momentum, and anti-time wards reduce its grip.
Example Use: A charging beast seems to push through honey while the archers calmly loose into it.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects.
Casting Methods: Focused cast, a few heartbeats. Marked trap release, the instant it springs once prepared.
Range/Duration: One target or small cluster within sight. A few moments to a short while.

Purpose/How It Works: Borrowed Time grants the target a brief extra margin in which they can keep acting despite injury, fatigue, or imminent collapse.
Notable Exceptions: The borrowed margin must be repaid in shock, pain, or delayed failure afterward.
Example Use: A medic finishes carrying the wounded out before his own broken leg remembers it has snapped.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects.
Casting Methods: Touch cast, a few breaths. Emergency battle prayer, a heartbeat.
Range/Duration: Self or touched target. A few moments, or until the struggle at hand is over.

Purpose/How It Works: Chronal Step advances the caster one short movement ahead of the current second, creating a blink-like displacement without conventional travel.
Notable Exceptions: It is short range, disorienting, and dangerous through solid wards or unstable terrain.
Example Use: A time adept vanishes from one side of the spearwall and appears behind it in the same heartbeat.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects.
Casting Methods: Instant step cast, a heartbeat. Marked-step sigil, almost at once.
Range/Duration: Self. A few strides. An instant.

Purpose/How It Works: Rewind Wound forces a fresh injury back toward the body’s state a few heartbeats earlier before blood loss and shock fully settle.
Notable Exceptions: It works best on very recent harm and cannot restore what has already been fully lost or destroyed.
Example Use: A priest-temporalist closes an arrow puncture before the victim finishes falling.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects.
Casting Methods: Immediate touch cast, a few heartbeats. Bedside rewind rite, a minute’s chant.
Range/Duration: Touch. Instant correction with recovery after.

Purpose/How It Works: Delayed Cast stores a prepared spell half a moment outside ordinary sequence, releasing it later on a trigger or chosen beat.
Notable Exceptions: Stored spells drift, leak, or misfire if held too long without a stable trigger.
Example Use: A battlemage walks into the ambush with tomorrow’s fire already waiting in his hand.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects.
Casting Methods: Spell-storage cast, a few breaths. Trigger sigil rite, a short chant.
Range/Duration: Self or prepared anchor. From a few moments to a night, depending on the spell held.

Purpose/How It Works: Stolen Hour robs effective time from a site or object, causing work, erosion, or motion within it to lag behind the outside world.
Notable Exceptions: Living minds and chaotic environments resist full extraction.
Example Use: Scribes preserve a burning archive room long enough to carry the shelves clear.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects.
Casting Methods: Area cast, a short chant. Tower-clock rite, a long rite.
Range/Duration: A room, workshop, or vault. A short while to half a day.

Purpose/How It Works: Time Lock seals an object, door, wound, or prepared spell into a fixed temporal state that can be opened only by the right trigger or after a set interval.
Notable Exceptions: Heavy disruption and anti-time work can crack the lock. Poorly set intervals are notoriously embarrassing.
Example Use: A queen’s treaty chest will not open until the seventh dawn after the coronation.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects.
Casting Methods: Locking cast, a few breaths. Interval-setting rite, a short ritual.
Range/Duration: Touch or prepared anchor. From a night to generations, or until the trigger is met.

Purpose/How It Works: Stopped Clock grants the caster a brutally brief personal interval in which the surrounding world nearly ceases relative motion.
Notable Exceptions: It is one of the most dangerous common chronal workings and cannot be sustained long without severe backlash.
Example Use: An assassin crosses the chapel, takes the key, and is back behind the pillar before the bell finishes one note.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves and an anchored present-state pattern; long preservation work often relies on prepared containers, vaults, or stable focus objects.
Casting Methods: Master cast, a few heartbeats. Clock-focus rite, a minute’s chant.
Range/Duration: A small field around the caster. A heartbeat or two.