Time (Chronos vs. Kairos)

Time in Alvez is marked by two separate, and often conflicting, systems of reality. The mortal world of Bedouar is marked by Chronos (Measured Time), sequentially passing time following strict laws of causality. Faerie is marked by Kairos (Experienced Time), which often violates causality or measurement.

Manifestation

Time in Bedouar is one directional and constant, marked by Chronos, a sequential order of causation. Thus, in Chronos, A triggers B and thus B follows A. Discreet measurements of time are consistent and can be taken by candle-clocks, sundials, hourglasses, water clocks or gear-driven astronomical clocks. Regardless of the measure or circumstances, the time will always remain the same with an accurate clock.
Kairos, the time of Faerie, is experiential and impossible to accurately measure, and largely depends on the mindset of the being affected by it. A "night that seems to last forever" may in fact, last forever, while hours may fly by in a literal moment.
This leads to a variety of strange occurrences in Faerie and areas affected by it. For example, the adage "a watched pot never boils." In Bedouar, under proper conditions, a constantly observed pot of water will eventually boil, but in Faerie, it never will, the viewer stuck in a perpetual moment of anticipation.
Causality (A follows B) is a foreign concept to most creatures of Fae. In Bedouar, a spear is thrown, and then strikes a target. In Faerie, a target was struck, so a spear must have be thrown. Some Fae weapons, therefore, can strike an opponent before its user has reacted or moving impossibly to avoid a defense. Since the spear has already struck, it could not have been deflected, and reality is adjusted accordingly. Mortals, seeing the shift between the power of Seelie and Unseelie at the change of the seasons, mistake this for evidence of Chronos ("a" summer follows "a" winter). However, the Sidhe view this as Summer follows Winter follows Summer, a cycle without beginning or end. There is only one Summer and one Winter, and the seasonal change is merely a return to the previous state, yet at the same time moving forward to the following state, which is the previous state.
This has contributed to the Fae's reputation as amoral and alien beings. Consider the following from a Bediz perspective:
A sidhe kicks a rock down a hill, where it hits other rocks causing a landslide, which hits and kills a Bediz, a causal chain leading from kicking of the stone to the death in one linked event.
A Fae, however, sees the following: A stone is kicked. A stone rolls down a hill. A rockslide occurs. A Bediz is killed by a rockslide. Rather than one single event, each part is a completely separate instance. Neither the Sidhe, who merely kicked a stone, nor the stone, which triggered a rockslide, killed the human. The rockslide killed the human. If the rockslide had occurred without the Sidhe present, the human would still have been killed, and if a falling stone hit other rocks, it would still cause a rockslide, if the human were absent. Therefore, these are separate instances. Many such occurrences are not brought about by malice, but by a lack of understanding of cause-and-effect. Some, however, take an incomplete understanding to extremes. A mortal will die. Therefore, the mortal, by existing as such, is already dead. The dead cannot be killed and therefore it is not wrong to kill a mortal.
A notable exception among the Fae are the Time Maddened, cursed with an understanding of causal time. They are aware that had the stone not been kicked, the human would not have died, a ludicrous notion to other Fae.

Localization

Kairos is stronger in the Faewylde and Chronos is stronger in "stable" Bedouar. Both sides of a Bleed experience a limited effect of the other time. On the Bedouar side of a Bleed, a moonlit night may last for days, while in Faerie, morning follows dawn (as opposed to afternoon following midnight)
Kairos typically follows a communal understanding of the time in a local area. It is rare, but not unheard of, for time to progress radically differently for two beings in the same general space.
When interacting between Chronos and Kairos, Kairos may have the effect of slowing, speeding or stopping a being within Chronos, but cannot be used, as far as mortal understanding extends, to send a creature back in time through Chronos.

Type

Metaphysical, Arcane