Time Magic

Time Magic has been a marvel for as long as it's been around, and potentially longer still. Long have the peoples of our world sought dominion over time itself, and the studies of temporal dynamics have granted many an ability to - at least somewhat - do just that. It might be limited and subject to numerous checks and balances as an intrinsic part of its spellcraft, but it's a truly special tradition of magic regardless.

— Alraud Mezzier, Professor of Arcane History at Torana

Time Magic is a very old form of magic indeed, and one of the few pillars of magic with limitations defined as far back as the age of the Hysilens and Raqise that even today remain intact. The power of time magic is great, but its restrictions do heavily stem all but the most insane from trying to push the limits of its practice, though that doesn't detract from its widescale adoption.

History of Time Magic

Ancient History

The time of the Hysilens saw quite an intense study of time magic, engaging with its powers and learning its limitations as a means to amplify the already-impressive abilities of the fox-folk. It didn't take the Hysilens long to uncover the foundational upper limits of time magic - that being its exponential Aether costs and its inability to reverse time - but that didn't stop them from exploring it to its fullest.
Indeed, in many ways it can be seen that unlike many other traditions of magic, the Hysilens really did effectively push time magic to its limits, with no real developments made since their time that fundamentally revolutionised the theories and practices of chronomancy; the techniques and ideas of the Hysilens are still in use today. Importantly, however, its use all but ended with their ascension, the Hysilens seemingly taking time magic with them to godhood.

Early History

As a direct result of this, the only real discoveries that took place during early history involved the study of spells and techniques that could hint at time magic's reach and capabilities, and many of these efforts were supported by the Raqise's Confederacy, which sponsored significant studies of the magic. Their studies of time magic bore little fruit however, until a mysterious vessel crashed in the Great Empty, polluting the region with temporally-Aspected Aether.
This vessel quickly made the Great Empty uninhabitable, but in the time before that occurred, the Raqise scientists were able to learn much about its temporal mishap that sent it here, and in so doing study the Aether that was flooding into the Great Empty, identifying it as an unknown - later identified as temporally-aspected - aether type, which brought with it confirmation of the presence of time magic.
Alas, the Raqise were never able to uncover the finer details, as the cataclysmic end of their realm brought with it the end of their research as their race went into hiding and eventually met their end. This left the study of time magic in the care of the Imperial Dragons and the Elf societies of the region, who were the first to discover and cast the first time magic spell since the time of the Hysilens.
A momentous moment indeed, but one that was fleeting as the fallout of the Raqise's end, combined with the rapidly overflowing magic from the crashed spacecraft, quickly made Aelnar uninhabitable for tens of thousands of years, driving the elves and dragons east and west, to new lands, their knowledge of time magic travelling with them and slowly beginning to diffuse to the peoples of the world over many decades as more and more of it was studied.

Temporal Shards

The stories of the temporal shards are... murky. The shards don't naturally occur anywhere on the planet, but are replete in the currently-undiscovered region of The Great Empty. Indeed, they've very much overrun the region and made it a treasure trove of arcane knowledge, but one that cannot ever be inhabited due to the replete shards of magic.
The regions surrounding The Great Empty have a few limited outcrops of the shards, but even these see few harvests, owing to the current depopulated state of Aelnar. This generally means that while the Shard Ritual can create new Chronomancers, functionally it's impossible, as no temporal shards have been found in charted lands, and the already bounteous and tantalizing prospects of exploring west will be made even more exciting once the shards are found.

Modern History

Nowadays, time magic's position is fairly secure academically, as the world's myriad nations understand its power and allow its training across their land. Alas, no breakthroughs have been made to change the main issues the Hysilens discovered, however, meaning the magic is still just as developed as they left it, despite the best efforts of societies the world over.
Even still, the uncertain times regarding the return east, past the Primeval Mists carry potential to upend the tenuous stability that Chronomancers have afforded for themselves.

Uses of Time Magic

Chronomancer by Rudi Indra

Temporal Perception

Temporal Perception is an important initial type of time magic, as these spells alter the subject's progression of time; generally, this makes them fairly benign, used for practical jokes, minor curses, and other such frivolity. As a result, though, it makes for an excellent entry into time magic for aspirant Chronomancers, as the skills required are the same as minor and major chronomancy, but the Aether expenditure and effort required are far lower.
Additionally, when things do go wrong with these spells - and they will, as they're a foundational pillar of learning time magic and failure is a key part of that process - those mistakes and miscasts are far easier to correct, as they're merely altering the perception of time rather than changing it directly.
As a result of these facts, complete mastery of these spells are vital for a Chronomancer to be allowed to begin learning minor chronomancy, with most magical institutions placing a requirement that a budding Chronomancer must be able to use any form of temporal perception spell, at any moment, with no mistakes or miscasts, before being allowed to begin training with minor chronomancy.

Minor Chronomancy

Minor Chronomancy is the most elementary version of the 'true' facets of time magic, concerning smaller scale alterations of time itself to speed up and slow down its passage, generally only for a single person, these spells are the bread and butter of a Chronomancers toolkit and are what make their form of magic truly special.
The Aether costs of these spells are a stark increase from Temporal Perception spells, notably, which does catch a lot of beginners out, as jumping from the quite economical perception spells to the extremely Aether-hungry chronomancy spells is a dangerous step indeed.

Major Chronomancy

Generally referred to as 'true' Chronomancy, major chronomancy spells are where the type of magic gets truly impressive, beginning to affect large areas, with tailored effects - slowing enemies while hastening allies is a textbook example of a major chronomancy spell. Major Chronomancy is incredibly versatile, being able to affect time for a wide selection of targets or just a single target; indeed, a pertinent subset of this magic are the so-called Immortality Spells, which can be used to slow down - but not completely halt - the aging process, though, like with time itself, it cannot reverse the process.
In general, these spells are highly potent due to the raw power required to constantly channel Aether to maintain their effects. The power available to one who can adjust the passage of time to suit their own needs cannot be overstated, and those who can harness this power must learn to respect it.

Timestop

The pinnacle of time magic is one many strive for, but never truly reach, as it requires incredible amounts of focus, resilience and Aether reserves to make reality. A well-known fact of temporal dynamics is that as magic is woven to slow down or speed up time, the cost of that magic's Aether exponentially grows. This is especially true for magic that slows down time for an area, with only truly gifted mages learning slowing magic sooner than middle-of-the-road expertise in time magic.
The true pinnacle of the art is something very few mages can ever hope to learn; generally speaking, it's only wielded by the long-lived races, as well as magical prodigies who have a mastery of their Aether reserves. Should they be able to learn and wield it, however, Timestop spells are exactly as powerful as it sounds, allowing for magic that can halt the flow of time entirely. Generally, a Timestop will halt the flow of time for everyone in the area aside from the Chronomancer who casted it, but there exists those exceptional few who can move beyond this restriction.

Aspiring Chronomancer by Kudos Productions

On the nature of Temporal Dynamics

One of the key discussions that routinely comes up when the topic of Time Magic is broached is that of its most mythical capability; time travel. Many scholars ponder the viability of temporal manipulation, with critics of the theory pointing to the infeasibility of even supplying the Aether to use time travel - as the rate of temporal manipulation increases the Aether-cost of time magic exponentially as it gets faster or slower, meaning that to manipulate time so much that a being can move even dozens of years into the future would cost an inordinate amount of Aether - calculably over 100 times more than the entire known world even has available to be manipulated at present - and is infeasible as a result.
Proponents of the theory point to similar scientific and arcane revolutions - such as the discovery of the Chaos Nebula - as a basis for their case, but also the far more firm reasoning that certain arcane anomalies appear to utilise time magic to 'skip' forward in time.
The reality is that both sides are correct, and - as is so often the case - they're mainly talking past one another; time travel forward is theoretically possible, but the further one wishes to go into the future, the exponentially more Aether is required - and as time cannot be reversed even with infinite Aether, reversing any temporal journey would be impossible.
This is why certain arcane anomalies are capable of time travel, but only use it to jump things a few seconds into the future at any one time, to conserve Aether.