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 sympathy 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 unaffected by temporal sympathy; the shifting potential timelines have no “substance” for magic to contend with.
Temporal Sympathy Level
Unchanged
The subject has not changed with intervening time. A sealed room 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.
- Withstand (Connection): 5 (“Unchanged” Sympathy may only be removed with Unmaking spells)
- Withstand (Temporal Sympathy): 0
Strong
The subject has not significantly changed; a person days later who 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.
- Withstand (Connection): 3
- Withstand (Temporal Sympathy): 1
Medium
The subject has significantly changed; a mage before joining a 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.
- Withstand (Connection): 2
- Withstand (Temporal Sympathy): 2
Weak
The subject is vastly different; a mage before her Awakening, an item before being imbued, a different building on the same lot, a ruin when it was new.
- Withstand (Connection): 1
- Withstand (Temporal Sympathy): 3