TimeWells: A Magic System Based on Time

[GeneralHZRD]

New and updated info is marked in red.

This is an idea that I've had bouncing around in my head for a while. I figured that if I put it here all of you can help me shape it into a full system. The idea is that Time is a resource and that all things in the universe hold a certain amount of time. The amount of time an object holds is based on how long it has been in that state. For example, a human that is 20 years old holds 20 years worth of time (give or take how many days they are from their birthday.)

The way this works as a magic system is that there are certain people that can draw from these wells of time that each object has, this allows them to say, take 10 years out of a rock and put it into a tree. This change has a physical effect on the objects because the objects are actually aging or de-aging. This change would have different effects on different objects, for example in the aforementioned scenario, the rock would likely not change much because 10 years is not much to a rock. At most the rock might get a little larger because it doesn't have the 10 years of erosion anymore. But to the tree, 10 years could mean a drastic change in appearance. 10 years could mean the difference between a 2-foot sapling and a 12-foot tall tree.

Drawbacks

The main drawback is that Time cannot exist without affecting something. What that means is that the average Time manipulator could not hold more than at max around 60 years. Any more than that and they risk dying of old age. 

Parameters

Time cannot exist without affecting something. This means that no matter what is holding the Time, be it a rock, person, plant, or even a building, it will either be moved forward or backward in its timeline depending on how much it's holding.

Time can only be pulled out of an object to the point where it last changed form. What this means is that if you take for example a broken sword, even if the sword is 30 years old, if it broke when it was 20 years old you cannot pull more than 10 years out of it because it changed from when it broke. Likewise, if a man lost his leg at 19, you could not de-age him past 19 because the loss of his leg changed his form. There is one exception to this rule, however, If you have both parts of the original object, like the sword, both the handle section and the blade, then you can de-age them at the same time and fuse them back together. Due to the fact that you obviously could not have every molecule of a broken object, it is possible to pull Time from a broken object with having all the pieces. But this takes more time and concentration. Essentially, the more you have of the original object the easier it is to pull Time from it.

The past is set in stone, the future is not. This rule is in two parts, this first means that anything that happened in the past cannot be changed. This means you could take time out of a painting till it was just a canvas, but no matter how much time passes, when you put time back into the canvas it will ALWAYS become the same painting. The second part of this rule is that the future is fluid and ever-changing. This means that if you add time to say a hunk of wood and it becomes a beautiful carving, if you take that time out of that wood reverting it backing to just wood there is no guarantee that when you add time back into it again that it will still become a carving, it may become part of a chair instead.

Memory's are not lost when a person loses Time. All this means is that memories are tied to a individuals identity, not their body. This means that if a person who was 60 transferred 40 of those years into a rock, thereby de-aging themselves to be only 20, they would not lose the memory's that gained during the 40 years they got rid of.

90% of the time, you must be touching the items you wish to change.  It is possible to change an object that you are not touching, only by passing the Time through multiple objects. This can be incredibly hard to do and causes a lot of mental strain. The more objects that the Time has to pass through, the harder it is.

Objects will always attempt to return to their present-day form. What this means is that if you add 100 years into an object it will try to shove that time back out so that it can return to the form it should be at the present time. The farther an object is from its starting point the harder it will push. So if an object is 100 years older or younger than it should be it will leak slower than if it were 1000 years older or younger. I don't know the ratio yet, but they don't tend to leak much until they are at least 150 years off of where they belong. Objects will only leak into things directly touching them. There are certain materials that are resistant to the effects of Time, what that means is that they work as insulators so that even an object that was 2000 years older than it should be could not leak into them. Them main insulator materials are gemstones. P.S. This means that you could build a sword with a diamond insulated handle that had 15000 years into it so that when you hit anyone with it they would get so much Time shoved into them they would essentially disintegrate.

When multiple objects are isolated, the Difference (how far off they are from present form) will equalize. This is loosely based on the "every action has an equal and opposite reaction" law. Essentially it means that if you had a rock with a Difference of 100 years and a rock that was in present form and you put them into a diamond-lined bag so that they could not leak into anything but each other, they would equalize so that they both had a Difference of 50 years. At that point, they would stop because they would both be pushing on each other with the same amount of force.

It is WAY easier to tap into the TimeWells if you have a Focus. Focuses can take the form of a variety of different things but the most common is a pocket watch. Whatever the focus, it must contain a gemstone, Quartz works the best. They are most commonly used by placing one hand on the object one wishes to change, and holding the watch in the other hand. The one affecting Time then focuses on the face of the watch, visualizing the time running backward or forward for the object.

Gemstones do not function under the same rules as everything else. This is the reason that they work as insulators. Time does not naturally flow through gemstones. This does mean that Gems can be used as storage for Time, but pushing Time through the Time barrier that they possess can be difficult. Also, because Time effects Gems differently they can be used for a variety of purposes. 

I hope I explained this clearly if you have any questions or ideas I'd love to hear them. After all, feedback is the reason I posted this.

I am currently writing a book based on this magic system, a feedback topic for that is located here: Killing Time

Edit - Typos and updated information.

Edited January 29, 2019 by TheVillageIdiot

[Dragon314]

THIs is honestly interesting and seems to promote a story more about the characters than the magic. Another drawback, I feel, could be giving away too much time. What happens if you expend all your years into your enemy, killing them by overloading their system. Can time be purchased? Are people immortal because they can continue to discharge their years into rocks? Please answer these, I find this very interesting!

[GeneralHZRD]

On 11/30/2017 at 6:56 PM, Dragon314 said:

What happens if you expend all your years into your enemy, killing them by overloading their system?

This could work, the only problem is that it would be a last ditch effort because you would likely kill yourself as well. Look at it like this if you and your enemy were both 50 years old and you gave all your years to them, then they would instantly age to 100 which in turn would likely kill them from old age. But in turn you would de-age to 0, which would kill you by essentially making it as if you had never been born. Also if you and your enemy were only around 20, then even giving all your Time would not kill them because they would only be around 40.

On 11/30/2017 at 6:56 PM, Dragon314 said:

Are people immortal because they can continue to discharge their years into rocks?

@Dragon314 I am changing my answer to this question. So the answer is no. If you look at the new info that I have added to the original post you will see why. Essentially what it means is that the more Time you pull out of yourself that larger your Difference becomes, and the harder your body will be pulling on the objects around it to try and get back to where it belongs. So the longer you continue to do this the more you will have to constantly fight to keep your body the age you want. Unless you were to wear a suit made of gemstones and be extremely careful to never touch anything, no you could not be immortal.

 

On 11/30/2017 at 6:56 PM, Dragon314 said:

Can time be purchased?

Sort of, It would probably work in the opposite instead though, paying to get rid of Time. For example someone who was 80 years old could pay to have 60 of those years taken so that they could be 20 again.

Edited December 4, 2017 by Ookla The Idiot

[Hemalurgic Headshot]

If the future is uncertain, though the past is, if someone continuously put their time into a rock per say, but then took years to themselves, there is the possibility that they could have contracted a terminal disease, become crippled, or have some other sort of traumatic or devastating event happen. So there is a risk every time they take years, and that risk increases with the more time taken (because there is more time for such an event to happen). This with the old-age risk makes taking time very dangerous and uncertain.

[MacThorstenson]

This is a really interesting magic system, I have 4 questions though,

First, Would it be possible for someone to directly take energy from one thing and move it into another? I.E. lets say I want to kill someone. If I find an old rock, could I take, for example 100 years, and put it directly into the person, or would it pass through me first, possibly killing me, and then on to him?

My second question is, if it does have to pass through you in the example above, would it affect me first before going onto another person and stop flowing if I die, or could I draw in 1000 years, and pass it on to him, with my body only dying when all of the time has passed through? 

My third question, is would "time wells" be possible, similar to a metalmind from mistborn, where I could keep some old things on me and use them as a reservoir of time for an undefined amount of time?

My fourth question is, do objects leak time, similar to how stormlight does? If I were able to accumulate 10000 years in a pebble, assuming it would still be intact, would it leak this time, returning to its natural age?

Edited December 1, 2017 by Ookla the Capricious

[GeneralHZRD]

6 minutes ago, Bassookla said:

If the future is uncertain, though the past is, if someone continuously put their time into a rock per say, but then took years to themselves, there is the possibility that they could have contracted a terminal disease, become crippled, or have some other sort of traumatic or devastating event happen. So there is a risk every time they take years, and that risk increases with the more time taken (because there is more time for such an event to happen). This with the old-age risk makes taking time very dangerous and uncertain.

That is true, and it is one of the dangers with taking in time. That being said there are some parameters that would change the likelihood of certain events. A soldier is more likely to gain wounds if he takes in time, whereas say an accountant is less likely to get wounded. Also because the future is fluid and ever-changing you could take in Time and find out that you caught a deadly plague, but you could get rid of that Time and wait a couple of hours and try again and your future might not be the same as it was the first time.

[Wordsmith]

I really like your magic system. It sounds quite interesting, and fun.

21 minutes ago, Ookla The Idiot said:

This could work, the only problem is that it would be a last ditch effort because you would likely kill yourself as well. Look at it like this if you and your enemy were both 50 years old and you gave all your years to them, then they would instantly age to 100 which in turn would likely kill them from old age. But in turn you would de-age to 0, which would kill you by essentially making it as if you had never been born. Also if you and your enemy were only around 20, then even giving all your Time would not kill them because they would only be around 40.

 

Would it be possible for someone to draw time in time while they are storing it somewhere else? If they can then they might be able to overload someones system with time that way.

[GeneralHZRD]

6 minutes ago, Ookla the Capricious said:

4 questions,

First, Would it be possible for someone to directly take energy from one thing and move it into another? I.E. lets say I want to kill someone. If I find an old rock, could I take, for example 100 years, and put it directly into the person, or would it pass through me first, possibly killing me, and then on to him?

My second question is, if it does have to pass through you in the example above, would it affect me first before going onto another person and stop flowing if I die, or could I draw in 1000 years, and pass it on to him, with my body only dying when all of the time has passed through? 

My third question, is would "time wells" be possible, similar to a metalmind from mistborn, where I could keep some old things on me and use them as a reservoir of time for an undefined amount of time?

My fourth question is, do objects leak time, similar to how stormlight does? If I were able to accumulate 10000 years in a pebble, assuming it would still be intact, would it leak this time, returning to its natural age?

Yes, that is possible. Because the time is flowing through you without ever stopping you would have a constant up and down of 1 or so years. Because of this constant flow you would not be holding all 100 years at one time, so you would probably be fine.

I'm not sure this is relevant given my answer to the first question. But it would probably kill you before it transferred.

Yes, certain items such as diamonds can last for hundreds of years without changing much, so you could store time in those ans carry them with you.

Honestly I don't know, I haven't decided, It might. It would be interesting if it did.

Edited December 1, 2017 by Ookla The Idiot

[MacThorstenson]

Thanks for replying, one more thing, how fast can you transfer time? 

1 minute ago, Ookla The Idiot said:

Yes, that is possible. Because the time is flowing through you without ever stopping you would have a constant up and down of 1 or so years.

 

How fast could I transfer the 1 year through me, would it vary with skill level? How much slower would it be to transfer 1 year at a time, vs 10? 

[GeneralHZRD]

6 minutes ago, Wordsmith said:

Would it be possible for someone to draw time in time while they are storing it somewhere else? If they can then they might be able to overload someones system with time that way.

Yes, that would work. If you look at my answer to Ookla the Capricious's first question it's the same idea. You could channel hundreds of years from an outside source into your target, but you would have to be touching them.

[GeneralHZRD]

1 minute ago, Ookla the Capricious said:

Thanks for replying, one more thing, how fast can you transfer time? 

How fast could I transfer the 1 year through me, would it vary with skill level? How much slower would it be to transfer 1 year at a time, vs 10? 

Um.. huh, I had honestly not considered that before. I would say that it varies with skill level. As far as 1 vs 10, I'd say that more takes longer. So if at your particular skill level you can transfer 5 years a second, then 10 years would take 2 seconds, 20 would take 4, 80 would take 16, etc. 

[MacThorstenson]

One last question, then I'll stop bothering you, how would someone improve their powers? Is it practice, like mistborn or white sand, or is it more knowledge based like hemalurgy, aons or forgery?

[GeneralHZRD]

Currently it's practice, like mistborn. Though that might change as the magic system develops. 

[Stormblessed Dolphin]

so, you say you have to be touching it, so I have 2 questions

Does it have to be bare skin? how specific is that parameter?

also, I like breaking rules. What if I could do this, and I practiced hard and long enough, that I could manipulate the time in objects that were several feet away from me? I know you said you have to be touching it, but I just thought this could be an interesting idea.

[GeneralHZRD]

2 hours ago, Benjamin_Stormblessed said:

so, you say you have to be touching it, so I have 2 questions

Does it have to be bare skin? how specific is that parameter?

also, I like breaking rules. What if I could do this, and I practiced hard and long enough, that I could manipulate the time in objects that were several feet away from me? I know you said you have to be touching it, but I just thought this could be an interesting idea.

So depending on your strength you could theoretically affect someone who you weren't touching, as long as they were touching something that you were also touching, such as the ground. I would say that the more things you are trying to pass time through in order to reach your target the harder it is. So if you were trying to affect a book on a table, but you only touched the wall, the Time would have to flow through the wall into the ground then into the table then finally into the book. Something like this would be much harder than just affecting the book directly. There is also probably some kind of similarity kind of thing, the more similar the thing you're touching is to the thing you're trying to change, the easier it is.

[MacThorstenson]

So is trying to affect something your not touching similar to trying to pierce a copper cloud in difficulty?

[Stormblessed Dolphin]

I have an interesting question, That you may not have considered. What does it feel like when you are making time flow in or out of you? do you feel past experiences as you age backwards? would a rush of emotions be involved? I feel like those could be interesting aspects to consider, because they could make mastering the magic harder.

[GeneralHZRD]

On 12/2/2017 at 0:21 PM, Ookla the Capricious said:

So is trying to affect something your not touching similar to trying to pierce a copper cloud in difficulty?

I would say probably.

23 hours ago, Benjamin_Stormblessed said:

I have an interesting question, That you may not have considered. What does it feel like when you are making time flow in or out of you? do you feel past experiences as you age backwards? would a rush of emotions be involved? I feel like those could be interesting aspects to consider, because they could make mastering the magic harder.

That could be a really interesting idea. Maybe, but because your mind is separate from your body de-ageing yourself would mean that your mind is not de-aging so you might not have a rush of emotions.

Also @Ookla the Capricious I have made a decision regarding the leakage of time from objects, I will be updating the main post with that info so be looking there.

[Stormblessed Dolphin]

Okay, so would there be some indicator or feeling that lets you know you are absorbing or giving time? for example, when someone absorbs stormlight, they feel like a storm is raging inside them. would there be a similar internal feeling asossiated with time? 

or would the only indication be the object you are touching visibly aging/de-aging?

Edited December 4, 2017 by Benjamin_Stormblessed

[GeneralHZRD]

I see what you're saying, It would make sense that there would be some feeling. I don't know what it would feel like though.

[RoadWalker]

This is a really cool idea; I have a several questions/ideas, mostly regarding mental time being stored (if that were ever to be added):

1.) Mental: Could you feasibly store, along with time, certain experiences / memories that you choose to forget?

2.) Mental: Could some objects only store physical-time and others only mental-time? Ex. Metal holds only physical time; wood holds only mental time; water holds both. 

3.) Mental: If you stored away your entire life (and basically blinked out of existence), and if a child were to gain access to the stored time, would the child essentially be given a whole other life? This would also depend on what kind of time is in play. The child might appear to be 90 with the brain of a 2 year-old, or look the same but have the knowledge of the 90 year-old. Or he could age both ways.

4.) Physical: Would the mother of someone, who's life decreased almost back down to zero, have to go through childbirth again, or does the time-reverse only affect the one using it and not that of others significantly involved in the person's life?

I think that's it for me lol, this is a really awesome idea with a lot of potential for character development.

Edited October 31, 2018 by ThePhotoBaum

[GeneralHZRD]

@ThePhotoBaum So the thing is Time is an almost entirely physical magic. It does not affect minds or the mental side of things at all really. So your first three questions don't really apply, though I will answer them anyway from the basis that I might change the magic to include this in the future. 

1.) More than likely.

2.) Probably not, if I do add a mental side to the magic it will probably be linked to the physical so that Time affects both at the same time. (no pun intended.)

3.) They would gain the years, both mental and physical.

4.) Time only affects the user, so no the mother would not go through childbirth again. If she did there would suddenly be two versions of the child which would cause all kinds of problems. Also, there is a possibility that she could not even go that far back due to this rule Time can only be pulled out of an object to the point where it last changed form. She might not be able to go back past the childbirth because, in a way, that child is a part of her.

[Rossamund]

If I remove time from myself so that i'm say a year younger then break my leg, what would happen when i revert to my previous age? Would it be overwritten, or would some new present be created. 

[MountainKing]

You're broken leg should be reverted

 

[GeneralHZRD]

What MountainKing said, your broken leg should be reverted. Though there might be ways to keep the new changes if you wanted.