Chronurgy Magic

Chronurgy Magic
Depiction of a Chronurgy wizard, by Anna Veltkamp from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 184.
Mechanical Information
Class	Wizard
Notable features	Chronal Shift Temporal Awareness Momentary Stasis Arcane Abeyance Convergent Future
Historical Information
Associated groups	Kryn Dynasty
Notable individuals	Essek Thelyss Idrin Shadowstep
Associated deities	The Luxon

The Chronurgy Magic tradition, occasionally called chronomancy, based on a form of dunamancy, is practiced by wizards focused on bending the flow of time. Wizards who practice this tradition are sometimes called chronurgists. The subclass was created by Matthew Mercer.

Description

Manipulating localized gravity, Chronurgy wizards make use of anticipatory dunamis energy to alter the flow of time around their spells, themselves, and other creatures.

History

Age of Arcanum

The manipulation of dunamis to alter the flow of time was practiced in the Age of Arcanum. Around six or seven centuries before the Divergence, the greatest sages of the Age of Arcanum managed to experiment with reversing the flow of time without being killed.

Ayoshadaf from the Genesis Ward of Aeor researched a Luxon beacon's influence on the passage of time. They discovered one could temporarily shunt to a point in one's history or even move beyond it, leaving an anchoring echo behind. Individuals who spent more time in the past than predetermined had their echoes fade to the point where the person would disappear. Scientists named this research the Temporal Dock (or T-Dock) Project.

Campaign Two: The Mighty Nein

By 836 PD, as with other forms of dunamancy, Chronurgy was a lost art to much of the world but had been redeveloped and refined by the wizards of the Kryn Dynasty, which revered the Luxon and gathered its beacons. But knowledge of dunamancy had begun to slip out to the Cerberus Assembly and thence to other parts of Wildemount.

Fan art of Essek casting Haste, by Giulia Valentini (kurocyou).

Essek Thelyss has at least one subclass feature from the Chronurgy Magic tradition, Arcane Abeyance, which he used to hand off a Lightning Bolt spell to Veth Brenatto for her to use against an Aeorian nullifier. He also has a feature from a different subfield of dunamancy, Graviturgy Magic. As he said when explaining why the dunamantic time distortion in the Dungeon of Penance did not affect him, "Time is one of my specialties."

Fan art of Essek and Caleb shattering the dunamancy gem, by heidzdraws.

In 836 PD the Mighty Nein recruited Essek to help them stop the Tombtakers in the ruins of Aeor. This adventure ended up taking them through a portal to the Astral Plane, and in Cognouza, after several battles, the adventurers were too weak to pursue Lucien. With Caleb Widogast's help, Essek pulled off an impressive act of chronurgy, using dunamancy and a crystal taken from the Aeorian ruins to alter the flow of time around the group, granting them the effects of several hours of rest in only a few seconds, after which the crystal used in the experimental spell was destroyed.

In 843 PD, just before the Apogee Solstice started, Ludinus Da'leth used a Luxon beacon to manipulate the passage of time around the Tishtan excavation site and his Malleus Key, gaining access to a clear sky with Ruidus in the right position, and avoiding waiting for the solstice while dealing with inconveniences and interruptions; however, activating said magic left his left arm damaged and withered.

Powers and abilities

Fan art of dunamantic magic suggestive of chronurgy, by Heather Hood.

This section is based on pp. 184-185 of the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount.

Chronal Shift (2nd level)
Twice per long rest, the chronurgist can use a reaction to force a creature within 30 feet to reroll an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw.

Temporal Awareness (2nd level)
The chronurgist adds their Intelligence modifier to their initiative rolls.

Momentary Stasis (6th level)
A number of times equal to the wizard's Intelligence modifier per long rest, the wizard can force a Large or smaller creature to make a Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the target is incapacitated and their speed is reduced to zero as it is trapped in a magic field that lasts until the end of the chronurgist's next turn or until the creature takes damage.

Fan art of Essek Thelyss, by Vicious Mongrel.

Arcane Abeyance (10th level)
Once per short rest, the chronurgist can cast a spell of 4th level or lower and freeze it in a mote that lasts for up to an hour. A creature holding the bead can use an action to release and control the spell, using the wizard's spell attack bonus or spell DC.

Convergent Future (14th level)
The chronurgist can use their reaction and take a level of exhaustion to force a creature within 60 feet to either barely succeed or barely fail at an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw. A level of exhaustion taken in this way can only be removed with a long rest.

Associated spells

The following spells are considered chronurgy spells:

• Gift of Alacrity: Improves initiative rolls
• Temporal Shunt: Causes a creature to vanish and reappear, having not cast the spell or made the attack it was about to attempt
• Reality Break: Sunders the separation of timelines for a creature, causing a series of random damaging or maddening effects
• Time Ravage: Rapidly ages a creature, dealing necrotic damage and potentially hobbling it for the short remainder of its life

The Resonant Echo spell is considered a chronurgy spell, but unlike the rest of them it isn't part of the general knowledge of this discipline, being a creation of Essek Thelyss that he shared (directly or indirectly) with very specific individuals (Lythir VaSuun, Caleb and the Umavi of the Dynasty). Initially there was an intention to include it in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, but it ended up being discarded.

Notable practitioners

• Essek Thelyss

Although it is unknown what field of dunamancy Leylas Kryn's specialty is, the Bright Queen has some notions of Chronurgy Magic, being able to create a pathway to a place where time has passed, quickly apparating there and reducing the time it would have taken her to cover the distance.

Galsariad Ardyth does not have the specific features of the Chronurgy Magic tradition, but he is a wizard who has one core ability that is clearly based on chronurgy, Drain Potential, along with multiple spells with a chronurgy flavor. He also has several features based more on graviturgy.

Trivia

• Some common spells, despite not being part of the dunamantic studies, share facets of this type of magic. Time Stop, for example, would be considered similar to the chronurgy spells, as Trent Ikithon demonstrated when he used a trinket filled with distilled dunamis to cast the spell.

References

Art: