“Somebody has to keep the city together. Might as well be us.”
Overview: The Chronomancers are timebinders, optimization engineers, and reality technicians. Once masters of both Temporal and Completion magic, they abandoned the latter after it shattered the gods and fractured the world. Now, the ‘Red Wizards’ wield time as both shield and scalpel. Their senator, Dalton Marius the 100th, vanished into reclusion 80 years ago to unlock Completion’s final secret. His time-stream alternate self, Dalton Marius the 31st, has run the faction since. They don’t speak to each other. That would be a waste of time.
Philosophy: The Unraveling is not an attack, it’s a mistake the Chronomancers feel responsible for. They work to defer and slow the conclusion long enough that the other, more responsible wizards, can solve it. Completion magic is a sin they once committed. Time is their penance.
Key Figures:
- Dalton Marius Pennison the 100th: The original senator, the dwarf who recruits the Player Characters, and the man whose funeral marks the start of the campaign.
- Dalton Marius the 31st: The eternal civil servant, maintaining city systems, disaster relief, and Senate attendance. A sweat-covered engineer who holds the city together.
- Dr. Erikson: Completion-scarred professor and DMP100’s former protégé. Still fights for Chronomancer funding while hiding the cost he’s already paid.
- Dean Rover: The politically correct head of Perpetua University, downplaying Completion history and raising a sanitized new generation.
- Reuel Sawyer: DMP100’s co-conspirator, ex-lover, and former partner-in-research. Officially retired. Unofficially still pulling strings, still chasing closure, still hiring help.
Custom forbids replacing a Senator still alive. It was once wise. Now it’s exploited.
Projects
- Slowing zones of Unraveling with temporal buffers, such the fully unraveled Citrine district of plate 4.
- Managing the care of Concentrating wizards who maintain the duration of the Life Spell that keeps the unraveling at bay.
- Optimizing the workflows of the other factions’ research: particularly the Paragons’ Spellweapons and the Optimists’ Tomorrow Project.
Plate Relations: They do not have the dense population of other wizards. Few have the constitution or intelligence to become a Temporal wizard. With that said, they live and work on every plate of the city, from the battered slums of Plate 6 to the highest towers of plate 1. Everybody, no matter your walk of life, could use the help of a Chronomancer. If only you can afford their time (literally) or the risk that sometimes comes with Chronomancy.
Magic Affiliation: Temporal (Current) Completion (Banned). Completion finalizes. Temporal preserves. Time travel and high-tier Completion magic risk escalating the Unraveling. Chronomancers walk a thin, forbidden line.
Player hook examples
- You saw the world fall apart and want to slow it, or stop it.
- You believe no failure is permanent if you act fast and think sharp.
- You have an innate skill with temporal magic and were recruited.
- You’re were drawn to forbidden magic. Even if the act of thinking about using it means being hunted by the Pre-Crime Prophets.
- Their level one feat selection offers likely broken combat round order manipulation or much more balanced access to banned magical spells.
Tone / Aesthetic
- Smells like: still air before a collapse
- Sounds like: ticking with no clock, echoes from one second ago
- Feels like: your heartbeat between heartbeats
- Colors: maroon robes, white trim, black Unhand markings (void limb scars)
Secrets & Subtext
- Yes. Chronomancers have access to Completion magic and don’t study it. You can trust them.
- Daltin Marius the 100th must have had help.
- The 31st could change the rules. He hasn’t. Yet.
- Many of the Unraveling incursions in the city that appear stable, are just slowed.