Temporal Orb of Fractal Universalization ⟮TOFU⟯

Concept

Many universes track time in different ways. Within the universe of Dhalos, time exists as an orb. To begin explaining, it will be broken into steps. For more information on its composition, see Extra Dimensions.   It is important to note that there is no magic or science which exists that allows an occupant of a timeline to traverse backward in their timeline, or to a different timeline.  

Assessment

Skilled casters may simply view the timeline in various ways, but are never able to manipulate its speed, direction, or position, in any way. Clairvoyance allows a caster to choose a previous point in time which is significant to the target of their spell, folding it in a way that they can view the past through their present perspective.   Viewing the future is much more difficult, and requires a more in depth understanding of the TOFU. Foresight allows a caster to see a glimpse into the future which is in the process of being written, and is often cryptic, involuntary, and subject to change. With enough experience, a caster can learn to control their perspective into the future, latching onto a specific action, and predicting what the effect may be. More difficult is to latch onto a specific effect, and direct yourself accordingly. Avoidance deals with identifying an unfavourable outcome and identifying which actions to avoid to prevent it. It is much easier to avoid an action, and metaphorically throw oneself in a random direction away from a specific branch in the TOFU, but a master of TOFU augury may learn how to master direction, the most powerful of tier of augury. Direction allows the user to identify an outcome and see the actions that are required to make it a reality.  

Anchoring

The healing branch's inanimate and organic repair abilities and the preservation branch's sustain state ability work by anchoring the target of their spell to a specific point in time in the past. These basic abilities of standard magic work by identifying a specific state of their spell's target, and using magic to reconstruct or maintain that state.   The area state anchor ability of higher magic's time branch works in a similar way, but this ability requires an individual to create the anchor at the time of casting, maintaining a connection to the point in time as well as the area in space until the time they choose to revert the area. This spell will only affect matter within the affected bubble at the time of reversal which was originally in the bubble at the time of anchoring.   It is very important to note that this anchoring does not disrupt the flow of time, and does not change anything that has happened. It simply rearranges matter in the present to match a state that existed in the past.  

Dilation

Keeping in mind that time moves linearly at a constant speed and cannot by any means be reversed, altered, or accelerated, it is possible to stretch or compress a portion of space within the unalterable flow of time. Compressing a portion of space within time results in it traversing through time at a faster pace, and stretching it would result in slower movement within, to the point of total stasis. This process within the TOFU can be thought of as a wire or rope made of many tiny bundled wires or threads, where one may be more or less dense than the others, but will inevitably move alongside the others at time's constant pace.   To remedy some confusion that readers may have in regard to time speeding up while maintaining a constant velocity, they may better understand the analogy of the flip book. While flipping through the pages, the flipper may control the speed at which the flipbook progresses, and the number of frames shown per second. The story shown in the flipbook may be finished in a matter of second, or drawn out, showing only one frame per second until it is finished. In both cases, the same events within the flipbook have occured, and time has progressed at a constant rate for both the flipbook and the viewers, however, within the perspective of the flipbook, events may have finished quicker and with a higher rate of occurance. In any case, however, both the viewers and the flipbook are flowing through time at a constant rate.