Rotes & Procedures

As revealed by the Awakened History in Mage 20, Chapter Five, the threads and flow of events are extremely subjective. What looks like a fact from one perspective becomes a myth from another. The Rashomon Effect (explained throughout Mage 20) throws even the most apparently obvious things into question. And so, although a mage might be able to see a past or a future, it doesn’t mean that he sees the past or the future. In short, Time magick is not perfectly reliable, nor does it grant more information than a Storyteller wants to give.

Magick doesn’t give clear or perfect answers, either; instead, it shows glimpses of what might happen or what could have been – usually wrapped in metaphor, symbolism, and limited perspectives. Prophecy and hindsight are imperfect media at best, especially when they rely either upon data-based predictions (the sort that technomancers often use) or uncanny visions (the sort favored by mystic seers). Instead of seeing an objective flow of information about a moment in time, the mage catches an enigmatic glimpse of something that may leave more questions than answers. A man runs down the street, pursued by silver ravens. What does it mean? Who’s the guy? What are the ravens? Did this actually occur, or does the mage see a symbolic representation of an actual event? By leaving the visions ambiguous, the Storyteller keeps the full information open to interpretation.

Even if the mage sees something that he was present for personally, the perspective may be different. Did you ever see a video of yourself and wonder who that person was? Hear a recording and think “But that doesn’t sound like ME”? Our minds are neither objective nor reliable, and the same holds true for the minds of our imaginary characters. Events might not have occurred the way the character remembers them; after all, if you were to see a video of an event from your own past, even an event you recall vividly, it would not match the image of that same occurrence in your head. And so, a Storyteller can keep things uncertain simply by utilizing the very real tricks that memory and perception play upon us all.