This magic removes information about a target from the
past, so that the information cannot be detected through
temporal senses such as Postcognition (Time 2). The spell
has to target a specific person, object or place. Neither the
target nor the world suffers physical or mental change; a
person who had a span of her past erased would still remember
that time, and so would anyone she was with.
By itself, “Erase History” only blocks attempts to observe
through time. Unlike a mere warding spell, however, “Erase
History” actually destroys information about a target’s past
— the gap in time can’t be broken or bypassed with a stronger
spell. “Erase History,” therefore, offers a perfect defense
against magical attempt to probe a target’s past — but
any mage must realize something very strange is going on
when “Postcognition” on a person can find no trace of her
existence between 10 and 11 o’clock last Tuesday.
When most mages use “Erase History,” the subject’s past
merely becomes undetectable: another mage using “Postcognition”
simply can’t find the target during that timespan.
Doomsday Clocks are worse. They leave gaps in history that
inspire horror in Time-sensing mages. Part of the past is gone,
leaving a soul-shuddering void. Every memory or record of
what (or who) was destroyed is a little Time-Paradox — one
thread of reality pulled out, fraying the whole.
“Erase History” requires a simple success, but the character’s
dice pool is penalized by the span of time he wants
to occlude. Use the Duration chart for Prolonged spells to
find the dice penalty (see Mage: The Awakening, p. 119).
If a character has Time 5, use the Advanced Prolongation
chart (so blocking an Indefinite span of time, such as occluding
an entire human life or the history of a building,
would require Time 5 and a –10 dice penalty). Large or
multiple targets can impose further penalties.
If a mage wants to block a section of time that itself is far
in the past, use the modifiers for sympathetic ties (see Mage:
The Awakening, pp. 114–115), but for the temporal connection.
The less accurately you can define the span of time
you want to occlude, the weaker the sympathetic tie will be.
For instance, erasing “Bob’s history between 8 and 10 p.m.
last Tuesday, when he was at that motel” would provide a Known connection: you know exactly what time, by clock,
calendar and what the subject was doing. Having an object
tied to a specific event in that timespan, such as the wrapper
of a cheeseburger Bob ate in the motel room, would raise
the connection to Intimate. However, hiding “Bob’s visit to
the motel some time last week” would provide, at most, an
Acquainted connection. If you had no idea when Bob might
have visited the motel, the connection would be Unknown,
and the spell would fail; and, of course, you would need Bob’s
presence to block that episode in his past, anyway.
A mage can also perform “Erase History” through an
Extended casting, and try to accumulate enough successes
to erase a span of history from temporal sensing.
Guardians of the Veil Rote: Forgotten Past
Sometimes the Guardians of the Veil need to make sure
nobody can ever find out what they did, or what someone
else did. This rote can shield hours or even days from
“Postcognition” and similar attempts to view the past.
The Seers of the Throne also use the rote to hide mystical
events from later viewing, while the Cult of the Doomsday
Clock erases its operatives’ time-traces during missions.
The Mysterium loathes this rote, and “Erase History” in
general, for mages have blocked many significant moments
in Sleeper and occult history from later viewing.
