Enchantment nature: Retrocognition
Magical skill used: Air, Darkness, Death, Earth, Fire, Stasis, Truth, Water; Truth magic is best.
Description: A retrocognition enchantment allows the caster to sense what happened in the past (or in some cases what will happen in the future). The range and area of effect of the enchantment determine how many others share the visions with the caster.
Power: The power of a retrocognition enchantment determines how far back in time the caster can see events, as follows:
| Power | How far back caster can see events |
| 1 | 1 Minute |
| 2 | 1 Hour |
| 3 | 1 Day |
| 4 | 1 Week |
| 5 | 1 Month |
| 6 | 1 Year |
| 7 | 10 Years |
| 8 | 100 Years |
| 9 | 1,000 Years |
| 10 | 10,000 Years |
Some magical skills (see below) allow precognition, i.e. the ability to see into the future as well as the past - Any enchantment that will produce precognition is always Power 10.
The power of the retrocognition enchantment also determines the strength of the retrocognition. Anyone that the caster has chosen to share his/her visions must make a dice roll using his/her WP + Trance (including any resisting magic specialism) + any Mental Resistance at a difficulty equal to the Power of the telepathy, if they want to block the visions out of their minds.
The minimum Power of a retrocognition enchantment is 1.
Finesse: The finesse of a retrocognition enchantment determines how much control the caster has over the visions, as follows:
| Finesse | Control over visions |
| 0 | No control over images - the caster will get a single random and incomplete vision (though this will normally focus on an interesting event that happened at the location). Vision will be blurred and conceptual (e.g. a single man on horseback rides past). Effectively, what appears in the vision is entirely at the referee's discretion. |
| 3 | The caster can narrow the events down to a broad period of time or type of event (e.g. show me people who visited this watering hole about a month ago). |
| 6 | The caster can narrow the events down to a particular period of time (e.g. the moment of death of a corpse) - not allowed for visions of the future. |
| +2 | If the visions are reasonably clear to follow (e.g. see features of people accurately, read writing on a wall, etc.) - not allowed for visions of the future. |
| +2 | If the caster can vary the vision over the course of its duration, to get multiple visions. |
Limitations: The magical skill used limits the retrocognition effect. The referee should apply discretion, but the following list may help.
| Skill | Retrocognition restrictions: |
| Air | Speak with the wind. Can see into the past only. The air itself remembers what took place at the location. |
| Darkness | Speak with shadows. Can see into the past only, and can see only events that took place in shadow or darkness. The caster must be in shadow or darkness when casting the spell. The shadows at the location remember what took place there. |
| Death | Speak with dead. Can see into the past only. The caster must be touching the remains of a once-living being. The dead being remembers events that it perceived during its lifetime (not necessarily/usually at this location). |
| Earth | Speak with stones. Can see into the past only. The ground itself remembers what took place at the location. |
| Fire | Speak with flames. Can see into the past only, and can see only events that took place in or near to a fire. The caster must be in or near a fire when casting the spell. The fire at the location remembers what took place there. |
| Stasis | Mystic visions. Can see into both past and future. The events remembered (or predicted) are those perceived by the caster during his/her previous (or future) lifetime (not necessarily/usually at this location). Visions are never projected to others (i.e. range and area of effect must both be zero). Visions of the future will always be unclear and cannot be accurately controlled (i.e. referee's discretion as to what clues to the future can be seen). |
| Truth | Temporal sight. Can see into both past and future. Sees events that took place (or will take place) at this location. Visions of the future will always be unclear and cannot be accurately controlled (i.e. referee's discretion as to what clues to the future can be seen). |
| Water | Speak with waters. Can see into the past only, and can see only events that took place in or near water. The caster must be in or near water when casting the spell. The waters at the location remember what took place there. |
Examples:
Erik Shadow-walker has a Darkness magic skill score of 8 with no specialism in retrocognition and a PE of +2. He is scouting out an enemy base in some caves, and wants to determine who has been passing in and out of the cave entrance. Standing in the shadows just inside the cave-mouth, he asks the shadows what they have seen in the last week. To do this, he casts a retrocognition enchantment with Power 4 (1 week), Finesse 7 (broad visions, reasonably clear, multiple images), Range Self (i.e. 0), Concealment 3 (he does not want his observation to give him away), Duration 1 minute (i.e. 2), Area of effect single target, himself (i.e. 0), Investment 0 = Difficulty 16 in total. His basic value is 8 + 2 = 10. He takes a minute to prepare the enchantment and uses hand gestures and words when casting to give a modifier of +4, plus the referee rules that the shadowy conditions give him a +1 modifier to the use of Darkness magic. This gives him an overall basic value of 15. He risks 12 points to get a dice roll of 4D+3, rolls a 4, 3, 5 and 2 to get a dice roll result of 17, enough for success. Over the next minute, he can review images from the past of people who have passed by the shadows in the cave-mouth. One of the images is of a local High Council member; Erik stores this interesting piece of information for future use.
Ben Ruben has a Stasis magic score of 4 with no specialism in retrocognition, and a PE of +1 1/2. He wants to enter a mystic trance to glipse into the future and see what might happen to him. He, therefore, seeks to cast a retrocognition enchantment with Power 10 (seeing into the future), Finesse 0 (no control, single vague image), Range Self (i.e. 0), Concealment 0 (obvious), Duration 1 Combat turn (i.e. 1), Area of effect Single target (i.e. 0), Investment 0 = Difficulty 11 in total. His basic value is 4 + 1 1/2 = 5 1/2. He spends an hour preparing the enchantment and uses hand gestures and words when casting to give a modifier of +6, giving a basic value of 11 1/2, enough to guarantee success. The referee considers what is coming up and decides an appropriate vision to give Ben Ruben is that of a horseman in dark armour on a black horse bearing down on him.