five kingdoms

"Can you shape it more? Improve it?"

This article is under construction.



Time Jumping is an advanced Wayminding ability that allows Wayminders to time travel. Wayminders can only time travel back in time; they can not time travel forward in time. The only exception was the 1st talisman. Wayports through time (or simply timeports) appear like dark gashes, or, as Cole describes them, "utterly black [wayports], like a wound in the fabric of reality" (5:209). Going through timeports feels like "stepping through a thin, perfectly even waterfall. Instead of getting wet, his skin tingled" (5:213). Only the most proficient and powerful Wayminders (usually Grand Shapers) are able to time travel. They are known as Time Jumpers.

Laws of Time Travel (Ordered by chronological mention)

  1. The past is fixed. As Lorenzo Debray says, "you cannot go back in time and change the past....If you visit the past, there is no other past without your visit....The past you visited would be new to you, but it already happened with you in it. You'd just be the last to know. All that already occurred is inevitable. You can't avoid it" (5:198-199). Countless people have tried to disprove the theory, but each failed to alter the past. While many of the laws in the Outskirts were shaped are vulnerable to tampering, this is one of the few that is not. Shapecrafters cannot break the law either.
  2. You inevitably remain synced to your native timestream when you time travel. Therefore, if you spend one day in the past and return to the present, on day would have passed there as well.
  3. If you leave Creon in the past, you immediately return to your present point in the timestream.
  4. Opening a way through time requires an enormous amount of energy. Keeping people there takes additional effort as well.
  5. Therefore, it takes several days to prepare a wayport through time. The longer you stay in the past, the more preparation is needed. The number of travelers that go through a way through time is not necessarily important. Cole, however, was able to help Lorenzo bypass this preparation period with his powers.
  6. You cannot return to the same time more than once.
  7. Remaining out of sync from the present can only be maintained for a limited period. Once that time ends, you are inevitably drawn back to the present. People usually only have 6-12 hours in the past, though that time can be shortened after a timeport is opened.

Unspoken (but Implied/Shown) Rules

  1. The creators of timeports can go through them or remain in the present and still hold them open (not directly stated but implied).
  2. One can go through spacial wayports while back in time, so long as they remain in Creon. It is unknown if one can go through a second timeport while back in time.
  3. If a person is sent back to the present prematurely (and possibly under other circumstances), the place where they came from can be shielded (where Wayminders can detect where they came from) or unshielded.

Exceptions

The Perennial Serpent is potentially an exception to several of the above rules (though certainly not the 1st/ the fundamental rule). It has been shown to warp through space and time with ease on mere predatory whims, with no apparent adverse side-effects. Its bite has also been shown to be able to send people back in time. This is likely because it is enhanced by raw shaping and shapecraft, given that it was the embodiment of Elegance's stolen shaping powers.

Other Uses of Time Manipulation

Wayminders can also Time shift rather than time jump. That means to temporarily alter the flow of time for a person or object. It can speed up or slow down time, and is only noticeable by time-sensitive Wayminders. It is used to diagnose potential in young Wayminders. Creonese Grand Shapers have exploited this technique to become near-immortal.

Rules of Time Jumpers

  1. Journey through the past as unobtrusively as possible. Time jumpers journey to the past to learn, not to get caught up in anything. However, they do inevitably get intertwined in events at times.
  2. Keep a low profile while in the present, as many people might want to later find you via time travel. This is especially the case for retired Grand Shapers. Their deeds and accomplishments may be recorded, but specific dates should not be synced with places. Kendo Rattan only violated this rule once to tell Lorenzo about visiting the Halbrook School of Wayminding's dedication, but only so Lorenzo knows when to send Cole and his friends in the future.
  3. People in the present can choose to approach or avoid Time Jumpers from the future. They are apparently noticeable, or at least by Grand Shapers like Kendo Rattan. The reason why (and whether it is attributed to Wayminding or not) is unknown.