Time's Regression

This spell is a part of the Flashback spell chain and is found in the Flashback rune stone.

Rumination, as the dark and negative symbol of praeteriamancy, is a symbol of looking backward and never forward. It is a cruel symbol, an abusive power, a sinister desire - the desire for all things to remain the same, the inability to let go and move forward. Rumination never lets go. Rumination never moves forward. Rumination never lets one forget where they came from and what they did, especially of their failure and their transgressions. Rumination is the harbinger of guilt and the author of regret. 

Through the casting of Time's Regression, the praeteriamancer is allowing Rumination to remind the target of what it once was. The spell is the song of Rumination, telling the target this is what you are while briefly robbing the target of what they became. The strength they have built, the power they have cultivated, the vitality they carry into this moment - all of it recedes, briefly but unmistakably, to an earlier version of itself. Their body does not forget how to fight. Their mind does not forget what they know. But something fundamental has been walked back, and they feel it in every swing, every step, every attempt to summon what they had just a moment ago. Rumination does not erase. It simply insists, for a short while, that this person is not quite who they have become yet. For the brief time the target has all of their traits decreased by 1d6 each, their Vitality, Soul, and Power reduced by their Level Up Gen Dice, and their Powers - Offensive, Bow, and Runic - reduced by 1d8. Rumination forces the memory of what they were, making the target relive how weak they had once been while Rumination waits to see if they can still overcome. 

The effect does not last. Eventually the spell must come to an end. The target recovers all that they once were - though their Vitality, Soul, and Power do not fill back the capacity to do so does return. Rumination fades back into the darker corners of the praeteriamancer's runic soul, waiting for when it must again remind someone of the truth of what they once were.