Teferi is a Jamuraan mage who studied at the Tolarian Academy and a planeswalker who lost and later regained his spark. He is an accomplished wizard specializing in time magic. He eschews violence and will attempt to deal with opposition via the control of its allies and the eventual removal of its powerbase.
«We define the boundaries of reality; they don’t define us.»
Born in the nation of Zhalfir on Dominaria, Teferi was recognized as a magical prodigy at a young age. He studied at the Tolarian Academy, where the Planeswalker Urza was preparing gifted young mages to fight the horrific machine empire known as Phyrexia. With a talent for temporal magic and a fondness for practical jokes, Teferi became one of the academy’s most renowned—and confounding—students. Then a Phyrexian attack on the academy left Teferi trapped in a bubble of slow-flowing time for two decades. After he was freed from the bubble, he helped Urza prepare for war against the Phyrexians, despite his concern that Urza’s judgment was clouded by a desire for war. Eventually, Teferi returned to his homeland and became a royal mage, protecting Zhalfir and finding common ground among splintered factions. He established five guilds to help lead his country to prosperity and maintain its stability while he continued his research into temporal anomalies on a secluded island.
This research led him to the discovery that he could phase the entire island, with all its inhabitants, out of the time stream completely. But this magic was unstable, and Teferi disappeared—with his island home and every creature on it—for hundreds of years. When Phyrexia launched another attack upon Dominaria, Urza sought Teferi’s assistance in fighting off Yawgmoth’s terrible forces. But Teferi knew Urza well enough to understand that he would become a mere pawn in the other Planeswalker’s arsenal. Instead of joining in the war effort, Teferi drew on the lessons he learned from his earlier failure, protecting Zhalfir and other parts of the plane from the invasion by phasing them out of the time stream for centuries. Three centuries later, Teferi returned to Dominaria to see if it was safe for Zhalfir to return. Although the Phyrexian threat was long gone, he found the plane—and indeed the whole Multiverse—imperiled by rifts in the fabric of time, some of which were caused by his own meddling. Desperate to repair this damage, Teferi sought help from other Planeswalkers—Freyalise, Venser, and even the dragon Nicol Bolas—to seal the rifts, with only partial success. Teferi sacrificed his Planeswalker spark, using its energy to close one of the temporal storms. Dominaria survived, but Zhalfir was lost outside of time, and Teferi was left as a powerful but merely mortal mage.
In Dungeons & Dragons
Chronomancy is the sub-school of magic that deals with movement through time, or the manipulation of time itself. It is still a secretive and rare school of magic, and most wizards had difficulty comprehending the possibility of altering the natural course of events. Those wielding power in this school are known as chronomancers. Most spells of this specialization belong to the School of Transmutation.
Time Magic
Arcane Tradition
At 2nd level, a wizard gains the Arcane Tradition feature. This option is available with the permission of your DM.
- Back to the Present. Starting at 2nd level, your keen sense of time allows you to flow arcane energy to the immediate past. As a reaction, you can cast a cantrip you know. When you do so, you are stunned until the end of your next round as you are actually casting through time from the future and you can’t do it again until you have a full rest.
- Time Awareness. Also by 2nd level, you choose to add your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier to your Initiative.
- Improved Time Manipulation. Starting at 6th level, you can use a reaction to cast a 1st level spell. When you do so, the same rules as for the «Back to the Present» feature applies. You can’t cast such a spell at higher levels.
- Time Streams. When you reach 10th level, you get the chance to actually change the immediate past. Chronomancers are always warned not to change past events beyond a split second, not only because the unforeseeable consequences, but also because of the strain that manipulating the flow of time extorts into the spellcaster. You can force to re-roll an attack roll, saving throw or ability check made by you or any creature you can see. After doing so, you are stunned until the end of your next round as you are actually projecting yourself through time from the future and you can’t do it again until you have a full rest.
- Clockwork Chronomancy. From 16th level, you can cast Hold Person as a bonus action. Doing so reduces the duration to just 1 round and it can’t be cast at a higher level. After casting it in this way, you can’t do it again until you get a short or long rest.
- Signature Spells. You can use the benefits of «Back to the Present» feature to the spells you have selected as signature spells at 20th level.
Have you ever played with Time Magic? Do you allow time travel in your campaign? What kind of adjustments you had to apply for it to work correctly?
Now I understand why you are always so opinionated about the «Chronurgy School of Magic»
In my defense, this was published way before «Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount» XD