General World Mechanics
How This Shit Works:
Thaumaturges/thaumaturgy: Magic in her world consists of the ability to feel the surrounding ‘potentials,’ or alternative futures of the world, and use life energy to alter the course of reality to match with her chosen future. The greater the change worked on the world, the more her life is shortened. Lighting a candle may only take a blink’s-worth of time from her; bringing someone back from the dead would kill her. This limitation can be circumvented by using a catalyst--namely, the life force of another creature or human being, a practice that is (in theory) outlawed by the thaumaturgic council. How much a thaumaturge can sense depends on how well-practiced they are and how much they’ve used their abilities. The more they use their abilities, the more distant futures they are able to sense; paradoxically, the less able they are to reach those futures or guide the world into the tracks that lead to those futures by themselves. They can, to a certain degree, limit how much they feel, though again the more they use their abilities the less able they are to block out possible futures.
There is actually one other way to circumvent the life force requirement, or rather, to subvert it and limit its effects; using the life force of yourself and all other potential selves who desire the same outcome/future that your existing self wants; all potential selves are drawn from and the effect is spread out and therefore lessened.
Thaumaturgic council: The ‘neutral’ governing body of Ruvin’s world, holding sway over all other countries and governments. Consisting of thaumaturges from around the world, the council decides the future through sortilege (divination and the casting of lots).
Recondites: Thaumaturges who have no control over their abilities, or who have used them enough to go insane; they can sense all possible futures at all times, from the most distant and improbable to the closest and most likely. They are, without exception, insane, and have very short life spans; the council uses them for sortilege.
Oathmark: All carved from a single central stone, it acts to connect all thaumaturgic members of the council across vast distances. There is the oathmark which the thaumaturge carries and is charged to wear at all times, and the identical piece that allows the council to connect to that individual oathmark. The stone from which they’re all carved stands in the center of the room where the council’s copies of the oathmarks are kept. When a thaumaturge is recruited, the last moments of their life are sealed into their oathmark. They can tap that energy in an emergency, as it is the most potent available to them, but most won’t unless it’s a life-or-death situation. If they use those moments, they can’t die--not in the sense that they’re immortal, but in the sense that they simply cease to exist when the time comes, vanishing from existence along with all the memories others have of them.