The Path of Restoration wears two faces - protector and destroyer. Custodians can pride themselves on being able to recreate beauty and function, spitting in the face of time and eventual collapse. But Gremlins can take sadistic pleasure in watching it all fall apart, one slow, certain crack at a time.

The Arts are all the same: the only difference is in their application, and the Tainted Essence that breaking things down brings to Wraiths who do it. There's also a danger of being caught in the backwash when a Claimed object is destroyed, and suffering physical damage. {Most Wraiths are able to time the breakdown perfectly, so they can get out at the critical moment. But accidents do happen, and they aren't pretty...}

That said, the restorative powers of this Path are amazing - especially when you consider that its users don't have to understand anything about how to really repair things in order to make it work. The process of Claiming the object, and then using these Arts, give the Wraith an intuitive sense of what belongs where, and how to coax things together {or tear them apart}.

The chief irony is that, for all its power, none of the Arts on the Path of Restoration can be used to repair the damage that Decay can do. Anyone who fails the secondary roll while using Claim has to resign themselves to having scarred the object forever, and either spend Willpower to keep it from getting any worse, or hope they don't screw it up again.

** The Presaging:

This is something of an "advertisement" for this Path's services, and is often used as an estimate of how far gone something is, or how new. It allows a Wraith to bring a Claimed object "forward" or "backward" in time, one step per success. The effects last for only a few seconds, but it's enough to let someone know how much work would need to be done to make the object better, or how easy it would be break it.

{Note that, unlike the other Arts on this Path, ** The Presaging can be used on objects that have been weakened by the Decay Numen.}

*** The Prevention:

This allows a Wraith to make a Claimed object stronger or weaker than it currently is. Paper can be made as durable as diamonds, while diamonds can be made as flimsy as Styrofoam. Weakening brings Tainted Essence for having broken things down, however.

**** The Repairing:

A step up from merely preventing damage {or accommodating it} is repairing and/or causing it. This Art allows the Wraith to fix a Claimed object, so long as all the parts are still there, or replacements found. The reverse makes the object stop functioning, and possibly even make key parts disappear. As with *** The Prevention, breaking an object brings Tainted Essence.

***** The Resurrection:

A Wraith with this Art is one to be cherished, or feared, for she can - within one hour - completely rebuild a near-ruined object, or else break something brand new down into smashed, almost-unrecognizable parts. Best of all, only half the parts need to be there for a resurrection to occur - such is the power of this Art that missing pieces are filled in.

Destroying things brings Tainted Essence, and if this Art should be used to destroy an Anchor, extra Tainted Essence is garnered for this extreme act of violation towards another Wraith.