The Butterfly Effect

Question: Can the Epic Manipulation knacks which alter memories modify the roles, expectations and rejections of the Fatebound?

Alas, no, they cannot. In a nutshell, Epic Manipulation affects a mortal's thoughts but cannot meddle with his role in the great saga of Fate, which is something only Magic has the power to do.

You can absolutely use Epic Manipulation knacks such as Instant Hypnosis, Implant False Memory, Rumor Mill or Obliteration to meddle around with the memories, thoughts and understanding of any mortal, Fatebound or otherwise. If a mortal believes that you must not have Epic Strength associated with you because he saw you try and fail to lift a heavy object off a friend, you could erase that memory from his mind, or implant a different memory of you succeeding at lifting that item. You could create a rumor that you must be the strongest person in the area that reaches his ears as well as those of everyone else in the area, and you could blank his memory so that he has no recollection of ever seeing you at all, lifting or otherwise. You could hopelessly confuse this mortal into thinking he saw someone completely different, or that what he saw was a hallucination, or rob him completely of his memories of anything happening at all.

But that won't change his Fatebond, neither its expectations nor his Role in regards to you. This mortal may have formed his initial Fatebond thanks to his beliefs about something he saw or experienced, but once formed, it is already in existence; you can't retroactively change it by changing his memory, any more than you could change the nutritional content of a strawberry by having it scientifically reclassified as a kind of fish. You can call it a fish all you want, but it's still going to taste like fruit.

If that mortal is your Martyr and believes you're bad at Strength, he will go on believing that; he may not remember who you are exactly, but he'll remember someone, and he may not know why you're bad at Strength, but he'll believe unshakeably that you are. He may believe you've done other feats of strength, but he'll believe they were one-time deals or that you were secretly aided by some outside force. He may hear that everyone else believes you're the bomb when it comes to pumping iron, and he'll believe he's the only man in the entire world who knows the truth. He will always believe that you're weak, and he will always try to protect you; that's what Fate has written for him. The more you change what he understands about the world, the more new ways Fate will ensure that his Fatebond, which does not change, remains justified.

Essentially, you can fool a mortal's mind, but you can't fool Fate's. The mortal's beliefs and perceptions shaped the Fatebond when it was created, but it's the power of Fate that keeps it in place, and the mortal is no more capable of changing it than you are. Just as you're helpless to avoid the detrimental effects of the Fatebond on your Strength, so he is helpless to escape Fate's decree that he die to save you because of your weakness. That's the story you're both bound up in now, mortal and Scion alike.

Magic, which is specifically the art of attempting to turn and twist Fate to your own ends instead of its own, is the only power that can rewrite a mortal's Fatebonds the way you're trying to do. Your powers of Manipulation can fool, flummox and confuse mortals effortlessly and are excellent tools for making them see what you want them to see - but they're just mortals. It's Fate that's the power that binds you, and Fate cannot be hoodwinked.