To clarify my system, let's say that you have an elf with the "magical" power to redefine a person's fate. Say it's a form of a curse; he makes a prophecy of doom that affects his foe.

Let's say he goes up to Bob, a random dude, and curses him to never again enter the pub in the village.

Now, what will happen is that, unless he tries really hard to go into the pub, he won't be able to go in; one of his friends will call him over to somewhere else when he tries to go in, or the pub is closed for repairs the day he goes to try to go in. It doesn't matter too much to him, so he doesn't resist it to much.

Let's say a horrendously powerful and terrifying demon comes and commands Bob to enter the pub, or everything that he knows and loves will be devoured. No amount of fate will stop him from passing that threshold.

Hard paths are unpredictable, until they become "easy" paths, since they are what you are doing when Fate resets. It isn't mind control, it is just an intuitive "path of least resistance."

Of course, in my setting, one of the major factions use the manipulation of fate to screw people they don't like over (You pissed them off? Your farmers are going to get very restless very soon, since the Fatecarvers just made revolution the path of least resistance.)

And, along with that, an experienced Fatecarver can do stuff to that particular channel that gives you incentive to stay on track, including making Fate actively backlash against you if you resist it (you want to resist the fact that he cursed your farm to have low yields? Be ready for your life to be ruined in a thousand painful ways.), and reward you for following fate (you know, with the last example, it behooves me to bring up a joke:
What do you get if you play a Country song backwards?
The singer gets his car back, his house back, his wife back, his dog back...)