GALLIFREY STUFF
NOTE: If you can
read this line of text then the black back ground to this page didn't
load. 95% of the text is colored so don't worry about it to
much. The stuff in white is all Fan Speculation and stuff from
the Benny Novels. You can read the white text by "selecting it"
with your mouse. I'll try to get this problem fixed.
The
following color code and terms are used:
information from the TV Series
(Including the Dimensions in Time, and Universal/BCC Telemovie,
Scream of the Shalka)
information from the Novels
(Virgin, BCC, I Who (which isn't a novel but it's source
material is))
information from The Infinity
Doctors and some of Cold Fusion
(I put The
Infinity Doctors
as an 8th Doctor sidetrip. I admit I
could be wrong.)
information from deliberately
created alternate version of Doctor Who
(The Unbound Series, Death Comes to
Time)
information from 'licensed'
reference sources
(The Technical Manual, Monsters, The Doctor Who Cookbook and The
Gallifrey
Chronicles)
information from 'unreliable'
sources:
(FASA's role-playing game, the Nth Doctor, Destiny of the Doctors (I
don't trust them
either, but you never know))
information from unofficial
sources
( Lawrence Miles'
books, the Benny
adventures)
information from speculative
sources
(my own speculation, and other fan speculation. Includes ideas
from sites listed on my
home page.)
?
The event occurred approximately in this
interval.
??
A pretty wild guess as to when this event
took place.
GALLIFREY:
They that Walk in Shadows
“Can you imagine silver leaves waving
above a pool of liquid gold containing singing fish? Twin suns that
circle and fall in a rainbow heaven, another world in another sky? If
you’d like to come with me, I’ll show you all this - and it will be, I
promise you, the dullest part of all. Come with me and you will see
wonders that no Human has ever dreamt possible. Or stay behind and
regret your staying until the day you die.”
- The Doctor
The Minyan Constellation of Kasterborus
In the Kasterborus Sector. The centermost star is Gallifrey's
sun.
(seen on the back
of the 3rd/4th/8th Doctor's TARDIS key)
ASTROPHYSICAL LOCATION:
Gallifrey is in the seventh system at the heart of
the Home Constellation (a
Gallifreyan "constellation" refers to elements of
time/relativity/location) - which is
known to the Lesser Species as the Minyan constellation
of Kasterborus (also
known as the Kasterborus Sector). It is named for an astrologist
who also wrote Our Destiny is in the Stars. Later myths will
claim that the gods yolked him to a chariot of silver fire. His
beliefs have
infiltrated the cultures of the Delphons, Phreni, and Sirians. The
Constellation of Kasterborus is located at the
center (or the edge) of the Mutter's Stellian
(or Stellarian)
Spiral Galaxy (The Milky Way, Galaxia Kyklos) on the
edge of the Capricorn Tract. This is a close to the center of the
galaxy as its possible to be without drawn into the black hole.
The
Kasterborus Ice Ring, and
Kasterborus Borealis are in the same
sector as Gallifrey's system, but the
other systems of the Kasterborus
sector have no significant populations. The
Nebula of Cyclops is near enough to Gallifrey to be faintly
visible.
The Kasterborus Constellation might be in the Sagittarius constellation (center of
the galaxy) in the Earth skies. In this area of space stars would be
clustered so tightly that they would only be about 1/10th of a
lightyear apart. During the Rassilon
Era Gallifrey is 29,000
light years from Sol
III. However by the time of the Humanian Era it is 250,000,000 light years away (it was probably moved there
during the Time War or perhapse it was the only Gallifrey to survive).
During the Rassilon
Era its binary coordinates
are
10-0-11-0-0 by 02 from galactic 0 center.
Gallifrey's Dominions include
several planets that would be valuable if
mined (Could they contain
Taranium?) Time Lord traffic
control monitor
any vessels that pass near Gallifrey's space-time location. Traffic Control's temporal scans will detect an
unschedualed Timeship about 2 minutes before it materializes and
identify whether it is Gallifreyan from its molecular patina. Space vessel must request pemission to pass through
Gallifrey's space-time. The
Sisterhood of Karn draws a
significant number of space vessels (probably to steal the Elixir), causing
them to crash on Karn.
The Planet Gallifrey
SYSTEM DATA:
Gallifrey's primary star
has no name. In
order to protect Gallifrey from Vampires, the solar engineer Omega
constructed a new Second Sun, which he added to Gallifrey's
system. This Second Sun is probably a small
artificial one for Gallifrey is usually described as having only
one sun. The star is visible from Gallifrey and named
Pogar. Because of the twin suns the
planets in system have very short nights.
The Gallifrey system has six
planets: Gallifrey, Karn, a
frozen gas
giant named Polarfrey, Kasterborus the Fibster (an asteroid) and
another unknown planet (possibly
Demos). Gallifrey
and Karn might be the second and third planets in the system.
Karn is located a few billion miles
(could be SI or European "billion") from Gallifrey and appears to
have population of no more then a few million. Parts of
Karn are covered in hexagonal crytaline rock formation. If Gallifrey had similary rock
formations it could explain the importance of hexegons in their
mythology.
Gallifrey is
known as the Shining World of the Seventh System. On Gallifrey the
second sun rose in the south. Gallifrey's
gravity, orbital radius, star type, pressure,
temperature, and oxygen levels are the same
as Earth. As Gallifrey appears to have the same
orbit as Alzarius it might be draw farther from the sun every 50 years
by
other planets in the system. The planet has a significant amount
of Gallifreyan Zinc which is one of the strongest metals in the
universe. Gallifrey has a
moon called
Pazithi Gallifreya which orbits Gallifrey every 27 days. It exerts a much stronger tidal
force on the planet. In ancient times
it was known as the Virgin Moon Goddess. It is copper (or ivory
or heileotrope) colored and
shines even in the sunlight. This moon
has a large supply of Taranium which was
mined during the Dark Time. The "sky" outside a place that is outside of time (as Gallifrey is) still
shows a constellations of stars, but an observer can see a
billions of years of star movment in
just a few minutes. Some
wisps of nebula can be seen in the night sky of Gallifrey. There are also several artificial
satellites that can be seen from the surface, even during the
day. By the time
of Death Comes to
Time the constellations around Gallifrey appear similar to
the constellations around Sol III.
Outer Gallifrey
THE PLANET GALLIFREY:
Because
it located in Inner Time,
Gallifrey (or maybe just the Death Zone) shows up as no time and no
place on TARDIS insturments. Despite the
fact that Gallifrey
has been primed to resist the effects of entropy, the
planet is very old and appears quite
ancient. From orbit
Gallifrey is the color of rust, with
brown
lakes and dust-grey clouds. There are three small oceans (which were once quite large)
and several
seas but less then half its
surface is water. Many of
the lakes gold colored (reflecting
light from the burnt orange sky?) At
night and day
the sky is burnt orange and often filled with purple, green, and yellow
lights. Under certain
circumstances the sky will also appear blue.
Millions
of years after the installation of the Eye of Harmony, very little of
Gallifrey’s original biosphere survives. Gallifrey has
more then 24 seasons - but they are similar (and dry) enough
that many claim Gallifrey has no seasons. The Autumn breezes would blow through
the silver leafed trees, creating a musical effect. At
one point
the planet might have
been very much like Alzarius from E-Space and possibly had a Mistfall
every 50 years caused by another planet pulling Gallifrey farther from
its sun. Southern Gallifrey
occationally suffers blizzards. The planet
is
currently in the midst of an ice age, but in the summer, Gallifrey's
sun
is still intense enough to cause
sunburn on a human. Despite the ice age Gallifrey's ice caps are
quite tiny (probably due to
the overall lack of water). There is no argon in the
atmosphere. Southern Gallifrey is
considered quite
wild and beautiful. It can
experiance warm Gallifreyan nights where the stars shine. Most of
Gallifrey is burnt red deserts (with orange sand) and mountains.
There are some
green forests, and golden fields strewn with ruble - but they make up a
minority of the terrain.
Gallifrey's surface is divided up into sectors. The planet's highest mountain is
Mount Cadon (from which flows the river Cadonflood?). This snow topped
gray-green mountain is located on the continent of Wild Endeavor and extends to the fringes
of Gallifrey's atmosphere. It is located within visual sight of
the Capitol which is also found on the continent of Wild Endeavor.
The bulk of mount Cadon
dwarfs the Capitol. Many of the
river beds are dry, though the still
active River Lethe is
located within walking distance of Mount Cadon. Another
important mountain is Mount
Plutarch which is
near the Lune Forest and the inland sea. Mount Lung is located in Southern
Gallifrey. The river
Cadonflood is located near Lungbarrow and (as its name implies) is know
to flood from time to time. The
Soonwell
Valley is 500 leagues (~3000 km) from the Capitol. Lake Abydos might be near House Heartshaven (or Dvora). In the
modern
era there are only between
3 and 9 million Gallifreyans, which leaves many settlements and roads
competely abandoned.
BIOLOGY
Memento Mori
The Gallifreyan Flower of Remembrance
Plants:
The
leaves of the plant life come in the following colors : green, blue, bronze,
silver, and some
are transparent. There are Kaden-Wood trees (with silver leaves),
Maldor
Trees, Cerub Trees (with hallucinogenic
truffle-flavored
nuts), Hefzi
Moss, Madevinia Aridosa (small desert
plants that have an incredibly rapid life cycle), red-petaled orchids,
Magentas (fruit tree), Trumpberries, Lushberries (probably edible), Molten Rushes (with zinc hawthorns), Grass (both in deep red and probably
purple), Gallifreyan Flowers of Remembrance (Memento
Mori - 6 yellow petals), Schlenk Blossoms, Grockel Root (a type of plant used to
make alcohol), Nitvil (a slimy plant with
healing properties) Oaks, and
Sarlain (a yellow flower that resembles
a
Terran Daisy, Daffodil or Rose). Some flowers glow in the dark and some might
be as tall as trees. Biotrophic
fungi include Feathergills, pogsquats, skullcaps, and Cardinal's
collars.
An Owl - The Symbol of Rassilon
Animals: Invertabrates: Beatitude Flies
(with golden wings), Butterflies,
Bees, Gullet Grubs, Blossom Thieves, Scrubblers,
Neversuch Beetles,
Sandbeetles, Dustworms, Scissors Bugs, Flutterwings (3 meters by
25 meters, never land), web spinning
insects, Snails, and Water-Sligs. There
are really nasty creatures that
live beneath big stones.
Marine life: Singing
Fish, Kittensharks (are hatched
from eggs and presumably grow up to be Catsharks),
Elapids include Taipan (10
meters long and venomous snake), Venal Snakes, Bat-Snakes
Avians: Owls
(the symbol of Rassilon), Flurry Birds, song
birds,
Mammels: Plungbolls (thumbnail sized furry
creatures, live in mountains, attatch enmass to warm objects),
Taffelshrews, Fledershrews, Cobblemice
(sprout wings), Rovie Mice (live in fields, long lived if they
are not killed, sometimes kept as pets), Vex (burrowing animal),
Gallifreyan Womprats (1 meter long rats with fifteen
legs), Pig-Rats, Flubbles
(small
six-legged koalas), Horse-Cats, Elephants, Pig-Bears, Baanjxx (arboreal browser,
eats cerub nuts), and probably
walrus. The Doctor and
Ruath re-introduced cats
into the eco-system
(at a point before The Infinity Doctors).
Ancient Gallifreyan Biology: Ancient Gallifreyans didn't evolve from apes (they do
not believe they evolved from monkeys either). Early Gallifreyans
had only one heart. Most deaths were a result of heart
failure. Ancient Gallifreyans
have a bypass respiratory system.
When used, the bypass
system makes them very resistant to most forms of anaesthetic (but not chloroform) and
stragulation. With warning a Gallifrey
can store enough oxygen in their system to be active for 20
minutes. They can hold
their breath for hours if they don't move much. Their blood, hormones and pheremones
have distinct differences from modern Gallifreyan. They usualy
can't interbreed with
humans. Their
children have milk teeth. Their
children aged slower
then Humans and it might take hundreds of years for a Gallifreyan
to mature into an adult. An 11 year old would look like an 8 or 9 year old
human,
but a 16 year old would look like
an earth teenager. At around
this
point their aging slows dramaticly - a 48 year
old would look like an 18 year old human. Gallifreyans in their teens need as
much food as a human teenager if not more. Adult Gallifreyans eat about as
much as human. Young
Gallifreyans need
to sleep a little more then most humans, but after they
pass First Maturation and learn to control their bodies,
they only need 1-2 hours a day. They live to be about 300 years old - or possibly forever.
They might have had the
telepathic, adaptive, and regenerative abbilites similare to the
Marshmen in Full Circle. By human standards ancient
Gallifreyans were tall and athletic, and the women tended to be much
taller then males (this changed
after when the looms were created). The women also tended to
have well developed muscels.
While a young (around 16)
Gallifreyan’s telepathic powers are still developing they are
vulnerable to
experiencing strong emotions from large groups. Sometimes this
causes a psychic feedback where the Gallifreyan ends up reinforcing
the emotions of a group. All the adult
minds of the planet were in constant telepathic entrelacement due
to an organ located in their hypothalamus.
This was thought to be the greatest curse of Gallifreyan civilization.
One
Gallifreyan every 1,000 years was born an Individual. Individuals
could shield their minds from telepathy and had other psionic
powers. When young, Individuals also made good time pilots. Because of their abbility to focus
older Individuals often became great philosophers, scientists, and
explorers. Many became Heros.
Ancient Gallifreyans were
sensitive to time and its movement.
Modern Gallifreyan Biology
GENETICS -
Gallifreyans have Triple Helix DNA as well as TNA. The extra third strand was added
by Rassilon to make Regeneration possible. Hidden in Gallifreyan DNA are 'killing lessons' to
destroy Cacophony should she ever appear. Time Lords share 98% of their genes with
Vampires. The DNA of every previous incarnation
lies dormant inside a Gallifreyan's body. By the time he
had regenerated 7 times the Doctor
(and presumably other Gallifreyans)
have 69
chromosomes
divided into 23 homogeneous triads. They are
vunerable to some earth
viruses, like influenza, fevers, and the common cold. They can also suffer from rheumatism.
Before the
curse
fades almost all
Gallifreyans are sterile. Every
Gallifreyan has a Bio-Data Extract
(aka biog-data extract, or D-E) sample removed and stored by
Coordinator
of the Matrix and veiwable only by the Coordinator, the Castellan, and
members of the High Council. Losing
one's virginity makes it much more difficult (if not impossible) for
Gallifreyan technology to read ancestral memories from the subjects
biodata. Transmission of an extract is
considered treason. There are millions of Time
Lord
extracts stored in the Archival Office (implying that Gallifrey has had
more then 1000 Time Lords for much of it history), but as of The Ancestor
Cell a total of only 153,846 Time Lord mindes have been uploaded into
the Matrix.
Exctracts of Time Lords are color coded by
chapter. Time Lord D-Es can only be accessed by the High
Council or the Castellan and all accesses are logged. Also see this
site
NERVOUS SYSTEM - Gallifreyan
brains are green in color and
larger then a human's. They have Superganglion which allows them to
re-order and re-program their neural pathways at will. Among
other things this allows them to separate the operation of the two
hemispheres of their brains and makes them immune to some types of
interrogation technology. They
can
also switch off the parts of their brain that process input from
various senses, allowing them to limit their vast number of senses to
the same range as a human. They
have perfect memory of everything they experiance (in that incarnation) and an
over greater memory storage capacity than a human. A
dormant
throwback organ
in their brains can
allow them to sense higher dimensions (with training). They are
much more vunerable to changing magnetic fields then most humanoids
are. Depending on how
their brain is currently configured, and how "off" their
biorythems are it can sometimes take them a while to notice the
blindingly obvious. At the
base of their brains is a seperate tertiary lobe
called the Autonomic Brain that handles all body
and motor functions. This frees the rest of the brain for
purely intellectual pursuits allowing them to think of over 7,432 ideas
in a few minutes. An
electroencephalograph of a Gallifreyan brain will show a type of
activity unlike any human brain. Because of their extended
life span
Gallifreyans need to clear out some of their memories every few
thousand years. They usually store the more important memories
useing telepathic
circuits. Gallifreyans have a nerve cluster
of major ganglion along their left collar bone beneath the left clavicle that allows them
complete control over their own metabolism .
A blow at this cluster will render
them unconscious. Their
retinas are so sophisticated that they
can almost think on their own. In addition to rods and cones
their eyes are equipped with octagons, gives
them amazing night
vision.
They can shift their vision outside the
normal
visual spectrum allowing them to see a total of 170 different levels of
the electromagnetic specturm, including in some shades of
ultraviolet. There's a lot of
evidence that their eye color can change depending on mood. Their
pupil response
is very different from humans and can resist super intense
photo-emissions that would permanenlty blind a human. (If they remember to check)
they can tell whether a humanoid is Gallifrey just by looking at them. A regenerated Gallifreyan's,
hearing and smell is better than
human's and some Gallifreyans
can perform biochemical
analysises of what they
eat including
identifying blood type.
Unconcious
Gallifreyans can often be awakened with a heated infusion of free radicals,
antioxidants, and tannin (aka boiling tea vapor). The scent of Celery is
considered to be another
powerful restorative on Gallifrey. Many Gallifreyans are
capable of
amazing voice imatation. Thus locks with voice prints are not in
common use.
CIRCULATORY SYSTEM - Most
Gallifreans are loomed with one heart. When they regnerate they
aquire a second heart that is a
mirror image of the first.
Newblood
Gallifreyans are loomed with 2 hearts and
have excellent control over their appearance when regenerating. Their hearts are bivalved and each heart produces two distinct
beats per cycle.
Most Gallifreyans
have two hearts (a primary and a
secondary) each of which
usually beat 60
times per minute and normally fibrillate at a rate of 300. A
double pulse of 170 is considered more or less normal. The electical activity of the hearts
is much greater then a humans and the beats are quite powerful making it difficult for the hearts
to be exactly located with a sethoscope. The speed of each heart can vary and they can survive
with only 1 heart beating. Gallifreyans are
trained to stop both their hearts and
feign death for
several hours. Both hearts are supported by a binary
vascular system. The removal of one
heart results in the temporay loss of many Gallifreyan enhancements
whiile a new heart is grown. If
someone has a Gallifreyan heart transplanted into their body they will
be linked to the doner Gallifreyan and it will be very difficult to
kill the doner without killing the receiver as well. A Gallifreyan's
blood pressure is
typically 70/70 millimeters of mercury. Gallifreyan blood
is
darker than human blood and redish-orange.
It doesn't conform with any form of human
blood because it has a different pathological
state and lots of unusual
acids. The respiratory pigment doesn't
use hemoglobin but does share
some of structural characteristics of human hemoglobin. Their blood
doesn't have
a
type and (due to its regenerative properties) it
is in a constant state of genetic flux. It carries a uniquie
artron energy signature. Not
surprisingly doesn't
smell
like human blood. Because of its unique nature it can be
transfused into
any human without complications. A human recipient will feel
rather energized, probably because it carries oxygen (and other gases) vastly
better than
human
blood. They have advanced platelets
detect even tiny amounts
of toxins. Gallifreyan lungs can absorb
every single molecule of
oxygen
inhaled. They need less (only 1/4)
oxygen as a human to function normally
and thus they normally
take only 4
breaths a minute.
Gallifreyans
have a bypass
respiratory system and a secondary cardiovascular system.
When conciously triggered, the bypass
system contracts, closing
off their primary respiratory passages making them very
resistant to most forms of anaesthetic,
ether, cyanide,
stragulation, hanging,
and the squeaky voice caused by helium. Gallifreyans are also much more resistant to mercury
poisoning
than Humans. Mustard
Gas is still deadly however. They
lose their sense of smell when they rely on their
Bypass respitory system. The bypass respitory systems
also
allows them to hold their breath for several minutes and, with warning, a Gallifrey
can store enough oxygen in their system to be active for 20
minutes. If this is insuficient
they can enter a trance to
reduce
their oxygen intake
even futher allowing them to
hold their breath for hours. As
Gallifreyans pass 1000 years of age their bypass respiratory system
becomes
less reliable and there is a chance that they won't be able to awaken
from
its use. Some Gallifreyans (such as
the Rani) have some trouble breathing in humid environments. Also see this site and this site.
PSIONICS - Whenever two
Gallifreyans meet there is a courtesy mind-touch to identify and
aknowledge each other. This allows them to recognize each
other even if they are wearing a new body. There are also
able to tell if humans are
telepathic or not. Gallifreyans suffer psychic feedback,
fever and headaches as their telepathic abilities mature. Gallifreyans can use touch telepathy to form entrelacement (Contact). If they
are trying to telepathically contact one of their own incarnations they
don't even need to be touching. Indeed such contact can be made
over the astral plane (the 4th
Dimension) over galactic distances. Some of them can
telepathically block a person's memories back to an arbitrary point in
their life. They can
also implant post-hypnotic suggestions in
people who are trying to read their minds. The Matrix also
enhances the Time Lord telepathic powers. Every Time Lord
possesses a quantum of Artron
Energy which gives them a unique artron
energy
signature. This is significantly more
life-energy than a human has. It's possible
that females might be more gifted with telepathic abbilites. They
generate Artron Energy traces that can be
used by others to determine their age
and identity. The energy they
possess increases by a minute amount every time they pass through the
Vortex. They are
capable of absorbing lethal amounts of energy from another
humanoid. After doing so a regneration will be nessecary to
eliminate the energy. They can also donate some of
their energy to recharge a TARDIS Power Cell but doing so consumes 10
years of their total lifespan. Gallifreyans can uses a
process called Soul Catching to absorb a dying Gallifreyan's memories.
Mindbending
(aka Time Lord
Wrestling) is a Time Lord
game that involves a telepathic battle between two contestants.
They try to regress each other mentaly through their previous
incarnations. Its just a game but it can end in deathlock if a
contenstant is pushed back to the point of death.
GENERAL
BIOLOGY - They
have got multiple organs of virtually
everything including two more ribs (than humans). They have 2 of
most of the organs that humans have only one of, and 4 of the organs
that humans have only two of. Asside from the extra ribs a
Gallifreyan's skeleton is almost identical to a humans.
They have only
one liver. Their internal body
temperature is
15-16 degrees Celsius (60 degrees Fahrenheit) however their skin temperature is
only a little below the human norm. Gallifreyans tend to
find a room temp
of 20 C to be uncomfortably hot. Despite
this, adult Gallifreyans are capable of withstanding extreme
temperatures at both ends of the scales. They can remain concious
in the -270 C cold of space for 6
minutes and can withstand 200 degreec C for up to 3
minutes. At body temperatures of several hundred degrees below 0
C a
Gallifreyan will lose complete control of their body and appear
dead. Despite this their mind is infact very active.
Gallifreyan probably have tonsils and its not probably not unknown for
them to have to be removed.
Gallifreyans have more than one stomach and
are not as vulnerable to malnutrition as Humans
are. Some (if not all) believe that only
one meal a day is perfectly normal. Despite this their
metabolism
is relitively close to a humans and they can eat the same foods.
Some Gallifreyans can use their stomachs to interpret human memory RNA
and producing the Gallifreyan equivalent. They
and
can easily go two days without water and a week without food is not a major
strain. Infact they sometimes sit in thought for days without
food or water. However 40 days without food or
water will
make a Gallifreyan delirious.
Gallifreyans
metabolize
alcohol very quickly so
it is almost impossible for them to become drunk or suffer the effects of hallucinogens. Thus can easily drink 10 pints of beer without showing
any ill effects. Some Gallifreyans
can use special meditations to regulate
their metabolism. This gives them a
very fine control over the rate at which they metabolize alcohol,
making inebriation or hallucinations possible. However Ginger pop
has a severely deleterious effect on any Gallifreyan metabolism. This allows them to be easily
effected by any alcohol they might have consumed. They need to
urinate every few days. Arsenic
is toxic to Gallifreyans and will inhibit their enzymes. If a
large source of protein, salt, and other chemicals (found in ginger
beer) are availible a Gallifreyan who has been poisoned with arsenic
can use a major shock or surprise to trigger Detox. This
detoxification allows their stomach to stimulate inhibited enzymes to
reverse and release all toxins a gas that can be exhaled. This procedure doesn't work for all toxins, most notably, Aspirin,
which is incredibly
toxic to Gallifreyans. The allergic reactions that occur
when aspirin
begins to interfer with their genetic struture causes massive a
pulmonary and cerebral embolism severe
enough to prevent regeneration. Even touching it can be
dangerous. Gallifreyans
don't have prostate glands. When
trained they can control their adrenaline, blood-suger levels, heart
rate, respiration, and presperation to the point where they can fool
23rd century medical diagnotics into thinking they are human.
They can even switch off any
of their
organs at will. They also have control over the speed and
location of their hair
growth. They can grow hair faster then humans or stop the growth
compleatly. Despite this some Gallifreyans
still shave their faces. Their skin smells like
honey and
has extra subdural and subcutaneous layers. This makes their skin very
resistant to radiation, physical damage, poison ivy,
sunburns,
and tanning. Gallifreyans can resist radiation that
will kill a human in 4 minutes for 2-12 minutes before they start to
take noticable damage. They can easily absorbe 50 times the
output
of a 21st century medical X-ray machine (approximately 50 rems of
Roentgen (aka X-Ray) radiation) and them expel it into any object they
they can touch. Incarnations which appear to be
physically younger are significantly more resistant to radiation then
older bodies.
Gallifreyans can
erect non porous barriers around their noses, ears and eyeballs that
prevent any intrusion on the molecular level. This allows them to
remain concious for 6 minutes and survive
up to 20 minutes in space unprotected. Gallifrreyans have incredible
strength for their size.
They
can remain concious when exposed to G-forces that would kill a human.
They can enter self-induced
sleep trance in which breathing, heart beat, and brain activity are all
reduced to an absolute minimum. While in this trance a Time Lord can
ponder complex ideas without any outside distractions. 20 minutes
in this state is equivalant to 8 hours for a
human. Thus they only need about 1-6
hours of sleep every 2 days and some
Gallifreyans can get by on a decade of sleep every
100 years. Others become tired after only being awake for only 4
days. Gallifreyans rarely dream, but when they do, they
sometimes dream of choosing their next
bodies, being able to fly, becoming the opposite sex, and bearing
children. Gallifreyan
who have regenerated in that last few days will require a lot of sleep,
even by human standards.
LOOMING - There are between
3 and 9 million Gallifreyans and just over 10%
of them are female. Because of their history,
Gallifreyan culture tends to view the female gender as a symbol of the
unlike and the outside. The Curse
of the Pythia rendered almost all Gallifreyans are sterile. Though they are physicaly capable of sex most have almost no sex
drive. Losing one's
virginity makes it much more difficult (if not impossible) for
Gallifreyan technology to read ancestral memories from the subjects
biodata. While
some
Gallifreyans will enjoy erotic dancers actual prostitution is very
rare. Despite all this,
some
Gallifreyans fall in
'love' and some undergo get marriage. However Gallifreyan Marriages are almost always undertaken to
maintain the power of the
Chapters by strengthening the political power of the Houses involved. A
Gallifreyan generation is 10,000 years.
Each
Chapterhouse has a loomshed, which holds the House’s Loom. The Honorable Central Population Directory
defines the quota of cousins for each House's Loom. A loom
consists of millions of fine cords which weave matter (probably Rapid Growth Biomass) and biodata
together. For several days spirals of data
flow down these cords and are woven into a mesh. From this mesh a
Gallifreyan Childe is
formed. During this time Loom-Tenders's supervise and
occationally sing traditional rhymes. The Looms are
complex anchors in
time designed to link the Gallifreyan to Gallifrey and, by extension,
the Web of Time. As such they have limited knowledge
of the future of every loomling. They probalby
weave not only DNA but also give each loomling a distinct future.
Depending on the Loom, some loomlings (or childes) produce offspring as small childes (reminicent of a human
child) other looms produce them as full grown adults. The
children have milk teeth. Gallifreyans in their teens need as
much food as a human teenager if not more. Adult Gallifreyans eat about as
much as human. Young
Gallifreyans need
to sleep a little more then most humans, but after they
pass First Maturation and learn to control their bodies,
they only need 1-2 hours a day.
DEVELOPMENT - A Gallifreyan childe ages slower
then Humans and it takes hundreds of years for them
to mature into what a Gallifreyan would consider an adult. A loomling will have trouble
using proper
grammar, but can walk right after Looming. At 5 years old,
loomlings are amazingly intelligent. An 11 year
old would look like an 8 or 9 year old
human,
but a 16 year old would look like
an earth teenager. At around
this
point their aging slows dramaticly - a 48 year
old would look like an 18 year old human. Some one around 60
would still still look like young adult but would still
considered to be a very young childe.
They are
still considered kids at
age 90.
Childes
spend several decades
undergoing Brainbuffing both at home and at school. Most (if not all) children
are taken from their families at the age
of 8 to attend their Chapter's Academy. At some points in history some aliens (such as
Gresaurus)
are allowed to take classes at the Academies. These aliens are
not allowed to learn any Temporal Engineering skills. One of
these races was the War Lord Aliens. They were expelled for
trying to learn how to build TTCs (TARDISes). The
Prydon Chapter has
its own Time Academy and the
Patrex Chapter has its own Acadmey as does each of the other
Chapters. The Prydon
Time
Academy is
open to the air and located on the slopes of Mount Cadon (Gallifrey's
highest
mountain). Prefectly
groomed lawns surround the buildings, which are accessed by sand filled
pathways Those taking the
mystic studies course spend a great deal of time meditating and dark
secrets are taught to the monks in the
upper levels of its
towers. The
Lodge of the Patrexes Academy is located in the Capitol. It has a
gate of solid light with a sphere of the first gold ever formed in the
Universe.
The
same year they enroll in the Academy each Novice is taken outside the
Capitol to the Untempered
Schism for their initiation. They gaze into this gap in reality
and
stare at the raw power of the entire
Space-Time Vortex. When confronted with eternity some Novices are
inspired, some run away, and a very few go mad. Gallifreyans who pass are know as Time
Tots (aka Time Toddlers) and are given the rank of Novice. Some (if not all)
students receive a new official
name while attending their Academy. All Gallifreyans receive single
names (though they are usually very long). The long
version of a Gallifreyan's name is writen in Old High
Gallifreyan. The length of a Time Lord's name grows as his social
and political stature increase. They also receive
a nickname using Greek letters that
identifies them uniquely and relates to the location their mind will
occupy in the Matrix, based off
their physical and mental
abilites. The
closer to alpha their names is the greater their preceived
abilities. These names are
listed on the Academy Roll in a bronze Records Building.
Gallifreyans
are force-educated
using Neural Training, which on high-intensity level, can teach someone
to speak, read, write, count, and play an instrument in one hour.
Despite this, there are a number of
major
similarites between the
Prydon Academy and the schools on Earth in the 20th century. Novices
learn quantum mechanics in Infant School and even the simplest geometry
problem is
solved
using the first 5 dimensions.
While
still Time Tots they read 4
dimensional pop-up books like
Our Planet's Story. and Every Gallifreyan Child's Pop-Up
Book of Nasty Creatures From Other Dimensions.
They are also taught to recite their 2337
times
tables. Some
of the games the children play might involve
extra-galactic space travel. They
are taught how to live and act in
society and that all life is
sacrosanct and that Gallifreyans need to be dedicated to a life of
service to Time. They also study supralogic.
At around 60 they are taught
Tri-bio-physics. Novices
take the entrance examination
for the Time Academy while
still in brain buffing. If they are accepted then, after 12
years with their Chapter's
Academy, they are enrolled in the Time Academy.
If they don't pass they remain at their Chapter's Academy.
Gallifreyans are not considered legal
adults untill they are 200 years old
A Gallifreyan who is almost 400 years old is a legal adult, but they
are viewed as being an adolescent but his elders until he can
taste his own tongue. 750-850 years old is considered
to be analogus to "approaching
middle age."
REGENERATION (aka Face-Lift, Telebiogenesis) -
Several sources claim that Time Lords are the
only Gallifreyans who are capable of regeneration. But several
other sources show normal (ie non-Time Lord) Gallifreyans regenerating
without anyone considering it unusual. Regeneration
was created to extend the already amazing Gallifreyan lifespan. Gallifreyan
bodies are filled
with self-replicating biogenic molecules (sometimes known as the Immortality
Virus, the Legacy of Rassilon
or nanites)
that work
ceaselessly to repair and prune
damaged and malformed cells. Because of this it takes hundreds of
years for a Gallifreyan to show signs of aging. These
biogenic molecules are a variation of symbiotic nuclei and
(probably using sonic waves) gives all Gallifreyans a symbiotic
self-renewing cell structure. Time
Lords actually use their symbiotic nuclie to govern regeneration.
If a Gallifreyan's symbiotic cell structure was ever deactivated they
will not be able to regenerate. The biogenic monlecules allow the
body to dispose of foreign objects and
implants fairly quickly.
They usually recover from unconciousness faster than humans.
By
"retreating"
into a healing trance
most
injuries (such as burns and
diseases) can be healed in a day. While extreame
pain or a sufficiently strong
audio-visual barrage will automatically induce a healing trance some
training is
required to enter one voluntarily. The biogenic molecules are
aided by temporal platelets which cluster around any wound,
accelerating time in that area
to speed the healing. A broken leg
takes about
4 days
to heal and nonlethal
bullet wounds heal in a day (the bullet is
ejected from the body). Bullet grazes heal in a few hours.
A combination of a bullet hole through the frontal lobe, a broken nose,
jaw, femur, and
collarbone will take a Gallifreyan 6 months to heal. They can also recover from deadly poisons and
selectively regenerate
specific organs while in the trance. These rates of healing can
be enhanced if
the Gallifreyan is kept near (or inside) a TARDIS. While in
the healing trance, they will appear dead to most humanoids,
but other Gallifreyans can tell they're alive.
Their
body temperature will drop so far below zero that that frost sometimes
forms on
the body and the mind will essentially switch off. Despite this one
heart will continue to beat about
once every 10 seconds.
While in the trance they can metabolize many types of poisons and
drugs. A fall of 30 feet (or even 200
feet) can be survived by a
combination of bone relaxation and cellular break down and regeneration
(similar to what happens in larval pupa). They have been know to survive
lightning strikes. Given several months a
Gallifreyan can grow a new heart (should one of their originals be
removed). It might be possible for them
to grow new limbs. If kept alive, a Gallifreyan’s severed body part can
be used to detect whether that specific Gallifreyan is in the area.
If the body
is subjected to great stress such as a
severed limb, extream illness,
(or
perhaps extreme boredom) the the
Limbic (or Lindal) Gland releases the hormone Lindos to
trigger Regeneration. As the hormone travels throughout the
Gallifreyan's body will begin to feel weak as it prepares to lose
solidity. Gallifreyans
are educated in how to control
their regenerations at their chapter's academy. It is
also possible for some (all?) Time
Lords to will their own regeneration without stress or
injury. By enacting the
proper meditative techniques a
Gallifreyan can temporarily
delay their
regeneration for several hours and
(if their will is great enough) several days - unless they die
first.
Chemical and telepathic signals can be
used to force
regenerate
someone who is badly wounded (but not somebody who is concious and
refuses to regenerate). Gallifreyans
who are exposed to the vacuum of space for several minutes, have had
both their hearts punctured,
or suffer a direct hit by a Dalek particle beam can not
regenerate. It is possible
to regenerate from a glancing hit by a Dalek Neutraliser.
Ideally all
regenerations should take
place within a low-grade
telepathic field (like the inside of a TARDIS). As a body prepares
for its very first regeneration, they will get very weak.
The
extra third strand of
Gallifreyan DNA was added by Rassilon to make Regeneration
possible. This strand
stores the regenerative information
within a Gallifreyan's Bioplasmic Field that surrounds their
bodies. During
regeneration this information is conveyed to the biogenic
molecules via a bio-language called Nucleolingua Symbiotica. When a
regeneration does occur
the permanently
carried self-replicated biogenic molecules
rebuild the body in a violent biological eruption of
Artron Energy. Using
this energy every
molecule in every cell is adjusted,
displaced,
rearranged causing
a
complete renewal and healing. A
blinded
Gallifreyan will regain
their sight after after a regeneration if the neural pathways
controlling his sight are intact. Even
damaged synapses are repaired. and a
Gallifreyan who regenerates after
decapitation will grow a new head (that will probably have the same
memories as the original). A regeneration is an exihilerating
experiance akin to driving a car very very fast. If a Gallifrey
the regeneration was triggered by an injury, and the subject a suitble bio-matching receptacle
(a spare
hand that had been amputated for example) is availible, they can abort
the Regeneration after the healing process is complete by siphoning off all the
extra energy into the receptcal. This is a rare occurance as
regeneration was never intened to be used to heal injuries (and
by-matching recepticles are rarely availble).
In most cases, once all the cells have been healed, the
regeneration of the body
(and to
a lesser degree) the mind will consume the rest of the Artron Energy. The
subjects body will be completely restructured. Regeneration
also restructures the
biodata of the subject, thus it could affect the subjects past as well
as its future. At the
first regeneration the
nanomachines are programmed to build into the new
body a number of improvements and backup systems including a new heart.
For
this reason the first regeneration is usually the
most painful. At the end of the
regeneration the
comatos Gallifreyan is awakened with by an automatically triggered
electroencephallic shock.
It takes about 10-60 minutes for
the
body to "gel" completely which
allows members of New Blood
Houses some time to try
various forms. Occasionally two
Gallifreyans will end up with bodies that look the same. This could mean that the looms have
only a limited number of bodies stored in their data spirals.
The
new body will
often have a different personality that expresses a different aspect of
their fundemental personality. A copy of the previous
personality is stored in the memory space for
eventual transfer into the Matrix. Each copy is kept "sleeping"
in a "room with no doors." The past incarnations often resent
being locked away and wish they could have lived longer. Some
Time Lords of the first rank can achieve Retro-regeneration
and temporarily summon the skills and personality of a former
incarnation. A TARDIS's Telepathic Circuits can help a Time Lord
acheive this. Regeneration
often causes temporary
memory
gaps and, while many
skills remain the same, it appears that many dexterity based skills
need
to be "relearned" (at a fairly quick rate) due to the differance in body
design. A
Gallifreyan's handwriting remains more or less the same throughout all
of their incarnations.
Until
recently
Regeneration was still a relatively
risky procedure. While
regenerating a Gallifreyan's body might
incorporate any foreign biodata it comes in contact with allowing them
to change species. Thus a Gallifreyan
could regenerate and
find himself to be half human. This
problem was only corrected within the last several thousand
years. Gallifreyans from Newblood Houses have amazing control
over there regenerations. This allows them to try on several
different genetic templates (and appearances) during a
regeneration. This techniquie can be taught with some
success to other Gallifreyans. It
is possible for a
male
Gallifreyan to regenerate into a female if they regenerate by commiting
sucide or a dog. For these reason their's a fair amount of
"regeneration politics" among certain factions on Gallifrey.
These focus on issues of class, gender, and species. Some are even capable of temporarily
shifting their genetic makeup enough to
fool some types of gene scanners without inducing a regeneration.
Within the first 15
hours of regeneration a Gallifreyan will still have enough risidual
cellular energy to regrow a severed body part, such as a hand. The new body part might be
designed to prevent what ever caused the loss of the original. Shortly after regeneration
Gallifreyans will often
experience bursts of superhuman strength and speed while
the new body stabilizes. They can also experiance Ambient
Complexity which causes erratic
and volatile mood changes. Its worth knowning that extreame heat combined with
adrenalin can temporaily stabize a newly
regenerated mind. In most cases the Gallifreyan's mind will synchroniz
properly within 4
days returning their strenght, reflexes, and personality to normal (for
their new incarnation). In some cases
Post-Regenerative Trauma can cause severe
personality instability.
Some times in the absence of a
Zero Room the subject never sychronizes properly. Both Metamorphic Symbiosis
Regenerators
and Zero Rooms can assist with regenerative trauma and ambient
complexity. Anaesthetic can
delay or destroy the regenerative process and cause
amnesia. Gallifreyan
biofields have to be very active to adapt to the trauma of
Regeneration. So much so that if a
member of a lesser speices lives
on Gallifrey the bio-fields will rejuvinate their cells and replace
their
telemeres. As a result the primative will age very slowly and
live for
centuries. If this
alien was
to leave Gallifrey they will start
to age rapidly: a year for every day.
For all
these
reasons regenerations are usually planned months
to years before the actual event. Gallifreyan
technology (such as a TARDIS) or
assistance is essential to ensure
survival during a regeneration especially
if the subject has suffered radiation damage.
Without technological assistance (such as
a TARDIS) a
Gallifrey runs the risk of the rengeneration aborting halfway through
leaving the subject looking like some sort of multi-limbed
monster. It is very dangerous
for
Gallifreyans who haven't passed First Maturation (ie teenagers) to
regenerate. For this reason it is usually forbidden for Gallifreyans to
regenerate until they are 500 years old. Discussions of regeneration among Gallifreyans appears
to be
similar to
sex amongst humans (not good table manners).
Some
seedy
Gallifreyan Cardinals hang
themselves to get rid of extra regenerations. This is considered
to be a dangerous hobby.
A
single body
can last over 1000 years but the subject's body will atrophie until
he's only a few feet tall and he will require a
wheelchair for mobility. After 12
regenerations the
biogenic molecules begin
to decay naturally. Gallifreyans
are limited to
13 bodies because their minds and bodies can
only withstand the strain of twelve regenerations. Each body can last centuries
and Gallifreyans only need to
regenerated
every thousand years or so. However the last few incarnations
generally
don't last as long as the earlier bodies. If a Gallifreyan
suffers a severe enough injury in his 13th body a regeneration will be
triggered, but its enevitable failure will kill the subject. Triggering a 13th Regeneration
might be the accepted way that Gallifreyan's end their lives.
It is possible
to "recharge" a regeneration cycle, but this can
only be done with the permission of the High Council and requires a
massive amount of Artron
Energy. It probably involves a Metamorphic
Symbiosis
Regenerator. Occasionally a Gallifreyan renews his
regenerative cycle by "Jumping Looms" (being reborn into a new
Family).
DEATH - Technically
Gallifreyans are immortal except
for accidents. In
practice they choose there final Death
Day between 7,000 and 12,000 (usualy at about age
10,000). They often spend the last years leading up to their
final Deathday in meditation. All Gallifreyans can force themselves to
stay alive indefinitely. When they choose
their Deathday, many Gallifreyans
have massive ceremonial funnerals (with lots of Remembrance Flowers). Legally all deceased consciousness must be
interned in the Amplified Panatropic Computations Network (sometimes known as the Remembrance
Garden) of the Matrix. This is done either directly using electrical scans of
the brain pattern at the moment of death (or no more then an hour afterwards) or
after the fact in
cinerary
urns. Because of the risk of psychosomatic feedback living
brains are never hooked directly into the Matrix. The Lord President is
an exception to this but he spends years training for such
contact. Gallifreyans
can also use 'Soul Catching' to take the 'mind' of someone who is
dying. Once in the APC they
live on forever. The deceased Gallifreyan's body is entombed in the
vaults beneath their Houses
where they quickly break down into
degenerate matter and then into random molecules. Under some (not entirely clear)
circumstances the
disintegration of a Gallifreyan's body can happen within a minute after
death.
THE LORDS OF TIME
“The Web of Time could not exist until Rassilon
built the Eye of Harmony,
the hitching post of Chronology, that which does not flux nor wither
nor change its state.”
-The Doctor
EYE OF
HARMONY (aka Rassilon's Star, the Caldera,
the Time-Sun,
the Black Hole of Rassilon)
Rassilon’s Star was
originally a Population III star
named Qqaba.
Rassilon and
Omega used the Hand of Omega to turn this star into a rotating Black
Hole. Using Amaranths and
Stasis-Halos, Rassilon brought the nucleus of the first Black
Hole to
Gallifrey. The Eye was stabilized
in an eternally dynamic equation against the
mass of Gallifrey. This star
became known as the Eye
of Harmony because it sits outside History and watches the rest of the
Universe. The Eye makes
up the largest structure on Gallifrey - so large that it needs its own
fold in space
micro-universe to contain it. This
chamber is known as the Caldera and is located under the Panoptican
(assembly hall) in the Capitol. Rassilon
also
created the
ebonite rod known as the Rod of Rassilon (sometimes translated as "Great Key")
which allows a Time Lord physical access to the Power Mast of the Eye of
Harmony. The Caldera itself can be accessed
via the Vaults found beneath the Capitol. The Security Codes needed to enter the Cladera change
every
microspan. If a lesser species was
to enter the Caldera they would be killed.
Within the Event-Horizon of the black hole is
singularity and a
universe of antimatter. All the known physical laws cease to
exist here and anyone with a high enough reality quotient and
willpower can have god-like powers. Outside the
Event-Horizon of the spinning star is an area called the
Ergosphere. In this area energy that escapes the singularity’s
gravity is accelerated and amplified to almost infinite levels.
Rassilon surrounded the Ergosphere with an iron sphere 10 kilometers in
diameter. This sphere was mirrored on the inside. Rassilon
allowed a light beam to enter the sphere. This light was
amplified by the singularity’s Ergosphere, reflected off the mirrored
sphere, was amplified again, and so on. Each time the light beam
gained energy. A small hole at the top of the sphere releases the
amplified light beam. Using
transdimensional physics, the Eye was shifted slightly into the
future
so that the near infinite power of the light beam emerges in a
controllable osmotic stream. This process is known as sigularity
eversion. After being converted into Artron
Energy, the
power is ready for use. Atron
energy is measured in units called
Omegas. This near magical use of
superradiant
scattering allows the Eye of
Harmony to provide energy for all of Gallifrey’s needs (including time
travel). The
destabiliztion of the Eye of Harmony would cause Gallifrey to turn into
antimatter, creating a quasar
that would destroy a hundred
worlds.
Rassilon
created the Great Key of Rassilon (not
to be confused with the Rod of Rassilon). This object can be used
to power the planetary defense time
weapon, the D-Mat Gun. The D-Mat gun is the ultimate
Omnicalculator. The Great Key links this quantum computer to the
Eye of Harmony. When a target is “hit” by a D-Mat gun its
entire timestream (and biodata if sentient) is recorded and then all of
history is rewritten so that the only difference between this Universe,
and the previous one is the total absence of the target. Objects
hit with the D-Mat gun
become Never-Objects existing only in the gun’s perfect
memory. When
the Great Key of Rassilon is used with the Rod, the Sash, and the Matrix Crown
the
user has direct access to the sum total of Time Lord Power.
Only two Time Lords have had access to all of these simultaniously - Rassilon, and The Doctor. To
prevent this power from being abused the Great Key of Rassilon is held
in secret by the Chancellor. Officially the Great Key is lost and
most Time Lords believe that is is only a legend. The Key
appears to have the abbility to wipe the memories of its users (as per
the wisdom of Rassilon) and
it is likely that when a Time Lord ceases to be Chancellor all memory
of the Great Key is taken from them.
THE WEB OF TIME
(aka History, Time, Causal Nexus)
The
Web of Time, within the Space-Time Vortex, was constructed by Rassilon and the Other. The
Space-Time Vortex is an atom sized dimension
which contains the Web of Time. It when mapped into three
dimensions is can look like any of the opening sequences of Doctor
Who. The
Vortex
became a dimension of pure thought
with a complexity that borders on sentience (infact the Faction Paradox
believe that it is sentient and refer to it the Loa).
The Web of Time is a vast
transdimensional
spiral that encompasses the universe
and serves as
a foundation for all points in space and time. Its creation made it much easier
for the Time Lords (and any other speices) to travel in time but it
also made it much harder for anyone to change history. The
Vortex enables
Time Travel Capsules to move from Minkowski space and integrate into
the fifth dimension. The Observer
Theory states that for the changing of history to make any sense their
must be an outside observer who watch all of history and sees this
change. The Eye of Harmony is that observer. The Eye of Harmony created a Universe of
Positive Time by locking down the Web of Time
within the Space-Time Vortex. It serves as an anchor
for the Continuity and causality of the
Universe and probably sits at the exact center of the Vortex. While
the Time Lords' control of the Weak Nuclear Force (and through it Gravity and Time)
extends only to the
limits of this cluster of Galaxies, the
Noosphere (the range of understanding and data that is defined by a
culture's physical, perceptive or comprehensive capabilities) of Time
Lord activity is much larger. This Noosphere
is known as the Spiral
Politic and reaches from around
3500 years after Event 0 (the Big Bang) to the
time of the story Frontios (10,000,000 AD) and covers
most of
Space. This forms a
temporal barrier to legal Timeship travel. It
should be noted that there are areas within the Spiral Politic that the
Time Lords can’t observe or penetrate. It is possible that some other power
with their own Eye sits in distant future beyond the Noosphere.
In order to be connected to
all
points in space and time the Transduction
Barriers shifts the planet outside of the space-time continuum
and into
its own Microuniverse
of Inner Time. Despite
being in Inner Time, Gallifrey is still liked via a real-time analogue
to its former location in the Web of Time. Rassilon and Jelen create the Transduction Barriers and installed the
machinery that conrols them on level 30, right below the
Panoptican. They use delta circutry and probably quasitronics. The Barriers are a 10 dimensonal
defense field that
prevent atomic sized infiltrations,
teleporters, and illicit frequencies, but they can’t stop
spaceships
from landing. They also allow their
primary star's sunlight and
gravity to reach them but block all weapons fire or
kamikaze runs. Because of this
barrier when one
is on Gallifrey one is "outside" of the Universe. Once lowered into
place a TARDIS can not breach the Transduction Barriers. The
Lord President’s
Rassilon Imprimatur and Presidential Code allow him and his TARDIS to
pass through
the transduction barrier at will. When
a Timeship passes through the Transduction Barriers the effect is
visible from Gallifrey’s surface. If Gallifrey was every to be attacked
the Transduction Barrier would be raised to Factor 5. The Time Lords also use
Transduction Barriers in other locations such as TARDIS Neural Construction
Docks to
prevent the Capsules from escaping.
The Eye (and
thus all of Gallifrey)
sits at the center of the Web of
Time and anchors all of its threads. The Eye was stabilized in an eternally
dynamic equation against the
mass of Gallifrey. This star
became known as the Eye
of Harmony because it sits outside History and watches the rest of the
Universe. The
structure of the whole planet of Gallifrey became a bio-system in which
biodata acts
as a planet sized receiver and processor of data from the rest of the
universe. The Time
Lords
use the Eye of Harmony's control over the Web of Time and their
abbility to manipulate the Weak Nuclear Force and the Force of Gravity to map out every inch of the Universe and define the
rational
laws upon
which it functions. This is probably done using the Skasas Paradigm (aka the God Maker or
the
Universal Theory) which unlocks how the universe workds, giving the
user complete control of the basic
building blocks of the universe (time, space, matter).
Using
the data collected the Time Lords can observe and predict almost any
event. In mapping out the
Universe they rationalize it and create a permanent version of
space-time. Because of this most primative
forms of time travel aren't capable of making major changes to History.
This
Intuitive Revolution
destroys Irrationality and Magic. Cacophony (irrationality and
magic) is banished from the Universe. This lack of belief might have caused the destruction
of dragons, unicorns, faeries,
slithy toves, bread-and-butterflies and other illogical
creatures. Psionics are the only
quasi-magical phenomenon that survives. The Web of Time is the structure
that all future races used to build their own histories on. The Time Lords view History
(aka the Web of Time) as high-order
mathematical structures that can be predicted by powerful
computers.
These predictions can then be
presented in an infinity chamber. The
infinity chamber in the Citadel is capable of decrypting the universe
and predicting the course of history, however these processes
are
complex enough to be regard as living beings. Indeed some Time
Lords (and all members of Faction Paradox) view history as a sentient
being or beings (sometimes called Loa). The Web is capable of
affecting the mind's of a Time Lord. In conjunction with the Web of
Time, the Eye of Harmony was used to define the physical and temporal
laws of the
Universe. It
also might have been used to influence the evolution of these species
so that most
resembled the Gallifreyans.
The Rassilon Imprimiture biologically links a Time Lord to the Web of
Time, making the foundation of the first four dimensions an
integral
part of Time Lord biology and culture. This link means that Time Lords keep history largely
unchanging merely by existing. Indeed they are so intertwined
with the
universe that they are a part of the Laws of Time and Space. Thus only beings with a Rassilon
Imprimiture (or a similar biodata) are capable of making significant
changes to History. Thus in the Web of Time only Time Lords
truely have free will. Unfortuanatly
in order to keep the Web of Time stable it is necessary
for
the Time Lords to be steady and unchanging. This is why all Time Lords are instilled with an
ideal of service towards
Time. To ensure stability
cultural change and natural
reproduction are forbidden on Gallifrey. The very idea of
Gallifrey having a history of its own is viewed
as
vulgar and primitive. A
single timeship exploding in the Vortex is no danger but the
destruction of a fleet of 1700 timeships could rupture the Web of Time
permanently. It is
unhealthy for even a
Time Lord to stand too close to the Eye due to density of
strands
in the Web of Time.
Whenever another species causes enough temporal
distortion to damge the Web an Interventionist (probably the CIA) is
sent to prevent the species from causing further damage. If that
Time Lord doesn't return then the Time Lords (again, probably the CIA)
has that Time Lords personal timeline shut down effectively removing
that worlds timeline from history (apparently to be replaced by one
where the temporal damage never happend in the first place). This prevents the missing Time Lord
from being used to damage the rest of the Web. The alternate timelines are attached,
in a spoke like pattern, to the Axis, which is located in
interdimensional space. The Overseer, from the sideways dimension of Guardus, supervises the Axis. Each of
these timeline is trapped in a giant loop. While most of the
timelines in the Axis are created by the Time Lords some are produced
by other species. By the
end of the Universe over 100 billion alternate versions of history will
have been created.
It should be noted that the
creation of the Web of
Time also create Anti-Time
- the opposite of the positive time. This timeless shadow of the
Web of Time is just as destructive to causality and continuity as
anti-matter is to matter. The theory of Anti-Time is viewed as
superstition for millions of years.
THE MATRIX
OF TIME
(aka the Space-Time Amplified Panatropic Computations Matrix, the
Matrix):
The Matrix of
Time is a
vast extra-dimensional panotropic computer network that exists in its
own micro-univeres outside of Time and History. It is the essance of Gallifrey
and
its culture.
Its memory system is an eleven dimensional self
referential lattice of trillions
of neural electro-chemical cells in a continious matrix.
These Neural mechanics can processes data faster than
the speed of Time.
The Matrix
is a small part of Gallifrey's Amplified
Panatropic Computer Network (APC Net) and
stores the memories all dead Time Lords and the
personality of hundreds of Time Lords. The first
intelligence to be stored in the APC was the Rassilon's. As of The Ancestor
Cell there are billions of minds stored in the APC but only a total of
only 153,846 full Time
Lord minds. The
Matrix's purpose is to monitor
all events in the Capitol and predict future developments within
the Capitol. All
Time Lord minds are connected to the Matrix on a
basic level via Reflex Link found in their brains. Through the Matrix this
Reflex Link connect every Time Lord to the Time Lord
Intelligentsia. The Matrix
gathers information from the Time Lords and allows Time
Lords to telepathically contact each other. This link can be used across
space and time. It might also
be used to allow the Intelligentsia to access the full Power of
Creation. Localized
Transduction Barriers can be used to shield a Time Lord form the
Matrix. Time Lords
who exiled lose the ability to
contact
other Time Lords across space and time.
The
Temporal Scanning Service is responsible for collecting tempographs and
monitoring the outside Universe. It is overseen by a
sub-committee of the High Council made up of three Time Lords - one of
which is a representative of the CIA. The biodata
of the whole planet of
Gallifrey acts
as a planet sized receiver and processor of data from the rest of the
universe. With
the sum of all Time Lord minds
(living and dead) as well as the input from sensors fitted into newer
TARDlSes, and data from Time
Space Visualisers, the Matrix provides the
Time Lords with vast (but not entirely complete) amounts of information
about the Universe.