#gallifreyan culture

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

Converting Gallifreyan Age to Human Years

GIL's noticed some confusion about how old Gallifreyans are in human years. Have no fear; GIL's here to help.

✨ Quick Answer

If you're not interested in the breakdown, here's the formula:

For Gallifreyan ages under 100: (see below).

For Gallifreyan ages over 100: Human age = 18 + ((Gallifreyan age - 100) * 0.0133)

Here's a straight conversion table:

Continue reading for the maths...

🌌 Gallifreyan Ageing: Some Key Facts

Gallifreyans physically mature at 100 years old (roughly like humans at 18).

They're considered socially mature at 200 years old.

They typically live between 4000 and 7000 years, with 13 different bodies over their lifetime, each lasting around 450-500 years (though both can be more).

The 10th and later incarnations tend to have shorter lifespans, around 350-400 years per body.

For comparison, the average human lifespan is around 73 years.

🔢 How Does Gallifreyan Age Compare to Human Age?

To make the conversion work, we use a two-step approach that adjusts for the different life stages of Gallifreyans:

1. For the First 100 Gallifreyan Years:

Gallifreyans mature rapidly during their first 100 years, and we map these years to 18 human years. This period includes:

0-8 Gallifreyan years = Infancy

8-16 Gallifreyan years = Childhood

16-100 Gallifreyan years = Teenage years (ages 11-18)

2. After 100 Gallifreyan Years:

Once Gallifreyans reach physical maturity at 100, their ageing slows significantly. We scale their entire lifespan to fit within a typical human lifespan of 73 years, using the formula 1 Gallifreyan year = 0.0133 human years for ages beyond 100.

📐 Why These Numbers?

The reasoning behind these numbers is based on two main factors:

Different ageing rates at different life stages: Gallifreyans physically mature by 100 years, just like humans reach maturity around 18 years old. But after that, their ageing slows down significantly. We needed two different formulas to account for these different ageing phases.

Mapping a long lifespan to a human one: Gallifreyans live for 4000-7000 years, far longer than humans. To make sense of this, we compress their later years to fit into a human context, ensuring that even the oldest Gallifreyan reaches a human-equivalent age of about 70-80 years.

So there you have it! So next time you meet a 900-year-old Time Lord, don't call them old. They're only 28.

More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[zonedallthewayout]

There should be a Duolingo course in Gallifreyan.

Can you imagine the chaos?

Job interviewer: Are you fluent in a language other then English?

Me:

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

I like making slideshows and I'm more than a little bit obsessed with Time Lords, so this post is going to be my masterpost for all my Time Lord related slideshows, enjoy

Why Time Lords dress the way they do

Time Lord Names

What is a Time Lord

Regenerative Dissonance (also me complaining about the Eleven)

Regeneration

A brief explanation of Time Lord Chapters and Houses

(More will be added as I make them)

(If you want more in depth explanations this site is very good)

[heimeldat]

Heimeldat! I have a weird question and I’d love to know what you think! What sort of calendar system do you think a temporally sensitive species like Gallifreyans would use? I’ve been wondering like, they’ve got to have some kind of official clock timekeeping and calendar, the Time Lords are way too officious and bureaucratic not to have some way to keep meetings scheduled and events organized. But what would that even look like? How would it work? Would it be something that could even be written down or would it just, live in the Matrix where they can access it like a giant Google drive? I dunno!

This is probably the dullest thing possible to be curious about but, how do you ask the question “what Earth year was this Time Lord born” and get any kind of answer? Like was the Master actually born in what would be 1800 or something? If you tried to hold the Doctor up to a calendar would they have been born in the year 3000 on an Earth scale? Like, what is “contemporary” Earth for them! Shh yes obviously it’s all and none but STILL.

This is stupid, I’m sorry, I just love your headcanons for things like this so I had to ask. No it doesn’t matter but I also want to know 😂

It's not stupid at all! I love getting this sort of ask, it's such fun to blather about my headcanons lol!

Right, so Gallifrey (or more accurately, the Eye of Harmony at the core of the planet) is one of the anchor points around which the entire Web of Time is woven, so it can't be part of regular continuity. The planet is described as existing "outside the meta-structure of history." Normal linear time does pass on Gallifrey, but it's a self-contained timeline, out of sync with the rest of the universe.

The result of this is that the Gallifreyan calendar is as straightforward as ours, but it can't be aligned with any other calendar in the universe. Gallifrey measures days, months, years, etc. just like any other planet, but those measurements only have meaning with reference to one another. You can convert length of time but not coinciding times. In other words, the Doctor can translate his age from Gallifreyan years to Earth years, but his Gallifreyan birth-year doesn't correspond to any particular year on Earth. All of spacetime is basically happening "now" from Gallifrey's perspective outside the Vortex-proper; conversely, everything in Gallifreyan history is happening "now" (or never) from the outside perspective.

Basically, when you're on Gallifrey, it's totally logical to ask "How long ago did Rassilon live?" but that question has no real meaning when you're anywhere else in spacetime. There's a correct answer to "Who was President of the Time Lords when the Doctor was born?" but there can't ever be a correct answer to "Who was King of England when the Doctor was born?" The Time Lords therefore don't consider any other civilization to be their "contemporaries" because everything offworld is seen as simultaneously long past and yet to occur. Gallifrey is the "single, all-seeing eye set apart from the rest of history" and they'll never let you forget it.

[buildoblivion]

you know how xhosa has all those different beautiful ‘click’ consonants? I think gallifreyan should have something similar - I think that time lords should speak in a language that ticks

[sun-spice]

The Doctor's name is a collection of emotions and/or concepts.

Listen: hear me out.

Gallifreyans/Time Lords are telepathic, some other people have speculated that they initially communicated telepathically and then later developed a written and oral language in order to more easily store and communicate information on more complex concepts.

We know that Gallifreyans are very superstitious about people knowing their name. Telling someone your name is a (love commitment) marriage tradition. Expressing who you are in emotions and concepts is extremely vulnerable and could be as to why they're so reticent about names.

Now when spoken language developed so did oral and written names. These were especially needed when communicating with non-telepathic species, but the superstitions still remained hence the really long names like Romana's full name. Some Gallifreyans, the ones who didn't like the change perhaps or who didn't like the long names just started refering to each other by description (the one person who lives in Arcadia by the large dead tree... And oh yeah she's a blacksmith btw) which probably very quickly just became shorter and shorter until you get stuff like the Blacksmith and the General. And eventually people probably just started picking out what they thought was cool (the Master, the Doctor, the Rani).

But the telepathic names still remained as part of the culture as a marriage rite and are considered to be one's truest name.

"Children can hear it. Sometimes, if their hearts are in the right place, and the stars are too, children can hear your name."

[gallifreyanhotfive]

She's having some deep thoughts

[garden-variety-jumo]

Someone asked me about it but they were a TERF so I had to block them. But I wanna ramble about it anyway so voila my post:

Alien Cultural Differences I Love (in Doctor Who, anyway)* :

Disclaimer: forgive my knowledge of Doctor Who being a little spotty, a lot of it I learned purely through the fandom

(Skipping over regeneration because that is a huge one)

NAMES: I cannot emphasise enough how much I adore their naming conventions/them not revealing their "real" names. Like, naturally, there's the inherent trans-ness of choosing your own name, but I also love the idea of choosing it after what you want to emulate. (And if I may mention, the outright insanity that the Master, who HATES humans, used a human term. Which. Hmm. Yeah. The implications. (To me))

There are also academy names, which I think are Super interesting, because from what I can see, they still aren't their real names, but they're never mentioned supposedly after their academy days. So, they have an element of the superstition that their real names have, But they are still like,, placeholder names.

I think I once read a fic where there was a superstition/fairytale about speaking your real name out loud and being stolen by toclofane because of it- which I think is Brilliant!!

Language: First of all. We must applaud whoever designed Gallifreyan writing because it Fucks Severely. What an absolutely beautiful form of writing. Additionally, I don't Believe we've ever heard it in the show, which means it's fully up to interpretation. Something that makes me deeply sad to think about is, at least in RTD's initial era, how the Doctor is the only one left to speak a dead language. I like the headcannons that it's very difficult for other species to learn (while they would never be able to properly re-create it, that doesn't mean they can't learn a form or version to it  though!!) This could be due to vocal differences or even, potentially, psychic elements to it- which leads onto my next point:

Psychic Abilities: I'm going insane what do you MEAN Gallifreyans are a psychic race I'm going to loose my mind. If you take that into consideration, it has to have influenced their society or how they socialise somewhat. What must their perception of the world feel like? What are the social conventions/ethics of it all? I feel like they only scratch the surface of this topic in the show and long story short I would like a handbook that explains all of this in depth.

Imagine, then, going from a society that Could, if they wanted, connect to each other psychically, then having it all taken away. How empty that must feel??

The society: While my memory on Gallifreyan culture is a little muddied, it's been made Pretty clear the culture and socialisation is very different to, at the very least, humans. For one, the hubris Time Lords are taught to believe in. (At the very least, Time Lords being Gallifreyan but Gallifreyans not necessarily being Time Lords)

What other subtle differences might there be from there? I imagine they would be taught cultural norms/habits of other species in order to blend in or better communicate ((for example, the story the Doctor was telling about aliens who communicated largely with their eyebrows)). Time Lords in the show are vaguely "human" with certain landmarks to prove them as a different species, two hearts as the most prominent example. They are also implied to have three brainstems, and I'm sure, other internal differences (isn't it mentioned they have orange/rust coloured blood?) Therefore, what forms of socialising did they evolve differently, that they must adjust for speaking to humans? It's just cool to think about!!!

Biology: Largely touched upon in the previous point but their Blood is Orange. That's pretty neat!!!!!! WOAH ALSO. Their body temperatures being naturally lower!!!! That's an absolutely fascinating detail. I wonder if the Doctor ever discloses these medical details to their companions in case of emergency? Almost definitely not...

Aspirin: It's fatal to Gallifreyans? Insane. And has the Doctor ever mentioned this to their companions, just in case? Probably not.

THE GOD DAMN FOBWATCHES: Insane to me that they can just. Do that. As a lover of Tensimm, I regularly think about the set up of series 3 and how insane fans must have felt watching it live. Fobwatched Ten largely sucks though, my love goes out to Martha always. (But also... does that imply Ten's memories and experiences made the Doctor kind? Or being a Time Lord in itself, though that seems to align less with what we know)

Aaaand that's all I can think of for now!!

*((Special shout out to Mandolorian culture also, though. I am entranced and fascinated by it))

[theangelshavethephonebox]

HELP ME FIND A FIC

Hey guys, so, I remember this wonderful fic that had like, a list of gallifreyan terminology, and one of the words was 'helar' or 'telar', but I think it had an accent, and it meant healer/medic/doctor. I can't find the fic

Before anyone asks, I've already checked- it wasn't Heimeldat's Gallifreyan Grammar fic, I checked. helllpppppp I need to find this again. For Reasons.

[sporadic-bursts-of-energy]

doctor who

the spn drama could take a whole year to explain in the least so i’m good

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

What are the Houses of Gallifrey?

This is quite a long post. Strap in; learning is fun.

House Structure and Servants

Gallifreyans are born into one of the Houses of Gallifrey. Each person is a 'cousin' of their House, which is led by a Kithriarch, typically chosen by the previous leader.

[left: a Drudge; right: the Doctor's personal avatroid, named Badger]

Sentient Houses: These ancient, sentient structures have furniture that sometimes needs training to behave and paintings that whisper at passersby. As if your Gallifreyan childhood wasn't already creepy enough.

Drudges: Massive humanoid servants controlled by the Housekeeper. They're made of non-living, wood-like material and help maintain the House and its inhabitants.

Avatroids: Robotic beings originally from the planet Ava, they were effectively enslaved by the Time Lords. They act as tutors, protectors and friends to individual children.

Looms: Each House has a Loom, which determines the genetic makeup of its cousins.

Housekeepers: These caretakers take vows to protect and maintain the House, using mirrors for surveillance. If they fail, their service ring will burn to ash.

Oldblood Houses

Oldblood Houses are the most traditional and resistant to change. Their cousins often only gain a second heart after their first regeneration, and some can be identified by small purple flecks in their eyes.

👑 House Rassilon (Prydon): Bearing the name of Gallifrey's most celebrated figure, this House's origins trace back to Castellan Fordfarding, when it was previously known as House of Fordfarding. With Rassilon's subsequent rise as a Gallifreyan hero, the family transformed into a Great House, and guess what happened next.

❤️ House Heartshaven (Prydon): Heartshaven was renowned for its exquisite vineyards and the coveted Hartshaven Wine, which it kept in a heavily reinforced wine cellar to protect it from earthquakes. In later years, it was abandoned and infested by pig rats for reasons unknown, but is the wine still there?

📚 House Lineacrux (Probably Prydon, possibly unaffiliated): Famed for its scholarly pursuits, Lineacrux is a bastion of Gallifreyan history and law, obsessed with stability and non-invention and filled with fuddy-duddys walking around pondering. Their loom makes the cousins have the appearance of extremely old and senile people; however, its members wield considerable influence, often serving as advisors within Gallifreyan society. They’ve been known to shy away from the limelight, not taking credit for their input.

🏞️ House Lungbarrow (Prydon): This House has had a - let's say - mixed history, and we're not blaming it all on the Doctor. It's located in the Southern Mountains on Mount Lung and overlooks the river Cadonflood. This House, with its members known as Lungbarrovians, was long a place of wealth and privilege. Then it wasn't. Let's just say it’s awkward.

💎 House Jadedreamers (Probably Patrex): This House has ties to the Sisterhood of Karn, embodying the House's mystical and elusive nature.

🏰 House Blyledge (Prydon or Cerulean): Not too much is known about Blyledge, though we know its dark, angular structure is surrounded by a walled garden of silver trees and sits on some random hill.

🔥 House Firebrand (?): Situated near Mount Cadon, Firebrand is believed to be extinct following the war between Lady Borusa and Lord Prydon.

💡House Goodlight (?): Goodlight was another House that fell during the War between Lady Borusa and Lord Prydon.

🔬 House Arpexia (Probably Arcal): The bastion of scientific fundamentalism on Gallifrey, Arpexia is renowned for its unwavering dedication to logic and doesn't like emotions. This House's innovative spirit has birthed countless experimental time travel capsules, intricate technologies and a bottomless armoury, though sometimes at the cost of stability. Their biggest rivals are House Xianthellipse.

🏛️ House Brightshore (Prydon, could be unaffiliated though): Known more for its political clout and opulent wealth than for the scholarly pursuits of its members, Brightshore has carved out a reputation for producing influential Prydonians. This House's hallmark is a sense of entitlement that sets its cousins apart, often marking them as figures of considerable influence within Gallifreyan society – completely intolerable, but with cash.

🪞 House Mirraflex (Probably Prydon): Originating from the valorous General Mirraflex, this House is a testament to military might and strategic acumen. Known for birthing generals, enforcers, and strategists, Mirraflex members wear their supercilious entitlement like armour, viewing lesser species with disdain. Their aggressive defence of the Laws of Time is legendary, as is their deep-seated xenophobia, particularly towards Newblood Houses like Xianthellipse.

🌌 House Stillhaven (Prydon): Stillhaven's Patriarch dared to defy the Ultimate Sanction, and as punishment, the cousins had their memories erased and were used in experiments. Praise Rassilon!

⚖️ House Jurisprudence (Probably Prydon): Little is known about this House, but some of Gallifrey's legal minds and inquisitors hail from here, making it possibly known for its dedication to law and order.

🛞House Artronides (Maybe Arcal): Likely the House of the great engineer Time Lord Artron. It also produced a notable Commander of the Chancellory Guard.

🌲 House Bluewood (?): This House's contributions to Gallifreyan society aren't very significant. One time, they had their interests represented by K9 in diplomatic discussions, which tells you all you need to know.

🎲 House Urquineath (?): Known for its insignificance as the 'maven House of inconsequence' and 'holder of naught'. The Hussar's gambling led to the House driving into bankruptcy and obscurity. By the era of the Last Great Time War, House Urquineath had vanished. Shocker.

❓House of Dellatrovellas (Probably Patrex): One of the oldest and most noble and privileged Houses.

❓House Warpsmith (?): Once again, Warpsmith was a House that fell during the War between Lady Borusa and Lord Prydon. No more information is known.

❓House Witforge (Patrex): Produced probably the most infamous leader of the Celestial Intervention Agency.

❓House Neutronides (?): No longer in existence, with the most prolific member being a cow farmer. Might be Drome affiliated but not even sure even to guess.

❓House Wetrix (?): Your guess is as good as mine, but it does exist.

❓House Wetstone (?): Again, it's a thing. It produced the minor character Norvid (sorry, Norvid).

Newblood Houses

Newbloods come from newer Gallifreyan Houses, born with two hearts and have better control over regeneration than Oldbloods. They're more open to time-active cultures, which Oldbloods see as overambitious. Newblood Houses are fewer in number, and their members tend to be a bit more eccentric.

🐺 House Dvora (Originally Patrex, now Prydon): The first of the Newblood houses and by far the most successful, it likely came out of the House of Heartshaven. Its cousins are very self-assured, extremely practical and like to remain impersonal. It has a strict power structure that works on the premise of a wolf pack with a pack leader.

🛸 House Lolita (Probably unaffiliated): Founded by the 101-form timeship Lolita during the early years of the Time War, initially consisting only of Lolita and reserved for her timeship children.

🌳 House Oakdown (Prydon): A highly respected Newblood House allied with the Prydon Chapter. Known for its noble status and estates on Mount Perdition, characterised by fields of red grass. However, legendarily produced The Master. Whoops.

👠 House Tracolix (Maybe Scendeles, probably not): Known for its ambition and adaptability, often exploiting societal changes. They love to follow fashion trends and are also noted to be arrogant and reckless, just like that preppy guy/gal you've spent your entire life avoiding.

🧬 House Xianthellipse (Maybe Arcal): Known for its expertise in biology and biodata. Their experiments with biodiversity and 'war forms' made them a key player during the war, despite earning the animosity of traditionalist Houses, and eventually becoming physically indistinguishable from monsters. Their rivalry with House Arpexia was notable.

🧪 House Meddhoran (Maybe Arcal): Meddhoran's members were known for their unique biodata, interwoven with traits from lesser races  - an experiment by their parent House, Xianthellipse. This genetic gamble was considered to be a failure.

Oldblood/Newblood Unknown

These are Houses we can't be entirely sure of their status of old or newbloods.

❓House Hellfrost (?): A House that was totally devoted to Morbius.

❓House Duskeriall (Prydon or Mixed, likely Oldblood): All that's known is it produced one certifiably weak politician named Goth, and they liked doing experiments.

❓House Avarna (?): Absolutely nothing is known about this House.

❓House Gashani (?): Or this.

❓House Scarlet (Probably Prydon): Or even this.

Servitor and Caretaker Houses

The Plebeian Class, composed of Gallifreyans who aren't Time Lords, handle vital roles like guards, technicians, cooks, and musicians. They mostly live in the Capitol, with Mid Town bridging the Capitol and Low Town. These Houses are led by a Castellan (or Chatelaine, if female).

🏚️ House Catherion (?): Once a ruling house, House Catherion met a bloody end when a rogue babel massacred its cousins on one dark night. The event stopped further generations from being loomed, marking the House's decline into extinction.

🌄 House Ixion (Mixed): Situated at the edge of Gallifrey's civilised regions at the 'edge of the world', House Ixion's original family departed, leaving caretakers behind. Later, it became the base for the Order of the Weal, getting cousins from other houses who mainly served administrative roles. Rumours suggest it tampered with other Houses' Looms to produce mutants and renegades.

🍁 House Deeptree/Redlooms (Prydon): Deeptree/Redloom/whatever we're calling it these days is characterised by its servitor-class status, producing military. Known for its loyal yet maverick cousins, the house has a history of quelling Time Lord traitors and sharing tales of vampires with its children. Kinda suss, huh?

❓House of Everston (?): Yet another house with no details, all that's known is Romana was a custodian of it.

Not Recognised

These houses are not recognised by Gallifrey as existing, for various reasons.

😈 House Celestis (Unaffiliated): Originally the elite of the Celestial Intervention Agency, they transformed into conceptual entities beyond Gallifreyan biology in order to run away from a War. Sustained by belief, they fashioned themselves as deities, often appearing to lesser species in God-form and becoming amoral and somewhat intolerable in the process.

⌛ Faction Paradox (Unaffiliated): Faction Paradox, initially House Paradox, morphed from a Great House into a cult opposing Time Lord orthodoxy, engaging in temporal shenanigans and roping in lesser species. They deviated from Time Lord norms with their love for paradoxes and death rituals, leading to their eventual estrangement. I believe someone wrote a very long book about it. A splinter House from this is also House of the Seven Gables, which is literally just a man split into seven.

👤 House of Shadows (Unaffiliated): Rumours swirl around Gallifrey of clandestine House/s of Shadows, a place for those scarred by regeneration gone awry – incomplete transformations, insides turned out, or minds unaltered by new forms. The Black Nurseries might house the paradoxical youth trapped in perpetual childhood or monstrous forms within its rumoured walls. Despite modern Gallifreyan advancements (apparently) rendering such anomalies near extinct, whispers persist of the House's past and possibly concealed existence.

Other

🕰️ Nechronmancers (Originally Arcal, now unaffiliated): Nechronmancers are House of Arpexia dropouts, who challenge the very fabric of Time Lord society by denying the existence of time itself. They've renounced their names, genders, and pasts, they embrace a form of existence that defies conventional understanding. Their radical beliefs and practices make them social pariahs, yet their unique abilities to manipulate temporal states hint at powers beyond the grasp of ordinary Time Lords. However, it's not known whether this group formed their own House structure. They may also be related to Faction Paradox. Wild.

Whoniverse Facts for Friday by GIL

Any purple text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[huntersroses]

A suggestion for Gallifreyan Culture fans, based on an aspect of the microculture I grew up under and I think absolutely would fit Great House living situations to a tee:

The Chair Hiriarchy.

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

I desperately want more exploration into wider gallifreyan culture outside of the time lords and their politics. I want to see what the normal, non time lord, gallifreyans have going on, how they are affected by whatever the time lords are doing. I also want to see more stuff about the houses, because they are farther from the sanitized and 'civilized' existence of the time lords in the capitol, we don't see them often, but they still retain some aspects of what was once time lord/gallifreyan culture (I especially want to see how the culture of the houses that are maybe reminiscent of ancient time lord culture compare to modern day gallifreyan culture, because the time lords are fairly stagnant, even in the houses, but are the gallifreyans)

[gallifreyanhotfive]

I think their everyday clothes depended on status. We saw a lot of them wearing relatively plain clothes, but the politicians and CIA and Chancellery Guard are all seen wearing more elaborate clothing. Given that Time Lords are drama queens, I wouldn't be surprised if they wore that sort of thing every day. As for classes, the Time Lords are the elite (there are only about a thousand of them), and everyone else is lower (probably with some class stratification as well). It might be worthy to note that Prydon Academy overlooks a refugee camp.

As for food, there is a fruit called magentas that are eaten dried or fresh or made into rum. Dactyl eggs for Otherstide (see below). They also have tea of course and Rassilon's red wine. Sealaks might be fish, and roast grockleroot is eaten in the Low Town (lower class). There's a lot of other stuff obviously, like Karmine pudding and stuff (but I haven't quite figured out what it all is yet).

They do have some special occasions. The Feast of Omega celebrates, well, Omega, and the Feast of Rassilon apparently occurs on December 11 or the Gallifreyan equivalent. Otherstide is a Gallifreyan holiday celebrating Rassilon's expulsion of the Other, who is likely actually the Doctor. On the thirteenth night after Otherstide, a cult performs the Thirteenth Night ritual. Otherstide also happens to be the Doctor's birthday! We know that at least some Gallifreyans give birthday gifts. Missy gave the Doctor a Cyberman army, and Romana once got an air car for her 70th.

If you really want to get into the nitty gritty, the Gallifreyan Traditional Society was a recent Doctor Who based cultural reconstruction movement. (Yes this was real, and it was quite cult-y) They have their own holidays, but they aren't canon (so I won't go into them). If you want to go into it though, click below.

I believe that (with exceptions) most Gallifreyans lived with the rest of their House. The Houses are sentient, so I'm assuming any decoration would be done with the House's permission. Gallifreyans do get married though, but it is probably largely political (at least for Time Lords and those of the Greater Houses).

Ya know I want so badly for there to be more talk about actual Gallifreyan/Time Lord culture!!!

What did their every day clothes look like? Did it change very much between social classes? What are their classes if any??

What about food? What did they save for special occasions? Did they have special treats for birthdays? Did they celebrate birthdays, or just major ones?

What’s dating like for Gallifreyans? And marriage ceremonies? How did a couple decorate their homes? Who would live with them?

I have so many ideas and so I just scream

[regenderate-fic]

Heartstrings

Fandom: Doctor Who Ships: Ruth!Doctor/Rose Tyler Characters: Ruth!Doctor, Rose Tyler Rating: General Series: DoctorRose Fic Marathon 2022 Word Count: 1,849 Other Tags: Dimension-Hopping Rose, Gallifreyan Culture

Read on AO3

Summary: Rose has found the Doctor-- but not the one she was looking for. But her dimension cannon is broken, and this Doctor is letting Rose crash in her TARDIS until it's fixed. One day, Rose hears singing drifting through the corridors…

(Written for DoctorRose Fic Marathon Day 9: Music)

Rose was wandering the corridors of a halfway-familiar TARDIS when she heard it. 

She'd been there about a week now: she'd hopped into the right universe but onto the wrong planet, looking for the Doctor, and then she'd seen the TARDIS and run inside only to immediately realize two things. First, the TARDIS was different, bordering on unrecognizable; second, her dimension cannon was broken. 

That was when the Doctor walked in. An unfamiliar Doctor, and one unfamiliar with Rose. She'd peered at Rose over orange-tinted glasses and said, “Welcome to my ship. I trust you're acquainted?” Her expression softened as she added, “Not just anybody can walk in here, you know.” She let a fond hand run over the console— just like Rose’s Doctor did. 

“Suppose ‘acquainted’ is as good a term as any,” Rose said. She glanced at the console, stark in its whiteness. “Although I seem to have lost track of time.”

“Ah.” The Doctor looked Rose up and down. “From my future, then?”

Rose nodded, fiddling with the hem of her shirt. “And I'm trying to get back to you,” she said, “except my cannon’s broken.” She held up the yellow button that hung around her neck.

The Doctor leaned in, adjusting her glasses again as she tried to get a look at the canon. Rose passed it to her, and before she knew it, the Doctor was looking at her over top of the cannon and saying, “This is impressive work.” She handed it back. “You'd better stay with me until you can fix it.”

“You’re sure?” Rose asked, her eyes trained on the Doctor’s. 

The Doctor gave her a smile— impersonal but warm, jarring from the Doctor but far and above the bare minimum from a stranger. “A friend of mine is, well—” She chuckled. “—a friend of mine.”

Rose smiled back. “Thanks.”

And that was how she had ended up here. She’d spent a week in this TARDIS, filling a spare bedroom with machinery and tools as she tried to fix the dimension cannon, tiptoeing around the Doctor. 

Until, wandering the corridors, trying to find the library, she heard singing. 

She wasn't sure she was hearing it right at first. This was the TARDIS— there were all sorts of odd noises. And the singing was distant, soft enough to be disbelieved. But as Rose took tentative steps forward, the sound distinguished itself, solidified until it was clearly a voice, drifting through the halls, clear and low, singing a slow melody. 

Rose couldn't help herself. She stepped forward, closer to the sound, until she came to a stop outside a white door, identical to all the others in the TARDIS. She lifted a hand to touch the wall next to it, and the door slid open.

Rose had found the library. 

It looked just the same as she remembered— vaulted ceilings, walls of books, warm amber light. A crackling fireplace at the other side of the room, and sofas and armchairs arranged around little tables. It was one of Rose’s favorite rooms: cozy without being small, warm without being uncomfortable.

The only change was the Doctor.

She was sitting at the edge of one of the sofas, leaning over a table. When Rose looked closer, she realized the Doctor was playing some kind of instrument: she was plucking at something on the table, and the sound was echoing across the room. She was still singing, too, and Rose realized with a jolt that she couldn’t understand the words: the Doctor was singing in another language, and the TARDIS wasn’t translating.

Rose hesitated. Should she stay? This seemed like a private moment— but if it was really private, the TARDIS would never have led her here to begin with.

She stepped forward.

“Doctor?”

The Doctor jumped. She looked up, startled. Her hair was down, Rose realized, her locs falling around her face, and she was just wearing her brightly colored undershirt: no waistcoat. Rose hadn’t seen her without her waistcoat or with her hair down— more evidence that she was intruding.

But when the Doctor saw Rose, her expression relaxed. “Rose,” she said. “Should’ve known.”

Rose stepped closer. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.” 

The Doctor shook her head. “You didn’t.” She hesitated. “Or, you did, but it’s welcome.” Extending an arm, she motioned for Rose to come closer. “I haven’t shared music in a long time.”

Rose circled the sofa, sitting down with a good few inches between her and the Doctor. She had a better view of the Doctor’s instrument now: it was laid flat on the table, a gorgeous dark wooden frame with two sets of strings. The Doctor plucked at both sets together, and chords leapt into the air.

“It’s a—” She paused, thinking. “I’m not sure it’ll translate. Suppose you could call it a sideways harp.” 

“Is it Gallifreyan?” Rose asked.

The Doctor nodded. She looked at the harp, pensive reverence in her eyes. “Sometimes I pretend it’s mine,” she said.

Rose frowned. “Isn’t it? It’s on your ship.”

The Doctor glanced at her. “If you know me, you know half the stuff on here is…” She tilted her head, ever so slightly, to the left. “Shall we say borrowed?”

“More than half, I’d say,” Rose laughed. She nodded at the harp, turning serious. “But if this is from Gallifrey—”

“It’s complicated,” the Doctor said. She gave Rose a cheeky smile.“I did steal it, for one thing.”

“It’s beautiful,” Rose said, smiling. “The song, too.”

“It’s a lullaby,” the Doctor said, her gaze turning back to the harp. “Back on Gallifrey. My mum used to sing it.”

Rose stared. “You’ve got a mum?” 

The Doctor looked at her again, her eyebrows raised. “Sorry. I shouldn’t say too much. Don’t know what my future self wants to share.”

“He never mentioned his family,” Rose murmured. “Or—” She looked out at the shelves, frowning. “Said he was a dad, once.”

“That must be in my future,” the Doctor said. She plucked at a couple of strings. “It’s a bit of a sore subject, family. He might not want to talk about it.”

“He doesn’t like to talk about his past,” Rose said. “‘Course, I know a little bit about why, but—”

“It’s in my future,” the Doctor finished.

“Right.” Rose glanced at her. Her hands were still on the harp, delicate in their movements. “Don’t want to mess with your timeline or anything.”

“I’d probably forget,” the Doctor said. She plucked out a few more notes: a melody was beginning to form. “Time doesn’t let you remember the important things. Not when it comes to your future.” 

“Suppose it wouldn’t.” Rose drew her knees to her chest, relaxing into the sofa, watching as the Doctor continued plucking at the harp. “Would be too easy that way.”

The Doctor paused her plucking long enough to give Rose an unreadable look. “Exactly.” She went back to the harp, and now she began to hum a melody.

“I know this one,” Rose said suddenly. 

The Doctor looked up. “Hm?”

“The Doctor—” Rose corrected herself. “My Doctor— the Doctor I traveled with, anyway. He sang it to me. Wouldn’t tell me what it meant.” It had been after Krop Tor, when Rose had fallen asleep in the library with her head on the Doctors’s shoulder, reluctant to leave him even for a second after being so sure she'd lost him forever. She'd woken up, still in the haze of sleep, to hear him singing to her, and when she raised her head to ask about it, he'd gotten flustered and refused to answer.

And now, this Doctor’s hands still hovered above the strings of her harp. Her eyes were still on Rose’s, searching for something.

“It’s a love song,” she said. “From Gallifrey. He must care about you.”

Rose felt the flush starting in her chest, traveling up her neck. She ducked her head. “Suppose I hope he does, or else I’ve wasted a lot of time trying to get back to him.”

One of the Doctor’s hands reached for one of Rose’s. Her hand enveloped Rose’s, a firm reassurance. 

“I really miss him,” Rose whispered. There were tears at the edge of her eyes— well, when weren’t there, these days?

“You must be close.” The Doctor’s voice was even, gentle. 

Rose nodded. “We are.” She looked down at their joined hands. “Or, we were. Don’t know what it’ll be like when I get back.”

To Rose’s surprise, the Doctor laughed.

“Give yourself more credit than that,” she said. “He’s lucky to have you.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

The Doctor let go of Rose’s hand in favor of wrapping her arm around Rose’s shoulders, pulling her in. Rose let herself relax into her, resting her head against the Doctor’s chest. It felt familiar— the Doctor was always the Doctor, no matter which body she was in. This Doctor was holding herself carefully, much more carefully than either of the regenerations Rose had known, but she was still the Doctor. Rose was surprised, really, at how safe she felt, even when this Doctor’s sole knowledge of her was whatever could be gained in a week spent tiptoeing nervously around each other in the TARDIS. 

They sat like that for a few moments, enjoying the comfort. And then the Doctor said, “Do you want to learn to play?”

Rose sat up. “Yeah, all right.”

The Doctor leaned forward. She spoke slowly, patiently.

“You’ve just got to hold your hands on the strings. Like this.” She demonstrated, and Rose mirrored her position, watching her closely. 

The Doctor hooked her finger around a string, pausing to show Rose the positioning. Rose copied her, and when the Doctor pulled her string back, Rose did the same. The two notes sounded together, a new chord. 

“It’s gorgeous,” Rose murmured. 

“Isn’t it?” The Doctor let her hand hover above Rose’s, asking a sort of permission. Rose nodded, and the Doctor positioned her fingers: her index finger hooked around one string, her thumb hooked around another. “It’s a sort of pinching motion,” she said. “To play them both together.” She demonstrated on the other side of the instrument, moving slowly so Rose could see.

Rose pinched, lifting her fingers away from the strings. The resulting chord echoed against the one the Doctor had just played, and Rose laughed, for no other reason than the delight at having put beauty into the universe. 

“Just wait,” she teased. “I’ll be playing all the big stages before you know it.”

“I’ll tell everyone I knew you before you were famous,” the Doctor said, a gentle smile on her lips. 

“Yeah, you’d better.” Rose grinned at the Doctor, tongue between her teeth. “It’s going to be a big deal, knowing me.” Her grin grew. “‘Course, I’ll have to give credit to the woman who taught me everything.”

The Doctor looked at her, soft surprise in her eyes.

“D’you know,” she said, “I can’t wait to meet you properly, Rose Tyler.”

Rose took her hand again, her brilliant grin turned shy. “It’s gonna be fantastic.” 

“And don’t I believe it.”

[radio-ghost-cooks]

the Hole's ideas abt Gallifrey/Gallifreyan

spoken Gallifreyan sounds like song

there's some telepathic layer to it that humans/non-telepathic races can't pick up

in a brighter timeline the Master sings their childhood lullabies to the Doctor to help her sleep

the telepathic element makes it capable of soothing or causing physical harm

the Doctor's brain is so quiet now that Gallifrey is gone

not only are the Time Lords and Gallifreyans gone but so too is their culture

the Doctor scouring the TARDIS for the remaining seeds and saplings of her home, now endangered like she is

in one version of things the Doctor is a horrible gardener, in the other she's fantastic

either way the Master is the best with them

she saves the plants for when she gets the Master back (she never does)

the Master hates human Christmas because it can never go back to Gallifrey and enjoy the foods it loved as a child alongside its family. the Time War took that away.

the Theta Sigma used to bake Koschei a cake each year and now that Gallifrey is gone, the Master wakes up to a cake every year and it's not as pink as it was before and there are substitutions in the flour and it's not the same frosting as the kind from Low Town but it still tastes exactly the same

Gallifrey doesn't die with the Doctor, it dies with the Master.