#gallifreyan history

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

How did the Time War start?

How did the Time War start?

Now there is a hot-diggity question, and you won't be surprised to learn it's complicated. The Last Great Time War didn't just start—it brewed, simmered, and exploded.

🔮 A War Foretold

The Time Lords knew a Time War was coming long before it actually began. Legends, prophecies, and ominous stories circulated for centuries. Most dismissed the idea as impossible. After all, meddling in the affairs of other species? Surely not!

Except ... that's exactly what they did.

⚡ The Catalyst: The Doctor and Skaro

The Time Lords foresaw a future where the Daleks would dominate the universe, so they decided to act. They sent the Fourth Doctor to Skaro during the Daleks' creation with three specific objectives:

Prevent the Daleks' creation (if possible).

Alter their development to make them less aggressive.

Discover a weakness to exploit in the future.

But the Doctor, being the Doctor, hesitated when faced with the chance to destroy the Daleks entirely. This act of compassion—or maybe indecision—was viewed by the Daleks as a pre-emptive strike by the Time Lords.

🔥 Escalations Over Time

The tension only grew from there. The Daleks attempted retaliation in increasingly ambitious ways:

Sending a duplicate Doctor to assassinate the High Council (spoiler: it failed).

Davros using the Hand of Omega to gain mastery over time—only for the Seventh Doctor to trick him into destroying Skaro instead. (Davros was not amused.)

Attempts at diplomacy didn't fare much better. Peace talks didn't work. The final breaking point was when the Dalek invaded Gallifrey during the Etra Prime Incident, which shattered any remaining chance of peace.

🎇 The Unavoidable Beginning (Or middle? End?)

By the time the first official shots of the Time War were fired, both sides had been poking each other for centuries. The Time Lords began forming the War Council and resurrecting Rassilon, while the Daleks isolated Gallifrey by attacking its allies and forming the Cult of Skaro.

🏫 So ...

The Last Great Time War didn't begin with a single moment—it was a cascade of events, misunderstandings, and deliberate acts of aggression that lasted millennia.

If you ask the Daleks, it started with the Time Lords meddling in their creation.

If you ask the Time Lords, it started with the Daleks' endless quest for domination.

And if you ask the Doctor, they'll probably just mutter something about having the right, sigh deeply, and stare into the middle distance for an uncomfortably long time.

Related:

💬|⚔️🔒How does the Time War time lock work?: The extent of the time lock and its current status.

🤔|⚔️🧬Could post-War Time Lords have biological hangups from the conflict?

📺|⚔️🪖The Could’ve Been King with his army of … etc.

Hope that helped! 😃

Any orange text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →📢Announcements |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts → Features: ⭐Guest Posts | 🍜Chomp Chomp with Myishu →🫀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 😴

[heimeldat]

I was doing really well not starting any new fics. Ah, well... apparently I'm now writing a story from the perspectives of the Other and Tecteun, trying to flesh out my headcanon where the Timeless Child is an eldritch Dark Times monstrosity that Tecteun captures and forces into humanoid form. Problem: (not really a problem at all) I have to reread Time's Crucible before I can figure out all the details.

[truebluewhocanoe]

Fuck it, Genesis of the Sontarans, I want to see when the Sontarans became a clone race, and what their pre-cloning society was like

Enough with Earth historical episodes. I want other planets historical episodes, especially Gallifrey.

For example, the Doctor being there when the Pythia casts The Curse of Pythia or meeting young Rassilon and Omega. Lots to explore here.

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

paul mcgann eats a rat .mp3 in circular gallifreyan

[innocet]

I don’t think they have even the concept of fiction on gallifrey. I think all narrative is history to them

[lerios]

[corallapis]

<3

[seaweedstarshine]

Hello, moot! How are you? I'm rewatching THORS (once again) and I'm ugly crying while mouthing along their lines but that has nothing to do with my ask. Just thought it would be nice and polite to say hello.

Anyway my ask is I've seen people (official DW/BF people and fans) call River a Time Lord, human+, Proto Time Lord, and not a Time Lord because it's a title not a species. Personally, I've gone with human+. But another moot argued she's a Time Lord. What's your take on it?

Hiiii great to hear from you :D My name’s Tree by the way! Aaaah good for you, I got a love-hate relationship with that episode but those last ten minutes are 😭 *chef's kiss* I should rewatch it, it is that time of year, and I haven’t seen it since my Doctor Who Christmas Specials Rewatch last December!

Anyway!

I most often call River a Proto-Time Lord, or sometimes a part Time Lord/part human. (I’m not sure Proto-Time Lord is accurately descriptive, since it kinda sounds like it should refer to ancients like the Founders who weren't born with regeneration, but it’s the word I generally use because it feels closest to capturing the complexity of River Song!) Human+ sounds cool too though! (Especially as in, human+Time Lord.)

Because — while yeah, she is a genetically modified human with no known Gallifreyan DNA — it’s clear Kovarian did a lot more to deliberately make her resemble a Gallifreyan than just the Time Vortex related things like time-sense and regeneration. Her two hearts! Her respiratory bypass! No way those are related to Time Vortex exposure — it's Gallifreyan biology. Kovarian wanted her to be a match for the Doctor in every way.

Honestly, since there's no one really like her (apart from her clones), I think a lot of it's down to how she relates to herself and her identity.

I think the Doctor was really excited to learn that she's like him, in many ways — and that kind of affirmation would mean a lot to someone who grew up feeling like an outsider, having been told she was a just weapon, so she would have a connection to her Time Lord-ness as well as her human-ness.

But that doesn't mean she wouldn't still introduce herself a psychopath long before attempting to explain her species to a stranger.

(I don't think most qualified Academy graduates would consider her a Time Lord, though. Eyyy, nine times out of ten, they're too dead to say.)

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

only good thing abt the vous situation is that it lets me experience tecteun calling 13 the child that im 100% convinced she actually would bc shes the only one who uses tu for her

[pl9090]

[Personal headcanon] Gallifreyan

Disclaimer: As the title says this is just how I think of and use what I consider to be the main fan created Gallifreyan font/languages. This is not me attempting impose it on everyone else as a definitive organisation just as reference for my work following this to avoid confusion.

Old High Gallifreyan: https://fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/666099/archaic_gallifreyan

Modern Linear Gallifreyan: https://fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/657463/assassin_s_gallifreyan

Timelord Circular/History coding: (Doctor's Cot) http://doctorscotgallifreyan.com/

Faction Paradox Circular/alt time coding: (Shermans) https://shermansplanet.com/gallifreyan/

Faction Paradox Circular/alt time coding is used by sme renegades as an act of defience hence the Doctor's ocassional onscreen use of it. It's like an Eton alumni, "rebelling" purposely using americanisms in an Austrailian accent. instead of the proper English language in a London accent as taught: Paradox/Rebel Circular Gallifreyan.

[nocaffeineforlevi]

Got my Zine!

@77yearsteam

So excited to read this, I got the stickers and bookmark as well but they're not in the photo.

As a side note that's just something I find amusing, I either managed to lose the extra sticker on the packaging, or Customs stole it. I like to imagine it's the latter, even if its probably the former. To the hypothetical person in customs: hope you're enjoying the thoschei sticker

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

History is often written by the rich and the powerful, how we see culture is often dictated by those on top and while that’s all interesting and such, what I’m interested in is: What’s it like to be poor/equivalent to lower class in Gallifreys society?

What's it like to be lower class on Gallifrey?

When you think of Gallifrey, you probably imagine the shining halls of the Time Lords, the great Capitol, and those iconic flowing robes with their weird peacock collars, but like many societies, Gallifrey also has its lesser-known layers ...

👽 The "Shobogan" Legacy

The term "Shobogan" originally referred to the Gallifreyans before they discovered the ability to regenerate. But over time, the word took on a very different meaning, becoming a slang term for any Gallifreyan who rejected the high society of the Time Lords. These people live in areas called Low Towns and have their own distinctive culture and even a form of writing. They're often blamed for vandalism and other rebellious acts. Over time, the term 'Shobogan' has expanded even more to apply more broadly to Gallifreyans who lived outside the Time Lord's pristine society, or socially rejected, or a general reference to the working classes (aka plebians).

🏙️ The Plebian Class

Plebians are the artisans, technicians, cleaners, engineers, and everyday folks who keep Gallifrey running while the Time Lords sit at the top of the social pyramid. Most of the population lives in smaller city complexes scattered across the planet.

These non-Time Lord Gallifreyans are generally prevented by circumstance from attending the Time Academy, which means they can never become Time Lords themselves. This separation keeps power in the hands of a select few, as non-Time Lords cannot hold significant positions of power.

🌌 Outsiders: The Rejected Ones

Now, for some Gallifreyans, rejection from society isn't enough. A small but notable group, known as Outsiders, choose to completely reject Gallifreyan technology and live off the land. They retreat to the wildlands of Outer Gallifrey, surviving at a stone-age or bronze-age level of technology. These Outsiders, often former Time Lords or those disillusioned by the system, live in yurts, hunt their food, and grow crops. It's a very hard life when you consider Gallifrey is quite a hostile environment.

👮 Watch Out It's The Watch

Worth mentioning here - when it comes to law and order on Gallifrey, the Watch is the enforcement arm. But most of the Watch comes from the plebeian classes—at least, from Gallifreyan families that can afford a commission.

Their duties include guarding the Capitol, escorting Time Lords, investigating crimes, and even dealing with labour disputes between the Time Lords and Shobogans. However, while they do carry weapons (strictly for ceremonial or defensive purposes), they're often untrained in actual combat. And since hardly any crime happens on Gallifrey (apparently), the Watch are perpetually bored, and tend to be quick to anger and aggressive when dealing with any violations, even if those violations are extremely minor.

🏫 So ...

So, here's the reality: unless you're born into one of the higher-ranking Gallifreyan families, the chances of becoming a Time Lord are slim to none. The divide between the Time Lords and the non-Time Lords is pretty well-established. Hmm, this all sounds very familiar ...

Related:

💬|⏰👽What does the Gallifreyan political and social environment look like?: Overview of the general structure of Gallifreyan society and politics.

💬|🧬👽What are the differences between Time Lords and Gallifreyans?: The biological differences between Time Lords and Gallifreyans, general overview

💬|🏺🧙What do Shobogans look like, and how are they different from modern Gallifreyans?: Various biological difference between Gallifreyans and their ancestors.

Hope that helped! 😃

Any orange text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →📢Announcements |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts → Features: ⭐Guest Posts | 🍜Chomp Chomp with Myishu →🫀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 😴

[bagels-n-shmaegels]

YEEEEEEEE

they got technology for building custom-made stars to use as an unlimited energy source AND it comes in the form of a semi-sentient box?? like the hand of omega??? you know what that means. thats right baby series 14 full feature-length Lungbarrow adaptation

[intuitive-revelations]

Headcanon: one of the reasons why Gallifreyan is a) so complex, and b) so inconsistent, is because it's less one language and more a complex mishmash of thousands of languages and dialects.

Think about how one of the reasons English can be complex to learn is because of the mix of Germanic and romance language roots, and now take it up to 11.

While one might expect Gallifrey to be monolingual, given its age and class structure, this probably isn't technically the case. After all, why limit your culture to one language when the average citizen is effectively panlingual (to the point that TARDIS translation circuits are actually dependent on their pilots' knowledge, rather than the other way round)?

Thus, if there once were distinct languages on Gallifrey, they probably have all been merged at this point into modern Gallifrey's super-Esperanto. Add in loan words from notable civilisations across all of spacetime (but likely primarily from Gallifreyan colonies and allies like Dronid, Minyos, Cartego etc.), and it quickly becomes quite unwieldy.

It's also likely that there's a lot of overlap between these sub-languages, which can make distinguishing meaning hard to an outsider. Gallifreyans likely get around this courtesy of their telepathic connections.

TBH, given Time Lord sensibilities, it's likely that every single word variation has its own delicate meanings, derived not just from their societal uses but also from the etymology and history of each one. Canonically (though I don't have a source) we know that there are 30 different words meaning "culture shock", for example, which likely have very minor distinctions in meaning. We also know, unsurprisingly, that there's at least 208 tenses to help in describing time travel.

As an example - imagine being a Sunari ambassador at an embassy gathering and accidentally offending every Time Lord in the room because you accidentally used a definite article derived from the memeovored Old High Tersuran colony dialect, now considered low-brow by association with modern Tersuran, when you intended to use a nearly identical form of the word originating from the Founding Conflict, a triumphant post-Rassilonian intervention, distinguished by a near-imperceptible glottal stop.

It's likely that some of these Gallifreyan sub-languages/dialects may still be spoken with increased frequency under certain conditions, such as in one's own House or when visiting other city complexes. We know, for example, that Arcadia seems to be associated with a "Northern English" accent (which Nine picked up subconsciously post-regeneration, with the Fall of Arcadia being one of the last things the War Doctor remembered before DOTD's multi-Doctor event - hence "lots of planets have a north") when translated, which may indicate some dialect differences in the original language. I suspect there is a societal expectation for Gallifreyans to code-switch depending on the situation, with Citadel business generally expecting the Gallifreyan equivalent of RP, though it's relatively common for Time Lords less concerned with respectability and politicking to not comply.

One nice benefit of all this complexity, and the reason I made this post, is that there's a good argument to be made that every fan attempt to construct a Gallifreyan language can be 'canon', contradictions and all.

Greencook Gallifreyan? A formal evolution of Pythian prophecy scripture into the post-Intuitive Revelation era (based on its similarities with the Visionary's scrawling in The End of Time).

Sherman Gallifreyan? A modern katakana-like phonetic alphabet for the rapid-onslaught of new loan words following President Romana's open academy policies. Recently adopted by the Fifteenth Doctor for writing human proverbs.

Teegarden Gallifreyan? An archaic but recognisable near-Capitolian dialect from the Prydonian mountains, once spoken by Oldblood houses like Lungbarrow and Blyledge.

Or, in a nutshell, the state of Gallifreyan conlangs (and maybe in-universe Gallifreyan dialects):

I guess the dream project would be to accept the complexity and create some sort of grand modular "meta-Gallifreyan" conlang, merging as many fan interpretations as possible with their own distinctions and overlaps, that can continue to be updated as new ideas come up and new stories are released...

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

Thinking about how we see time lords using food machines or those nutrition pill things and the implication that they don’t really cook because of this, but then we also get references to an old family recipe from Romana’s house and see that lungbarrow has a kitchen and I can’t stop thinking about that, gallifreyan culture clearly involved food at some point but that gets lost to an extent over time, but the houses seem to retain some of this

[gotyouanyway]

i said it offhand/as a joke but “romance is for renegades” is real for me now.. i don’t think all gallifreyans are aro in the sense of not experiencing romantic attraction/desire, but i do think in their culture romantic feelings are very personal and are kept strictly between yourself and your partner(s). but even in private between partners, expressions of romantic love are not the passionate gestures humans would recognize as romantic. they’d look platonic or even businesslike from the outside, because it’s about internal feelings and the intent behind your actions as mutually understood by you and your partner, not about a culturally defined set of “romantic” behaviours.

so to make a show of “romance” in the way we’d understand it (anything from say dancing together in private to proposing marriage in public) is very alien to them. and because they’re time lords, it’s a bit scandalous to do anything alien. these are bizarre ungallifreyan habits that renegades pick up when they leave the planet, hence outward displays of romantic love/desire being heavily associated with renegades and outcasts

now is this to say NO time lords ever do romantic things with their partners on gallifrey when they think no one’s watching? of course not. they’re 1. influenced by alien cultures and their own history whether they like it or not and 2. massive hypocrites. but like i said, if they do it’s a bit scandalous and considered outside the social norm

(also to be clear in this scenario i don’t think their way of being private about romance is weird or sad or that they’re like unhappy living that way. they just have different norms regarding what you do with romantic love and they’re categorically weird about how non-gallifreyans do things)