#yssgaroth

[arcalian]

Like fuck to say not only will we adapt scherzo but instead of anti-time creatures we will just imply these are the yssgaroth if you know

[pl9090]

Timelord War Naming Conventions

Constructive feedback and criticism is welcome as always.

The formal conflict names/terms, "War in Heaven" and "Time War/Great Time War" both exist inuniverse, while both are used for conflicts involving Timelords there seems to be a vague distinction between the two as they are not used interchangeably, (the Yssgaroth conflict is the First War in Heaven while The Order of the Black Sun conflict is the First Great Time War).

The, "Time War/Great Time War" name/term is easier enough to define. Time Wars: The several temporal conflicts the Timelords have been involved in since The Order of the Black Sun conflict which are all one sided curbstomps not conflicts between equals. Great Time Wars: The temporal conflicts the Timelords have been involved in against an equal or near equal temporal power.

This being the case it's possible that inuniverse, "The Second War in Heaven" and, "The Last Great Time War" are referred to as the Second and Third Great Time Wars respectively by the Timelords and other time aware cultures? In NuWho the Timelords and other time awares seem to more often refer to, "The Last Great Time War" as, "The Time War" much in the same way we do with .W.W.2.. Maybe the, "Last" part was by The War Doctor? (He did staser, "No more" into a wall for whatever reason). If nothing else the use of the name/term, "The Second Great Time War" would help canonwelding efforts going forward.

The, "War in Heaven" name/term is unfortunately more difficult to define. Wars in Heaven: Two specific conventional, (the Yssgaroth war) and temporal, (the enemy war) conflicts the Timelords are involved in.

The difficulty arises from the fact that according to .T.B.o.t.W. the name/term is primariyl used by non and borderline time awar species who may not be consciously aware of the conflict let alone understand it so it's applied to both types of conflict thus rasing questions why others aren't included, (eg: The Black Sun Time War, the Rachnoss War, and the Dalek Time War).

Timelords: The Eternal War, The First Great Time War, The Second Great Time War, and The Third & Last Great Time War.

Lesser species: The First War in Heaven, The Black Sun War, The Second War in Heaven, The Third War in Heaven/The Dalek Time War.

[a-wartime-paradox]

The Spiral Yssgaroth was fashioned similarly to the Spiral Politic (it is not a parallel continuum)

When I was initially reading The Book of the War, I fell victim to it's (an extension of the House's) propoganda idea that parallel universes do not exist. However, I needed to reconcile this idea with the fact that the metahistory of the FP universe is founded upon the fact that the Great Houses fought against the Yssgaroth from an entirely separate continuum. So I concluded that, as it is called a "spiral" like the Spiral Politic, it must have been built in a similar manor. I've since learnt that parallel universes do exist, but am holding on to this.

I just find it so neat. Before Urizen pulls together the forces of Gallifrey to bind time to his domain, the Mother-King of the Yssgaroth had already built up another metastructure of history, forming am existential noosphere around it, later called by outsiders the Spiral Yssgaroth. It just adds to the idea, started by the Osirians, that the Great Houses really aren't that Great and Singularly Almighty as the Book may claim.

The Mother-King of the Yssgaroth had a child, and as it was born outside the Spiral Politic, those without it called it Timeless, as they (or at least the Houses) did not understand alien time. This Child fell through a portal, only to be found, much later, by an explorer, who experimented on them to help Urizen find the way of regeneration.

And yes, if our Spiral has a version of Earth, the Yssgaroth's does also. But you wouldn't possibly recognise it...

[cynicalclassicist]

I think there was something about the Timeless Child possibly being a Yssgaroth. https://aristidetwain.tumblr.com/post/674377997514637313/brainwormsofdune-if-you-go-with-the-the-timeless

oh they are the doctor’s species tho aren’t they.

child sent through a wormhole.

a wormhole. that thing they just mentioned in this episode. didn’t have to but rusty did.

child sent throw a wormhole. one of this species finds it. copies it. the child dies. the 99.9999999% copy remains. gets picked up.

can’t change its shape at will anymore not without ridiculous energy, but that’s what time vortex exposure gets you and that creature has copied it so at the moment of death boom there’s energy boom change your shape and repair all the damage.

they’re fae they’re demons they’re angels they’re vampires.

vampires were already linked to time lord history anyway, of course they are, same thing, they were always a mirror, but also literally.

they actually are the doctor’s species.

[realifehorror]

[doolallymagpie]

realized I could probably get something out of “orthodox mechanicus sect decides they need an edge on those hereteks from argos cincinnatus, and end up in an alliance with phaeron ashad of the great telosian dynasty” as a plot

so damned loyal to the “true” omnissiah that they go full xenos-loving heretic

[walks-the-ages]

Me, seeing a neat Faction Paradox lore discussion/debate post on my dash:

*saves as draft to read later*

*saves as draft to reader later*

*saves as draft to rea--

[a-wartime-paradox]

the Time Lords didn't just trap a few of the survivors in another universe (E-Space), but also the Vampires themselves originated from another universe (according to The Book of the War) likely Flux's "Universe Two"

We don't appreciate enough how vampires are no only canon in Dr. Who but also a major plot thing and very poweful. The time lords, the oldest civilization, the time travel guys fought a WAR with the VAMPIRES and had to trap them in another UNIVERSE. And they're not even embarassed of this, the writers I mean. They bring it up constantly because that's what Dr. Who is like. Our horrifying murdering time-travelling blood cult? Yes we will definitely bring up the vampires again here. If you don't like it go watch Star Trek

[intuitive-revelations]

As I've mentioned in a previous post, I've been thinking a lot about the exact chronology of ancient Gallifrey, and specifically I've put a lot of attention on the Caldera and the Citadel, plus related things like the Eye of Harmony, the Crevasse of Memories That Will Be, the Untempered Schism etc.

All these things seem to be located in the same place on Gallifrey, albeit some at different times, and often overlap in nature. After some thinking, I think I've worked how everything goes together, as well as the order of events. At some point I want to create a fully history, but for the sake of this we'll focus primarily on the subjects above, with some other major events sprinkled in for context.

A Very Brief History of the Capitol

[ID: Surviving parts of the old Capitol, in an illustration from Lungbarrow. Crystal-like towers and walkways stand over a waterfall. The TARDIS, in pyramid form, dematerialises.]

Pythian Era - The capital city is built near the Mountains of Solace and Solitude (likely, in antiquity, a stronghold against the Gin-Seng cats to the south). Beneath the Pythia's temple, in the centre of the city, is the Cavern of Prophecy. Within the cave is a deep, deep opening known as the Crevasse of Memories That Will Be, which holds, in the astral plane, something known as the Gate of the Future, a tear into the time vortex far greater than the similar natural rifts that occur elsewhere on Gallifrey. Time flows out from it, from the future, to the past Gallifrey. In times of meditation, the Pythia sits in a hanging cage above the Crevasse, breathing in the rising vapours, which aid her in her clairvoyance.

[ID: Gif edit made by me, featuring the last Pythia sat in a small cage slowly swinging in a chasm as a mist slowly rises around her.]

The Intuitive Revelation - The Neotechnologists, led by Rassilon, bring a revolution. The Pythia curses Gallifrey with sterility and cuts the ropes holding her cage, falling into the abyss. The Gate of the Future inverts, forming the Gate of the Past. Visibly, the Doppler-effect like colouring of the vortex changes - no longer red, flowing towards the viewer, but blue and flowing away (ironically directionally the reverse of the real Doppler effect). Time from the new future flowing into the chaotic past.

The new government take control of the Capitol. A new age of space exploration arises, with the Shobogans taking on the name, for now, of "Space Lords". One of these first individual explorers, semi-authorised predecessors to future Time Lord renegades, is a woman named Tecteun.

The First Attempt - The stellar engineers, including Rassilon and Omega, make their first attempt at capturing the energy of a collapsing star, recieving the energy on Gallifrey using an obelisk, like that later used to channel energy from the Eye of Harmony, in the middle of the city, using the nature of the Crevasse.

The experiment is a catastrophic failure. A hole is punctured into the Spiral Yssgaroth, unleashing Vampires through openings throughout the universe, fracturing out from the experiment.

[ID: From The Book of the War, an illustration of the "Eyes of the Yssgaroth", human-like eyeballs looking through holes punctured into spacetime.]

Part of the Old Capitol is destroyed in a great blast, destroying the Cavern of Prophecy and opening up the Crevasse, leaving a giant crater: the Caldera. It is likely that many are killed. Left behind in the middle of the crater, is the Gate of the Past, now manifest in the physical world: an open gap in reality. In this form, it becomes known as the Untempered Schism.

(I also suspect this is when Rassilon is forced to regenerate for the first time, to the shock of on-lookers, having secretly previously recieved Tecteun's genetic modifications - I plan to expand on this theory in a future post.)

The Vampire War / Rebuilding of the Capitol - The exact circumstances of the experiment are covered up. Rassilon, leaving to fight the Vampire hoard, swears Omega to secrecy regarding the project during the Arcalian High Council's investigation.

[ID: A gif, rotating around the Citadel is constructed over the Caldera, from part of the (likely partially-symbolic) time-lapse in The Timeless Children.]

Though some of the city survives, including parts of the Pythian temple, a new colossal city-complex begins construction in the place of the old one, suspended over the Caldera, the centrepiece of the new Capitol: the Citadel. It is built as a defensive structure, both for the war, and to protect the new, growing elite, surrounded by a great circular wall named "Rassilon's Rampart". The "core" of the structure, on which the towers rest, reaches down deep into Caldera and the deeper Crevasse.

Meanwhile the Untempered Schism is taken out of the city by those fearing further destruction, to a place in the nearby hills that will one day be known as the Weeping Field, where prospective Time Academy students are initiated.

[ID: The Untempered Schism in the Doctor's time, as seen in The Sound of Drums. It sits in a stone frame on red grass, with the Seal of Rassilon in front of it, and flames on either side. Within it, the blue "past" variant of the RTD1-era time vortex flows away from the viewer. The Citadel's lights are visible in the background.]

(Side note: it's possible the Untempered Schism's 'ring' is deliberately designed to evoke the Caldera. Note how it's lined with pieces sticking out. Look a bit like the battlements on Rassilon's Rampart, don't they? Surrounding the hole into the vortex just as they surround the crater.)

The Anchoring of the Thread - Several centuries later, once the Vampires are more or less defeated, Rassilon returns home. He coups Pandak I, forcing him to resign, and takes the Presidency.

By now the Citadel is more or less completed, though for the next few centuries it still lacks its characteristic dome, likely added during a later founding conflict.

[ID: Gallifrey, around the time the first TARDISes are grown, from The Lost Dimension. In the background past a small outsider village is the Citadel, new and gleaming, but undomed.]

The Triumvirate retry their experiment at Qqaba / Polyphilos, attempting to capture the collapsed star. When the experiment goes wrong once more, Omega's ship falls inside, as spacetime threatens to crack open again. With temporal energy flowing though him (a la the Bad Wolf), Rassilon reshapes the laws of physics, forming an event horizon, and black holes as we know them.

The black hole is dimensionally captured and suspended in the moment it collapses and the event horizon is formed, creating the Eye of Harmony, controlled using the Obelisk of Rassilon storied in the Panopticon Vaults. Meanwhile, the black hole itself is suspended within the temporal singularity of the Caldera, deep below the Citadel.

Harnessing the power of the Eye and the Caldera rift, Rassilon "anchors" chronology around Gallifrey, creating the Web of Time and placing it under the control of the Gallifreyans, now Time Lords.

Future Developments - Over the years, many changes come to Rassilon's Gallifrey.

Over the years, the more and more of the old city is replaced with new towers, forming the new Capitol around a now domed Citadel. Interweaved with these buildings over 28 square miles is much of the new Time Academy, such that the Academy is sometimes considered a whole city itself annexed to the Citadel.

While the remnants of the Pythian Temple are eventually torched by Rassilon, hunting down dissenters, many old buildings remain intact. These continue to be inhabited far into the future, in a community known as "Low Town" or the "Lower Len", as opposed to the "upper" city above. Shanties surround the surviving buildings, some climbing up Rassilon's Rampart.

Another such community is based around the "Old Harbour", whcih once sat on the coast of the now recessed Sea of Time. Nowadays, it likely sits on the shore of the small (possibly designed) lakes near the Capitol, where streams from the mountains presumably once drained directly into the sea.

[ID: From Hell Bent: a screencap as Rassilon turns from looking out the window from an Inner Council chamber high above the Capitol. In the background can be seen some lakes between the mountains, with some signs of what might be buildings on their shores.]

(Side note: I reckon this shot above might actually give us a glimpse of Old Harbour. I might just be imagining things, but there's some small features around and on the lakes I reckon could be docks or buildings? Interestingly, this also comes as Rassilon asks about the Cloister Bells ringing, and Old Habour is well known for the bells in its clocktower, which might explain why Rassilon was looking out at it from the window.)

In the space around the Eye in the Caldera, the Cloisters, the core of the APC net and later the Matrix, are constructed. The structure itself is, externally at least, relatively small, but it generates an entire 'micro-universe' on the Astral plane once accessed by the Pythia. Indeed, just as the Crevasse once allowed the meditating Pythia to see the future, so does the Matrix create its own prophecies.

[ID: From Hell Bent, the Doctor and Ohila converse in the entranceway to the Cloisters, a dark space with glowing optic fibres running across cobwebbed columns.]

In the Matrix is a "womb-like" null-space is where most TARDISes are grown, taking advantages of the Caldera's spatio-temporal properties. Budding within the Citadel Cloisters, a TARDIS's "Cloister Room" is one of the first parts to grow.

By the time of the Time War, though possibly earlier, the sealed Caldera also forms the resting site for many dying Battle TARDISes, the Under Croft, where they presumably decay and fertilise the growth of new time ships.

[pl9090]

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

Do Timelord’s have their own curse words?

Do Time Lords have their own curse words?

Gallifreyan society has a lot of slang and common phrases, and we'll focus on the ruder ones here - y'know, the ones you probably don't want to use in front of your Gallifreyan grandma.

There aren't so many 'direct' translations of swear words, but rather phrases and slang more attached to their culture.

The conlang can offer more, and also provide translations for these (mostly English) phrases, but we'll just look at these canonical ones for now.

🤬 List of Swears

D'Arvit: Unspecified curse word, might be something like "dammit!"

Fall off!: Possibly equivalent to "get lost" or "f--k off".

For Rassilon's sake!: Similar to "for God's/f--k's sake".

Gjara'vont: "of darkest thought". Possibly used as an insult to call someone sick-minded.

Little sheetsnacker: Likely directed at someone considered annoying or insignificant.

Old Pythia: An insult for females, like "old hag." Due to its context, it's probably used as a derogatory term against powerful women.

Omega’s Orifice: Self-explanatory.

Otherf--ker: Self-explanatory.

Rassilon’s Blood/Rassilon's Death: A couple of particularly strong phrases for obvious reasons - don't wanna be insulting Rassilon.

Rassilon's Rod: Cruder one.

Scares the staazula out of me: "Scares the s--t out of me".

Shobogan: Gets used occasionally as an insult for people who are perceived as particularly stupid or uncultured.

Rot in a black star: "Go to hell".

Shell snacker: Referring to someone who consumes hallucinogenic substances, particularly cerub nuts.

Sweet mother of Chaos!: "Sweet mother of God!"

We’re scrubbed: "we're screwed/we're f--ked"

What the Omega!?: "what the hell/f--k!?"

Yssgaroth curse you: Pretty gnarly threat, where the speaker wants you to turn into an abomination.

I should note that during the Time War any use of the names Rassilon or Omega was considered blasphemous.

🔞 The Untranslatable Curse

There exists a Gallifreyan curse that has no English translation and is considered so rude that it's been deleted from the Matrix:

🏫 So ...

While there's not so much in the way of direct translations, Gallifreyans attach plenty of cultural nuance to their profanities. So if they insult you, they're doing it in an irritatingly clever way.

Related:

Can humans/non-Gallifreyans learn to speak Gallifreyan?: How possible it would be to see a human speaking Gallifreyan.

Hope that helped! 😃

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😴

[gallifreyanhotfive]

Random Doctor Who Facts You Might Not Know, Part 33: Gallifrey at War Part 5

Same TWs as normal for these parts - Time War shit, body horror, death, some reproductive concerns. Also, again, sorry if there are ever any repeats; I don't always remember if I've already mentioned something or not lmao

During the early Time Wars, Gallifrey went to war against the Charons, who had the ability to manipulate the very fabric of the universe. The Time Lords erased them from history.

The Last Great Time War was so devastating that the pre-Time War universe is different from the post-Time War universe (with the actual Time War itself being time locked in its own reality).

Compassion's biodata was warped until she became a Type 102 TARDIS. The Eighth Doctor took her and Fitz on the run in part because the Time Lords were hunting her down to use as sentient breeding stock for new TARDISes.

The Enemy used the anarchitects as a weapon during the War in Heaven. Anarchitects are disembodied intelligences that can live in infrastructure and manipulate it to rebuild it the way they want. They can make bridges disappear as you walk over them, straight hallways become impossible labyrinths, and make the space you are in unbearably small or large in an instant.

Tardigrades are intelligent enough that they can run mental simulations of the entire universe and solve complex equations that would allow them to manipulate reality itself. War strategists were convinced that they would eventually redefine history their own way and alter fixed points.

During the Eternal War, the forces of Gallifrey pushed the forces of the Yssgaroth back into their own universe. This took well over a thousand years, however, and in doing so billions died and entire star systems destroyed.

The Ninth Doctor and Rose became involved in this war when they arrived during the Kotturuh crisis. At this point, Gallifrey had not gained mastery over time, so Rassilon and his people were called Space Lords. During this time, Rose was turned into a vampire and attacked the Doctor a couple times before he cured her.

The Eternal War was so violent that the Time Lords rejected the use of violence forever. This is clearly true, and anyone who says otherwise is feeding you anti-Gallifreyan propaganda. I know this because our great Lord Rassilon told me himself.

Rassilon purposefully turned Gallifrey (which originally orbited a single sun) into a binary star system to kill all the vampires, even those resistant to a single sun's natural rays.

Because of the Eternal War, Rassilon's throne is made up of the bones of giant bats.

During the Last Great Time War, the Daleks tried to use nanobots on all the adults on a planet to make a mirror Gallifrey. The War Doctor defeated them by using a virus that killed every single adult. Thus, in one fell swoop, he orphaned the whole planet.

The War Doctor was the inspiration behind the Nightmare Child.

The War Council gave the Doctor tasks to complete as an assassin. One of the tasks given to him was to assassinate the Barber-Surgeon.

The password to the archway leading to the Barber-Surgeon's domain is 'Theta Sigma.'

The population of Carter Baross had been harvested by the Daleks to make cyborgs out of them. The Time Lords destroyed the entire planet, and the only survivor was named Case, who was saved by the War Doctor because he thought she would make a good weapon.

The War Doctor placed the planet of Lacuna in a time loop on the day before its destruction and spent hundreds of loops trying again and again to save it. After failing again and again, he was eventually convinced to end the loop.

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[who-datgirl]

Who IS Ruby Sunday?

My head is spinning over the secret identity of 15’s companion. Ruby is only in one season as Millie Gibson, something very important will have to happen to have her only appear in 8 episodes. At first I wondered if maybe Ruby was The Master hiding in plain sight as a human. Davies confirmed recently that The Master is taking a break from the plot, so that knocked them out of the running for Ruby’s identity. I am left with one headcanon that, regardless of it winds up true or not, exists rent-free in my mind.

I believe Ruby Sunday is the child of 12 and River Song. I think during their 24 years on Darillium, River wound up pregnant. Once she realized she was carrying The Doctor’s child, she took the TARDIS while 12 was busy with something (In the Husbands of River Song special she confirms that she often steals the TARDIS with The Doctor none the wiser). River carried out her 9 months of pregnancy in secret and used the Chameleon Arch on newborn Ruby. The TARDIS then chose the coordinates that landed her at the church on Ruby Road on Christmas Eve (A clue chosen by the TARDIS for The Doctor since River and 12’s time on Darillium started on Christmas Day). River then popped the TARDIS back on Darillium mere seconds after she left and lived out her remaining happy years with The Doctor, with the truth about Ruby weighing on her heart.

Why would River do this? Simple. The TARDIS is no place to raise a newborn. The Doctor would have stopped running and settled down on Earth to raise Ruby. River knew her time was almost up, but with a child The Doctor would have continued his 24-year vacation and extended it into Ruby’s adulthood. River loves The Doctor for their gallivanting around the universe and saving countless worlds through their travels. The thought that an untold amount of stars in the sky would vanish without The Doctor’s help broke River’s heart: “Maybe The Doctor would never have travelled again” was her fear. Rather than raising Ruby out of a mix of love for Ruby and grief for River, River chose to let The Doctor’s grief of River be their fuel for saving worlds instead. Also, River figured by letting a Ruby live a human life on Earth she would get a quiet and good life that is without Daleks, Cybermen, The Yssgaroth, Weeping Angels, and all the other horrors that The Doctor and his companions deal with. For anyone interested in seeing how I imagine 15 and River’s confrontation about Ruby playing out, I will post a dialogue I wrote between them at the end of this post.

NOW, onto the little easter eggs that I have noticed so far that give credence to Ruby being River’s child:

15’s run has had a ton of talk with Ruby about family and being adopted, The Doctors biological ties are definitely a theme of the season.

Ruby’s initials are R.S. Same as River Song.

As mentioned above, Ruby is born Christmas Eve. 12 and River’s time on Darillium began Christmas Day. The TARDIS chooses coordinates that best suit a Time Lord/Time Lady when a Chameleon Arch is used. I believe The TARDIS chose that time and place as a clue for The Doctor to eventually find Ruby.

Coincidence seems to be forcing Ruby and The Doctor together. Almost as if 15 is the answer to her question about who her actual parents are.

When viewing Ruby’s memory, her hooded mother points at 15 which alters the memory. River and The Doctor’s connection has been shown to transcend laws of time and space before (I.e. 11 being able to see River on Trenzalore and even kiss her projection from the Library).

There is such a pervasive theme of music between 15 and Ruby. The Christmas special kicks this off with a fun musical number which seems innocent enough. Since then, all the talk of music has caused the words “Melody” and “Song” to come up quite a few times in the latest season. The Devil’s Chord episode to me felt like a slap in the face with deliberate wordplay. Timothy Blake begins the episode by discussing melody with Henry Arbinger (and Melody is River’s birth name). Towards the end of the episode Maestro finds “A hidden SONG��� in Ruby’s soul. If she is River’s daughter that would literally be her last name.

I listened to the hidden song in Ruby’s soul that she sings before the Christmas music several times. Melodically it is quite similar to the melancholy tune “sung” by the Towers of Darillium in the “Husbands of River Song” special.

In “BOOM” the ambulance could not identify 15 properly as a life form. The ambulance had the same error when trying to identify Ruby’s next of kin.

I think if I am correct, once restored to a Time Lady Ruby gets fatally wounded and regenerates into the next season’s companion. This is why Millie Gibson is only in one season. I think Ruby lives on, just as the new actress Varada Sethu (Also Millie and Varada are both credited in next season’s first episode, perhaps we see the regeneration then?)

Is there any truth to this theory? Ultimately, that is up to Davies. As I said before, for me it will live as true in my head rent-free regardless.

As promised, my headcanon confrontation between 15 and River at the church on Ruby Road

*15 stands in front of the hooded figure on Ruby Road, demanding that she pull down her hood*

15: I know who you are! I know who Ruby is. I just have one question that I cannot understand……..*tears forming in 15’s eyes* WHY…..River…..

*The hooded figure pulls down her hood, revealing the saddened expression of Professor River Song*

River: Hello, sweetie.

15: Why River, why did you hide her away from me?!

River: Do I need to make you a list of reasons a baby on the TARDIS is a horrible idea? Traveling the way you do is no place for a child. And that was my greatest fear. I know that for you, you lost me long ago. If, if you knew we had a child. You would’ve stopped immediately. You’d do the one thing you’d never do in a million years.

15: *Angrily* What’s so —

River: You’d stop running, Doctor. You’d park your TARDIS on some corner of London. You’d sweet talk yourself into a quaint home, in some quiet city. You and her would spend years on Earth while she learns to walk, to speak. Long enough that the day would come that she’s old enough to ask why she doesn’t have a mother. I couldn’t do that, but not just to her or you. Do you have any idea how many worlds would see their final dawn if you are not around to pop in and interrupt some horrible disaster? Why, I couldn’t risk every star in the sky going out due to some mix of love for our child and grief for me!

So I did what was best for her, and best for the universe. I used the arch. I landed here. A time and place where she would grow up to be loved and to have one thing neither of us ever had, a normal life. I gave her the gift of a life free from Daleks, from collapsing stars, from the cold of space. I did that, and then I hid her time lord essence in the safest place I could, the one place you’d never go. Nine months have passed for me but for The Doctor on Darillium, I will return after a few seconds. We still have a few more years to go in the long night, and you haven’t a clue I left. You’re the smartest man I’ve known, but also the stupidest.

15: Well the universe didn’t seem to want us to be apart did it?! Coincidence pushed and pushed until I found her, or she found me, I’m not even sure which happened first. Everywhere we went together there was children, mystery, belonging, family all practically forced into my view. I was the answer to her question. Every time she asked who were real parents were, coincidence nudged my foot in her direction. It nudged and nudged until we found each other, and then the answer to her heart’s song screamed itself out in silence. I was meant to be in her life and I got there…..it, it was just the long way around.

River: In my heart I knew, if anyone could find her with no clue to go on, it would be you. I don’t regret the actions I took to hide her, but I’m so glad you are with her now. You, at least, can know her. My diary is out of pages. I don’t have any room for adventures with my daughter. You Doctor, you have all of time and space. Show it to her! If the universe doesn’t want our daughter to live a life of domestic bliss on Earth, teach her to be the Time Lady that she’s clearly meant to be. For the first time in a long while, you don’t have to be the only one of your people on the TARDIS. You finally don’t have to be alone in this universe, and for that I am so happy.

**The Doctor gently grabs River, holding her in his arms**

15: River…if I could do anything to save you, you know—

**River wipes away her tears and slowly backs away after the embrace**

River: Oh sweetie. Hush now. You and I both know how this works. We’re always rushing by each other in reverse. You have the beginning of the rest of your life with her ahead of you. Me? Well……all I have is the time with you on Darillium. I really must be getting back. Eventually you’ll stop entertaining yourself or impressively monologuing to some poor sap on that planet and notice that the TARDIS is gone. I must be back before then.

**Rivers walks into the distance, fading into the darkness of Christmas Eve night. A lone stream of light appears as she opens the 12th Doctor’s TARDIS. River takes one last look at baby Ruby on the church steps, and then one last look at 15**

River: Until next time Doctor.

15: NEXT time? Wait, River. How in Earth do you mean?

*River grins widely at The Doctor, and says one word before shutting the TARDIS door*

River: Spoilers

*15 stares a long while at the now vacant space of their former lifetime’s TARDIS until the glimmer of an idea appears in their eyes. 15 dashes to their TARDIS. 15 slows their approach as they go deeper and deeper into the halls of the space-and-time-ship until they stop at the door. This is the one door on the TARDIS they refuse to walk by, to even think about. With tears forming in their eyes, they open the door for the first time in centuries. Cautiously they walk into the bedroom that 12 and River shared in their time on Darillium. The room’s lights slowly hum on, the bed still unmade on the side River slept so her imprint can be seen in the sheets. Atop her pillow, rests a Time Lord’s pocketwatch. 15 opens it and hears the hum of a Time Lord soul. Inside it are two holographic pictures, one on each side of the watch: one of River, one of the 12th Doctor. On the bottom of the watch 15 can see something inscribed in the Gallifreyan tongue. It reads a name: Amelia Song*

[heimeldat]

Nowhere, in a never-time, the Yssgaroth bred with the Time Lords. But the children who never were died young, beheaded and taken as Paradox trophies so their skulls could become masks...

ID: a realistic digital painting of a skeletal monster seen from the chest up. Its skin is bone-white, its ribs visible, and its neck elongated below a large pointed skull. Long bat-like ears stick up from the sides, six empty eye sockets stare toward the viewer, and an enormous lipless mouth grins with long fangs. A bony frill sticks up from the creature's neck and shoulders, forming a wide curve of translucent red membrane shaped like a Time Lord's collar. The creature's skin is covered with glowing green symbols in Circular Gallifreyan, and green light shines against the darker edge of its face. end ID

[aristidetwain]

Ring-Master

In 2007′s Last of the Time Lords, Russell T. Davies drew our attention to the Master’s distinctive signet ring, inset with silver Gallifreyan writing, which was plucked from his funeral pyre by the hand of a mysterious woman who, in 2009′s The End of Time, would turn out to be one of the ‘Disciples of Saxon’, a cult formed by the Master in expectation of his death with the aim of enacting a ritual to resurrect him, still in the same incarnation at that.

This was a pleasant twist, and a fun tip of the hat to the method of Count Dracula’s resurrection in multiple Hammer Dracula films. (This is only fitting: as per The Book of the War, the Time Lords adapted their powers of regeneration from the Yssgaroth’s…)

However, I think there are two startling facts about this plot point which have been just-as-startlingly under-discussed in canon-welding spaces. 

Follow me after the cut to find out the truth about the Rings of the Time Lords — or should I say the Time Lords of the Rings? (This was terrible and I do not apologise.)

Fact #1: This pays off a Chekhov’s gun going all the way back to An Unearthly Child.

Much as it is sometimes entertaining to ponder the days when Dr Who might have been a lone human scientist, there is also a distinctive corpus of early implications about The Doctor’s Mysterious People as a distinct and mysterious civilisation with dominion over space and time. It started with the Doctor himself, but was followed through with other characters implied to hail from that same civilisation: I speak of course of the Meddling Monk and the Toymaker (who, I note in passing, is not actually meant to be Celestial with a capital C).

What did the Monk have in common with the Doctor, besides a TARDIS?

A conspicuous ring.

As you can glimpse in the top left photograph, the Doctor’s ring was, to be exact, a sapphire ring. 

The Toymaker did not wear a ring in the TV story as broadcast — but he did use one in the novelisation, which brought back many elements that had to be cut from the TV version due to rushed production. There, he used it to manipulate the environment of his suspiciously TARDIS-like “Celestial Toyroom”. 

Not coincidentally, in The Web Planet, the Doctor’s ring was revealed to have the ability to interface with the Ship, with the Doctor gleefully declaring that “this is not merely a decorative object”, without elaboration.

The concept seems to have persisted past The War Games. Sure, the Time Lords seen therein lacked the ring — including Edward Brayshaw’s Renegade. And Roger Delgado’s subsequent regeneration of the character also lacked the ring when we first saw him in Terror of the Autons. And it’s rare that we get the chance to check thereafter, owing to the Master’s predilection for gloves. But by The Time Monster…

…he is wearing the very flat, green, gleaming ring to which RTD attached such significance in Last of the Time Lords and The End of Time.

The idea experienced a last, potentially-coincidental gasp with Kate O’Mara’s Rani, though she was similarly prone to glove-wearing.

But the point is: throughout the first half of Classics, all the interesting Time Lords had Large Conspicuous Rings. These Rings clearly did some things, but the full extent of their power and cultural significance was kept artfully obscured.

And this is what Davies is coming back to with Simm’s all-important ring. The Doctor recognises it on sight as “the Master’s Ring”, and knows what it does. He fascinatingly describes it as “part of him”, setting all kinds of biodata-related alarm bells ringing. Given that the Rings are also related to the bond between pilot and TARDIS, could they be some kind of locus of the Rassilon Imprimatur? The thrill is of course in the asking…

Fact #2: This may not be the first time it’s happened.

A shorter but equally interesting observation: 

the Master has possessed this same green ring at least since his Delgado days.

the Doctor instantly jumps from “his Ring survived” to “his disciples must be arranging a ritual to resurrect him in the same incarnation”. This is something he knows Rings do and is relatively casual about.

at many points during Classic Who the Master was seemingly killed off for good, only to show up intact because “I’m indestructible… the whole Universe knows that”. (Or, as Missy later put it, “death is for other people”.)

Am I the only one who thinks that somewhere in Davies’s brain, he may have conceived of this as the secret way the Master had survived at least some of those past exterminations? Sure, the Disciples of Saxon were something set up by ol’Harold (the clue’s in the name), but it would be child’s play for a Time Lord with a working TARDIS to set up convenient cults for himself on a dozen worlds, just to be on the safe side. 

I’mt thinking, particularly, of the Tremas Master’s annihilation on Sarn in my beloved Planet of Fire, which seems particularly conclusive. We see him burn away on-screen; it’s not as simple as saying he teleported to safety in the nick of time. Either time was rewritten, or he was resurrected by… means unknown.

And here’s the thing, despite his panic, the Master does seem to assume he’ll survive. What does he say to express it? 

Oh yes… “I’LL PLAGUE YOU TO THE END OF TIME FOR THIS!”

Full circle, eh what? (Yes, that’s a cheap one, but fun nonetheless.)

And on that note, look at the imagery! Of course, having gone down in a column of flame, he would be reconstituted in the same way. 

“I had people who were clever enough… to calculate the opposite.”