LOOM TO TOMB
Life on Gallifrey
"What do you mean, you were bored?"
"Well, the Time Lords are an immensely civilized race. We can control our own environment, we can live forever, barring accidents, and we have the secret of space time travel.""
"Well what's so wrong in all that?"
"Well we hardly ever use our great powers. We consent simply to observe and to gather knowledge."
"And that wasn't enough for you?"
"Well, the Time Lords are an immensely civilized race. We can control our own environment, we can live forever, barring accidents, and we have the secret of space time travel.""
"Well what's so wrong in all that?"
"Well we hardly ever use our great powers. We consent simply to observe and to gather knowledge."
"And that wasn't enough for you?"
- Zoe Heriot, the Doctor, James McCrimmon
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Click on paragraphs to see color coding for sources
BRAINBUFFING
Every Gallifreyan is born into one of Rassilon’s ChapterHouses. Each House has a loomshed which holds its loom. This loom has a unique genetic core to loom its cousins. This creates a template that standardizes the
abilities
and blood of everyone loomling of that family.
A Gallifreyan begins their life as a cousin of of their House. The physical houses are sentient and the oldest living thing on the planet. The interior of a House and its furniture are designed to a massive scale to give newly loomed Gallifreyans a chance to feel like childrene. The artificially animated furniture needs to be house trained, otherwise it will tend to chase people around. The paintings whisper at passing cousins. The Druges are massive automated humanoid servants who can be found throughout the house.
After looming, childrene spend several decades undergoing brainbuffing both at home and at school. This is often supervised by a robotic avatroid. (Avatroids were originaly from the world of Ava before being enslaved by the Time Lords.) This might have involved Gallifreyan psychosurgeons. For the first 8 years of their life their extended family trains them in writing, culture, mathematics, and science. The Rhyme and Reason of Rassilon is required reading for a Time-Tot, and they are trained to use an abacus. By the end of this phase of brainbuffing their education surpasses that many human college students. Many Childeren recite prayers to the Time and her Sisters. While in the nursery, many learn to shuffle radiation out of their bodies by playing with Roentgen (or Rontgen) Bricks and Blocks. They spend almost all of their childhood learning to repress their impulses and focus on living a life of duty and obedience. For this reason, there are no playgrounds on modern Gallifrey. Novices at the wear long black and white gowns. Black and White robes appear to indicate Gallifreyans who are not currently aliened with a particular Chapter.
A Gallifreyan begins their life as a cousin of of their House. The physical houses are sentient and the oldest living thing on the planet. The interior of a House and its furniture are designed to a massive scale to give newly loomed Gallifreyans a chance to feel like childrene. The artificially animated furniture needs to be house trained, otherwise it will tend to chase people around. The paintings whisper at passing cousins. The Druges are massive automated humanoid servants who can be found throughout the house.
After looming, childrene spend several decades undergoing brainbuffing both at home and at school. This is often supervised by a robotic avatroid. (Avatroids were originaly from the world of Ava before being enslaved by the Time Lords.) This might have involved Gallifreyan psychosurgeons. For the first 8 years of their life their extended family trains them in writing, culture, mathematics, and science. The Rhyme and Reason of Rassilon is required reading for a Time-Tot, and they are trained to use an abacus. By the end of this phase of brainbuffing their education surpasses that many human college students. Many Childeren recite prayers to the Time and her Sisters. While in the nursery, many learn to shuffle radiation out of their bodies by playing with Roentgen (or Rontgen) Bricks and Blocks. They spend almost all of their childhood learning to repress their impulses and focus on living a life of duty and obedience. For this reason, there are no playgrounds on modern Gallifrey. Novices at the wear long black and white gowns. Black and White robes appear to indicate Gallifreyans who are not currently aliened with a particular Chapter.
RELIGON AND MYTHOLGY
Since Gallifreyans are never born, never
learn like children, and almost never die, their understanding of mythology and fairy-tales is limited.
To
them myths are only valuable as a way of symbolically teaching morals.
The human concepts of denial and schadenfreude have no equivalents in
Gallifreyan language.
It wasn't till millions of years after the creation of the Eye of Harmony that they invented post-modernism.
The Book of Rassilon is a Time Lord religious text that the Other might have helped write. It starts with the words "In the Beginning..." Old Time legends and Gallifreyan mythology states that the Universe was born from a sentient singularity called Eru or the Great Old One Azathoth. At the Big Bang the being split into 10 dimensions (the Universe has 11 dimensions). After Event 0 the Mother Goddess used the Aurora Temporalis (Anvils of Heaven) to create and pour Time itself into the void of the empty Universe. The ratio 1 to 812 is key to understanding the 12 dimensional nature of quantum string theory. When the Time Lords discovered this ratio, many of the populace saw it a conclusive proof of the existence of the old Gods. But just as many saw it as conclusive proof that the gods could never exist. In the modern era Gallifreyans do believe that the ordered complexity of the universe points unquestionably to the existence of a creator. This creator's power takes the form of gravity when viewed from 3 dimensions. But (with the exception of some Shobogan cults) no Gallifreyans worship either Azathoth or the Mother Goddess, nor do they do call them "Gods."
The Book of Rassilon is a Time Lord religious text that the Other might have helped write. It starts with the words "In the Beginning..." Old Time legends and Gallifreyan mythology states that the Universe was born from a sentient singularity called Eru or the Great Old One Azathoth. At the Big Bang the being split into 10 dimensions (the Universe has 11 dimensions). After Event 0 the Mother Goddess used the Aurora Temporalis (Anvils of Heaven) to create and pour Time itself into the void of the empty Universe. The ratio 1 to 812 is key to understanding the 12 dimensional nature of quantum string theory. When the Time Lords discovered this ratio, many of the populace saw it a conclusive proof of the existence of the old Gods. But just as many saw it as conclusive proof that the gods could never exist. In the modern era Gallifreyans do believe that the ordered complexity of the universe points unquestionably to the existence of a creator. This creator's power takes the form of gravity when viewed from 3 dimensions. But (with the exception of some Shobogan cults) no Gallifreyans worship either Azathoth or the Mother Goddess, nor do they do call them "Gods."
The
primary Gallifreyan Gods are the Eternals known as the Menti Celesti who have been worshiped
since the Old Time. The Menti Celesti are made up of Pain, Death, and
Time (the granddaughter of the Timewyrm). It was said that Pain was the
oldest of the gods, with Time being the youngest. Other gods include
Light, Life, Fate, and Hope. The Gallifreyan Gods have the following colors
attributed to them: Red and Black for Pain, White for Death, and a
shifting Gray color for Time. The ancient symbol of Death is a red
circle called a Regenerative Circle. The Time Lords believe these Gods to be Higher Eternals
but in reality they are part of the essence of the Universe.
They are abstract universal conceptual entities, non-corporeal beings that can control time, and fate.
These
conceptual Loa were brought into existance by the sapient being who
conceived of Death, and Time and the others as entities with their own
will. Death, Time, and Pain might be the dreams of Time Lords which leak out into the cosmos.
Time Lords in nightmares or near-death states sometimes make deals with them, sometimes to become their Champions.
Death serves as a gatekeeper between Null-Space and the afterlife
(the City of the Saved??).
Like, all of the Transcendental Beings, the Eternals are bound by the Great and Ancient Covenants. Most of the Higher
Eternals believe they have a responsibility to those who worship them, and try to live up to their expectations. But
some focus on their own agendas.
By the time of the Doctor, many Time Lords will see the Eternals as little more the legends.
Despite this, about 25% of the population of Gallifrey worships Death, Time, Pain etc.
Many Childeren recite prayers to the Time and her Sisters. Prayer to the gods is usually conducted by individuals
in a privet setting.
The religious institution of Gallifrey originally included the
Black Council of Cardinals, Time Priests,
Time Monks, and Wardens of the Church - all led by the Supreme Pontiff of Time (the Time Pope).
Shortly after the anchoring of the Eye of Harmony
(several thousands of years before the Doctor) Gallifreyan law was changed so that Gallifreyan Religious Class no longer
had access to Time Travel, Time Lord genetic benefits, and could not serve on the Supreme Council. The High Council
had the monasteries dissolved. There was no violence involved in these reforms but the leaders of the church became
little more than figure heads. The position of the Supreme Pontiff of Time (the Time Pope) and other lower ranking
Cardinals remained, but they had no real powers. The position of Time Pope was finally abolished during the Doctor's
exile to the Earth.
Early in their history the Gallifreyans came to believe that if they killed all the evil people in the universe then the good people who remained would become evil. Light can not exist without darkness. If evil were destroyed then good would vanish as well. In the modern era, The philosophers of Gallifrey realize that all life relies on the death of others, and they have no answer for horror of that truth. As Lords of Time, many see themselves as being above conventional mortality. Indeed, most Time Lords consider notions of good and evil to outdated, archaic, redundant, or even incomprehensible. And sin is not a concepts that can be found in Gallifreyan culture. Damaging History is about as close to evil as Gallifreyan culture gets. Other Gallifreyans (including the Doctor) believe in The Great Moral Dialectic. It states that as the physical Universes keeps expanding, the Moral Universe continually refines itself towards goodness to maintain balance with evil. According to Gallifreyan science, the only thing that can stand against entropy and random decay is Life. Reality leads to complexity, which leads to life, which leads to civilization, which leads to ethics. This will lead to the ultimate superiority of Good over Evil.
Time Lords have also been known to mention a Devil from time to time. The Time Lord mythology speaks of the Dark God Valdemar who was destroy by the Old Ones. The battle to achieve this took centuries and is regarded as the biggest war in Gallifreyan mythology. Following this all of the Old Ones vanished, and this is considered to be the 6th Greatest mystery in the history of the Universe. The phrase Old Ones describes any long dead aliens who had immense powers.
Early in their history the Gallifreyans came to believe that if they killed all the evil people in the universe then the good people who remained would become evil. Light can not exist without darkness. If evil were destroyed then good would vanish as well. In the modern era, The philosophers of Gallifrey realize that all life relies on the death of others, and they have no answer for horror of that truth. As Lords of Time, many see themselves as being above conventional mortality. Indeed, most Time Lords consider notions of good and evil to outdated, archaic, redundant, or even incomprehensible. And sin is not a concepts that can be found in Gallifreyan culture. Damaging History is about as close to evil as Gallifreyan culture gets. Other Gallifreyans (including the Doctor) believe in The Great Moral Dialectic. It states that as the physical Universes keeps expanding, the Moral Universe continually refines itself towards goodness to maintain balance with evil. According to Gallifreyan science, the only thing that can stand against entropy and random decay is Life. Reality leads to complexity, which leads to life, which leads to civilization, which leads to ethics. This will lead to the ultimate superiority of Good over Evil.
Time Lords have also been known to mention a Devil from time to time. The Time Lord mythology speaks of the Dark God Valdemar who was destroy by the Old Ones. The battle to achieve this took centuries and is regarded as the biggest war in Gallifreyan mythology. Following this all of the Old Ones vanished, and this is considered to be the 6th Greatest mystery in the history of the Universe. The phrase Old Ones describes any long dead aliens who had immense powers.
The Omniscate has been seen as an almost magical symbol for warding off evil and is placed on rooms and objects of great
power. There is a Gallifreyan charm that, when stated, is supposed to bring good luck.
Cats are a symbol of intelligence in Gallifreyan culture.
The Owl is the symbol of Rassilon. The Bat is the symbol of the Vampires.
The number six is very important to Gallifreyan
culture and is used in architecture,
and numerous other aspects of life.
While this idea probably relates to the Six-fold God or the 6 segments of the Key to Time
it was formalized by the founding of the 6 Chapters by the 6 great heroes of the Time of Legend. This number will be
reflected in their architecture, social structures, mythology, and art.
Most Time Lords consider the six segments of the Key to Time to be a myth. The number 13 is important as well (stemming
from the Fendahl being composed of 13 parts).
There are secret societies that worship Rassilon, Omega, and the Other. Many Gallifreyans worship Omega. He is know
as the God Ohm and his followers are the Adherents of Ohm.
Some
Gallifreyans believe that the Matrix controls Gallifrey. Some even
believe it created the Gallifreyans so that it would have an origin.
Some people believe that anything that can be imagined must exist
otherwise you wouldn't be able to imagine it. There was a cult on
Gallifrey that used Mimesis which is a form of theater in which
whatever is written and performed can be manifested.
Mimesis is a variation of Quantum Mnemonics.
It was performed in the annual ritual of "The Thirteenth Night. The High Council had the cult banned.The
Time Lords guard against magic and have files on everyone who claims to use it.
There are stories of infants being found beneath a gooseberry bushes at the bottom of Rassilon’s Garden. There
are also stories of the Great Gallifreyan Stork bringing a childe.
There are nursery stories and rhymes from Lullabies for Time Tots by Benncuiq III. These told of Rassilon, and his Ring of Immortality and included The Nursery Rhyme
of Rassilon's Tower which told of the Death Zone. Some Gallifreyan bedtime stories claim excessive time travel causes dementia and hallucinatory schizophrenia.
Their myths also speak of races of creatures that "wear the skins of men" (meaning aliens that look like Gallifreyans). Gallifreyan mythology has lots to say about the Daleks and the Klade including the fairytale The Emperor Dalek's New Clothes. Their are dark fairy tales of the indestructable Melkur. Gallifreyan folk-tales speak of Gallifreyans abandoned and “raised” by humans. These Gallifreyans are said to develop amazing abilities and are ruled by their extreme passions.
The Story of the Rock is an old Gallifreyan fairy-tale designed to train time-tots of the dangers of curiosity and interference. In the story, two Time Lords are traveling in very hot desert filled with sand dunes. He finds a massive cube made of red stone. Imprisoned against the rock is the Chained Man. He’s chained to the Rock with long rusty chains. The Chained man is starved and thin with yellow pointed teeth and long hair. He begs the Time Lords come and look at what is behind the rock. One of them walks around to the other side – much to the pleasure of the Chained Man. This Time Lord vanishes and the remaining Time Lord waits in the sand for a week trying to ignore the Chained Man who pleads with him to follow his friend. The first Time Lord never returns and the second one realizes he was right not to give in to his curiosity
Doctor-like figures can be found appearing throughout the myths and legends of Gallifrey. He is considered to be something of an archetype by most, but some think he might be a Time Lord breaking the 3rd Law of Time to visit Gallifrey’s past. Others think he is some sort of shape-shifter or some sort of child-god.
Gallifreyan’s fear death even more than humans do. Some Time Lords believed the souls of the dead ended up in the sea and that you could hear them whispering. This could be the Hell referenced in Gallifreyan legends. Their Hell is a world of horror and pain from which there is no escape. Death might have served as a gatekeeper between Null-Space and the afterlife. Other Gallifreyan legends speak of a world in null-space called Nineveh where Gallifreyans go to die. This place is occupied the Watcher of Nineveh and is filled with ruined timeships. (It is likely that this legend refers to House and its never ending need to consume time capsules.) To avoid death, the minds (or souls) Gallifreyans are stored in the APC after death which is considered to be a form of heaven. The yellow six petaled Gallifreyan Flower of Remembrance (Memento Mori) is an omen for disaster. It is often scattered around Funerals and Tombings. There is a Gallifreyan word that is said [or rather thought] on the occasion of Death and Entombment of innocents.
Their myths also speak of races of creatures that "wear the skins of men" (meaning aliens that look like Gallifreyans). Gallifreyan mythology has lots to say about the Daleks and the Klade including the fairytale The Emperor Dalek's New Clothes. Their are dark fairy tales of the indestructable Melkur. Gallifreyan folk-tales speak of Gallifreyans abandoned and “raised” by humans. These Gallifreyans are said to develop amazing abilities and are ruled by their extreme passions.
The Story of the Rock is an old Gallifreyan fairy-tale designed to train time-tots of the dangers of curiosity and interference. In the story, two Time Lords are traveling in very hot desert filled with sand dunes. He finds a massive cube made of red stone. Imprisoned against the rock is the Chained Man. He’s chained to the Rock with long rusty chains. The Chained man is starved and thin with yellow pointed teeth and long hair. He begs the Time Lords come and look at what is behind the rock. One of them walks around to the other side – much to the pleasure of the Chained Man. This Time Lord vanishes and the remaining Time Lord waits in the sand for a week trying to ignore the Chained Man who pleads with him to follow his friend. The first Time Lord never returns and the second one realizes he was right not to give in to his curiosity
Doctor-like figures can be found appearing throughout the myths and legends of Gallifrey. He is considered to be something of an archetype by most, but some think he might be a Time Lord breaking the 3rd Law of Time to visit Gallifrey’s past. Others think he is some sort of shape-shifter or some sort of child-god.
Gallifreyan’s fear death even more than humans do. Some Time Lords believed the souls of the dead ended up in the sea and that you could hear them whispering. This could be the Hell referenced in Gallifreyan legends. Their Hell is a world of horror and pain from which there is no escape. Death might have served as a gatekeeper between Null-Space and the afterlife. Other Gallifreyan legends speak of a world in null-space called Nineveh where Gallifreyans go to die. This place is occupied the Watcher of Nineveh and is filled with ruined timeships. (It is likely that this legend refers to House and its never ending need to consume time capsules.) To avoid death, the minds (or souls) Gallifreyans are stored in the APC after death which is considered to be a form of heaven. The yellow six petaled Gallifreyan Flower of Remembrance (Memento Mori) is an omen for disaster. It is often scattered around Funerals and Tombings. There is a Gallifreyan word that is said [or rather thought] on the occasion of Death and Entombment of innocents.
Toclafane
The word Toclafane means bogeyman and is a general descriptor for numerous different mythical creatures.
Legends and fairytales of
various
Toclafane
(like Grandfather Paradox)
are often told to childrene.
Their role was to provide the horror necessary to get loomlings to behave. Like most toclafane, there are no records of Grandfather Paradox in the Matrix files.
- Stories are told in the nurseries of Gallifrey about the Great Vampires. Some Gallifreyans believe that Rassilon was a Vampire. Some even worship Rassilon the Vampire. Vampires still scare adult Time Lords, even in the modern era. The idea of Vampires in the Capitol is a particularly horrific thought.
- The Higher Evolutionaries known as the Parallel Sect were dimensional pioneers who could cross dimensions at will. They had symbiotic nuclei and were considered to be a myth on many worlds including Gallifrey. They were said to have created a web of all the parallel timelines.
- Legends speak of the Ancients of the Universe. The Gallifreyans have stories about the Nameless City of the Archons that exist in the Great Desolation. The Archons are the last of the Great Old Ones. These tales were found in the Necronomicon.
- Fairytales and legends include stories of Time Sprites. The stories claim that there is one Time Sprite caught in the heart of every TARDIS.
- Blue Fire (aka Mi'en Kalarash) is an ancient Gallifreyan myth. The Blue Fire is a Great Old One made up of tiny slivers of incremental time that form a time magnet. It lives in the wasteland between realties. The Blue Fire stimulates a sleeping victim's limbic system and feeds on the artron energy generated by the resulting fear and nightmares. Blue Fire did horrible things during the Time of Night and the Time of Chaos (both occurred during the Old Times).
- Childrene are told tales of the lost city of Altrazar the world of Nirvana which would appear in normal space once every thousand years.
- The myth of the Koltroxa tells of a being who was trapped drifting through time till her body aged to death.
- There are songs about impossibly old Time Vortex Leeches taking control of timeships and forcing them to travel to the location of their crew’s lost lovers.
- The Shakri nursery rhymes told of a powerful mythic species that served as pest controllers of the Universe, exterminating species that were viewed as being too dangerous before they could spread to other worlds. The Shakri were believed in the Tally, a time in the future when the cosmos would be perfectly balanced before everything ended. They lived in an adjacent dimension called Darkspace. From there they could reach all moments in time and space. They considered 7 to be a very important number and always traveled in groups of seven. Timetots were taught to never attract the Shakri's attention. These stories were designed to encourage young Gallifreyans to obey the rules.
- Malador is near mythical bogeyman in Time Lord history. He had had his conscience removed and created the Melkurs. Malador was imprisoned by the Union of Traken.
- The Watchmaker was the consort of one of Rassilon's generals. After the general was erased from history in a war with the Vondax, his consort traveled between dimensions trying to remove all temporal anomalies. In the early days of the Time Lords, she would appear, bringing death to many Gallifreyans who had been touched by paradox. She eventually became known as the mythological Watchmaker.
- After a Civil War in the Capitol, the first Lady President of Gallifrey, Imperiatrix Pandora, was executed via D-Mat dispersal. On Gallifrey legends will claim that the soul of the Imperiatrix lives on as a ghost in the Vaults. On Earth the stories will tell of Pandora and the box she opened. Other legends speak of the greatest warrior in the universe (sometimes describe as a goblin) who fell from the heavens and tore the world apart until a good wizard locked it up in the Pandorica. In reality Pandora lives on in a partition in the Matrix which has an access point to the Matrix.
- Sabjatric and Rungar were prisoners on Shada but some Gallifreyans believe that they were Gods of the Dark Time. Some Gallifreyans swear by Rungar. The Legends of Cuwirti, Ferisix, and Thrayke are important.
- There are nursery stories and rhymes told of the Fendahl (and the Fendahleen), Zagreus, Salyavin, the Krafayis, the Weeping Angels,and the Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey.
CHAPTER ACADEMY
The major fear of most seven year-old Gallifreyans is the events that will occure when the turn 8. Most (if not all) childrene are taken from their families at the age of 8 to an area outside the Capitol
into the mountains of Solace or Solitude for their initiation. They gaze into this gap in reality known as
the
Untempered Schism and stare at the raw power of the entire Space-Time Vortex
and all of History.
The schism floods their minds with all of time and space attune them to the Vortex and show them the vast responsibility
of being a Time Lord.
The painful exposure to this rip
in the fabric of space and time is what gives
Gallifreyans the
incredible strength that they have for their size. The Schism also
empowers their ability to regenerate.
When confronted with eternity some Novices are inspired, some run away, a very few go mad, and an extremely small percentage runaway and go mad. This last category are known as Visionaries because they have had their minds merged with the Vortex and were opened to all of history. They see the biodata threads of destiny and can make prophecies of the future and alternate time. This includes incredibly accurate predictions about species, places, and individual people. Their connection with history grows as time goes by leaving most in a semi-catatonic state. Unfortunately their madness leaves most of them babbling incoherently for their entire life. For most of the Rassilon Era, these prophecies were ignored as babble and the subject's family would keep them quietly locked away in institutions like the Quantum of Solace. It wasn't till the Time War the the High Council revived these pre-Rassilon techniques of training these Seers and assigned each one a Minder. Gallifreyans who successfully survive the Untempered Schism are know as Time Tots (aka Time Toddlers) and are given the rank of Novice.
When confronted with eternity some Novices are inspired, some run away, a very few go mad, and an extremely small percentage runaway and go mad. This last category are known as Visionaries because they have had their minds merged with the Vortex and were opened to all of history. They see the biodata threads of destiny and can make prophecies of the future and alternate time. This includes incredibly accurate predictions about species, places, and individual people. Their connection with history grows as time goes by leaving most in a semi-catatonic state. Unfortunately their madness leaves most of them babbling incoherently for their entire life. For most of the Rassilon Era, these prophecies were ignored as babble and the subject's family would keep them quietly locked away in institutions like the Quantum of Solace. It wasn't till the Time War the the High Council revived these pre-Rassilon techniques of training these Seers and assigned each one a Minder. Gallifreyans who successfully survive the Untempered Schism are know as Time Tots (aka Time Toddlers) and are given the rank of Novice.
Some (if not all) students receive a new official name while attending their Academy
- probably after taking vows to their Chapter.
All Gallifreyans receive single names. They are usually very long, and they often includes their house's name. The long-form version of a Gallifreyan's
name is written in Old High Gallifreyan
Time Lord names represent power, status, and beliefs. The length of a Time Lord's name grows as his social
and political stature increase. It is traditional to abbreviate
the name with a two syllable structure, like Spandrall, Hilred, Solis, Engin, Andred, Gomer, Savar, Rodan, Kelner,
Nesbin, Ablif, Prestra, Jasko, Damon, Maxil, Talor, and Zorac.
Other very popular names include Pandak, Pandad, Hedin, and
Borusa,
Meteor, Zenarck, Vortron, Golven, Dynamo, Dextive, and Moorid.
They also receive a nickname using Greek letters
that identifies them uniquely and relates to the location their mind will occupy in the Matrix,
based off their
physical and mental abilities. The closer to alpha their names is the greater their perceived abilities.
These names are listed on the Academy Roll in a bronze Records Building.
Around the time of the Doctor's birth, many Time Lords (especially renegades) began abandoning their given names using a process called Elective Semantectomy. Using temporal engineering, their name would be edited out of history and have it retroactively replaced with a title. In the case of renegades the Semanectomy used to prevent embarassement to their house of origin. This led to many Time Lords being known by titles rather then names. These titles are based on what they do and how they do it. Traditionally, renegades have to leave Gallifrey and travel outer-space to find out who they are a choose their name.
Around the time of the Doctor's birth, many Time Lords (especially renegades) began abandoning their given names using a process called Elective Semantectomy. Using temporal engineering, their name would be edited out of history and have it retroactively replaced with a title. In the case of renegades the Semanectomy used to prevent embarassement to their house of origin. This led to many Time Lords being known by titles rather then names. These titles are based on what they do and how they do it. Traditionally, renegades have to leave Gallifrey and travel outer-space to find out who they are a choose their name.
The Prydon Academy is located at the northern boarder of Southern Gallifrey at the base of the northern slopes of Mount Cadon (also known Mount Lung, Mount Plutarch, and Mount Rycadia). The academy city like structure covers 28 square miles. The facility lacks a dome and is open to the air. Most of the buildings are ebony colored and fortress-like, with glass towers and turrets along the top. Covered sky-bridges interconnect them. Perfectly groomed lawns with little blue flowers surround the buildings with sand filled pathways leading between them. The majority of the buildings are dormitories, lecture halls, gymnasiums, and eateries. The academy has it's own TARDIS cradles and scaphe bays. Perfectly groomed lawns surround the fortress-like ebony buildings with glass turrets, which are accessed by, sand filled pathways and covered sky-bridges. The facility lacks a dome and is open to the air. The Black Collection is stored at this Academy. The Black Collection is stored at this Academy and monks taking the mystic studies course spend a great deal of time meditating and learning dark secrets in the upper levels of its towers. Because this is Gallifrey's only Time Academy (the institution which bestows the title of Time Lord) it is annexed to Sector 6 of the Citadel using dimensional junctures, and most (if not all) of the Junior Cardinals and Time Lord Councilors teach at the Time Academy. Its students are forbidden from climbing mount Cadon.
The Arcalian Academy is in the city of Arcalia, and the Patrexi Academy is in the city of Patrexi. The
Lodge of the Patrexian Academy is located in the Capitol. It has a gate
of solid light with a sphere of the first gold ever formed in the
Universe (though it should be noted that most Gold has no special value
on Gallifrey).
All of the Academies have dormitories, lecture halls, TARDIS bays and scaphe ports. They are all bordered by stone walls to keep the students from entering the outlands.
Gallifreyans are force-educated using Neural Training, which on high-intensity level, can teach someone to speak, read,
write, count, and play an instrument in one hour.
This probably includes drinking from bottles of Encyclopedia Gallifreya Volumes 1 through at least 11.
The
memory acids held in bottles burble telepathically when opened.
Despite this, there are a number of major similarities between the Prydon Academy and the schools on Earth in the 20th century. Pens and paper are often used by students at the Academy. The Warders ensured that the students followed the rules. Passing grades were difficult to achieve and each grade could take years to reach. A-Star Excellent and A-Star Distinction/Insightful/Outstanding where the highest achievable grades.
In Infant School novices learn
quantum mechanics which are considered by Gallifreyans to be synomous
with poetry. Even the simplest geometry problem is solved using the
first 5 dimensions. And their cartesian
geometry, involves 26 dimensions. Despite all this, one should keep in
mind that there are math problems so complex that even the Time Lords
haven’t managed to solve them yet. While still Time Tots they read 4 dimensional pop-up
books like
Our Planet's Story
and Every Gallifreyan Child's Pop-Up Book of Nasty Creatures From Other Dimensions. They are taught to recite their 2337 times tables. They attend Temporal Protocol classes. They also study mind-shielding, thermodynamics, cybernetics, medecine, botany, and super-logic. They are
also taught how to live and act in society and that all life is
sacrosanct and that Gallifreyans need to be dedicated to a life of
service to Time. Gallifrey's obsessive work ethic of service to the Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey is instilled in the students.
Childrene play games that involve slowing their own heart till they appear dead.
Some of the games the childrene play might involve extra-galactic space travel. At around 11 or 12 years old most Gallifreyans are given a two foot tall intelligent teddybear-like robot. This homunculus functioned as a playmate for the child.
The Prydon College's Time Academy is the only one that can grant the title of Time Lord – so all would-be Time Lords (regardless of chapter) have to attend it after graduating from their chapter’s academy. While, many Gallifreyans (such as future members of the Watch or Traffic Control) attend the Prydon Academy, but only a very select
few are chosen to become Time Lords. Novices take the entrance examination for the
Time Academy while still in brainbuffing. Failure was one of the major fears of every 7 year-old.
If they are score is accepted then, after 12 years
with their Chapter's Academy, they can be enrolled in the Prydon Time Academy. If they don't pass the examination then they remain at their Chapter's Academy.
Students who remained at their chapter academy generally continue their studies and could spend decades reaching the 6th or even the 7th grade.
For information about the training, and powers of the Time Lord elite of Gallifrey see this page: Time Lord Training
ADULTHOOD
Once
out of school most Gallifreyans become bored and take up a hobby or
begin working some sort of job to help the community. The Gallifreyans
who left their academy after reaching the 5th Grade generally became
media commentators, artists or aids for Cardinals, or even aids for
Junior Time Lords. Passing the 6th grade opened up several job
opportunities, including administration and maintenance of the Citadel,
Space Traffic Controller, junior technicians, Temporal Nexus Point
Observation researcher, lab assistant, or service in the Watch.
Graduating
from the 7th Grade was considered even more difficult and prestigious,
but many Gallifreyans stop attending before that point.
Gallifreyans are not considered
legal adults until they reach
their majority at 200 years old.
A
Gallifreyan who is almost 400 years old is a legal adult, but he will
still be viewed as an adolescent by the elders until he can taste his
own tongue.
SHOBOGANS AND OUTSIDERS
Shobogans
was the term the Gallifreyans originally used for themselves before the
discovery of regeneration. But over time the term Shobogan became slang
for any Gallifreyan who rejected the traditions and culture of
Rassilon’s Time Lords.
These 'new age Time Lords' often live in Low Town and have their own form of writing. They were often blamed for vandalism. The Low Towners call Time Lords Timeys.
Some Gallifreyans and even some Time Lords reject technology entirely and live in the wilderness of Outer Gallifrey's
wildlands, hunting and growing their food. They are known as Outsiders or Outlers.
Few
people become Outsiders until after their first regeneration. Survival
in wildlands is very difficult, as most Outsider choose to exist at a
stone age and bronze age level of technology. Most live in yurts.
LOVE AND MARRIAGE
In the pre-Time War era there are between 3 and 9 million Gallifreyans.
While Gallifreyans claim to be billions of years beyond sexism, the term Time Lord is still prefered to Time Lady. Only a little more then 10% of Gallifreyans are female only about 1% of those that achieve the rank of Time Lord are female.
In
truth (because of their history), Gallifreyan culture tends to view the
female gender as a symbol of the unlike and the outside.
The Curse of the Pythia rendered almost all Gallifreyans sterile. Though they are physically capable of sex most have no real sex drive. Many, like the Doctor, live most of their lives in celibacy. Losing one's virginity makes it much more difficult (if not impossible) for Gallifreyan technology to read ancestral memories from the subjects biodata. While some Gallifreyans will enjoy erotic dancers, actual prostitution is very rare (though Low Town does support a few brothels). Most Gallifreyans have little compassion and have difficulty relating to each other on an emotional level.
Despite all this, some Gallifreyans do fall in love and some undergo marriage. However Gallifreyan Marriages are almost always undertaken to maintain the power of the Chapters by strengthening the political power of the Houses involved. The bride (and possibly the groom) traditionally wears white robes and has her hair braided. There is at least one case where two Gallifreyans remained married through several regenerations. A Gallifreyan generation is 10,000 years. The Pythia's Curse fades in the pre-War era allowing natural reproduction to occur, and by the end of the Time War there are 2,470,000,000 children on Gallifrey.
The Curse of the Pythia rendered almost all Gallifreyans sterile. Though they are physically capable of sex most have no real sex drive. Many, like the Doctor, live most of their lives in celibacy. Losing one's virginity makes it much more difficult (if not impossible) for Gallifreyan technology to read ancestral memories from the subjects biodata. While some Gallifreyans will enjoy erotic dancers, actual prostitution is very rare (though Low Town does support a few brothels). Most Gallifreyans have little compassion and have difficulty relating to each other on an emotional level.
Despite all this, some Gallifreyans do fall in love and some undergo marriage. However Gallifreyan Marriages are almost always undertaken to maintain the power of the Chapters by strengthening the political power of the Houses involved. The bride (and possibly the groom) traditionally wears white robes and has her hair braided. There is at least one case where two Gallifreyans remained married through several regenerations. A Gallifreyan generation is 10,000 years. The Pythia's Curse fades in the pre-War era allowing natural reproduction to occur, and by the end of the Time War there are 2,470,000,000 children on Gallifrey.
GALLIFREYAN CITY-COMPLEXES
Below
the Time Lords are the Plebeian Classes (non Time Lord) such as the
Watch guards, technicians, artisans, cleaners, engineers, cooks, and
musicians. The majority of these Gallifreyans do not live in the Capitol but in other city-complexes scattered across the planet.
While not the Capitol, Arcadia is known as Gallifrey's Second City. It would take well over two months to walk from the Capitol to Arcadia. (so around 2000 miles?) By the War Era it will have become Gallifrey's best protected city. The Palace of Arcadia is one of the finest restaurants in Arcadia City. Gallifreys sometimes swear by this city.
Prydos is an old city built on an artificial mound in great plane. Imports from all over the galaxy (and from any point in time) can be found for sale at Prydos. Its streets are paved with mosaics which present the history of the city. The shops and stalls in the city of Prydos have foods from across the cosmos – even from the Earth and Venus. Concept shops in Prydos City sell ideas from across the cosmos.
Prydos, Arcalia, and Patrexi are 'academy' cities surrounded by stone walls. The ground around every city's entrances are covered in gravel-like Sound Shingles which allow automated systems to detect people approaching the metal doors. Olyesti is one of the Three Minute Cities in the East.
Some cities (like the Capitol) have a low town where the society of poor that has formed in the foundations of the Capitol. The Gallifreyan elite refer to the New Age Time Lord dropouts who live in Low Town as Shobogans, while the low towners call Time Lords Timeys. The Shobogans are know for being trouble makers and vandals. They have their own form of writing, and often inscribe the words 'Bad Wolf' on walls and pavements.
Most Gallifreyans (and all Time Lords) never venture beyond the cities into the wilderness of the Outer Gallifrey. The exception were those that wished reject the traditions and technology of the Time Lords and become Outsiders. During and after the Time War the number of Outsiders grew. Most turned to farming and some even sold their produce to the Time Lords in the Capitol.
While not the Capitol, Arcadia is known as Gallifrey's Second City. It would take well over two months to walk from the Capitol to Arcadia. (so around 2000 miles?) By the War Era it will have become Gallifrey's best protected city. The Palace of Arcadia is one of the finest restaurants in Arcadia City. Gallifreys sometimes swear by this city.
Prydos is an old city built on an artificial mound in great plane. Imports from all over the galaxy (and from any point in time) can be found for sale at Prydos. Its streets are paved with mosaics which present the history of the city. The shops and stalls in the city of Prydos have foods from across the cosmos – even from the Earth and Venus. Concept shops in Prydos City sell ideas from across the cosmos.
Prydos, Arcalia, and Patrexi are 'academy' cities surrounded by stone walls. The ground around every city's entrances are covered in gravel-like Sound Shingles which allow automated systems to detect people approaching the metal doors. Olyesti is one of the Three Minute Cities in the East.
Some cities (like the Capitol) have a low town where the society of poor that has formed in the foundations of the Capitol. The Gallifreyan elite refer to the New Age Time Lord dropouts who live in Low Town as Shobogans, while the low towners call Time Lords Timeys. The Shobogans are know for being trouble makers and vandals. They have their own form of writing, and often inscribe the words 'Bad Wolf' on walls and pavements.
Most Gallifreyans (and all Time Lords) never venture beyond the cities into the wilderness of the Outer Gallifrey. The exception were those that wished reject the traditions and technology of the Time Lords and become Outsiders. During and after the Time War the number of Outsiders grew. Most turned to farming and some even sold their produce to the Time Lords in the Capitol.
The cities of Gallifrey are filled with spires, temples, and cathedrals,
recreation centers, libraries, and universities. The ability to make structures dimensionally transcendent is used in most Gallifreyan buildings. Their buildings are opulently decorated with ionic columns and gold
trim. Time Lord architecture has been described as
'High Technology' combined with 'High Gothic.' by some, but others feel it
is closer to he human form known as Art Deco. In keeping with High Gothic traditons, most rooms on Gallifrey are, by human standards, deliberately under lit. The decor of the Capitol (and presumably the buildings in other cities) can be changed in the same way that a TARDIS’s desk-top theme can be changed.
The walls of the living
quarters can have their color changed by adjusting the contrast knob. Gallifreyan living quarters smell of incense.
Using block-transfer computation, massive, transcendental, buildings can be fabricated in place almost instantaneously. But the architectural plans and virtual model must be completely worked out beforehand. Gallifreyan building materials are molecularly bonded, and plates have titanium rivets. The strong and ridged gravinium is the most common building material on Gallifrey. The valuable brass like Machenite is the finishing material of choice for the interior of important rooms. Lead is not a common building material and few on Gallifrey are trained in its manipulation.
Gallifreyan furniture is kinetic and be re-arranged using a control panel. Many areas of the city are rigged with panoptics that observer and recored all activity. For this reason some areas are configured to project time bubbles that provide users with 5 micro-spans of total privacy. Gardens with carefully mowed grass are contained in their own glass domes.
Using block-transfer computation, massive, transcendental, buildings can be fabricated in place almost instantaneously. But the architectural plans and virtual model must be completely worked out beforehand. Gallifreyan building materials are molecularly bonded, and plates have titanium rivets. The strong and ridged gravinium is the most common building material on Gallifrey. The valuable brass like Machenite is the finishing material of choice for the interior of important rooms. Lead is not a common building material and few on Gallifrey are trained in its manipulation.
Gallifreyan furniture is kinetic and be re-arranged using a control panel. Many areas of the city are rigged with panoptics that observer and recored all activity. For this reason some areas are configured to project time bubbles that provide users with 5 micro-spans of total privacy. Gardens with carefully mowed grass are contained in their own glass domes.
Gallifreyan Transmats
use molecular disassembly to transmit matter, and can not transmit through lethal levels of Ion Flux. Augmented ultra long-range teleports have a maximum reach of 1 lightyear. Transmats can
be used to reach individual Houses, but many Gallifreyans appear to prefer the trains to transmats.
This might be because
a transmat leaves a Time Lord's fingers tingling for about an hour,
or it might be
the ethical consideration of killing one's self every time one uses a transmat.
The Transtube
train carriages are used for transport from one city-complex to another on Gallifrey. They look a bit like Earth subways.
The Gallifreyan unit of distance is consistently
translated as miles.
While some Gallifreyans also use aircar
skimmers to travel,
they are considered by most to be obsolete.
These skimmers are shaped like longboats with carved dragons in the back. They can fly and have sophisticated forcefields
to protect the crew.
They are computer controlled or an organic pilot can fly the ship from below decks. The golden sails can be
deployed to absorb energy to power the ship.
They almost certainly 'drive' on the left-hand side when encountering oncoming traffic.
The streets are patrolled by
automated street cleaning mechanisms. The idea of using an animal as a beast of burden is completely alien to their culture.
LIFE ON GALLIFREY
Gallifreyan society has almost no pain, suffering, or hardship
and the citizens have no real unfullfilled desires. Most, if not all, Gallifreyans and Time Lords believe Gallifrey to be a just and fair society.
And most prefer for someone else to handle all the big decisions so they can get on with their personal lives.
Pandaks (made of brass), Pounds, Guineas and even ancient Treazant coins are all used as currency. A guinea will buy you a few drinks in a bar. Gallifrey has Inheritance Laws and Temporal Taxation, however most uses of currency on Gallifrey appear to be completely symbolic and ritualistic. Many Gallifreyans don't actually understand how money works or what the orginal point of it is. For these reasons corperations judge Gallifrey to have a very low potential for commercial development. Even the unemployed have a standard of living greater then most beings in the cosmos. While there is no requirement to be employed, once out of school most Gallifreyans become bored and take up a hobby or begin working some sort of job to help the community. Each generation of Time Lords devise increasingly complicated traditions and rites to prevent the Gallifreyan people from realizing how boring life on Gallifrey is.
Pandaks (made of brass), Pounds, Guineas and even ancient Treazant coins are all used as currency. A guinea will buy you a few drinks in a bar. Gallifrey has Inheritance Laws and Temporal Taxation, however most uses of currency on Gallifrey appear to be completely symbolic and ritualistic. Many Gallifreyans don't actually understand how money works or what the orginal point of it is. For these reasons corperations judge Gallifrey to have a very low potential for commercial development. Even the unemployed have a standard of living greater then most beings in the cosmos. While there is no requirement to be employed, once out of school most Gallifreyans become bored and take up a hobby or begin working some sort of job to help the community. Each generation of Time Lords devise increasingly complicated traditions and rites to prevent the Gallifreyan people from realizing how boring life on Gallifrey is.
The APC Net (Amplified Panatropic Computer Network)
is the essence of Gallifrey and its culture and acts as a repository of all the knowledge and history of Gallifrey.
The fact that both Gallifrey's network, and the Matrix are panatropic computer networks has caused some confusion.
But the Matrix of Time is only a small part of Gallifrey's planet wide APC Network. All Time Lords
and Academy Students are guaranteed access to the APC Net.
Retina interface technology
has virtually replaced all but the most basic manual keyboard interfaces A standard Gallifreyan keyboard has 723 letter keys, and 13 numeric keys across the top.
Powerful and complex systems (such as TARDISes) use telepathy to label the readouts and controls.
Gallifreyan Thought Programs allow one to operate, alter, and program devices using one’s mind. They can be used
on
Time Rings and sonic screwdrivers, eliminating
the need for complicated controls. Memory Wafers (like those used in
K-9 Mark II) are one of the most common computer elements in Gallifrey
technology. On Gallifrey they are easy to purchase in bulk.
Gallifreyans use datacube info-stamps when they need to physically
transport information. These memory banks store the
energy of perception and memories (aka artron energy) in high enough
densities to be lethal if improperly discharged. Lesser species
could find exposure to such memories would override their own personal
memories. Gallifreyan technology is often powered by Neutron Batteries held in Zybanium Cradles.
Many of the most
advanced and
important pieces of Gallifreyan
technology and
computer index files are protected by a bio-morphic shield that
requires the user to have the correct Time Lord
biodata
to access and operate them. Most of the
steel doors
and even many TARDIS systems rely on Gallifreyan retinal scans to
prime/activated them. All of these retina prints are controlled by the
APC which holds the Retina Master Print. Important security systems are
protected with ultra-locks which can be dead locked, and
some of their security systems are telepathically based. Given enough time, a Gallifreyan Lock-Burn can breach and pretty much any door on the planet.
Machines take care of virtually every need.
While modern warp matrix engineering is relied upon for most temporal and spatial manipulation,
Gallifreyan material fabricators
and synthetic clothing dispensers still use
tachyonic re-creation generators. These generators recreate physical materials using tachyons. There are Robeing Rooms filled with rails and racks of clothes. These
wardrobes have been described as wibbly-wobbly as they allow the user,
from an outsider's perspective, to change their clothes
instantly.
Dresser servants are trained to match the robes fit any occasion. Fashions only change every few millennia. A
Gallifreyan Laundro-Demat dematerializes anything put inside down to
component molecules, removes dirt, repairs, scents, and reassembles it
as unwrinkled clothing.
They have showers that alternate with pulses of water and muscle oil,
that refresh the body as well as clean it. Automatic devices can both shave the face and trim one's hair. Gallifreyans
dislike robots, considering them primitive.
Despite this, city-complexes are patrolled by cleaning machines
and automated street cleaning mechanisms.
RECREATION
While Southern Gallifrey has been regarded as something of a vacation area, Time Lords were not encouraged to expose
themselves to extreme climates or partake in extreme sports.
Indeed running was viewed as conduct unbecoming of a Time Lord. The only know accepted sport was zero-grav hyperball, which used balls and rackets.
Time Lords appear to enjoy isolating themselves from the ambient complexity of Gallifreyan life, and most Gallifreyans prefer to use Sensory Tanks like those found in the Quantum of Solace. The oxygenated liquid the subject is immersed in sooths away all stress and worries and induces dreams that fulfill the user's deepest and most wonderful virtual reality fantasies. While floating in the fetal position a Gallifrey can experiance exotic sensory replications include speed-skating on the frozen moons of Plattos or climbing the sulfurous active volcanoes of Ignos. The water is imbued with oxygen, nitrogen, chlorine, dopamine, and protein chains (which contains the intelligence of the Sensory Chamber). The chambers use timers to awaken the user, though a switch inside the chamber can also be used to deactivate the chamber. A Director of Calm oversees operations. Other Gallifreyans prefer the more complete relaxation of retreating to zero environments.
Time Lords appear to enjoy isolating themselves from the ambient complexity of Gallifreyan life, and most Gallifreyans prefer to use Sensory Tanks like those found in the Quantum of Solace. The oxygenated liquid the subject is immersed in sooths away all stress and worries and induces dreams that fulfill the user's deepest and most wonderful virtual reality fantasies. While floating in the fetal position a Gallifrey can experiance exotic sensory replications include speed-skating on the frozen moons of Plattos or climbing the sulfurous active volcanoes of Ignos. The water is imbued with oxygen, nitrogen, chlorine, dopamine, and protein chains (which contains the intelligence of the Sensory Chamber). The chambers use timers to awaken the user, though a switch inside the chamber can also be used to deactivate the chamber. A Director of Calm oversees operations. Other Gallifreyans prefer the more complete relaxation of retreating to zero environments.
Media entertainment holovids are provided by Public Register Video and Public Access Television, whichis is viewd on
plasma image media-screens. Public Register Video covers all major ceremonies and traditional events. There are over 87,656,432 Media
Services channels.
There is a Presidential Bulletin issued every day with all the news about Capitol. The Observatories provides official
reports of what has happens throughout the cosmos. Much of it focuses on stellar weather patterns.
They have entertainment transmission (which sometimes broadcasts of emergency regenerations).
It should be noted that Time Lord culture has no mass media and the
only news source read by them is the Daily Presidential Bulletin.
House and TARDIS
is a Time Lord magazine. It is bigger on the inside then on the outside so that it can hold a near infinite number
of loose leaf advertisements. Many Gallifreyans write in 500 year diaries.
On Gallifrey all paintings are done by computers. The computers use a stasis cube to create a pocket parallel universe
created from a slide of real time. The
multidimensional paintings are bigger on the inside then the outside and are composed within a frozen moment
of time.
The technology is similar to, but much more advanced than, the banned miniscopes. The faces of Gallifreyan statues occasionally
change shape to show off the different incarnations of the Time Lord
they represent. Gallifreyan
works of art is made so that look aesthetically pleasing even when it
is decaying and falling apart from old age. The aging is "part" of
the sculpture.
The concept of caricatures is unknown to Gallifreyan art. The Patrexes are an order of artists aesthetes, and might
be related to the Gallifreyan Subjunctivists who are know for their paintings. The Multi-Dimensional Art Gallery in
the Capitol is filled with vast numbers of computer created paintings from throughout Gallifrey's history.
The pianalaika is a Gallifreyan instrument.
The Harp is another common instrument on Gallifrey.
There
is a small bronze-looking spherical insturment, usually covered in High
Gallifreyan glyphs. When help it emits music that reprents the
user's current emotional state. They keep track of popular music on a top twenty music chart. The Foxtrot of Rassilon is a Time Lord waltz.
There are Xeno-Zoos to visit that hold alien creatures from other worlds. Some Gallifreyans smoke pipes or cigars.
Gallifreyan tattoos move about the body (and change size) with each regeneration.
Some seedy Gallifreyan Cardinals hang themselves to get rid of extra regenerations. This is considered to be a dangerous
hobby. Wreck-Riders are young Time Lords
(probably Junior Time Lords) who go joyriding in damaged TARDISes.
Gallifreyan and Time Lord Games
Junior Time Lords (and others with symbiotic nuclei) would also play the Perigosto Stick Game. This form of Time Lord Juggling, involves using Time Lord powers to keep a 4-dimensional rod with a sphere or cube at the end in motion, without letting it fall back into the normal space-time continuum. This technique is called Transmigration of Object and was often done as a party trick, even though it usually took hours of preparation. Most Perigosto Sticks are also designed as musical wind instruments and the Time Lord can try to use the shift in air flow to play music while juggling the stick. Shifting everything in a defined area forward a few seconds in time creates an impenetrable black wall. This is sometimes done on a small scale as a parlor trick. The Cardinals always warn the students that Transmigration of Object damages their biodata.
The people of Gallifrey invented Chess. Four-D Chess is a popular Time Lord game (though some Time Lords prefer Three Dimensional Chess). Not only can the pieces move on three vertically stacked boards but they can also move forwards and backwards in time. However the First Law of Time must be observed during play meaning that the its possible to get the other player to lose by forcing him to create a paradox. And indeed this is a common way of winning. Gallifreyan Chess Sets are sometime custom carved to look like a Time Lord’s adversaries and allies.
Gallifreyan Chequers has 2 colors - red and white. Pieces include: Presidents Cardinal, President's Commander, Chancellor's Castellan, Gold Usher's Captain.
Gallifreyan playing cards are round and have the following suits: Flames, Owls, Clouds, Souls, Deeps, Mesmers, and Dominoes. Face cards include the Hand, the Duke, and the Rogue. They can use these cards to play Five Dimensional Cribbage.
Sepulchasm was a game for one or two people that was created during the Old Time. The board was shaped to represent a mountain range with colored models of various House marking a path of squares. There was a playing piece of matching color for each house. Each player would control three of the pieces and using two 8-sided dice to dictate their pieces movement along the path. A roll of 4 on one die and 5 triggered a Sepulchasm which would split the board down the middle. The player(s) used psychic powers to keep their peices suspended over the chasm. The first player to fail to keep their pieces in the air lost.
Gallifreyan Labyrinth Game: The point of this game is to get your opponents lost in a (dimensionally transcendental?) maze and then manipulating their movements by subconsciously training them to make certain turns. At the height of its popularity there were Labyrinth games on every street corner and even in the Panopticon.
Mindbending (aka Time Lord Wrestling) is a Time Lord game that involves a telepathic battle between two contestants. They try to regress each other mentally through their previous incarnations. Psychic duels often take the form of a physical wrestling match within the minds of the contestants and telepathic observers. Mindbending is just a game but it can end in deathlock if a contestant is pushed back to the point of looming.
While at the Academy Initiates often play Eighth Man Bound. This extreme 'rite of passage' claims the lives of 15 Gallifreyans every macrosemester. A symbiosonic generator is used, and the student's classmates (called The Inquiry) sit around him and chant his name while the student tries to predict his future incarnations. An Arcalian managed to discover what his first seven bodies but couldn't see his eighth. Thus the Arcalians named the game Eighth Man Bound.
Scratchin is another Gallifreyan game.
FOOD AND BEVERAGES
Almost all sustenance is provided by food
dispenser machines and most Time Lords have never had to cook a meal for themselves. The workplace refractories
have food machines of a type identical to those found in a TARDIS. These work by pulling fungi from vats and molecularly
rearranging it into the food requested.
Usually Gallifreyans consume
synthetic food in the form of
freeze dried
capsules, bar-shaped food, and bags
of concentrated nutrition
(such as biscuits,
and stomach tablets).
Promarzzi Bars were made of Promaze (genetically modified protean mix) and tasted like pond slime.
However, on special occasions Karmine pudding, Dactyl Eggs, Magenta Fruit, blue fruit, chocolate, broth, shortbread, oatmeal bread, gingerbread, cake, crayperry, roasted Grockleroots, and Gallifreyan Pizza is eaten. Sealak meat is something of a delicacy. But most Gallifreyans do not like beef or onions.
However, on special occasions Karmine pudding, Dactyl Eggs, Magenta Fruit, blue fruit, chocolate, broth, shortbread, oatmeal bread, gingerbread, cake, crayperry, roasted Grockleroots, and Gallifreyan Pizza is eaten. Sealak meat is something of a delicacy. But most Gallifreyans do not like beef or onions.
The water from a food machine has a very soft yet distinctive (probably sweet) flavor.
Beverages served in Gallifrey include milk, and tea (Unconscious Gallifreyans can often be awakened with
boiling tea vapor)
and a Gallifreyan Tea Set has approximately 178 pieces.
Other beverages include Milean Head Juice (a type of alcohol), Bog-Truffle Tincture (a type of drink), Orneilian Wine
and Rassilon's Red (a fine Gallifreyan wine, bottled at the time of Rassilon). Wine is dated by the President who
was in power a the time it was bottled. Vinegar is also used for food preparation.
DEATH OF A GALLIFREYAN
Most Gallifreyans they usually choose there final deathday between 7,000
and 12,000
(usually at about age 10,000). They often spend the last years leading up to their final chosen deathday in meditation. Because
the minds (or souls) Time Lords are stored in the APC after death
they don't fear death. As
their death day approaches a Gallifreyan will use a confession dial as
part of a purification ritual to face their demons. The dial is capable of reading the Gallifreyan's mind and
determining their greatest fears. Time
Lords, in particular, are expected to face death with dignity. The time leading up
to the final death day is filled with meditation, repentance,
acceptance, and contemplation of the absolute. This brings their mind
to a state of peace the before they join the memory gardens of the
Matrix. Once they have imprinted their last will and Testament on this dial the dial is
traditionally given to the Gallifreyan's closest friend. The dial will
only respond and open for its owner and the chosen friend. Others will receive a
shock if they attempt to touch it.
Many Gallifreyans have massive ceremonial funerals. These Deathday funerals
are usually held at the family's house and
involve lots of Remembrance Flowers. Legally
all deceased consciousness
(even down to the lowliest chancellery guard) must be interned in the Amplified Panatropic Computations Network
(sometimes known as the Remembrance Garden) of the Matrix.
To this end the dying Gallifreyan will be placed in
a Gallifreyan Sarcophagus which will keep the subject in a state of hibernation
until the body can be moved to the Capitol.
If
the subject is a Time Lord then the Sarcophagus will carry the
Seal of Rassilon. This hibernation chamber has a biomechanical locking
system preventing any non-Gallifreyan from opening it.
Alternatively the subject's pattern can be held in a Gallifreyan
cinerary urn.
At the moment of death
(or no more then an hour afterwards)
Mind Linkage Equipment is used to make
electrical scans of the brain pattern.
Because of the risk of psychosomatic feedback living brains are never hooked directly into the Matrix. The Lord President
is an exception to this but he spends years training for such contact.
Gallifreyans can also use 'Soul Catching' to take the 'mind' of someone who is dying.
Once in the APC they live on forever.
The deceased Gallifreyan's body is entombed in the vaults beneath their Houses
where they quickly break down into degenerate matter and then into random molecules.
After
the Regeneration cycle is used up, and a Time Lord knows that he is
about to die, he can mentally trigger his own corporeal destruction to
keep his body from being discovered. Under these circumstances the disintegration of a Gallifreyan's body will happen within a minute after death.
After
internment in the Matrix the confession dial will open for the friend
and they can enter the dimensionally transcendental interior. There
they can view the confessions and last will and testament of the
deceased. The Gallifreyan Roll of Honor is a list of Gallifreyans who have died with valor.
TIME LORD CHRONOLOGY
Because it is located in Inner Time
Gallifreyans measure local time according to the Time Band. Gallifreyan seconds, minutes,
days,
years
are identical to the ones used on Earth.
A
Gallifreyan month is probably equal to 27 days. Gallifreyans have
weeks but the number of days in a week hasn't been revealed (probably 6).
Gallifrey time is told in 18 hour days. 9 hours of daylight and 9 hours of night. The length of the hours are dependent on the season and geographical location. The passage of hours is marked by the ringing of bells. The number of rings denote the hour. Some Gallifreyan clocks have 12 divisions. 48 hours is a commonly used division of time.
A Gallifreyan Cycle is approximately 23 years (likely 24 years or 4 Spans). Spans are another unit in common usage (which is also used by the Sisterhood of Karn). One Span is 6 years (so a micro-span equals about 200 seconds). Time Lord watches can synchronize themselves to the local time instantaneously (use the same technique as the translations systems). The watch face morphs to match local time keeping conventions. These watches are standard equipment for field operatives.
Gallifrey time is told in 18 hour days. 9 hours of daylight and 9 hours of night. The length of the hours are dependent on the season and geographical location. The passage of hours is marked by the ringing of bells. The number of rings denote the hour. Some Gallifreyan clocks have 12 divisions. 48 hours is a commonly used division of time.
A Gallifreyan Cycle is approximately 23 years (likely 24 years or 4 Spans). Spans are another unit in common usage (which is also used by the Sisterhood of Karn). One Span is 6 years (so a micro-span equals about 200 seconds). Time Lord watches can synchronize themselves to the local time instantaneously (use the same technique as the translations systems). The watch face morphs to match local time keeping conventions. These watches are standard equipment for field operatives.
Unit Conversion
- 1 Gallifreyan Second = 1 Earth Second
- 1 Gallifreyan Minute = 1 Earth Minute
- 1 Gallifreyan Hour = approximately 1.3 Earth Hours (or 80 Earth Minutes)(depending on the season and latitude)
- 1 Gallifreyan Day = 1 Earth Day
- 1 Gallifreyan Month = 27 days (or .81 centi-spans)
- 1 nano-span = .19 seconds
- 1 micro-span = 189 seconds (or 3.2 min)
- 1 milli-span = 52.6 hours (or 2.2 days)
- 1 centi-span = 22 days
- 1 span = 6 years
- 1 kilo-span = 6000 years
- 1 cycle = 4 spans (or approximately 23 years)
- 1 epoch = tens of millions of years (also known as Deep Time)
INNER TIME
Transduction Barriers separate Gallifrey’s continuity and history from the rest of the universe by locating it in a Micro-Universe outside of Time. Thus when you are on Gallifrey, you are in Inner Time, "outside" of the Universe. This is sometimes known as Gallifreyan Absolute Time. In addition to this, its past is protected by powerful Temporal Baffels, Backtime Field Buffers, Absolute Temporal Barriers, and Governing Circuits built into all their time travel technology. All of these keep the Time Lords in sync with Gallifrey's Relative Causal Nexus.Time Lord Dating Systems
Time Lords have been know to use all of the following dating systems during the Rassilon Era:
-
Local Dateline / Gallifreyan Absolute Time: (Mission to Magnus, The Gallifrey Chronicles,
TV Movie) -
This form of Time Lord Dating began with the installation of the Eye of Harmony in the Citadel - which was the beginning
of the Rassilon Era.
For this reason the dates are given with the prefix RE for Rassilon Era. Documents the passage of time from the point of view of the people living within Gallifrey's Inner Time. The Doctor would have been loomed in 2004716.44 (The Gallifrey Chronicles claim the Doctor was loomed on 4756.7 RE But this is 40.5 years off from all other sources).
For convenience sake Time Lords usually abbreviate Local Date Line to five digits (ie 5725.2 RE).
- The Relative Date can be found by adding 2004716.44 to the Doctor's age.
- The Local Dateline (ie the 4 diget version) can be found by adding 4716.44 to the Doctor's age.
-
Date Index / Gallifrey Mean Time: (Deadly Assassin, Armageddon Factor,
The Gallifrey Chronicles) -
Date Indexes can be written 3-0-9-9-0-6 or it can be abbreviated to 2 digits (ie 92). Documents the passage of time from the point of view of the people living within Gallifrey's Inner Time.
- Date Index (DI) can be found by adding 309456 to the Doctor's Age.
-
Gallifreyan
TL Dating System:
(FASA,
The Gallifrey Chronicles) - TL works like the Relative Date system, thus 2004756.44 RE would be 100447 TL.
- A TL Date can be found by adding 100448 to the Doctor's Age.
-
Relative Date is often used for discussing events that occurred in the outside universe relative to Gallifrey
time.
Relative Dating began with the installation of the Eye of Harmony in the Citadel - which was the beginning of the
Rassilon Era.
The Eye of Harmony was activated in 3.5 Billion BC.
For example
1999 AD
(the 20th century) would be
3,5
00,034,139.89 RE.
Day 1 of the Gallifreyan new year is between day 274 and day 310 on Earth (ie Dec 30 10:47 pm EST is 1/5th of the
way through the Gallifreyan year).
Thus New Year's Day on Gallifrey probably begins around Oct 20.
5000 AD would be relative date 1-1-1-5-0-0-0.
- While it is based on anchoring of the Eye of Harmony, any Earth date can be translated into Local Dateline (LD) by adding 3503412400.2 (about 3.5 billion) to the Earth year if after 1 BC or 3503412399.2 if before 1 AD.
-
GRT
(Gallifrey Relative Time)
(Timelink,
The Gallifrey Chronicles) - GRT
effectively gives the Date in Humanian Era AD/BC dates.
Despite being in Inner Time, Gallifrey is still liked via a real-time analogue to its former location in the Web
of Time.
This analogue time moves at a different speed then the rest of the Universe. Originally it was about 5 times faster,
but the differential between Inner Time and Outer Space has been slowing by about 1 second every hour
(so about 1 year for ever 3,600 years).
It is known that the Doctor was born around March 30th,
1213 GRT, and when Greyjan had served
one year as President of Gallifrey (and the Doctor was 75
3), the
GRT Earth date was 1752 AD.
(The absence of the 3.5 billion year time changes has been explained by a popular fan theory that the Magnatron
was used to shift Gallifrey forward in time after Rassilon's death.)
- So to find the date in the Humanian Era dating one would use the following equation: GRT = .00028 DrAge^2 +.505*DrAge + 1213.25 (or 1214.25 for ages before -1213.25).
- A simple way to roughly estimate Earth dates in the Doctor's life can be found using GRT = .61*DrAge + 1213.25.
- At some point (probably at the time of the Nine Homeworlds Project) this system was changed. This might have been caused by shifting Gallifrey's system into a new Time Zone. Whatever the cause, it is known that the end of the Last Time War intersected the Humanian Time Zone well before 2596 AD.
-
Revised
Local Dateline (Neverland) -
This
revised system of Local Dateline is used by the Matrix and APC for dating events.
It was probably designed to correct for the slowing of Inner Time. Because it is based on the flow of real
time in the external universe it is free from the distortion found in the other systems. The Matrix records Romana's
inauguration as President of a
Clone Gallifrey as being 6776.6 and her
mission to Neverland occurred at 6798.5.
- To find dates in this system add 5720.44 to the Doctor's Age after he turned 1056.
GALLIFREYAN HOLIDAYS
- Day 1 (Oct 20th~) Creation of the Web of Time
- Day 128 (Feb 24th~) Intuitive Revolution Day
- Day 162 (Mar 30th~) Otherstide /Othermass/Festival of Freedom: SEE NOTES BELOW.
- Day 175 (April 13th~) The Thirteenth Night: On the 13th evening after Otherstide the Gallifreyan Cults performed the banned theater of Mimesis.
- Day 205 (May 12th~) Death of Omega, almost certainly known as the Feast of Omega
Most Gallifreyan holidays are classified as Feast Days, such as the Feast of Rassilon. The Festival of the Timewright (Anmers-Tonastide, or TimeWorker), Rassilon's Flag Day,
Rassilon the Lamp Day, Harrenenmas, and Cold Lamentation are other holidays. Name-day treats are sometimes given on the anniversary of a Gallifrey’s
name-day.
Childrene on Gallifrey celebrate certain events by doing a ribbon dance around a pole.
Otherstide
Otherstide
is a holiday on Gallifrey that is seen as a time of renewal. No one
leaves their houses on Otherstide eve, and gifts are given to
time-tots. Mystery of the New Time is a play depicting the events
leading up to the first Otherstide. This play is performed with giant
puppets in every House on Otherstide. (Otherstide is also the name-day
of the Doctor). The follow incantation is also sung:
- Housekeeper: "At Otherstide, the time of renewal, we pledge our devotion to the House. Book of Foundations. Chapter Prydon. Verse six seven three.
- Cousins: - respond with the House's name -
- Housekeeper: "We will always return to the Loom from which you wove us."
- Cousins: "Ancient House."
- Housekeeper: "Sheltering generation on generation of your Kith since the birth of the New Time."
- Cousins: "Home."
- Housekeeper: "We are your plans, designs and architecture. We, who rejoice in your name of..."
- Cousins: - chant the name of their House six times -
LANGUAGES
Old and Modern, High and Low
Gallifreyans
use 208 language tenses to aid in discussing the complexities of time
travel. Because of the stagnation of their society Gallifreyans have
difficulty handling different cultures. They have 30 different words to
describe culture shock. The human concept of denial and schadenfreude had no equivalents in Gallifreyan language. The language's structure and syntax is such that it sounds like a rhyming poem or song. The
term "Time Lord" is technically masculine but, in the modern era, it is
often used by both male and females. The title "Time Lady" is rarely
used and considered to be old fashioned. The plural of TARDIS is still still debated by Time Lords.
Many (if not all) Time Lord documents are printed on circular colored paper. Sometimes these are rolled up into scrolls.
It should be noted that using green ink to write was considered to be very bad manners.
Gallifreyan Morse (similar to Morse Code), is easy to translate, Rassilon's Cipher is very difficult to decode and only a few Time Lords are trained to understand it. Rassilon's Cipher can be decoded using the algorithm imprinted in the atomic structure of an authentic seal or Rassilon.
Gallifreyan Morse (similar to Morse Code), is easy to translate, Rassilon's Cipher is very difficult to decode and only a few Time Lords are trained to understand it. Rassilon's Cipher can be decoded using the algorithm imprinted in the atomic structure of an authentic seal or Rassilon.
Old High Gallifreyan
Δ:x ◫.ʮ: Øx
Harp of Rassilon
Old High Gallifreyan had 10,000,000 letters in its alphabet and worked well as code for computer programs. This language had at least three levels of interpretation, each of which added a different subtext to statements. The versitility of the tenses made it easier for time travellers to speak about events. Despite this, Gallifreyans of this era tended to write a lot just to convey simple ideas. Many of these letters appear Greek, and it is possible that the early Time Lords had some influence on Greek culture. This language was the most magic-like power ever wielded by the Gallifreyans as a whole. Before the anchoring of the Web, this language possesses great powers and, when correctly harnessed, can raise empires and destroy gods. It was used by the ancient Gallifreyans and early Time Lords, but in the modern era very few Gallifreyans know how to speak or read it. Humans would have a great deal of difficulty speaking this language.
Old Low Gallifreyan
Old Low Gallifreyan is another language that was once used, and was know for its foul curse words. Its probably related to the form of writing used by the Shobogans of Low Town.
Modern High Gallifreyan
Modern High Gallifreyan (sometimes known as Circular Gallifreyan) is a form of writing that even TARDIS telepathic circuits can't translate for lesser species. As such, it was often used for sensitive technical or scientific notation, as it couldn't be easily decoded by other species. In the Time War era everything the Time Lords wrote was in this more secure Gallifreyan.
The Patrexian Numbers serve as a numerical base to everything that Patrexian's create. Messages are written in equations that must be solved to be deciphered. This half writing, half math language is very precise, but not very practical. It is a base 7 counting system
The fan-made Circular Gallifreyan writing style created by Loren Sherman has been used on multiple liscensed Dr Who products. Lots more information about it can be found here
Modern Low Gallifreyan
The Modern Low Gallifreyan Omegabet is a mathematically based language that has only 1,000,000 characters. Omega has a capital Greek letter Omega mounted on his helmet in Arc of Infinity. A standard Gallifreyan keyboard has 723 letter keys, and 13 numeric keys across the top. There are only 12 keys on a standard Gallifreyan numeric keypad. Its possible that their number system is base 12 and the 13th key on a full keyboard might be for positive/negative notation. Messages are written in equations that must be solved to be deciphered. This half writing, half math language is very precise, but not very practical.
∞×∑û≠∆
[1][2][3][4][5][6]
[7][8][9] [10][11][12]
Known Gallifreyan Words
- Arkytior: High Gallifreyan for 'rose'
- Doctor: This word might mean 'the good man.' People who possess a doctorate are greatly honored in Gallifreyan society. (The Doctor's extensive visits to the Earth lead to the word being adopted into several of their languages as well.)
- Childe (plural Childrene): a term created to distinguish young loomed Gallifryens from the children of lesser species.
- D'Arvit: a curse word
- Gallifrey: they that walk in shadows
- Gjara'vont: of darkest thought
- Grumblies: kid slang for adults
- Karn: Winter?
- Meyopapa: appears to mean master
- Mi'en Kalarash: blue fire
- Opticon: the meeting place within a village
- Pre-ja Vu: (Modern Gallifreyan) the sense that you're going to have been somewhere before. (coined by Academi Plurix) (Deja Vu is a form of astral projection)
- Shobogan: This term was what the ancient Gallifreyans originally called themselves (before the discovery of regeneration). Over time the term Shobogans became slang Gallifreyan for 'new age' dropouts, who reject the traditions and culture of Rassilon’s Time Lords.
- Swowana: Snow?
- Tardis: probably means timeship
- Tegorak: black mountain
- Toclafane: A general descriptor for numerous different bogeyman-like entities.
- Wreck-Riders: young Time Lords (probably Junior Time Lords) who go joyriding in damaged TARDISes.
GALLIFREYAN SAYINGS, RHYMES, TEACHINGS, AND JOKES
- "6,000 is the new 4,000" - a phrase that was popular around the time of the story Shada.
- "A leader's greatness is best judged by the quality of her advisers." - from Pelatov's Collected Sageries.
- Since the live in enclosed cities Gallifreyans never say good morning or other references to the location of the sun.
- "All that was long ago as the vortisaur flies."
- "Broken House" - refers to a dying bloodline.
- "By the Powers!"
- "By Arcadia!"
- “Everything has its time and everything dies” - possibly a Time Lord axiom.
- "Ferisix and Thrayke protect us"
- "For Rassilon's Sake!" - Gallifrey profanity
- "...for the rest of their quantum days"
- "Frost in the fire and the rocking chair / Frost in the hearth, frost in the ladle / Children's voices in the air / Wind that rocks the empty cradle." - Mid-Gallifreyan Nursery Versery
- “Gallifrey and her Children” - could be a reference to Mother Matrix and her Time Lords?
- "Great Rassilon" - Gallifrey profanity
- "History is time's way of preventing everything from happening at once" - Graffito the Prydonian
- “Ink scratcher” - slang for the lowest job a Time Lord can have.
- "It's not the size that matters, its how you use it." [paraphrased]
- "Life begins at 750"
- "Life begins at 1500"
- “Like Trying to close the Eye with a finklegruber” - a Gallifreyan phrase used to describe a hopeless task.
- "Loom-calm" - a phrase indicating a very quiet peaceful and safe place.
- "Love, _[name]_" - how Gallifreyan letters are often signed.
- "Marnal's Error" - refers to taking action without truly understanding the situation.
- "Never take your eyes off of anyone bearing orange and scarlet robes"
- "Never trust a Time Lord" (presumably said only by Gallifreyans)
- "...never trust a Venusian Shanghorn with a perigosto stick!" - the punch line to a funny joke.
- “Old Pythia” - insult for females.
- “Omega’s Orifice” - Gallifrey profanity. During the Time War using the names Rassilon, or Omega is considered blasphemy.
- "...or I shall lay your soul to waste!" - a threat.
- “Othering Other” - Gallifrey profanity
- “Othering Omega” - Gallifrey profanity
- “Otherf---er” - Gallifrey profanity
- “Peoples of the Universe, please attend carefully. The message that follows is vital to the future of you all. I am President ____ of the High Council of Time Lords” - This appears to be the traditional Time Lord way of opening a speech to Spiral Politic."
- "Pig-rats deserting a a disintegrating time skiff."
- “Rassilon’s Blood” - Gallifrey profanity
- "Rassilon's Death" - Gallifrey profanity
- "Rassilon's Ghost" - Gallifrey profanity
- "Rassilon's Rod" - Gallifrey profanity
- “Rassilon speed you!”
- "Scares the Staazula out of me"
- “Rot in a black star” - an insult
- "Rungar protect us" - Rungar is a criminal imprisoned in Shada
- "Shell snacker" - an insult that probably refers to Gallifreyans who consume the hallucinogenic nuts of the Cerub Tree.
- "Sweet mother of Chaos" - Gallifrey profanity
- "Thalia's bones!" - Gallifreyan profanity
- "Thank Heavens!"
- "Thank Rassilon"
- "Thanks be to Gallifrey"
- "Thank the Other!"
- "The first rule of government is: The solution is always the next problem"
- "The moment has been prepared for." - might be a Gallifreyan phrase referring to Regeneration.
- “The mouth of the Vortex” - probably a Time Lord expression similar to “tip of the iceberg. ”
- "The Old Ones" describes any long dead advanced aliens who had immense powers.
- "There are some corners of the Universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything we believe in. They must be fought." - ancient child's maxim
- "There is a crack in everything. / That's how the light gets in." - part of a Gallifreyan poem.
- "There is always still-time, and there is always flowing-time"
- "Three two one, three two one, / A wreath of roses lay. / Rassilon's dead and Omega's lost, / The other one's gone away. / Three to wonder and bide their time, / They'll all come back one day." - Transcribed from hieroglyphics in the Domdaniel Caverns on Strava.
- "Who unto Rassilon's Tower would go / Must choose - Above, Between, Below / Who unto Rassilon's Tower would go / Must fight with those used to know / Who unto Rassilon's Tower would dare / Must dance across the deadly square. / If Rassilon's Tower you will step in / Then you must choose - to lose or win." - The Nursery Rhyme of Rassilon's Tower from Lullabies for Time Tots by Benncuiq III.
- "Those who plot the destruction of others, often fall victim themselves." - from Pelatov's Collected Sageries
- "Time moves in circles" - old Gallifreyan proverb
- “Time will tell, it always does.” - an expression that dates back to at least the time of Omega.
- "Twelve rejuvenations all, / and not a season more, / hath been the lot of the Time Lords, / since the darker days of yore . . ."
- Urizen’s Beard – Time Lord profanity.
- "What goes bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud? A Time Lord committing suicide." - Graffito the Prydonian.
- "What is the name of Rassilon..." - Gallifrey profanity
- "What the devil?!"
- "You know you’re getting old when the High Council seems to be getting younger."
- "You look tired” - is considered to be a very bad think to say to a leader, even the Lord President.
- “You'll break my hearts”
- "You see all those stars? Each one of those represents a promise. All the time they shine the promise remains unbroken"
- "Yssgaroth Curse You"
- "Zagreus’ Teeth!"
- "Zagreus sits inside your head / Zagreus lives among the dead / Zagreus sees you in your bed / and eats you when you're sleeping / Zagreus at the end of days / Zagreus lies all other ways / Zagreus comes when time's a maze / and all of history's weeping / Zagreus taking time apart. / Zagreus fears the hero heart. / Zagreus seeks the final part. / the reward that he is reaping. / Zagreus sings when all is lost / Zagreus takes all those he's crossed / Zagreus wins and all is cost / the hero's hearts he's keeping. / Zagreus seeks the hero's ship / Zagreus needs the web to rip / Zagreus sups time at a drip / and life aside, he's sweeping. /...(The hero leaves his home to find the land of dreams where Zagreus lives) (there is a part that describes people disappearing up a paradoxical staircase).../ And he set then his course / To a scar on the face of Creation / Where the stars lived and died in the churn of one night / Where the mountains might move in the blink of an eye / And decay was the only true constant / ...(the Hero spends many years searching before)... / And the gate of Zagreus opened before him / And all of the Antiverse was revealed to him / And its terrible beauty ached in his hearts / So through them he ventured / There to do battle with Zagreus, the Beast / Never resting as long as history is lasting / Until either or both are laid to waste / Zagreus waits at the end of the world / for Zagreus is the end of the world / his time is the end of time / and his moment time's undoing" - Nursery Rhyme. Legends of Zagreus can be found on a 1000 different worlds. These so-called Books of Zagreus were created by the Neverpeople to trick the leaders of Gallifrey into entering the Anti Time Universe.