So You Want To Play A Time Lord?

[The Doctor]

Well, of course you want to play a Time Lord! We congratulate you on your good taste, and encourage you to think long and hard about your character. It's tempting, after all, to just make a human with a funny name. But Time Lords are, after all, aliens. To that end, we will start by recommending a few other threads to give you some insight into playing a Gallifreyan:

• Gallifrey and the Time Lords. This is a compilation of details about the pre-War Time Lords that have been created over time on Whoniverse.
  
• Random Facts About Time Lords. A thread similar to "Gallifrey and the Time Lords", except that the details are instead drawn from the Doctor Who novels (both original and novelizations of the classic series).
  
• Glaurijhan. A board-plot-specfic way to allow new Time Lords to be born/Loomed after the Time War.
  

None of the above is required. It is suggested, though.

There is a distinction between Gallifreyans and Time Lords. All Gallifreyans, Time Lords or not, have mild telepathic abilities, the famous respiratory bypass system, limited ability to regenerate injuries (i.e. they heal much more quickly than humans, but probably can't regrow lost limbs), greater resistance to temperature and pressure extremes and to radiation, functional immortality, and some limited perception of the flow of time. A Gallifreyan may pilot a TARDIS in a limited fashion, but will never have the skill and fine control a Time Lord will possess.

Time Lords get the Rassilon Imprimature. This transforms them into beings of Time, not merely biological creatures. The Imprimature grants them the ability to cheat death through Regeneration, perceive and understand the flow of time and control it to a degree, bond symbiotically with a TARDIS, and a host of other little tricks.

Now, on to the requirements. The only hard rules we have on the board for Time Lord characters is age. First, here are some notes on Time Lord stages of life:

• Gallifreyans physically mature at the same rate as humans, although physical aging begins to substantially slow down beginning around age 25 to 30.
  
• Culturally, Gallifreyans are considered children until they pass the Initiation (typically at age 8). This is the first major coming of age ceremony.
  
• Time Lord culture does not have a concept of "teenager", per se. Once you have passed the Initiation, you are a Time Lord Aspirant and now have to graduate from one of the Academies to become an adult. Academy education takes approximately a century (give or take depending on the student).
  
• Most Aspirants wash out of the Academy by Grade 6 (after between twenty and thirty years of education). The Plebian class comes from the ranks of these failed Aspirants - in human terms, they have something between a High School diploma and an Associates degree.
  
• The Artisan class is drawn from the ranks of Aspirants who passed the Grade 6 exams, but could not graduate from the Academy. Possessing the Gallifreyan equivalent of a Bachelor's or Master's degree, possibly with some Doctoral work, they tend to be engineers, research assistants, high-ranking Guardsmen, and the like.
  
• Once an Aspirant graduates, he or she is invested with the Rassilon Imprimature and takes on the Offices, Duties, and Authorities of a Time Lord.
  

With that in mind, here are the board requirements for ages when playing a Gallifreyan:

• Gallifreyan Aspirants may be any age, with a convincing story and an understanding of the fact that they are no more Time Lords than a clever teenager is a surgeon or a physicist. They've got the biological qualities. but a significant lack of education. If you are playing an Aspirant, you do not get to start play with a TARDIS.
  
• A Gallifreyan Plebian or Artisan may also be of any age, and the application should include some idea of how close you came to becoming a Time Lord before failing. You also do not get to start play with a TARDIS.
  
• Time Lords must be over a hundred years old, bare minimum. Young Time Lords should remember that they have no significant practical experience with the greater Spiral Politic.
  
• The exact dating of the Last Great Time War is problematic because 1) time travel and 2) it never happened anymore. But, any Time Lord under the age of 200 probably doesn't remember Gallifrey when it wasn't at war (assuming that your character is under 200 in the Ninth, Tenth, or Eleventh Doctor's boards, that is).
  
• Time Lord hybrids can theoretically be created as brand new characters. They are subject to all of the normal requirements if they are related to existing characters. They will also get a thorough and highly critical review before being approved.
  
• Time Lord/Sidhe hybrids, if you really want to play one, have to be approved by the Meddler. He currently plays the only characters capable of producing them, after all. Note that approval is contingent on a really good character concept.
  
• Time Lords that were once another species are theoretically possible. The Doctor had planned to send Ace to the Academy, after all. They still have to pass a century of education before becoming Time Lords.
  

[Amelia Pond]

Please also select a chapter -- here's a list of the six canon Chapters:

1. The Prydonian Chapter, also known as the Prydon Chapter, was known to produce devious Time Lords, and more than a few renegades, amongst them the Doctor and the Master. The Prydonians had scarlet and orange ceremonial robes. Prydonians were noted for their cunning. One could not take their eyes off them for a second. Whilst they were known to be devious, it was believed that they were quite honest about this trait amongst their Chapter.

2. The Arcalian Chapter (occasionally known as Arcal) was the second-most important (after the Prydonian Chapter) of the six Time Lord Chapters or Colleges. Arcalians wore green and brown robes. The Arcalian Chapter were likely related to the Arcalian Council for Temporal Research.

3. The Patrex Chapter (plural, Patrexes) was one of the six Colleges or Chapters of Time Lord society. The Patrexes wore heliotrope (or pinkish-purple) robes. The Patrexes were an order of artists and aesthetes, but they lacked any true imagination and were minor players in Time Lord politics. One of their duties included scanning into the future as far ahead as possible. They were responsible for the creation of the N-Forms.

4. The Scendeles Chapter or Colleges was one of the six chapters of Time Lord society. Their colours were quite subdued and they had little political power. They were believed to have bankrupted themselves trying to build their side of the Panopticon.

5. The Dromeian Chapter or College was one of the six Chapters of Time Lord society on Gallifrey. The color of their robes were silver-grey. They had little political power. Author Marc Platt said that that he thought of this chapter as analogous to the Liberal Democrats, a real life British political party.

6. The Cerulean Chapter or College was one of the six Chapters of Time Lord society on Gallifrey. The colour of their robes were a subdued light blue. They had little political power. Creator Marc Platt said that he based this Chapter after the Green Party of England and Wales.

[Deleted]

Guidelines for Time Lord Regenerations and Face Claims:

A Time Lord is allowed the standard 12 total regenerations (a player may be able to petition staff for additional regenerations after 12).

A brand new application may start out with up to 3 Face Claims, if desired (the original incarnation plus 2 more). Please check to see if your desired Face Claims have already been used (so we don't have accidental duplicates).

After the character's application has been approved, their player may submit up to one additional new Regeneration / Face Claim per month for that character. To request additional Face Claims, please post your request to the Face Claim thread; once it has been added to the main list, your new Face Claim will have been Approved. Your next step will be to add your new Face Claim to your character's application, and then please also post something new to the application's thread to bump it to the top and let everyone know.

A player may post their new Face Claim information to the Face Claim thread with their name (ie, Your Time Lord's Name II, III, IV, etc). Please check to see if your desired Face Claim has already been used (so we don't have accidental duplicates). You do not have to have a regeneration scene completed in a thread to post up a new Face Claim.

Please note: there is no requirement for a Time Lord to have their full complement of regenerations documented and determined beforehand - time is not linear. Other than the general guidelines above, a player can write out their Time Lord's regenerations if / when they feel inspired to do so.