Post by The Doctor on Jan 7, 2012 12:33:49 GMT -5
(OOC: This is a compilation of things we've learned about Gallifrey from the old boards, put up here so we can refer back to it. Anyone else can feel free to add details)
The Time Lords
"We are the Lords of Time. We hung the Framework of Causality and Anchored the Threads of History. We cast down the Great Vampires, and led the Fledgling Empires to victory over the Racnoss, the G'll sha v!a!r, and the Muon Raithe. Who shall deny our claim?"
--Exerpt from the Rite of Initiation
History
The civilization of the Time Lords cannot truly be said to have an age, in any context that makes sense within the Spiral Politic. Whenever they evolved, whenever they mastered time travel, they were the first. Even if they weren't.
Rassilon led the Time Lords in an epic feat of temporal engineering, the Anchoring of the Threads of History. Using the early TARDISes, they selectively pruned and shaped time - much like a gardener would craft a bonsai - to ensure their own survival and supremacy. They did not create the universe, but they engineered it to suit themselves. And then they maintained it.
As a result, to the Time Lords, only Gallifrey has Time. Everywhere else simply has history, and exists only for their own benefit.
Biology
Time Lords are not biological creatures, not in the strictest sense. They evolved at some point in Time, certainly, from creatures that had the same instinctive understanding of the motion of time that creatures on Earth have of the movement of objects in space. But even before the Age of Rassilon, they had begun to modify themselves through genetic engineering. After the time of Rassilon and Omega, they had become a Kardashev IV posthuman civilization.
A Time Lord is, at least theoretically, immortal. Their natural lifespans are unknown. They can tolerate significantly higher doses of radiation than a human, and a much wider temperature range. They have two hearts and a circulatory network that can reroute itself to bypass damaged sections. Their lungs are highly efficient at extracting oxygen, and they have a respiratory bypass system that allows them to sustain themselves on the unused air in their lungs if they are unable to breathe. They heal rapidly from non-fatal injuries, and a fatal injury causes their bodies to rebuild themselves and return to life adapted to better cope with the source of the lethal trauma.
Before the War, this regenerative capability would begin to break down and cease functioning somewhere between the 10th and 15th death. Nobody has tested the limits of this ability in the post-War epoch, but there are some indications that this limit may be a thing of the past.
Culture and Family Life
The majority of Time Lords are not born. They are Loomed in the Halls of Eileithyia, assembled out of virtual fundamental particles along patterns of biodata - threads of information that exist within the vortex - sampled from Time Lord donors and deliberately modified and often slightly randomized. They are raised in creches (or, more rarely, in a family cluster of some sort) until the age of eight, when they are sent to their Initiation. Those that pass are inducted into one of the Academies. Those that do not, and still survive, are taken to the Halls of Eileithyia. Their minds are healed, if possible, and the Keeper of the Halls decides their fate from there.
Time Lords consider biological reproduction to be, at best, inefficient. Biologically-born children are often considered inferior, and must overcome significant social stigma.
As a result of this, the words 'father' and 'mother' and 'brother' and 'sister' are archaic, known only to archeolinguistic scholars. Time Lords typically use 'Cousin' to refer to peers of their House, 'Uncle' or 'Aunt' to refer to older House members, and 'Grandfather' or 'Grandmother' to refer to senior members of the House.
The Time Lords
"We are the Lords of Time. We hung the Framework of Causality and Anchored the Threads of History. We cast down the Great Vampires, and led the Fledgling Empires to victory over the Racnoss, the G'll sha v!a!r, and the Muon Raithe. Who shall deny our claim?"
--Exerpt from the Rite of Initiation
History
The civilization of the Time Lords cannot truly be said to have an age, in any context that makes sense within the Spiral Politic. Whenever they evolved, whenever they mastered time travel, they were the first. Even if they weren't.
Rassilon led the Time Lords in an epic feat of temporal engineering, the Anchoring of the Threads of History. Using the early TARDISes, they selectively pruned and shaped time - much like a gardener would craft a bonsai - to ensure their own survival and supremacy. They did not create the universe, but they engineered it to suit themselves. And then they maintained it.
As a result, to the Time Lords, only Gallifrey has Time. Everywhere else simply has history, and exists only for their own benefit.
Biology
Time Lords are not biological creatures, not in the strictest sense. They evolved at some point in Time, certainly, from creatures that had the same instinctive understanding of the motion of time that creatures on Earth have of the movement of objects in space. But even before the Age of Rassilon, they had begun to modify themselves through genetic engineering. After the time of Rassilon and Omega, they had become a Kardashev IV posthuman civilization.
A Time Lord is, at least theoretically, immortal. Their natural lifespans are unknown. They can tolerate significantly higher doses of radiation than a human, and a much wider temperature range. They have two hearts and a circulatory network that can reroute itself to bypass damaged sections. Their lungs are highly efficient at extracting oxygen, and they have a respiratory bypass system that allows them to sustain themselves on the unused air in their lungs if they are unable to breathe. They heal rapidly from non-fatal injuries, and a fatal injury causes their bodies to rebuild themselves and return to life adapted to better cope with the source of the lethal trauma.
Before the War, this regenerative capability would begin to break down and cease functioning somewhere between the 10th and 15th death. Nobody has tested the limits of this ability in the post-War epoch, but there are some indications that this limit may be a thing of the past.
Culture and Family Life
The majority of Time Lords are not born. They are Loomed in the Halls of Eileithyia, assembled out of virtual fundamental particles along patterns of biodata - threads of information that exist within the vortex - sampled from Time Lord donors and deliberately modified and often slightly randomized. They are raised in creches (or, more rarely, in a family cluster of some sort) until the age of eight, when they are sent to their Initiation. Those that pass are inducted into one of the Academies. Those that do not, and still survive, are taken to the Halls of Eileithyia. Their minds are healed, if possible, and the Keeper of the Halls decides their fate from there.
Time Lords consider biological reproduction to be, at best, inefficient. Biologically-born children are often considered inferior, and must overcome significant social stigma.
As a result of this, the words 'father' and 'mother' and 'brother' and 'sister' are archaic, known only to archeolinguistic scholars. Time Lords typically use 'Cousin' to refer to peers of their House, 'Uncle' or 'Aunt' to refer to older House members, and 'Grandfather' or 'Grandmother' to refer to senior members of the House.
