LOOM TO TOMB
Life on Gallifrey
"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?"
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Click on paragraphs to see color coding for sources
BRAINBUFFING
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 originally from the world of Ava before being enslaved by the Time Lords.) Brainbuffing might also 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. Before they leave the nursery they will know which areas of space are empty of life and for how long they remained that way. 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. A common Gallfreyan toy is an onion doll. It is a small colorful ball shaped object which can be split in half with a twist to reveal a slightly larger different colored sphere on the inside. This can be opened to reveal another even larger ball. The user can continue to open each one, until the resulting balls are too large to be twisted open by a single person. Some childrene are allowed to play with stuffed rabbit-like toys. 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.
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY
Old Times: The Order of the Pythia
Old Time legends and Gallifreyan mythology states that the Universe was born from a sentient singularity called Eru or the Great Old One Azathoth. It was written that at the Big Bang the being split into 10 dimensions (though the Universe has 11 dimensions). After Event 0 the Mother Goddess used the Aurora Temporalis (Anvils of Heaven) to create and pour the dimension of Time itself into the void of the empty Universe. The seconds of Time were said to be created by the Temporal Phoenix that was imprisoned in a time loop by the Philesians.
The primary Gallifreyan gods worshiped by the original Shobogans during the Old Time are the Higher Eternals known as the Menti Celesti ('heavenly minds'). Pain, Death, and Time the primary gods, but Fate (also known as Osuda) is also known for her hallowed hand. Other deities include mystic virgin moon goddess Pazithi who's name adorns one of Gallifrey's moons. The Menti Celesti drove all of Gallifrey’s civilization.
The
ratio 1 to 812 is key to understanding the 12 dimensional nature of
quantum string theory. When the Shobogans discovered this ratio, most Shobogans saw it a conclusive proof of the existence of the Menti Celesti. But most agreed that the gods only
observe and do not interfere. Still, in times of crisis, the Shobogans
pray to the Menti Celesti for salvation. Gallifreyans have also been known to mention a Devil from time to time. 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. Ancient Gallifreyans belive that Evil could be used to repel Evil.
Homes
have alcoved shrines, which are obscured by curtains with frames of
woven wood and flowers. Votive gifts and offerings are placed on the
ledge to gain favor with the Menti Celesti. It is traditional to make
an offering to the Menti Celesti when good events come to pass.
At one point the Shobogans (like all other life in the cosmos) could live forever baring accidents. According to ancient fairytales, Death’s Messenger arrived on Gallifrey on Mount Perdition, and it was there that Presus fought the Messenger and gained the favor of the Goddess Time. This could refer to when the Kotturuh brought their gift of mortality to the Shobogans of Gallifrey. The ancient Shobogans referred to dying as facing the Ultimate. Modern 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.
In the Bright Past of Gallifrey the irrational force of Odic Energy was plentiful. Odic Energy made miraculous healing and acts of prophecy possible. Among the Shobogans the ability to see the future could be attained by certain women. These rare visionaries that developed there precognitive powers by staring into the Untempered Schism. Their minds became connected and nearly merged with the Astral Vortex. They could see the future of specific people, places, and species in amazing detail. Those women who spent too much time with their minds in the Vortex, became disconnected and catatonic. These wandering seers can be found traveling from town to town and traditionally subsist on a diet of fish tongues.
The greatest of the oracles was the exalted Pythia. The Constitution of the Gallifreyan Empire stated the Pythia was chosen by the Menti Celesti to rule all of Gallifrey's Shobogans. She was the Embodiment of Gallifrey itself and Guardian/Crown of the Gallifreyan Empire. She was also the symbol of the planet's fertility, Mouthpiece of the Gods, and Guardian of the Great Book of Future Legends. She had the title of Excellency (and possibly Majestrix as well). Amulets and talismen hung from golden chains on the Pythia’s robes. Throughout the Bright Past, a Pythia could expect a life of potentially hundreds of thousands of years. The Empire's Constitution required that the Pythia name a successor by placing their name in the Epiphany Scrolls of Soneuramos.
The Sisterhood of the Pythian Order work directly with and for the Pythia. Among their ranks a physician, a food taster, vot'resses, and adepts. These attendants wore rust red devotional vestments and most had the red hair of Individuals.Sacrifices (to regain the favor of the Menti Celesti and for other purposes) were made on alters in the temple. Shobogans sometimes sacrifice their own people. Petitioners (most wanting miracles) had to wait in the temple courtyard for an audiance. An herbal knot garden could be found there. A copper sanctum gate leads to the inner temple, known as the Hall of the Gods.
Steps found in the adytum of the temple lead the Cavern of Prophecy. Dominating the chamber is deep fissure known as the Crevasse of Memories That Will Be. Legend states that constrictor snakes lived withing the Crevasse. The granite walls and ceilding of the sanctum are supported pillars. One of these is hollowed where the Pythia's bodyguard lies in wait to deal with threats. To see the future, a Pythia sits in a wicker cage in the Cavern, under the adytum of the Temple. She is suspended over the Crevasse of Memories That Will Be. At the signal, an Adept in the watch-place activates a control triggering the release of steam and bitter smoke that billows up out of the Crevasse and around the wicker cage. The smoky vapors from the Crevasse allow her to achieve the states of both clairvoyance and clairaudiance.
Holy
relics include the invisible armor of Troppolsabler, and the holy icons
of the Bright Past. The Reliquary of Accession holds the Epiphany
Scrolls of Soneuramos. These ancient sacraments were entrusted to the
217th Pythia in the sacred Firelake of Rag-Finish. But the most holy is
the Great Book of Future Legends itself. Its prophecies were
taught in school and all the truly impressive victories for the Empire
were foretold in its pages. The Amphisbaena was a terrible beast
described in the Book.
Men are expected to wear fur coats with deep hoods that obscure their faces when having when entering the Hall of the Gods for an
audience with the Pythia. The Adepts say to a petitioner (who is
granted an audience with the Pythia) “Clean let the hearts be of each
Seeker.” The petitioner replies with “So shall we never doubt.”
There was a theory that stated that if all the magic of the universe became science and everything about everything was understood then all the science and technology of the universe would fail. The 254th Pythia declare that all technology should be abandoned (or maybe technological advances are forbidden).
During the Time of Chaos, one of the Guardians declared an end to precognition, and this led to the death of the 508th Pythia and the collapse of the ancient order. The surviving attendants traveled to the world of Karn and reorganized themselves into the Sisterhood of the Flame under High Priestess Maren.
The ratio 1 to 812 is key to understanding the 12 dimensional nature of quantum string theory. In the Rassilon Era many Gallifreyans see this a conclusive proof of the existence of the old Gods. But just as many see it as conclusive proof that the gods could never have existed. Most 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 the creators "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..."
The Menti Celesti are the most well known of the Gallifreyan Gods. The primary Gods are Pain, Death, and Time. But other gods include Light, Life, Fate, and Hope are included in the pantheon. The Time Lords believe these Gods to merely be Higher Eternals but, in reality, they are part of the essence of the Universe. The higher dimensions are filled with a background radiation of artron energy generated by every sapient life in history, and one of these realms is known as the dimension of Imagination. The Menti Celesti are non-corporeal abstract universal conceptual entities. Pain, Death, and Time, are thought to be the dreams of Time Lords which leak out into the cosmos. These conceptual Loa were brought into existence by the sapient beings who conceived of Death, and Time and the others as entities with their own will. It was said that Pain was the first and oldest of the gods. The Hond of the Dark Times are the sapient conceptual embodiment of Pain. The Gallifreyan Gods have the following colors attributed to them: red & black for Pain, white for Death, and a shifting gray color for Time.
Its likely that Death's origin relates to collective trauma of the Kotturuh granting the 'gift' of mortality to all life in the Universe. A Gallifreyan fairy tale states that the drunken gods who were supposed to give the newborn Death her name, instead gave the name to someone else and then forgot the name. Angered by this failure, she now spends her time removing every mortal's name. Death serves as a gatekeeper between Null-Space and the afterlife (the City of the Saved??). The ancient symbol of Death is a red circle called a Regenerative Circle.
Time was said to be the youngest of the Menti Celesti. Before the first Time Lord existed, the Astral Vortex filled with a background radiation of artron energy generated by every sapient in history. Their observation and perception helped crystallize the History by collapsing the quantum probability waveform. While the Gallifreyans view the Great Time Line of History as high-order mathematical structures, these processes are complex enough to be regard as living beings. Indeed the theory that led to their comprehension of the Vortex is know as the Idea of Living Matter. The collective illusion it forms functions as the universe's subconscious, making the vortex a dimension of pure thought with a complexity that borders on sentience. Some Time Lords (and all members of Faction Paradox) view History itself as a sentient being or beings (sometimes called Loa). History is even capable of affecting the minds of a Time Lord. The Father of Time once indicated to the Doctor that he was the Timeless Child.Before being imprisoned on Atropos, Time ran wild and unstoppable. Time was erosion and destruction, and her mission was to erode Space. While she was worshipped by the ancient Shobogans, Time was seen as evil by modern Gallifreyans. Time was sometimes depicted as a tall woman wearing a grey shall and carrying a two handled amphora. The outside of this jar depicts scampering dancing figures. It is filled with the dust of Time which she pours endlessly to ensure the passage of time. Time uses her flute to create a single timeless melody that encompasses multiple moods and goals based on who hears it. Time is also depicted as the Father of Time, in the form of an elderly robed man with a scythe.
Time is the source of the time force. The time force is another force in addition to electro-magnetic, weak/strong nuclear and gravity forces. The time force is known to be many times more powerful then gravity. The Time Lords' ability to control and manipulate the time force, allows the Eye of Harmony to actually alter the Web of Time.
While she was worshipped by Shobogans and even some Time Lords, in truth, Time had been captured and imprisoned by Rassilon's Garda as part of the anchoring of history. She is held in the Temple of Atropos on the artificial world of Time. Given time's interest in weaponizing entropy against space and the Key to Time's importance at anchoring Time, its possible that Time's imprisonment was undertaken to prevent the heat death of the Universe. Despite only being worshipped by about a quarter of the newer generations of Gallifreyans, Time secretly drove all of Time Lord civilization. While still imprisoned, Time was able to use a bootstrap pardox to create an avatar for her consciousness in the form of the granddaughter of an entity known as the Timewyrm and a human agent of the Time Lords named Chris Cwej. (Indeed, all bootstrap paradoxes are actually the work of Time herself.) Despite achieving a limited freedom, in the modern era, the goddess Time (like most of the goddesses) feels she has a responsibility to the people who worship her and she tries to live up to their expectations. She uses her champions to protect the history established by the Time Lords. This change of heart might be due to exposure to the Doctor and his involvement with finding her an avatar to live through.
These beings can control time, and fate. Like, all of the transcendental beings, the Eternals are bound by the Great and Ancient Covenants. But some focus on their own agendas Time Lords in nightmares or near-death states sometimes make deals with them, sometimes to become their Champions. Such Champions will be tested to see if they are worthy. By the time of the 1st Doctor, many Time Lords will see the Eternals as little more the legends. Despite this, about 25% of the population of Gallifrey still worship Death, Time, Pain, and the others. Many Childeren recite prayers to the Time and her Sisters. Prayer to the gods is usually conducted by individuals in a private setting.
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 concept 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.
Paradoxica Cards: An ancient Time Lord device that appears to be a pack of cards. The cards function as something akin to a temporal spirit level that can chart the shape of reality. It seems possible that the Paradoxica deck is related to Faction Paradox in some way. So cards have powers of the past, others of the future, and others of the forever present. With the power of a TARDIS they can even be used as a transportation device. The cards are powerful enough to disorient the minds of even Time Lords, often causing amnesia. The lower the artron energy level of the subject the worse the effect. According to legend, these were created by Lady Patience.
There are also 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 and stories of the Loom Fairy. Many Gallifreyan childeren believe in magic. 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 immortal and indestructible evil Malador who was imprisoned by the ancients, but not before he created an indestructible army of Melkur. Childrene are told tales of the lost city of Altrazar on the world of Nirvana, which would appear in normal space once every thousand years. 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. They 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.
Could the Sea of Life be where the souls of deceased Gallifreyans are sometimes said to reside? This would a bit of sense if the Sea was actually the Matrix which holds both the History of the (River of) Time and the minds the Gallifreyans who have passed on. The Gallifreyan 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
- Stories are told in the nurseries of Gallifrey about the Great Vampires. Some Gallifreyans believe that Rassilon was a Vampire. The Cult of Rassilon the Vampire even worship him and have been known to sacrifice Gallifreyans and try to infect themselves with the V-factor. 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).
- 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
In theory, being confronted with eternity inspires the initiate, and many are. But some Novices 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.
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 in Prydos City at the northern boarder of Southern Gallifrey. It sits at the base of the northern slopes of Mount Cadon (also known Mount Lung, Mount Plutarch, and Mount Rycadia) about 600 miles due south from the Capitol. Prydos is an old city built on an artificial mound in great plane. The city-complex 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 filled with little blue flowers surround the buildings, with sand filled pathways leading between them. The fortress-like ebony buildings have glass turrets, which are accessed by covered sky-bridges. 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. The academy takes up much of Prydos City and covers 28 square miles. The majority of the buildings are dormitories, lecture halls, gymnasiums, and eateries. Most buildings dedicated to the Time Academy are dimensionally transcendental. 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. Like the other 'academy' cities, Prydos is surrounded by basalt 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. 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. Like the other 'academy' cities, they are surrounded by basalt stone walls. 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. The Vectors’ are an incredibly ancient organization whose
model of justice is the most famous in the universe. Their polices
are taught to young childeren on Gallifrey to teach them fairness and
the value of carefully following procedures. The goal is to ensure
Gallifreyans are dedicated to a obsessive work ethic of a life of service to Time, and to the Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey.
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
SHOBOGANS AND OUTSIDERS
LOVE AND MARRIAGE
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 even undergo marriage. However they fall in love very slowly compared to short lived humans. 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
Gallifrey's Second City of Arcadia lies to the south-east of the Capitol in the Arcadian Sector within the Arcadian Desert. The Palace of Arcadia is one of the finest restaurants in Arcadia City. Gallifreys sometimes swear by this city. The Lowlands of Outer Gallifrey are separated from the Arcadian Desert by the Myridian Mountains and it would take well over two months to walk from the Capitol to Arcadia (so at least 900 miles). By the War Era it will have become Gallifrey's best protected city.
The Prydon Academy is located in Prydos City at the northern boarder of Southern Gallifrey. It sits at the base of the northern slopes of Mount Cadon (also known Mount Lung, Mount Plutarch, and Mount Rycadia) about 600 miles due south from the Capitol. Prydos is an old city built on an artificial mound in great plane. The city-complex 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 filled with little blue flowers surround the buildings, with sand filled pathways leading between them. The fortress-like ebony buildings have glass turrets, which are accessed by covered sky-bridges. 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. The academy takes up much of Prydos City and covers 28 square miles. The majority of the buildings are dormitories, lecture halls, gymnasiums, and eateries.
Prydos, Arcalia, and Patrexi are 'academy' cities surrounded by basalt 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.
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 observe 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.
LIFE ON GALLIFREY
Old Times:
Pre-Rassilite Shobogans excelled at sorting through cat's cradles of interwoven
lines. Such patterns were used to decorate virtually everything. Covered skimmersledges and hover cars were used for transportation. Fireplaces are common in well appointed houses.
Samovars are used to make tea. Ivory was used as a decoration. Liviahide is used by Shobogans like leather is used by humans. A
nice book will be bound in Leviahide with a screen of quartz. Money was
nessecary to acquire food and some Shobogans starved for the lack of
it. Slavery of off-world species was common. Bubble Retina are used to
display holographic projections.
Pandaks (made of brass), pounds, guineas and even ancient depaks, dumplings and gold treazant coins are all used as currency. A guinea will buy you a few drinks in a bar. A few treazant coins could buy a slave during the Dark Times. Gallifrey has Inheritance Laws and Temporal Taxation and Gallifreyans are zero tax rated. 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.
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.
They have showers that alternate with pulses of water and muscle oil, that refresh the body as well as clean it. Gallifreyan showers can also emit universal clensing light, which is more effective at cleaning then water and better for the skin. 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. Most of the dust that settles in the capitol is made of mica.
RECREATION
Old Times: The Games of Death
The Games of Death forced aliens from across time and space to fight each other to survive. The species from the two ends of eternity fight in one giant paradox. The survivors who reached the Dark Tower would gain their freedom. The Death Zone (or Forbidden Zone) is created in a pentagon shaped valley in the southern hemisphere as an arena for the Games. The Death Zone is about the size of North Wales and is surrounded by a powerful forcefield that can trap even a TARDIS. The games are considered holy and serve as an outlet for the stresses of the telepathic group mind of Gallifreyans. The Games are constantly going on and the Gallifreyans watch them on their Public Access Channels. The Jagdagian Circus is something Shobogans attend for entertainment.
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.
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
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.
DEATH OF A GALLIFREYAN
TIME LORD CHRONOLOGY
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. Special gongs are rung at twilight. 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 suncycle = 1 year
- 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 = 23 years (possibly 24 years or 4 Spans, or possibly how long Pogar takes to orbit Gallifrey's sun?)
- 1 epoch = tens of millions of years (also known as Deep Time)
INNER TIME
Old Times: Shobogan Dating
The Pre-Rassilite Shobogan dating system that was in use at the time of the Intuitive Revolution had year zero being roughly 5300 years before the Revolution. So the anchoring of the Eye of Harmony and the founding of the Inner Time dating (listed below) would occur around year 5330 by the old Imperial calendar.
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
3,500,034,139.89 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.
Day 1 of the Gallifreyan New Year probably corresponds to their winter solstice. 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: The Mystery of the New Time is celebrated and the casting of stillborn Shobogan children into the Crevass of Memories that Will Be is commemorated.
- 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
Otherstide
- 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
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 Time: Old High Gallifreyan
Old High Gallifreyan was a Pre-Rassilite language that 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.
English | Gallifreyan |
---|---|
A | Φ |
D | Σ |
E | ‹ |
F | ⍋ |
G | ♃: |
H | ▽꜕ |
I | 🝆= |
K | ᐘ |
L | 𝜈 |
M | Ξ |
N | ≠ |
O | Ⲇ |
R | ∂³ |
S | ↑ |
T | ξ. |
V | ◬ |
W | 𝚵 |
Y | Ħ |
Z | Ꝋ |
'space' | — |
Old Time: Old Low Gallifreyan
Old Low Gallifreyan is another language that was used in Pre-Rassilite times. It 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 appears to have come into existance around the time Tecteun returned to Gallifrey. 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. During 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.
[1][2][3][4][5][6]
[7][8][9] [10][11][12]
Known Gallifreyan Words
- Arkytior: High Gallifreyan for 'rose'
- Bitch: insult for a (non-Time Lady) woman
- 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: means they that walk in shadows. (This refers to the planet and its peoples existing in the shadows cast by the warm darkness of magick and the cold light of science.)
- Gjara'vont: means of darkest thought
- Gods-guardian: Old Gallifreyan for someone’s godmother or godfather.
- Grumblies: Old Gallifreyan child slang for adults
- Karn: Old Gallifreyan for Winter?
- Lacing: Shobogan slang for telepathically sharing memories.
- Medicus: Old Time title for a medical physician.
- Meyopapa: appears to mean master
- Mi'en Kalarash: blue fire
- Opticon: the meeting place within a village
- Osuda: Old Gallifreyan for fate.
- 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.
- Solace Bay: Term for a medical treatment center.
- Swowana: Snow?
- Suncycle: a Gallifreyan year.
- Tardis: probably means timeship
- Tegorak: black mountain
- Thought-Pool: the name of the collective consciousness of all Shobogans before the Curse.
- 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." - Old Gallifreyan, from Pelatov's Collected Sageries.
- Since they 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."
-
"Brittles and fricpins all over" Old Gallifreyan for tingling all over the body.
- "Broken House" - refers to a dying bloodline.
- "By Arcadia!" - Gallifreyan profanity
- "By the Powers!" - Gallifreyan profanity
- "By the Sash of Rassilon!" - Gallifreyan profanity
- “Dear Gods” - Old Gallifreyan profanity.
- “Everything has its time and everything dies” - possibly a Time Lord axiom.
- “Fall off!” – Old Gallifreyan curse
- "Ferisix and Thrayke protect us" - Gallifreyan profanity
- "For Rassilon's Sake!" - Gallifreyan 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?
- "Good Gallifrey" - Gallifreyan profanity
- "Great Rassilon" - Gallifreyan profanity
- "History is time's way of preventing everything from happening at once" - Graffito the Prydonian
-
“How easily pleased are the foolish" - Pelatov's Collected Sageries, folio 3, canto 16, verse 81.
- "In my duty to defend existence, I became mortality itself, the slayer of spheres." – Old Gallifreyan Pythic text.
- “Ink scratcher” - slang for the lowest job a Time Lord can have.
- "In the name of the Void" - Gallifreyan swearing. The void refers to death.
- “...in the nine corners of the Universe” - Old Gallifreyan slang for everything everywhere.
- "Isn’t it dark / Isn’t it cold / Seek out the future / Before you get old / Once there were children / This is their doom / Now all the people / Are born from the loom" - Old Mid-Gallifreyan nursery rhyme
-
“It’s all sewn up” - Old Gallifreyan for its all over, the game is up.
- "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.
- "Little sheetsnacker" - an Old Gallifreyan insult
- "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 knows why” - description for an incomprehensible decision or event.
- “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 Beard" - Gallifrey profanity
- “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 Ancients have much to teach, but one should not dwell amongst them forever." from Pelatov's Collected Sageries
- "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"
- "The Vector rose and the Vector said 'this little boy is deader then dead'." - poem taught to students.
- "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" - ancient Pythian 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 . . ."
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"Urizen’s Beard" – Time Lord profanity.
- “We can’t throw treazants into a bottomless vortex” - Old Gallifreyan for wasting money.
- "we’re scrubbed" - Old Gallifreyan for we are trapped in a bad situation.
- "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?!"
- “What the Omega?!”
- “When is the Pythia like an old pipe-cleaner? When she's gone clean round the bend.” – Old Gallifreyan Joke dating to the time of the Intuitive Revolution.
- "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 thing to say to a leader, even the Lord President.
- “You'll break my hearts”
- “...you might more easily stand a Pythia on her head.” Old Gallifreyan slang for something impossibly difficult to do.
- "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.