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gallifreyanhotfive · 3 months

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Random Doctor Who Facts You Might Not Know, Part 13: Gallifrey at War Part 2

TW: more gruesome Time War shit, lots of death, disturbing stuff

Both the Daleks and the Time Lords investigated genetic manipulation to create new creatures to use during the Last Great Time War. This includes the highly psychic Time Lord called Quarren Maguire, who was altered to have reality changing abilities. He used these abilities to erase the evidence that he existed and then Chameleon Arched himself to pass as human, unaware of his nature as a Time Lord.

Marie is a sentient humanoid Type 103 TARDIS. The Time Lords kept her in a box for more than a year screaming and thrashing. Eventually, the High Council allowed her to mate with a Type 105 TARDIS, and she bore a baby TARDIS. After the baby was born, the Time Lords took them away from Marie immediately.

The Last Wave was a generation of soldiers in the War in Heaven. The officers in this group were older individuals who forced regeneration until their skin was coated in this black organic blastproofing.

Dalek technology possessed regeneration inhibitors.

The Time Lords would often splice different species together in the Time Vortex to create increasingly impossible and mindless beings.

Leela was fitted with a compliance collar during the Last Great Time War to force her obedience.

The Fifth Doctor became involved in the Last Great Time War by accident after crashing his TARDIS into a Dalek time machine.

During the War in Heaven, the Nine Gallifreys project concerned cryptoforming planets into Gallifreyan cloneworlds. Some envisioned every planet in the universe eventually being transformed. These clone Gallifreys would eventually be used as ballistic projectiles as the war escalated among other things.

In the Last Great Time War, mutated Time Lords dubbed "Interstitials" were living in the Death Zone. They were the results of experiments by Rassilon to create a possibility engine. This involved retro-evolving the timeline of these Time Lords to connect to the time vortex and enter a loop of iterative regeneration. This meant they had no constant appearance and were instead in flux between different bodies. Rassilon and Borusa eventually managed to build their engine using them.

In the beginning of the Last Great Time War, the War Council built munitions factories underneath Gallifrey's surface. They employed children.

It was said that a soldier in the Last Great Time War could die a thousand times in a single day only to learn that they had never been born at all the day after.

The Cold was a weapon created by the Time Lords during the War in Heaven. When activated, it breaks through the time-space continuum, so everything nearby gets sucked into an alternate universe and destroyed. If introduced to an inactive Cold, a subject could be held in stasis for centuries, like Fitz Kreiner was.

During his time working for the Faction, Kreiner spent centuries killing Time Lords, including the Rani and the Master although these may have been clones. He collected their severed heads.

Saturnyne was a water world until it was hit by a shock wave of temporal disruption from the Last Great Time War. This caused the planet to change to one where the inhabitants evolved with no natural laws of evolution, becoming odd beings that could move from the deepest depths of the water to land. The Saturnyne matriarch Rosanna Calvierri would later meet the Eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory in Venice.

The Time Lords began to seriously alter their biology during the War in Heaven, often becoming what the Eighth Doctor termed to be "monsters."

The biodata virus altered its victims biodata to become members of the Faction Paradox. It infected the Third Doctor while he was regenerating on Dust after being shot, thus dramatically altering the timeline. Now infected, the Doctor would be corrupted into a member of the Faction by the end of his Eighth self.

River Song used a therapy bot to erase the Eleventh Doctor’s memory of counting how many children were on Gallifrey at the end of the Last Great Time War. This same therapy bot would one day belong to Cass Fermazzi, but instead of taking her memories, it just spewed out the Doctor’s. This had a great effect on her childhood and inspired her to fight for what is right. Discovering this confirmed the Thirteenth Doctor’s belief that they caused her death.

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28

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galahadwilder · 6 months

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You’ve made me interested in the weapons that the Time Lords used during the time war, tell me more about them. 👀

@dougielombax @synthomite retcon viruses, living shadows, blood magic, cannibal TARDISes, universal programming languages (as in, they program the universe), sentient laws of physics, and there’s a theory that the Enemy from the War in Heaven was actually a separate hostile timeline. Basically, they called all matter-based technology “burlesque devices” because if you can’t do things by retconning the universe to have always been the way you want then what are you even doing fighting a time-travel war?

#doctor who #faction paradox #original content #the time war #the last great time war #the war in heaven

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pl9090 · 7 months

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Apologies but the scheduled piece needs redrafting so here's my first crappy attempt at a Faction Paradox meme. The dialogue subtitles is in a non meme font because I like the idea of subtitles utilising different fonts for different people or groups, the Faction's naturally being Tempus .I.T.C..

#faction paradox #book of the war #doctor who #bbc doctor who #whoniverse #whovian #nuwho #the tragedy of darth plagueis the wise #the war in heaven #wilderness years #meme

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familyparadox · 11 months

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The Great Houses are Fighting the War.

They are fighting The War

They are fighting THE WAR

The War itself is is the Enemy, it all makes sense now the only thing the Great Houses are fighting is the War. Everything they have fought has been part of the War. Thus the WAR is the Enemy

They are fighting the War.

They are not fight in the war they are fighting the War itself.

It’s so simple. It’s beautiful. The Enemy is the War.

#doctor who #faction paradox #dweu #eighth doctor #doctor who eu #the enemy #the war in heaven #it all makes sense now #everything makes sense #I understand it all now #I understand it #I UNDERSTAND

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stjohncapistrano67 · 1 year

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A Traditional Catholic sculpture of St. Michael the Archangel casting Satan out of Heaven.

#traditional catholicism #traditional catholic images #traditional catholic sculpture #traditional catholic saints #traditional catholic saints images #st. micheal the archangel #the war in heaven #traditional catholic spiritual warfare #st. micheal casts satan out of heaven

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jellyfishinajamjar · 3 months

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Okay I’ve got a crackpot theory. Be’lakor was a Necron’tyr. Here’s my evidence:

Be’lakor is the first Daemon Prince ever, meaning he had to have come from a very early era in the galaxy. The War in Heaven is as far back as the lore goes

Be’lakor has the favor of all chaos gods, something that would have been easier to get when they were smaller, such as at the very tail end of the War in Heaven with the deaths of the Old Ones keeping the warp at bay

The Necron’tyr have aspects that could feed into all of the Chaos Gods. They get sick and die at a very young age, playing into Nurgle. They went through biotransferance, a galaxy spanning act of change into a new and horrifying state, hyping up Tzeentch. And the War in Heaven was canonically the bloodiest and most devastating war to ever occur, so plenty of blood was spilt for Khorn. A very active and skilled Necron’tyr general or champion could easily have attracted the attention of one or perhaps all of the gods. Perhaps one who slew the beings keeping them contained and weakend might be rewarded, and with Chaos now a major power in the galaxy, rewarded handsomely

Now admittedly there are some holes. Nothing about the Necron’tyr in general makes me think Slannesh, though Be’lakor could have had some shit going on we just don’t know about. Also Slannesh wasn’t born till long after the war, though afterwords she had always existed, so it’s still possible. Be’lakor is the Deamon Prince of Chaos Undivided, not one god specifically, so it’s possible that his deal with Chaos as one entity also retroactively included all ‘new’ Chaos gods, such that when she was born she had already made the deal just as a causal requirement for existing, even if she wouldn’t have agreed to it had she been sentient then

Necron’tyr are supposed to have had weak souls, though I imagine with the sudden rush of power they felt being freed they could have made a rock into a Deamon Prince if it had been an especially attractive rock

Also the War in Heaven was at its bloodiest after biotransferance, which I imagine makes accession to Daemonhood impossible on account of the lack of a soul. Perhaps he was thrown to the forges and the gods pulled him out into his Daemonhood rather than losing his soul?

#jellyfish jams #necrons #Necron’tyr #Be’lakor #chaos undivided #the war in heaven #warhammer 40k #warhammer chaos

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a-wartime-paradox · 11 months

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The BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures "War in Heaven" arc, as it may have originally been

The BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures, at their start, didn't have any arc set-in-stone, and so author Lawrence Miles wrote the masterpiece Alien Bodies, kick-starting the "War in Heaven" arc. However, on 3 July 2000, The Ancestor Cell was published, putting an end to the War in Heaven arc, at least within the EDA range.

Before this novel was published, Lawrence Miles had other ideas for the War in Heaven, and I for this post have attempted to reconstruct a rough timeline for what could have been, from the available evidence. Bear in mind that I have taken some creative liberties and speculation. As there will be quite a few different stories in different ranges, some released and some unproduced, I've decided to code them for convenience: first off, assume everything is a published EDA unless told otherwise - then, green is for a part of the "Bernice Summerfield" New Adventures, blue is for Past Doctor Adventures, orange is for anything else, and bold is for unproduced (these can be combined).

Prelude

Down (September 1997)*: the Gods are introduced, setting up a War seemingly separate to the War in Heaven. This most likelywasn't originally intended to tie-in to the EDAs, or be part of the War in He and, but was brought in by Dead Romance.

Alien Bodies (November 1997): Faction Paradox, the Enemy, the Celestis, and the state of Gallifrey and it's cloneworlds during the War in Heaven is introduced and established as being in the Eighth Doctor's future.

Unnatural History (June 1999): small skirmish with Faction Paradox. It is altogether unclear whether they come from the War or from the Eighth Doctor's time

Act 1

Dead Romance (1 March 1999): the universe of the VNAs, that of Chris Cwej, is implied to be in a bottle in the EDA universe, as itself contains a bottle. Later stories would draw continuity with the VNAs, and The Ancestor Cell (not counted in this list) saw the merger of the bottle into the main universe. This is also implied to be the case by the fact that Cousin Eliza - Christine Summerfield - appears to be in the prime universe by The Faction Paradox Protocols. Personally, I reconcile these by concluding that only the later VNAs starring Bernice Summerfield, which lacked the BBC Doctor Who license, are part of this "bottle", and that Christine used the Gods of that universe to climb out of it, as she implies at the end of the novel.

Interference: What Happened On Earth (August 1999, part of "Interference"): a major interaction with the War; the Doctor prevents the destruction of Earth by wartime powers, thus marking his first major intervention in the War, as Earth is a cradle point of casualty. The War also infects the Doctor's timestream back to his third incarnation, in Interference: What Happened On Dust.

Toy Story (1999/2004)*2: Lolita talks to the TARDIS.

Interference: Foreman's World (August 1999, part of "Interference"): I.M. Foreman reveals the bottle universe, says the people within created their own bottle universe, and it is lost. This effectively confirms the implementation in Dead Romance. Interestingly, as far as I know, most people read Interference first, completely missing the fact that the ending of it is meant to confirm Dead Romance, not foreshadow it. At least, I completely missed that.

Beneath the Planet of the Spiders (after "Interference"): The Fourth Doctor combats the Eight Legs in place of the Third Doctor, and presumably the effects of Interference are further explored.

Valentine's Day (after "Interference"): the Doctor exiles himself for fear of regenerating into something worse than Faction Paradox could imagine. With his absence, the Daleks rise to power. The Doctor then trains a replacement, with the combined help of the Time Lords and Faction Paradox. Ideas of a replacement were adapted by Miles into The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, where the replacement is Sabbath Dei.

The Taking of Planet 5 (October 1999): Mictlan, realm of the Celestis, is destroyed, and the Doctor aids in saving the rest of the universe.

The Shadows of Avalon (2000): The specifics of Compassion's transformation into a TARDIS, and potentially the transformation in totality, were probably not part of Miles's original plan. However, he notably didn't contradict it in The Book of the War, so this will still be included.

Act 2

From here on out, there aren't any actual plans for Eighth Doctor novels, although that is likely just due to the small gap between Interference and The Ancestor Cell. Nevertheless, this has the interesting diegetic effect of making it seem that the War has started to escape the Eighth Doctor, and is widening it's girth.

First I shall list the unproduced novels that would fit into here, and then offer my diegetic summary:

The War (after 12 March 1999): Pertaining to an unknown range, perhaps the Past Doctor Adventures (as it also included the non-past Infinity Doctors and would have included the future Requiem), this would have featured Joanna Lumley's Thirteenth Doctor being in a concentration camp with other "strays from other realities", all taken from BBC sitcoms which the BBC still had rights to. @verityshush commissioned Wenart Gunardi to make a cover for this, in the style of the Virgin New Adventures (the anachronism fits)

Requiem (after 1998's "Interference"): There is a "huge, bone-like thing" in the sky over a war-paranoid Gallifrey. Miles contested that "The Ancestor Cell" copied the idea of this, but the thing in the huge black bone structure in Requiem reportedly was totally different to in "The Ancestor Cell".). There would have been 5 sequels to Requiem, all following this "future incarnation of the Doctor". Presumably these would have crossed over with the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures at at least one point, if not more.

Below is my deigetic imaging of what could have been.

The War in Heaven expands beyond the Eighth Doctor's timestream, and begins infecting both alternative timelines (The War) and future incarnations (Requiem). The future incarnations may be an "infection" of the developing War, as the Doctor "originally died on Dronid", but as it's heavily implied that's not quite what happened, he could have easily experienced Requiem first and then gone back to the beginning of the War (which should be impossible, but just look at how many times the Eighth Doctor interacted with the future War) to be found on Drornid.

Despite expanding beyond the Eighth Doctor, it still chases him, or to be more specific, the War Queen Romana chases him, Fitz, and their timeship Compassion. Eventually, in unknown book (unknown because future novels with the War Queen Romana never even got to the pitching state, but feel like they should have existed), the Doctor would regain his TARDIS, and in my ideal world it would have regenerated (not because I don't like the Victorian parlour, quite the contrary, I the arc would be more impactful if it had a permanent effect). I think that after he gets his TARDIS back, the Eighth Doctor should just keep on as normal, not really seeing the War all that much, perhaps even his TARDIS has engineered itself to not ever collide with it again - without the Doctor's knowledge? - but there's no "cataclysmic", The Ancestor Cell -like removal of the War.

Compassion, now a timeship separate from the Doctor, Fitz, and the Doctor's TARDIS, would leave the "TARDIS team" and eventually get the companion "Carmen Yeh"*3

Finally, an unnecessary but nice note on how Compassion become the mother of timeships:

The Book of the War, specifically the entry on "Carmen Yeh", features Compassion confronting the War King, and entering into diplomatic relations with him. This is likely the intended point by Miles of when Compassion would have aided in the reproduction of the 103-forms, as opposed to The Shadows of Avalon's version (rape).

*I have not actually read this book, my info for it derives solely from Nate Bumber's blogspot about the Bernice Summerfield War

*2 This was first published in the charity anthology Perfect Timing 2, and then later reprinted in Mad Norwegian Press's edition of Dead Romance

*3 In the Perfect Timing short story "Schrödinger's Botanist", Carmen Yeh would meet Compassion and join her.

Tagging (with permission): @doctornolonger

#faction paradox #doctor who #eighth doctor adventures #the war in heaven #eighth doctor #lawrence miles #essay #a wartime paradox

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thedoctor-with-starsinhiseyes · 5 months

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has anyone yet floated the theory that sibling same and sibling different from wintertime paradox are John and Gillian who

#doctor who #faction paradox #Doctor who theory #thirteenth doctor #the last great time war #the war in heaven

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the-worms-in-your-bones · 8 months

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The War Chief is to the Master what the war in heaven is to the time war

#am I making sense here #like they’re both different but also basically the same thing #also one is the blueprint for the other #doctor who #the master #the war chief #the time war #the war in heaven #dw

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thesnackist · 3 months

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okay so... can someone who is well versed in Doctor Who EU explain what's with the Pythian and Imperialix 'eras' of Gallifrey history? and why I keep seeing references to Gallifrey II and Gallifrey III? does Gallifrey have a cyclical thing happening where it keeps retconing itself?

I think its a case of fandom canon welding of references from Virgin New Doctor Adventures / Wilderness Years material with the Gallifrey audio series by Big Finish but I'm honestly grasping at straws

it might have been popularized by one of several DW actual plays??

or DW fic circles on AO3??

okay somebody explain please 🫡

#doctor who #doctor who eu #doctor who big finish #doctor who audios #new doctor adventures #wilderness years #lungbarrow #thieves and tardises #the game of rassilon #I think that's all the niche DW fandom tags I know of #oh wait #faction paradox #the war in heaven #doctor who novels #doctor who expanded universe #dwaitas #dwrpg #doctor who rpg

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renegade-time-lord · 2 years

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#the war in heaven #familiars!!!#personality reboots!#dr who #doctor who #faction paradox #the book of the war

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intuitive-revelations · 1 year

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You know, I was originally a bit sceptical on the "War in Heaven = Post Intervention Earth War" idea, but after thinking a bit about it, I think I'm all in now.

What's more, I think it actually works really well in my personal interpretation of the Books/Comics/Big Finish timeline for Eight!

As a reminder, I always like using the actual 'Rassilon Era' dates we get in stories, even if they don't quite seem right based on what you might assume. This leads to some weird conclusions like Eight's early adventures with Lucie taking place before his adventures with Charley, and his S4 reunion taking place afterwards.

This leads to a pretty clear Book -> Comics -> Audios timeline, in broad terms anyway since stuff like the Radio Times comics pretty explicitly fit into the gaps between EDAs. To summarise some key points:

c. 5716 RE - Happy Endings: Romana is elected President in the original timeline. (The Doctor is 1000.) 5725.2 RE - The TV Movie 5734 RE - The Ancestor Cell (The Doctor's Perspective. He is 1018) 5844 RE - The Gallifrey Chronicles (The Doctor's Perspective. It's been 114.75 Earth years since the Ancestor Cell, corresponding to about 110 Gallifreyan Years). 5916 RE - The Dying Days (The Doctor is 1200). 5939 RE? - The Doctor travels with Izzy and Fey (estimated based on them accidentally ending up on a future 10639.5 RE Gallifrey in The Final Chapter, based on a possible mix up of DI and RE dates). c. 6100 RE - 6790 RE - The Doctor is stuck on Orbis for centuries. 6776 RE - Romana is elected President in the new timeline. The Etra Prime incident occurs. 6798 RE - The Doctor rescues Charley from the R101. c. 6800 RE - 6812 - Gallifrey S1-S6. c. 7000 RE? - The Doctor regenerates on Karn.

Obviously this gives Eight a very long lifespan, but nothing that unusual for Time Lords, who can live for about 10,000 with a single well-taken-care-of incarnation. It's roughly as long as Eleven's, which may seem odd given how much the latter ages on Trenzalore, but Time Lord aging has never been consistent. Just look at Narvin, who has seemingly been in the same incarnation all the way from at least Four's era up to the Time War.

The War in Heaven, meanwhile, takes place on a future Gallifrey which the Eighth Doctor accidentally gets involved with early, starting when Romana reaches the end of a 150 year term. My original assumption was that this would then be either in 5866 RE or in the near future, with the Great Grey Eminence delaying her presidency until after The Eight Doctors, where Flavia is still president.

However, it really does make sense that it could be in 6926 RE instead (or possibly later, depending on if Romana's term restarted with the civil war / travelling in the axis etc.), roughly around the date of Intervention Earth, where Romana is also approaching the end of her term in office, making the War in Heaven almost simultaneous with the outbreak of the Last Great Time War.

BUT, to go one step further, I think this also solves the 'restored Gallifrey' problem... if you assume the "Post-War universe" is still in Gallifrey/the Doctor's relative future.

I always assumed the Doctor was back in his own present time track after The Ancestor Cell, but it really does make sense that he's still in the future Gallifrey's time track, and thus a different 'version' of history. This may even explain why it's so ambiguous whether Gallifrey has been erased or not, because he's still stuck oscillating back and forth between his own time and this future state of history.

This is why, for example, the Master can be both stuck in the Eye of Harmony and the Man with the Rosette / the War King: because the latter are from his future in the Intervention Earth timeline, after the Time Lords resurrected him as the MacQueen!Master. Hell, this might even make the MwtR/War King Jacobi, which fits perfectly if you, like me, interpret Scream of the Shalka as being in some way in the future of the post-War universe.

In fact, from Eight's perspective, we get multiple Time Lords who seem to be in multiple states at once, one being from his time (~5800 RE) and one being from the War/post-War universe (~6930 RE):

The Master, as mentioned, both in the Eye of Harmony (~5800 RE) and as the War King / Man with the Rosette / Magistrate (~6930 RE).

Romana, both still in E-Space (~5854 RE, as she is 487 during BBV's Adventures in a Pocket Universe) and as the War Queen / Trey (~6930 RE).

The Doctor himself, both experiencing the EDAs (~5800 RE) and as the Infinity Doctor (~7000 RE?), plus possibly Grandfather Paradox and/or Grandfather Halfling.

This also means that the Doctor's "present day" Gallifrey, back in ~5800 RE is probably completely fine from its own perspective (even if it has been technically erased in the post-War time track)! Hence why no-one has ever acknowledged Gallifrey being restored or the War in Heaven post-EDAs.

Instead, Gallifrey's possible restoration, if it does happen, probably takes place within the post-War time track that is eventually subverted by Enemy Lines, again possibly linked with the Shalka!Doctor's intended backstory, as well as the Chris Cwej series.

In the latter, the "Superiors" (who I interpret as descended Celestis who have lost their 'true' identity as Time Lords due to Gallifrey's erasure), outright acknowledge that the war is in a sense still going on in the present day, suggesting the post-War universe is set simultaneously with the War in Heaven's progression.

Indeed there seem to be many different threads referring to the timeline being split post-War and attempts to undo this (The Council of Eight, the Tomorrow Windows, V-Time, the Watchmaker and Brax), which seems all the more relevant when these events are also all set during the same time as the build up to the Time War.

I'd love to make a full timeline of the 292 years of the War and how it overlaps both with the post-War universe, assuming Eight continues to progress down that timeline during and after the Earth arc, and the "post-post-War" universe of Enemy Lines onwards.

Really, the big question is how/when the Eighth Doctor is able to get back into his own relative time and restore linearity protocols, after spending all this time in his own personal future? I suspect the answer lies somewhere in the changing timelines, if all of the different stories during this time period can be placed.

#Doctor Who #The War in Heaven #Faction Paradox #Eighth Doctor #Gallifrey #Big Finish #DWM #EDAs #Trey #Romana III #Scream of the Shalka #DW Meta #Doctor Who EU #DW Theory #long post

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dinozvortex · 2 years

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Force Majeure The Faction Paradox novel that was but wasn't, an analysis

Force Majeure an analysis-'partial review' through a Faction Paradox lens

“Force Majeure” -- a greater force or a superior force, a fitting name for a book in which all participants to some degree or another are under the power or sway of a greater force they cannot fully comprehend.

For those that don't know, Daniel O'Mahony’s Force Majeure was at one point intended to be a book in the Faction Paradox series. Little else seems to exist online other than this titbit about the book, but given it was published by Tellos Publishing in one of the lulls when Faction Paradox was without a publisher, perhaps this is one of the major reasons why it was not.

Regardless, it remains in tone, themes and concepts very much a Faction Paradox book in all but name, just one in which the titular skull masked group, the Great Houses and Enemy do not appear in name, which is pretty much the case for a number of Faction Paradox books. This one just doesn’t name drop.

While I will try and minimize spoilers to a point, it would be impossible to effectively do this analysis without involving them.

I will also mention in warning for anyone who wishes to read this book, that while I will be not bringing it up (as it is largely irrelevant to themes and plot I'm covering), sex, prostitution (though not sex scenes or graphic descriptions) and related elements do feature in the book -in some parts more heavily than others- so be aware of that fact before opening its cover.

This analysis is not exhaustive, and as I am yet to properly read through the author’s published Faction Paradox novel Newton’s Sleep, I'm sure there are things I will have missed related to it or not in my readthrough, and I welcome the input of others. So let’s begin.

First of all, this book’s cover, and to a much lesser extent its blurb, do this book a big disservice, the cover in particular (a cgi dragon in front of a modern city) does not in any way represent the book’s content (though in some more abstract ways you could say it represents some of its themes).

The Dragons of the book are (other than perhaps something at the end I will not spoil) more metaphorical, a name most commonly given to the original founders of the city or at least its precursor The Old Free House (The Dragons house) who have erased themselves from history. More on them and that later scattered throughout.

There are points in the book where dreams perception and a dreamlike logic cause the narrative or perspective to skip around backwards or forwards in time, and while at times it does lead to events being more confusing to follow than might be necessary, it does very much lend itself well to the book’s themes and for the most part holds together well, it just means that you need to pay attention and try and put the pieces together as you go (and possibly on the odd occasion look back a page).

Candida

Its name ‘means Dazzling white, but is also the name of a fungal infection which can live inside people ‘potentially’ without causing them problems’. Given the city’s effect on people, comparing it to an infection in some ways is perhaps not without merit.

Oh where to begin? With the City of Candida details are vague, while precise, in flux and never still, while also ancient and unchanging.

Where time can flow differently, a place which people can enter by choice (though not without difficulty) and others all over the world will suddenly wake up within unwillingly. It is not a part of the world, some wonder or fear that one day it will cover the whole world and there will be no people left outside of it. It pulls in the flotsam and jetsam of the world, both people and things.

It gets its hooks into people eventually (at least without side interference) and when it gets into them enough that they don’t want to leave, don’t want it to change, “forget who” they've “left behind” or at least have no wish to go back to them. Is this a bad thing? Is it a good thing? That is very much left unclear.

To talk about the City means talking about a lot of other things. Though perhaps first and foremost for its current form we need to explain Doctor Arkadin, a name which apparently means Problem Solver, Healer, Comfortable, Practicality, Realism. Which feels like a fitting intentional choice given what little there is about him.

Something existed here before him at the very least almost certainly the Old Free House, (the head of the house claims that the house was there even before humans). Almost no record of Doctor Arkadin's over-200-year old expedition exist (in or out of the city) It’s almost like he never existed, but he did. He ‘died’ long ago but he’s still alive in some ways.

He established the city and attempted to lay claim to it, to open up to the outside world to bring it under his control, his will, he failed. He tried to sit on the figurative (at least I‘m pretty sure its just figurative) Dragon's Throne (takeing the place and power of the its erased masters) and tried to bend the city to his will.The guards he established still exist (though weaponless and relatively powerless) and his influence can still be felt throughout. But despite not leading the city, more power within it still falls to the Old Free House which came before Doctor Arkadin, and its chatelaine, Flower-of-the-Lady (or The-Lady) is not its owner or master, more its “House Keeper” .

According to one of the only records from the expedition he fell into “madness and delusion” (which may just have been the City’s influence on him) and in the end “he killed himself”. What form that death took though, is unclear, as previously stated he almost seems like he was erased from history. And while he is gone his influence and presence remains.

He constructed a giant brass head three times the size of a human one “with no sign of lines or joins” on its surface. It could not speak, it could not move but “It observes. It orders. It computes. I conceived it after the Oracle of Delphi”. It would seem that it was a machine to try and predict or control the future. Whatever its function, when someone else tried to take control of Candida, when the dust settled the head was found “smashed open like an egg” revealing the “ruined clockwork of its brain”. With it destroyed, the influence and reign of Doctor Arkadin was over. “The Dragon’s throne” was now vacant, and his name would now be said without the title of Doctor.

It seems that, having failed to take the vacant Dragon's Throne for himself, Doctor Arkadin installed the giant head machine on the throne, from which its basic machinery allowed it to use a fraction of the Dragon's power and influence over the city, as well as also having the side effect of preventing anyone else from taking the throne while it still functioned.

A part of the city’s unusual connection to time seems to affect the dreams of its inhabitants, or at the very least the Appeared who enter it. Dreams are not just dreams in the city. Each Appeared only get three and then no more, and the events of these dreams, whether in the past, present, or future, have/will come true (though elements and details of the dream may not be fully literal in nature given the nature of dreams).

Kay (the main point of view character) during the course of the novel would seem to have more than three dreams, though technically speaking the two additional ones may be something different. One is a traumatic memory of her past which is altered, an additional figure being added to it as history changes as if they had always been there. The other is the thoughts of someone else who is in the room while she sleeps and then a memory of theirs. So given that one is a memory being changed by alterations to history related to the city, and the other is a telepathic connection, neither of them really count as one of the three dreams.

Over time the unfamiliar language spoken in the city (and the mix of other languages) become understood by the former Appeared who enter. Without them trying to learn them.

The giant “off-white edifice of The Old Free House” at the highest point of the mountain built city

The city and the Old Free House’s layout seem to shift and change over time and are impossible to map out into 2D. While they are confusing to outsiders (the Appeared), once the city has got into them, and they are part of it they can navigate them with ease. When under siege the chatelaine Flower-of-the-Lady was able to activate functions to reconfigure its rooms and passages, trapping and containing its invaders. During the course of the siege no one who enters dies.

In hindsight many of these points lead me to think that the House may be a damaged and/or modified time ship, or perhaps something more similar to the living Houses of the Homeworld.

It is called “Old Free House” -- perhaps it broke away from the Homeworld wishing for some form of Freedom.

If it is a House of the Homeworld variety (or a similar Enemy form of entity), following a similar sort of set up, the Flower-of-the-Lady is acting, as the book outright says, as the “House Keeper” and someone sitting on “The Dragons throne” would be something akin to the role of the Kithriarch (perhaps a greater level of power).

Following this line of thought of the Old Free House being a House Timeship or some combination thereof, it is growing very, very slowly larger over time, and slowly but surely (and on occasion quickly in places) expanding, reconfiguring and growing the city which rests below it.

See Book of War for 91-Form Timeships

Absorbing it (and perhaps even its people (as we know they can do that) into itself converting them into the living equations of block transfer computations)

See (Lawrence Miles short story) Toy Story

Its telepathic circuits reaching out into their minds allowing them over time to understand the languages spoken, influencing their dreams as a side effect of this connection when it alters the past or future of their personal timeline (perhaps to feed off the potential energy, perhaps for some other reason)

The Old Free House and the city (for by the time the book takes place they are in many ways one and the same) exists almost in a separate realm of its own, at any rate it is deliberately stated to be very much not a part of the world.

Characters focusing primarily on events, connections and themes

Azure

meaning bright blue in colour like a cloudless sky. She is a Messanger, a Voladora to-be , the “insect girl”, later she becomes “the bird girl” .She becomes a Voladora meaning flying.

At first she is a messenger who travels by bike and delivers messages to and from the Old Free House and its former inhabitants/members.

Her role stays the same but becomes faster, farther reaching and more well regarded, after she is ready to undergo a ritual (on which Kay accompanies her in order to watch and guard her for the duration) she “becomes a bird”.

They are taken through tunnels to a mountain slope where there is no sign of the city or its light, where Azure is ritualistically chained, blindfolded and her whole body painted with images.

Before this they had to consume a grey looking and grey tasting substance (which it is made clear is not a drug) which temporarily untethered them from time so that the Dragon’s (the erased founders) can “consume” Azure and allow her to become a Bird. Kay sees some of what occurs but is pulled into visions of her past for most of the experience. -In hindsight I am 99% sure the Grey tasting substance is intended to be Praxis.

Once Azure “has become a bird”, when she rides her bike and gets up to enough speed she and everything on her and the bike fully become a bird and fly. The first time Kay’s mind blanks out the experience, the second she remembers becoming one with Azure and the experience of flight in full.

Xan

An interesting figure who takes some time before he materializes in the story

He is not from Candida and the “connotations”’ of the given term of Appeared bestowed upon those who enter it from the “real” world grate against him.

Upon being first presented he appears like he could be a certain familiar figure.

A 'slim' man In a 'cream linen suit' and hat wearing a 'tie, with' 'sharp' features a 'clean of complexion' and “maybe Scottish if his voice was a guide. He seemed unintimidated by her gaze” and a strange sort of pull which draws people into him, and is a charismatic personality.

But once he left trying to remember anything but fragments of the details of his face, of his appearance, is a fruitless exercise, a feature somewhat shared by the Doctor . (This part while fitting for some descriptions of the Doctor particularly more Nyarlathotep ones, is just the start of what makes him over the course of the story stray away from being the Doctor in any form)

He would seem at first to be the VNA era Seventh Doctor in many ways (and I will admit I did end up reading his lines in my head in Sylvester McCoy's voice). I do wonder if this character first began as something similar to the character implied in a post VNA Ace in Daniel O'Mahony’s Newtons Sleep, and became something else over revisions and as the story chose a different route, or if his first appearance was always intended to be a red herring to throw off readers.

In later parts his appearance will ‘change’ or more accurately the descriptions of him will change, as if history is changing and he was always like this. His suit will be grey and more ragged, his demeanor will be less affable (in a way which doesn't seem like its solely linked to events occurring), and he will be described as more as someone who has harnessed what little remains of a lingering power, a prince of his own little domain, who has had sex with all who work under him. Except of course for Kay, Kay is a special case.

There are complexities with Xan’s nature and elements of the truth about it which are left unclear, in part due to all interactions with him being from Kay’s perspective, and his denial of her theory for what he is (which does not mean she was necessarily wrong, just that he refuses to accept the truth she offers.)

The traumatic memory of her past that she keeps reliving has a new figure in it since she came to Candida, a young boy who carries himself in the same manner as him who flees from her presence. Xan claims not to remember this, though Kay points out that she didn’t remember this either before she came to Candida and that her memory of this event in her past changed.

It takes a fair amount of time after entering Candida before he comes to her (almost as if at first he did not tangibly exist there) and once Xan does, Kay finds that he has taken control of, and utterly reshaped the project which was the reason she was sent to Candida in the first place. How Xan is, his goals, his manner, etc. was everything Kay felt she wanted to achieve when she came to Candida. Kay becomes convinced that Xan is part of her, her wants and dreams brought to life and given form by Candida. He claims that this is wrong, that it’s just the city getting to her, getting inside her head, and over time Kay find he has changed or she has changed. He has gone beyond and in directions she feels she never would have considered to achieve his goal, and she wonders, if one of them dies, what happens to the other.. In the end Kay feels that Xan is not her, at least not anymore.

As stated, it is left unclear whether Kay was correct with her theory, but it does seem there was at least some truth to it, some form of connection or link established.

His appearance does change one last time. When we see him last, Kay sees him in shining armor covered in jagged spikes, but later when she looks again she just sees him in a much more battered form of his old clothes, leading her to question herself on how she could have been so mistaken.

Given everything that has occurred, either for a moment her perception was shifted and revealed something of the truth, or time shifted while she wasn't looking and her memory changed with it. The incongruous spiked armour does make me wonder if Xan was intended to be from one of the War time Powers, or at least not native to the era, but there’s enough uncertainty about Xan origins, not withstanding he is a threat, though not to Kay.

Kay

Meaning Pure. I won’t say much. Events focus around her in this story and she stands out in a way which is never fully pinned down, as the one who could change Candida.

Estaban Meaning crown, garland. Also later Millo Meaning Fullness,. Solid foundation, Supporting structure

Elements of both fit. He is one of the guards who sees Doctor Arkadin and is tasked by him, and in the end helps secure the city. However, he saw Doctor Arkadin when he was just a boy despite that being over 200 years ago. When questioned on that he just responds that he could be older than he looks; he describes the point in his life the book is set as his “second childhood.”

His interaction with Doctor Arkadin shown in the novel is through a dreamlike lens, through Kay’s mind linked in her sleep to Estaban, so it’s unclear if this is a dream of a memory of the interaction he remembers happening as a boy. Or a new second interaction which happened both at this very moment and retroactively at the same time or two days after Kay’s arrival. The text seems to imply the latter. Regardless, he is unable to recall Doctor Arkadin’s appearance in a similar way to Kay’s experiences with Xan, which has some interesting implications.

When Estaban calls him "Sir" he responds with “if you must address me then call me Doctor” (pretty sure this is not implying that he was an incarnation of the Doctor, but who knows. O'Mahony has come up with new incarnations of the Doctor before, who have appeared only in a background role so I wouldn't put it past him)

Random minor asides

In a parallel of sorts to an a Adventuress of Henrietta Street we again have a brothel in a position of power but not in charge, some of the women of which perform rituals and get referred to in a few cases as witches.

Also remember witch blood = a time sensitive. The appearances of the word “witch” could be well be remnants of such elements as the few uses of the word feel slightly out of place with the rest of the novel. But that’s just idle speculation on a very minor thing.

Of the three dreams which are true that Azura has, the last feels somewhat out of place, the other two are of things yet to happen at the time she has them. While the third is of something which happened years before Azure came to the City. “I dreamed there was a body in the library, a man with angel wings instead of arms, and really old, really wrinkly skin, and eyes like he’d died of shock.” With enough leeway for dream logic you could relate it more to her, but it seems pretty clear that is not the intention. It feel like a nod to Newtons Sleep a book still yet to be released when Force Majeure was published (so even without the dream elements interfering I’m unsure how closely it will line up with anything in that novel) but it is a link.

While Azure is told that the angel wing part just meant messenger, given other stuff in this novel I suppose the reality could well have been much more literal.

Godma January or the Godma

Godma Meaning Chief, Educated, Good Understanding. January Named for the Roman god Janus, protector of gates and doorways.

A old women who never leaves the “fastness” (a secure place well protected by natural features) “of her cottage on the city limits”. Would seem from what little we see of her to fit with her names meaning, -according to Luis at least- she and Luis were former gun runners who came to the city when they got lost in the mountains.

Like Azure could during the ritual, she could tell, smell, feel that Kay was connected to Xan and shunned her as a result when first meeting her (though would later send her thanks and apologies in the end after Kay’s actions). She was linked to and a former member of The Dragons house. Whether where she lived was to serve the function of an active vigil on the city’s edge or a retirement of sorts was left unknown.

Luis

Meaning Famous Warrior

Large, wide, and with a beard like Father Christmas, despite having no interest before he came to the city, he became the House’s blind Librarian. He is pretty mysterious and despite claiming that his senses have not been heightened is more aware of what goes on around him than almost anyone else, and despite his blindness is able to read and identify books with no issue (though he claims that he has just memorized them long ago).

Like some others in the city (but more than anyone else it seems) he plays the highly complex board game “The War in Heaven” a ‘game’ which can last years and have no clear winner. While you can read the game as simply that, a game along with being a reference to The War its gets its title from, with its complexity and long play times being an analogy of sorts for The War itself.

Given the nature of dreams and other things in the city, and their effects on time and the world beyond, could it not be possible for battles waged on the board to mirror those also taking place out in the universe in some other time and place. Could it and the red and black pieces on its boards in fact be a microcosm of battles of The War itself, and if so could the effects of one change the outcome of the other? .

Perhaps, perhaps not, interesting thought though, and while not something touched on in the published version of the book it would certainly not feel out of place.

(I’m sure Auteur would certainly agree with such a reading)

While not my favorite book ever, I honestly enjoyed the ride overall and would say its well worth a read. It is very much a Faction Paradox or Worlds of the Spiral Politic book, regardless of the lack of branding on its cover. It is still available in print from its publisher Tellos and as an ebook on amazon UK and US

#faction paradox #the war #The war in heaven #doctor who #Daniel O'Mahony

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