the war doctor story arch

[zebaroth]

how would you do a war doctor story arch have some ideas for how to end
it he leaves them to go to the final battle. but what should happen building up
to that point what and would the key word be

[Marnal]

Here are my notes on the "Final Year" of the Time War. There's a fair amount of speculation in there, so feel free to ignore or change whatever feels wrong to you....

"Long ago,when even far Gallifrey was young, the peoples of that planet fought amongst themselves. They used what they knew of time travel to gain advantage on their enemies. In doing so, they saw many strange and awful things. One mad prophet martyr journeyed too far and saw the Timewyrm. He saw it in a timeline that he could not be sure of, devouring Rassilon or his shade, during the Blue Shift, that time of final conflict, when Fenric shall slip its chains and all the evil of the worlds shall rebound back on them in war. For the Timewyrm is the Addanc, the wyrm that circles the cosmos, it is sleeping and it wakes, it is good and evil, choice made carnate."
- The Doctor

The last days of the Time Lords is a time of conflict and darkness The Time Lords begin developing the Ultimate or Final Sanction. They plan to bring about the end of time and destroy the entire universe. As the Gods of Ragnarok did with the Universe before this one, The Great Houses of the Time Lords plan to rupture the Vortex, causing the final inrush of matter that breaks the continuity structures in all of the dimensions. The causal nexus will explode, space-time will collapse in a massive blue shift and the laws of physics will become meaningless. This will leave the Time Lords to ascend into non-corporeal being who will inhabit the next universe. The Time Lords would become creatures of pure consciousness, free from time, cause, and effect. It should be noted that the Dimensional Ethics Committee had long ago banned all research into allowing the Time Lords to ascend to Higher Dimensions by evolving into non-corporeal beings. This would likely have been a fullfillment of the prophecies of the Green and Black Books of Gallifrey (writen during the Dark Times). These predicted that the Timewyrm would devour the first and the last of the Time Lords - which would be Rassilon. They stated that Rassilon will be crushed in the Timewyrm's jaws during the last moments of the Blue Shift (the final moments of the big crunch). She will collapse the fabric of space-time and the causal nexus. The Final Sanction was probably inspired by the Time Lords of the previous universe who used exactly the same trick to end their war with their Daleks.

Before the end of the Time War the Master witnesses the Dalek Emperor taking control of the Cruciform and the sacrificing of one of the Gallifreys. This Gallifrey's Eye of Harmony is jettisoned into the system's primary star, causing a supernova. Because of the Quantum Barrier only the surface of Gallifrey VIII is burned and is left in ruins. The planet is barren of life. This Gallifrey's primary sun becomes a neutron star. The ruins of the Gallifreyan cities can still be found there in 2596 AD. The blast from this event can still be seen when viewed from Simia KK98 in the 26th century (which means that Gallifrey much emerge from Inner Time less then 50,000 years from the 26th century). The remains of the Eye of Harmony might eventually become the Black Hole that Omega tries to return through in The Three Doctors. The Warrior (aka the Doctor) is probably not there to witness the fall of the Cruicform. If the Cruciform is related to the Crucible seen in Jorney's End, then it might have been a z-neutrino core designed to use the Medusa Cascade and to destroy the Multi-verse with a Reality Bomb. The Reality Bomb works on the same principles as the Time Destructor, by aging matter till the elections and weak and strong nuclear forces crumble and the atoms fall appart. If the Time Lords had such a device it implies that they might have been planning the Ultimate Sanction when the built it. After witnessing the Dalek Emperor taking control of the Cruciform, the Master is filled with fear and flees the Time War.

In the final days of the war there is only one Gallifrey remaining. It is located at the furthest edge of the War. After the loss of the War King, the Time Lords restore Rassilon to this Universe from the Divergence Universe to lead Gallifrey during its darkest hour. He says he will lead them to victory. The Time War will drive Rassilon insane. Some will regaurd him as the most corrupt and evil Time Lord to have ever existed. The Time Lords re-discover much of their lost science, and meet most of the requirments of being a level 11 society. His Chancellor goes by the title The Second.

In the final years of the Time War, Inspired by the Sisterhood of the Flame on Karn, Time Lords with the ability to see into alternate time and read future biodata began being trained by Minders. The abilites of these Seers would be honed and focused till the subject spoke only in and endless rambling series of future prophacies. The Minder would collect all of their statements for analysis in the hope of finding some useful data. The Visionaries were also used to verify Matrix predictions. Once their usefulness in the Time War was demonstrated, a 8th position was creating on the Inner Council for a Visionary to serve as an immediate advisor during planning sessions.

After Dalek's take control of the Cruciform, the Time Lords officially abandoned the Doctrine of Non-Intervension (a key point of the First Law of Time). The Time Lords completely willing to sacrifice any other world to increase the chance that Gallifrey will survive.

During the final days of the Time War the War turned into absolute hell. It is an all-consuming War of chaos and denial with the whole of creation at stake. The War is fought throughout history, though every Time, but most of the battles take place in the and No Time of the Vortex. By this point the Time War has covered a billion years. While the Daleks are unable to penetrate more then one of the skytrenches over the cities of Gallifrey, they have become experts at fighting TARDISes. A single DARDIS can time ram and destroy the current breeds of TARDIS. By this point the enemy can detect any grouping of 12 or more TARDISes anywhere in the Universe. They will immediately mount an attack on that time zone and fill the skies of a planet with their saucers. When the battles do occur in N-Space, many lesser species find their history's subtly altered and rewritten. The history of the Universe is in a state of infinite temporal flux. Despite this, the war is invisible to smaller species (including most humans of the 21st century). By this point numerous monstrous forces have come into being, including the Nightmare Child, the Skaro Degradations, Hordes of Travesty, the Army of Meanwhiles and Never-Weres and the Could've Been King. By this point the schism between the War Council’s House Military and the High Council might have grown so large that civil war might be possible.

The Neverweres of the Army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres were probably the neverpeople echos from deleted timelines who still existed in the prime timeline. They were likely recruited from the Anti-Time Universe where such never-people usually end up. The world of Perganon falls to the Daleks. The Warrior (aka the Doctor) wishes he could undo this.

Time Bridge over the Planet Q'wai [Story Hook from the TTC]: The Daleks use Time Lord prisoners (led by a member of the High Council) to construct a massive time bridge that will allow a massive Dalek battlefleet to travel to another time zone.

The Longest Day [Story Hook from the TTC]: The Daleks are using a time-rift as a beachhead. The House Military attacks and both sides end up trapped in a time loop. This drives the Daleks mad and they see the enteral battle as their ultimate goal in life. The world of Assinder falls to the Daleks. The Warrior (aka the Doctor) wishes he could undo this.

Tanton Macoute [Faction Paradox Story]: By this point in the Time War the fighting is starting to make the spirits and loa sick. Time itself is sick. Faction Pardox attempts to get the former cousin, Tonton Macoute to perform a ritual that could cure the Vortex, but Macoute uses the opportunity to ingest two timeships and escape from where the Faction imprisoned him. He sees himself as a predator who will change (and possibly help) the ecosystem of the Web of Time. He heads to the City of the Saved to take part in the Civil War.

Faction Paradox loses almost all of its family members in the Time War. Most are killed in cross-fire. The Faction enters a period of inactivity that will last till Political Animals. The Sycorax are forced to leave their Homeworld of Fire Trap in the JX82 system when it was destroyed. Their Armada is feared by species all over the Milky Way. The Sycorax are quite possibly a splinter group from the Faction Paradox. According to legend the Sycorax would be one of three species left at the end of the Universe.

The Time Lords compromise all their morals until they are just as evil as the Daleks. They become monsters. The Time Lords are considered unpredictable and unreliable by the Lesser Species. The Gelth Confederacy are higher form of life from the other side of the universe from Earth, who lose their physical bodies because of the Last Great Time War. They become a gaseous species. Shortly after the Gelth incident, the Greater Animus is killed in the War and its Carsenome Walls are destroyed.

They are many other higher forms of life that are devastated by the Time War. The Hajor Dimension is devasted by the Time War. Eve's people were psychic and had the ability to read the timelines, and alter history. For this reason they are attacked by both sides in the War. Her Homeworld is destroyed and Eve is the only one to escape extermination by the Daleks. The world of Kolox is destroyed in the Time War. Because of the War, the Time Lord Gods, the Eternals, flee this Universe never to be heard from again. Despite his best efforts, the Warrior (aka the Doctor) is unable to save any of the worlds involved in the Time War.

Mesh Cos and her contemporaries plan to leave a legacy of humanity that will outlast their species. Over several centuries they created the Universal Machine from skeins of light, thought, and aether. The almost infinitely complex machine will have the ability to mimic any tool devised by humanity from stone calculators to aethernetic soulware - it is the sum total of all Human knowledge, technology, art, society, and language. Mesh Cos stows away on a TARDIS and sneaks onto Gallifrey. She steals information on the methodologies of temporal scanning but the theft is discovered by cousins of House Mirraflex. The stolen information is made part of the Universal Machine allowing it to reach into history and copy and record all of the artificial beings humanity has ever had a hand in creating. The Universal Machine is completed as the War TARDISes of Time Lords attack the last human beings. It takes only a few minutes for the last of humanity to be destroyed. The Universal Machine becomes Human culture incarnate. The Universal Machine escapes the Time Lord's attack but remains on its creator's planet. This action might have contributed to the Doctor destroying Gallifrey.

During the final days the War has become so devastating that every second millions are killed and resurrected to die again. Numerous planets, star systems, and even the occasional galaxies were being destroyed and un-destroyed every second. Every moment in time and space is burning. By this point in the Time War there are billions of parallel universes stacked on top of each other each separated by the Void. At this point is quite easy to use a TARDIS to visit alternate universes if you know the correct phase shift.

Planet of Lies: While fighting a War with Humanity the Daleks learn the location of the real Gallifrey.


"Time Lords of Gallifrey, Daleks of Skaro, I server notice on you all. Too long I have stayed my hand. No more. Today you leave me no choice. Today this war will end. No more. No More."
- The Warrior (aka the Doctor)

The Last Day: On the last day of the Time War, the entire Dalek fleet of 10,000,000 timeships attacks the last Gallifrey. The Nightmare Child, the Skaro Degadations, Hordes of Travesty, the Army of Meanwhiles and Never-Weres and the Could've Been King are all part of this assault. There are billion billion Daleks surrounding and attacking Gallifrey. This is the biggest attack the Daleks have ever mounted. Gallifrey is now on the front lines of the Time War. The attack begins by overcoming the 400 sky trenches that defend Gallifrey's best protected the city, Arcadia.

The Day of the Doctor: The Warrior (aka the Doctor) witnesses the devastation and fall of Arcadia. After the Fall of Arcadia all the Dalek fleets converge on the Capitol, but the sky-trenches hold them at bay. The mountains of Solace and Solitude and valley between are scorched by numerous Dalek saucers. The fall of Arcadia, and the events that follow horrifies the Doctor, and it will take him until his 13th incarnation to come to terms with it. One of his strongest memories from the Time War is the smell of burning metal. After witnessing the fall of Arcadia the Warrior (aka the Doctor) swears that the War between the Time Lords and Daleks will continue no more. It is the discovery of Final Sanction plan that leads the Warrior (aka the Doctor) to destroy Gallifrey. He does this because he is the only one who could do it.

The Daleks capture the Genesis Ark from the Time Lords, but appear to be unable to open it. The Warrior (aka the Doctor) witness the Daleks fleeing Arcadia. The Warrior (aka the Doctor) laughs in the face of the Nightmare Child.

The Day of the Doctor (Part 1): After all the Dalek fleets begin converging on the Capitol, the Warrior (aka the Doctor) breaks into the Omega Arsenal and steals the Moment. He uses the Great Key of Rassilon to activate the Moment. D-mat weapons delete things and people from history and make that deletion a time locked fixed point with an relative temporal distortion level of almost 3.
After the Fall of Arcadia, the Cult of Skaro, takes the Genesis Ark, and enters the Ultimate Void between alternate timelines using the Void Sphere (aka Void Ship). From there they wait out the end of the Time War, but they become trapped in the Void. Construction of a Voidship is considered to be impossible by the Time Lords. The sphere appears to have no mass and is not made of atoms. It doesn't give off any heat or other radiation. Such a ship could survive the end of this Universe and access the next Universe that came into being.

End of Time: After the Doctor steals the Moment, The Inner Council meets to discuss the fate of the Time Lords. The Seer prophecizes that the Warrior (aka the Doctor) will use the Moment to destroy Gallifrey and the Daleks. The prophecies of the Dark Times predicted that the Timewyrm would devour the first and the last of the Time Lords - which would be Rassilon. The Seer also indicates that the Doctor and the Master will be the only Time Lords to survive the Fall of Gallifrey. The High Council votes to allow Rassilon to violates the Laws of Time and fulfill the Final Sanction. Only two councilors vote against this. One of them might be the Doctor's mother. The two disenters are scentenced to statue-like immobility as monuments to their own shame. Rassilon has the drumming sound of a Gallifreyan heart beat inserted into the Masters head when he is only 8 years old. This will act a link that will let them escape the Time War. He then uses the link to send a white star arcadian diamond to the Post-War Era so that the Master can use it to create bring Gallifrey through to the Sol System. Unfortunately the Doctor destroys the diamond causing Gallifrey to fall back into the Time War.

The Day of the Doctor (Part 2): Believing he won't survive, the Warrior (aka the Doctor) walks many miles away from the TARDIS so that she won't have to see him use the Moment. The Moment appears in the form of the Bad Wolf, and introduces the Warrior (aka the Doctor) to his future incarnations. With their help, he finally realizes that his Warrior incarnation is worthy of the title of the Doctor. In Parting of the Ways the Bad Wolf claimed that she was ending the Time War. This implies that her appearance in Day of the Doctor was arranged by the real Bad Wolf.

The Last Great Time War in Heaven ends at the Final Battle - which the Time Lords lose. To prevent the Daleks from becoming the new Lords of Time the Warrior (aka the Doctor) chooses to destroy both Gallifrey and the entire Dalek fleet of 1,000,000 timeships. But, at the last moment, the three Doctors come up with a plan to save Gallifrey. Using the power of the Moment the Doctor summons his younger and older selves. 13 incarnations (and multiples of some of them) travel to Gallifrey during the last day of the Time War. The 8th Doctor sets up his TARDIS to work out the calculations necessary to freeze Gallifrey in a single moment of time. It takes several hundred years for the calculations to be worked out, but, by the time of the 13th Doctor (if not sooner) they have completed. The TARDISes of each Doctor position themselves in the lower atmosphere at equidistant points around the planet. With the permission, and assistance of the High Command the entire planet Gallifrey is frozen in an moment of time in a parallel pocket universe. This situation would qualify as a case of Death coming to Time, so it's possible that the General coordinated the Time Lord intelligensia and authorized the use of the Power of Creation to assist with the plan. It is also possible that the Doctor could have exploited Rassilon's attempt to shift Gallifrey to Earth in the year 2009 AD to make this plan work. The world vanishes.

With the planet gone, the Daleks (and their allies) are destroyed in their own cross-fire. The disappearance of the Time Lords and destruction of the Daleks (and their allies) occurs in a single second. Among the forces who were probably destroyed on the day of the Final Battle of the Time War were the Nightmare Child, the Skaro Degradations, Hordes of Travesty, the Army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres and the Could've Been King. Unknown to the Doctor the Dalek Emperor's timeship is knocked into the Vortex and the Emperor alone survives. One surviving Dalek also falls through time, and landed on the Ascension Islands on Earth. Nothing is left in Normal Space but rocks and dust floating in space.

Because of the time streams are out of sync the younger Doctors are unable to retain their memories of what really happened to Gallifrey in the Final Battle. Since the use of a d-mat weapon on Gallifrey itself would remove the reason for ever activating the Moment the Doctor expects to suffer a fair amont of memory loss. For this reason he does not question his inability to remember using the Moment. The Doctor believes that he used the Moment to burn and destroy both the attackers and all of Gallifrey, causing the death of millions. The Doctor is the soul remaining Time Lord and his TARDIS is the sole surviving Gallifreyan Timeship. They make up the entire Second Diaspora. He is sure that he would know if any other Time Lords had survived.

After the Time War, the Time Lords cease communicating with the Galaxy at large. The time aware species believe that the Time Lords have been destroyed.

[jennysfan]

An excellent storyline, Marnal. Great work, thank you for sharing.

While I'd mine the heck out of it for ideas and games, it's not quite how I would run a 'Time War' game, (yes I thought about how to run one).

Mind you, I see the Time War as an incredibly dark time. Remember Davros was destroyed "in the very first year of the Time War, at the gates of Elysium", by flying into the jaws of the Nightmare Child. At least according to 'The Stolen Earth'.
Which means that 'Hell', the Doctor referred in the 'End of Time' occurred very quickly.

Admittedly it would be a little hard to gauge how much time has passed when you are time travelling or fighting a war let alone both.

[zebaroth]

that is deep Marnal. i have a few ideas on the idea of a war doctor
arch having the doctor and companions at famous battles in history
in the end the doctor tell his companions that they can not go where
he has to go that would be the where the day of the doctor starts

[jennysfan]

Some resources that might be mined/used for it: Overview, Option 2 and General Thoughts,