Gallifrey

Gallifrey lies some 29,000 light years from the Earth, in the constellation of Kasterborous. It is in the neighborhood of Karn and the Five Planets. Our Galaxy is approximately 100,000 light years in diameter, so Gallifrey is clearly well within our own Galaxy, but a considerable distance from the Earth. It is almost certainly not in the spiral arm that contains the Earth, and is most likely closer to the Galactic center than the Earth. (The center of our Galaxy is about 30,000 light years from the Earth, but astronomers theorize that it may be the site of a gigantic black hole--in which case, it is unlikely that Gallifrey lies too close to it. An intriguing speculation is that the black hole might be the one created by the Time Lord known as Omega...)

Ancient Gallifrey in The Old Time or The Dark Time, the Time of Chaos, was a world of both questing endeavor and dark superstition.  It was the heart of a space-faring Empire, the hub of trade and commerce between other worlds.  But the Gallifreyans were a race cursed with communal telepathy.  The majority of the populous shared each others' minds and thoughts.  No mind was alone.  The superstitious people worshipped the Menti Celesti -- literally, heavenly minds -- who were the free-thinking Gods.

By training or natural ability, some Gallifreyans could achieve private thoughts: an individuality above the mass mind of the general populous.  They became revered Heroes: great philosophers, scientists, and explorers, much in the style of the Greek Heroes, renowned for their deeds and derring-do.

Ancient Gallifrey was governed by the line of Pythias, wise seer women, who saw the future.  The Empire prospered under their rule, but for all its enlightened education and scientific advancement, their reign also encompassed barbarism.

Among the ideas and goods traded through the Empire, there were also slaves.  A primitive Time Scoop was employed to import alien servants and gladiators for the Games in the Death Zone.  Such popular "entertainment" provided an outlet for the extremes of emotion that telepathic crowd behavior could engender.  Thus through a skillful mix of manipulation and superstition, the ruling Pythias was able to control Gallifrey and it's empire.

Rassilon, a high ranking Hero, saw that the stifling authority of the Pythias threatened Gallifrey's true destiny as a supreme galactic power.  He stood for the influence of Reason against the Pythian reign of superstition.  His skills as a tactician had defeated an invasion of Vampires that threatened the whole galaxy.  He know that Gallifrey could not progress until the aimless telepathic abilities of the people were given purpose.  With a group of supporters, he disposed the Pythias and set about the restructuring of all Gallifreyian society.  This period of cultural renaissance became know as the Intuitive Revelation.

The followers of the Pythia fled to Karn and set up a quasi religious cult as guardians of a flame fountain that distilled an Elixir of eternal life.

Rassilon undertook to reform Gallifreyan society and thus consolidate the planet's supremacy.  Aware of the corrupting influence of absolute power, he repeatedly rejected the offers of a coronation, announcing that he could not rule the planet alone.

The suicidal end of the line of Pythias had one immediate and deadly effect on Gallifrey.  the Pythia embodied the fertility of the planet, she was Gallifrey itself.  As she took her own life, the last of the line cursed the planet in revenge for her overthrow.  Gallifrey became a sterile world.  There were no more children.  Unborn babied died in their mothers' wombs.  Rassilon was forced to find an immediate answer, before the Gallifreyans became extinct.

Eager to hold Gallifrey to ransom, the Sisterhood of Karn offered the salvation of their elixir.  But in the face of disaster, Rassilon was able to forge a fresh solution.

From the existing hierarchy of Gallifrey, a new social design was evolving.  Power was shared through a High Council whose members represented the Chapterhouses of Gallifrey.  Each Chapter comprised groups of the ancient Families of Gallifrey, of whom Rassilon saw the need for legislative control to stabilize dwindling population numbers.

It was decreed that each Family would have a genetic bank known as a Loom, from which a set quota of Family members would be generated.  Bio-genetic engineering would allow Gallifreyans to regenerate their bodies at the moment of death through a sequence of thirteen lives.  At the end of the final life, when a family member died, a new replacement was generated on the Family Loom.  Parents have not existed on Gallifrey since this time; all family members are Cousins to one another.

The Looms were installed in all Family Houses across Gallifrey.  Each house was adapted as bio-architecture, programed to serve and look after its incumbent family.  There were living buildings invested was a low degree of sentient awareness, even encompassed in their furniture and fittings.

Families were headed by the most senior Cousin.  One other was selected as a Housekeeper, an interactive medium between the Cousins and the living House itself.  The House would become as much a part of a Family as its Loom or its Cousins; occasionally with frightening possessive results!

The Chapters had their own Academies whose leaders were appointed as Cardinals to serve on the High Council in the newly constructed Vatican-like Capital.  The "Civil Service" members supporting the council were known as Ordinals.  Below them came the plebeian classes, trained as skilled technicians and artisans.

As a symbol of power, Rassilon had the Matrix developed: a vast extra-dimensional panotropic computer net containing all the information amassed by Gallifreyan culture.  It stored all research and postulation, and the mind of every dying Gallifreyan passed into its capacity.  Thus it could predict the future and give judgment of the past.  As such, the Matrix of Gallifrey, the essence of that planet and its culture.  In many ways, the Matrix replaced the Pythia, if not a willful delegation, at least a living repository of all knowledge.

To achieve his reforms, Rassilon needed vast resources of energy.  He found an ally in Omega, the chief of the scientific fraternity and also a Cousin of Rassilon.  But while Rassilon was the practical strategist laying foundations for a new society, and Omega was the provider, there was a third, darker figure; an "Eminence Grise", with whom power was shared in an inner sanctum before plans were laid for the judgment of the High Council.

His origins, birthplace, even appearance are an unrecorded mystery.  He never served on the High Council.  Some legends hint that he may not have been born on Gallifrey, others that he was endowed with powers greater that either Rassilon or Omega, but he kept these veiled beneath the Gallifreyan shape he wore.  How influential his role really was is uncertain.  His presence as part of the Triumvirate has always been shadowed by the myriad achievements of Rassilon and the martyrdom of Omega; he was known simply as "the Other".  Nevertheless, a minor festival is annually celebrated in his honor.

Under the rule of the Pythia, experiments had started into time travel.  Rassilon deemed their use of telepathy as a travel source to be dangerous, but still rationalized their basic concepts for his own experiments.

To develop time travel as a completely viable facility, Omega estimated that a preliminary energy source equal to a supernova was required.  he developed a remote stellar manipulator device which would induce the controlled detonation of a star and channel the energy released back to Gallifrey,  This device was known as the "Hand of Omega".

The device succeeded in its task and Gallifrey acquired the energy source it needed, but Omega, who had gone to oversee the project himself, was lost in the supernova explosion.  His sacrifice offered unlimited power to the Gallifreyans.  They truly became Time Lords.

In their early days as Time Lords, the catastrophic destruction of the planet Minyos, whose inhabitants sought to emulate their "gods" the Gallifreyans, emphasized the need for radical change in Gallifrey's role in galactic politics.

After Omega's death, the remaining two-thirds of the Triumvirate set about consolidating Gallifrey's position.  Two courses were open to the Time Lords: to control the universe as supreme rulers; or act as guardians, overseeing the natural development of time and space.  Either way their own position had to be unassailable.  Gallifrey itself had to be protected.

In an astonishing feat of engineering, Rassilon entered the black hole left by Omega's supernova and sealed its vast singularity energy in an icon of power known as the "Eye of Harmony".  He brought the Eye back to Gallifrey and so balanced the existence of the planet against the colossal energy source of the black star.  Gallifrey was now unassailable.

Ironically, the stabilizing influence of the Eye of Harmony has surely affected Time Lord society as well.  Over Millennia, development has steadily ground slower and slower; Gallifreyan culture has become less adventurous, and more complacently staid.  The people's telepathic abilities have also dwindled.  Rassilon's legacy and laws still guide the Time Lords, but the meanings of many of his icons of power are now lost.

Another product of the Intuitive Revelation was Validium, a living metal, created as an ultimate defense for Gallifrey.  the metal could think for itself, but in the wrong hands might act as a generator of destruction.  It eventually proved itself too dangerous to be employed.  too many enemy forces were gaining access to the element and so the largest section was secreted away from Gallifrey in an asteroid where, it was hoped, it would be safe from interference.

While both Rassilon and Omega were virtually canonized, if not deified, there were no further records of the Other in any of the histories.  Speculation says that he left Gallifrey altogether; legend says that he grew weary of being an all-powerful player at the chess game of the universe.  Instead he longed to be a pawn on the board in the thick of the action.  Common sense says that he retired quietly.