Elective Semantectomy: Difference between revisions

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-The '''Elective Semantectomy''' was a procedure by which a [[Time Lord|Houseworlder]] could use esoteric temporal engineering techniques to remove their true name from history and replace it with an impersonal title or appellation.
+{{first pic|First Doctor steals time capsule.jpg|By the time his [[first incarnation]] [[The Doctor and Susan's escape from Gallifrey|left]] [[Gallifrey]], ([[TV]]: ''[[The Name of the Doctor (TV story)|The Name of the Doctor]]'') [[the Doctor]] had put aside [[The Doctor's name|his true name]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Return of the Living Dad (novel)|Return of the Living Dad]]'')}}
+The '''Elective Semantectomy''' was a temporal engineering procedure by which a [[Time Lord|member]] of the [[Great House]]s could remove their true name from history and replace it with [[Vocational name|an impersonal title of their choosing]].
-The motivations for an individual to undergo such a procedure varied, but in the majority of cases, it was in order to protect a bloodline from perceived shame or ignominy; for instance, upon becoming a [[renegade Time Lord|renegade]], [[the Hussar]] underwent the procedure to protect the reputation of [[House Urquineath]]. Houseworlders of a certain generation, when finding themselves stationed amongst the [[lesser species]], often underwent the procedure rather than adopt a local name, fearing conceptual contamination, though this may have just been a manifestations of Houseworld snobbery.
+== Nature ==
+In most cases, this was done to protect a [[Great House|bloodline]] from embarrassment due to association with a [[renegade Time Lord|renegade]] member, ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Weapons Grade Snake Oil (novel)|Weapons Grade Snake Oil]]'') as the full names of many Houseworlders included the name of their [[Great House]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Lungbarrow (novel)|Lungbarrow]]'', ''[[The Book of the War (novel)|The Book of the War]]'', ''[[Against Nature (novel)|Against Nature]]'', [[AUDIO]]: ''[[Body Politic (audio story)|Body Politic]]'', ''[[Panacea (audio story)|Panacea]]'')
-Professor H Lennistein wrote about the Elective Semantectomy in his [[31441]] book ''[[The Great Houses And Us]]''. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Weapons Grade Snake Oil (novel)|Weapons Grade Snake Oil]]'')
+By one account, names held mystic importance in Time Lord society, meaning that all Time Lords kept their true names as closely-guarded secrets. In this sense, the Doctor's name was not any more or less significant than any other Time Lord's. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons (novelisation)|Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons]]'')
+== History ==
+=== The Doctor ===
+Before the Doctor [[The Doctor and Susan's escape from Gallifrey|left Gallifrey]], he and the Master erased their names from history in the "[[names experiment]]" so that only they remembered, ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Blood of the Time Lords (audio story)|Blood of the Time Lords]]'') the Doctor breaking his name into thirty-eight pieces. During his travels, he spread them throughout the universe. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Return of the Living Dad (novel)|Return of the Living Dad]]'') In one account of the Doctor's past, [[the Doctor's father]] erased both of their names from history. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Unnatural History (novel)|Unnatural History]]'')
+Accounts of [[the Doctor's early life]] before the First Doctor had them known as [[the Other]], ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Lungbarrow (novel)|Lungbarrow]]'') [[the Stranger (Patience)|the Stranger]], ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Patience (audio story)|Patience]]'') or the Doctor, ([[TV]]: ''[[Fugitive of the Judoon (TV story)|Fugitive of the Judoon]]'', ''[[The Timeless Children (TV story)|The Timeless Children]]'') with one account having the unidentified individual who would eventually become the Doctor being found by a [[Tecteun|Gallifreyan explorer]], becoming known as the [[Timeless Child]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Timeless Children (TV story)|The Timeless Children]]'')
+== Other cases ==
+The Time Lord originally known as [[Caleera]] became the Sonomancer and later the Red Lady. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Scenes From Her Life (audio story)|Scenes From Her Life]]'', ''[[The Sonomancer (audio story)|The Sonomancer]]'', ''[[The Red Lady (audio story)|The Red Lady]]'')
+Some of the first members of the Great Houses to shed their names and take on new ones were actually the [[Mapper]]s who first explored the [[Spiral Politic]] after the [[anchoring of the thread]], who all went insane sometime after finishing their work. However, instead of the "[[Vocational name|titles and stuff]]" which typified later Renegades, they chose "really stupid names" (in [[Intrepid]]'s opinion) based on a timekeeping theme, such as [[Astrolabus|Astrolabe]] or [[Pendulum]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Going Once, Going Twice (short story)|Going Once, Going Twice]]'')
+One [[Prydonian Chapter|Prydonian]] [[Lord Cardinal|Cardinal]] left everything behind, "even his name", when he went into self-imposed exile on [[Earth]] after the [[Prydonian Academy Revolution]], although, given that he engaged in no breach of the [[non-interference policy]], the [[High Council]] did not regard him as a criminal. This Time Lord would go on to adopt the name of [[the Colonel]]. ([[GAME]]: {{cs|The Legions of Death (game)}})
+During the [[War in Heaven]], some [[Time Lord|Homeworlder]]s volunteered to undergo Semantectomy before being stationed among the [[lesser species]], due to fears that adopting a local name might lead to conceptual contamination. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Weapons Grade Snake Oil (novel)|Weapons Grade Snake Oil]]'')
+[[File:Rassilon Gauntlet.jpg|thumb|Rassilon erased the names of his dissenters from time. ([[TV]]: ''[[The End of Time (TV story)|The End of Time]]'', [[PROSE]]: ''[[A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)|A Brief History of Time Lords]]'')]]After [[the Woman (The End of Time)|the Woman]] and the [[Patriarch of Stillhaven]] dissented to {{Dalton}}'s plan for the [[Ultimate Sanction]] during the [[Last Great Time War]], ([[TV]]: ''[[The End of Time (TV story)|The End of Time]]'', [[PROSE]]: ''[[Lords and Masters (short story)|Lords and Masters]]'') Rassilon had the Woman's name erased from time. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)|A Brief History of Time Lords]]'')
+Professor [[H Lennistein]] wrote about the Elective Semantectomy in his [[31441]] book ''[[The Great Houses And Us]]''. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Weapons Grade Snake Oil (novel)|Weapons Grade Snake Oil]]'')
+== Behind the scenes ==
+* In an interview in [[DWM 490]], [[Steven Moffat]] proposed that [[Dr. Who (Dr. Who and the Daleks)|Dr. Who]] recklessly altering [[Time]] to change the outcome of the bank robbery at the end of ''[[Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (theatrical film)|Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.]]'' caused him to accidentally [[Big Bang Two|restart the universe]], rewriting himself into a [[Time Lord]] and losing his family name.
 == External links ==
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 [[Category:Gallifreyan technology]]