Romana III's Gallifrey

"Romana III's Gallifrey" is a title based upon conjecture.

Check the behind the scenes section, the revision history and discussion page for additional comments on this article's title.

The Nine Gallifreys
Unenumerated
Ambiguous
Lesser Homeworlds

In the era leading up the first day of the War in Heaven, one Gallifrey - which may or may not have been the original - was ruled by Romana III, who declared herself "War Queen and Mistress of the Nine Gallifreys".

One account termed this the First Homeworld, and noted it should not be confused with the Prime Homeworld. (PROSE: Love & War ^[+]Loading...["Love & War (short story)"])

History

Origins

Temporal status

The version of reality in which this version of Gallifrey was located differed in some ways to the reality (PROSE: The Eight Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Eight Doctors (novel)"], Unnatural History ^[+]Loading...["Unnatural History (novel)"]) where Romana II had previously been shown to be Lord President of Gallifrey in the Seventh Doctor's lifetime. (PROSE: Lungbarrow, etc.) In this reality, it appeared Flavia had never stopped being Acting President of the High Council (PROSE: The Eight Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Eight Doctors (novel)"]) after the Fifth Doctor abandoned his presidential duties. (TV: The Five Doctors) Accounts differed on the relationship between these two versions of reality, (PROSE: Dead Romance (Virgin Books) ^[+]Loading...{"var":"Virgin Books","1":"Dead Romance (novel)"}, Unnatural History ^[+]Loading...["Unnatural History (novel)"], Dead Romance (MNP reprint) ^[+]Loading...{"var":"MNP reprint","1":"Dead Romance (novel)"}) between which there were, at the very least, a number of "leaks". (PROSE: Interference)

According to the Book of Lies, (PROSE: Unnatural History ^[+]Loading...{"name":"UH-RETCON","chaptname":"The Book of Lies","page":"153 and 156","chaptnum":"13","1":"Unnatural History (novel)"}) after President Romana's reconciliation with the Sisterhood of Karn, (PROSE: Lungbarrow) the Great Grey Eminence made a deal with Faction Paradox to undo the changes and restore his preferred order to Gallifrey (PROSE: Unnatural History ^[+]Loading...{"name":"UH-RETCON","chaptname":"The Book of Lies","page":"153 and 156","chaptnum":"13","1":"Unnatural History (novel)"}) by manipulating the timeline of the newly-regenerated Eighth Doctor. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Eight Doctors (novel)"], Unnatural History ^[+]Loading...{"name":"UH-RETCON","chaptname":"The Book of Lies","page":"153 and 156","chaptnum":"13","1":"Unnatural History (novel)"}) Subsequently, the Eighth Doctor was uncertain if Romana or Flavia was President. (PROSE: Unnatural History ^[+]Loading...{"chaptname":"Stuffed and Mounted","page":"133","chaptnum":"13","1":"Unnatural History (novel)"})

Status within the Cloneworld Project

To better face the threat of the War, Gallifrey constructed a number of "Cloneworlds". (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5 ^[+]Loading...["The Taking of Planet 5 (novel)"], "The Nine Homeworlds" ^[+]Part of The Book of the War, Loading...{"namedpart":"The Nine Homeworlds","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"}, etc.) Accounts differed on the relationship of this Gallifrey to the original: some accounts treated it as the original, (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell ^[+]Loading...["The Ancestor Cell (novel)"]) but others called this into question, with some suggesting it may have been one of the cloneworlds (PROSE: "The Nine Homeworlds" ^[+]Part of The Book of the War, Loading...{"namedpart":"The Nine Homeworlds","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"}, Crimes Against History (second edition) ^[+]Loading...{"var":"second edition","1":"Crimes Against History (short story)"}) or even a mere sheath echo. (PROSE: The Story So Far... ^[+]Loading...["The Story So Far... (short story)"])

The idea that this Gallifrey was the original was supported by it being located in Kasterborous, (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon, The Ancestor Cell ^[+]Loading...{"name":"TAC-Fall","chapntum":"44","chaptname":"Ended","1":"The Ancestor Cell (novel)"}, The Gallifrey Chronicles) the location of the original Gallifrey (TV: Pyramids of Mars) but The Book of the War speculated that the original Homeworld's real-time analogue may have been moved from its original location and replaced with a copy as part of the cloneworld project. (PROSE: "The Nine Homeworlds" ^[+]Part of The Book of the War, Loading...{"namedpart":"The Nine Homeworlds","1":"The Book of the War (novel)"}) Visions given by loas to the Mother and Father of the Family of the Shadow Spire claimed that the corrupted War Queen's Homeworld was only a sheath echo believing itself to be the original. (PROSE: The Story So Far... ^[+]Loading...["The Story So Far... (short story)"])

Another account supported The Book of the War's claim by suggesting that the Lady President's ceding of the Presidency to the War King was "suggested in some quarters" on the War King's Homeworld to have been a consequence of her becoming "the head of the Presidency on one of the other Homeworlds" in order to "complete the illusion that her world [was] the original". Other rumours suggested that "even she might not realise she's been moved to a fake". (PROSE: "Modern Times: The Paradox Era" ^[+]Part of Crimes Against History (second edition), Loading...{"namedpart":"Modern Times: The Paradox Era","var":"second edition","1":"Crimes Against History (short story)"})

Lead-up to the War

The High Council was made aware of the War through monitoring of the Obverse and the conflict in the Enclave (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell ^[+]Loading...{"chaptname":"Set in stone","chaptnum":"15","1":"The Ancestor Cell (novel)"},The Ancestor Cell ^[+]Loading...{"chaptname":"Interference Denied","chaptnum":"18","1":"The Ancestor Cell (novel)"}), as well as lightly monitoring their own future timeline, through which they also discovered the Type 102 (PROSE: 'The Shadows of Avalon ^[+]Loading...{"chaptname":"Compassion Fatigue","page":"24","chaptnum":"1","1":"The Shadows of Avalon (novel)"}). President Romana regenerated into a body more suitable for war (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon) and made herself "War Queen and Mistress of the Nine Gallifreys". (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell)

In preparation for Gallifrey's "darkest hour", (AUDIO: Luna Romana) Romana began stockpiling weapons in the Slaughterhouse, a secret arsenal protected by a time eddy, (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell) and cleared whole sections of the planet to start building Battle TARDISes. (AUDIO: Luna Romana) She planned to use Bull-TARDISes to mate with Compassion to create a new Type 103 - humanoid - TARDIS; (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon) unchronicled in accounts of the War King's Homeworld, Romana's Gallifrey was able to find and capture Compassion, (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon, The Banquo Legacy) although she was unable to exploit her as intended. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell)

Fate

Main article: Faction Paradox invasion of Gallifrey

Shortly before the first day of the War in Heaven, and during Romana's 150th year as President, the Edifice appeared in the sky over this Gallifrey and began sending "temporal waves" over the planet, making its residents superstitious and agitated. This was followed by Mother Mathara's invasion, which resulted in the Eighth Doctor destroying the planet with the Edifice's weapons in order to prevent Faction Paradox warping the Web of Time to their suiting. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell ^[+]Loading...{"chaptname":"Ended","chaptnum":"44","1":"The Ancestor Cell (novel)"}) This destruction appeared to unravel the entire War, setting down the Eighth Doctor, Compassion, Fitz and a few other Time Lords in a version of the universe without Gallifrey or the War. (PROSE: The Burning ^[+]Loading...["The Burning (novel)"], The Adventuress of Henrietta Street ^[+]Loading...["The Adventuress of Henrietta Street (novel)"])

According to one account, the interference in the timeline caused by the events on Dust acted as a "Trojan Horse" through which, at a very far point into the War, Mother Mathara used to bring her splinter of Faction Paradox, along with an "ersatz" Grandfather, to the first day of the War, wherein they aimed to completely alter the course of the War. However, the "infected agent" (PROSE: Crimes Against History (first edition) ^[+]Loading...{"var":"first edition","1":"Crimes Against History (short story)"}), the Eighth Doctor (PROSE: Interference, The Ancestor Cell), elected to destroy the Homeworld rather than let the Faction be in charge of history. So the Homeworld was indeed destroyed, before the War even began, resulting in an entirely new timeline, (PROSE: Crimes Against History (first edition) ^[+]Loading...{"namepart":"Tomorow's News: The Future","var":"first edition","1":"Crimes Against History (short story)"}), the post-War universe. (PROSE: The Burning, The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, et al.)

When the Tenth Doctor later recalled the Fall of Gallifrey at the end of the Last Great Time War, his recollection was reminiscent of (PROSE: The Eyeless ^[+]Loading...["The Eyeless (novel)"]) the Eighth Doctor's destruction of this Gallifrey to end the War in Heaven. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell ^[+]Loading...{"chaptname":"Ended","chaptnum":"44","1":"The Ancestor Cell (novel)"})

Behind the scenes

The first edition of Crimes Against History treated the War Queen's Homeworld as the original, while the second edition had her dropping out of the narrative to be replaced by the War King, with a suggestion that she had gone on to become the President of one of the Nine Gallifreys as part of a ruse to construe one of the Cloneworlds as the original. Although this rumour can be taken at face value, a possible interpretation is that these rumours were spread by the War King himself to spread the belief that the Homeworld under his control was secretly the original despite the blatant fact of the original President — Romana — still ostensibly ruling the original Gallifrey at the original coordinates.