Retconning Crocodile
The Collective of the Retconning Crocodiles, also known simply as the Retconning Crocodiles, were a group of "fiendish metatemporal activists" who biologically resembled humanoid crocodiles. (PROSE: Auteur's Abecedarium (Issuu edition) [+]Loading...{"var":"Issuu edition","1":"Auteur's Abecedarium (short story)"}) They originated in the Prime Universe and predominantly resided in the Time Sewers. Although concerned with rewriting the narratives of different universes in their favour, due to its "endless time-warmongering" they generally avoided the Third Universe. (PROSE: Resurrection of the Author [+]Loading...["Resurrection of the Author (short story)"])
History
Three Retconning Crocodiles rescued Auteur from the dying oxbow reality later dubbed the "Sanctum of the Heretic" and physically regressed him to an earlier form of himself. They promised to resurrect him in exchange for him to rewrite the history of their enemies, the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids. They swore by their own canonicity to uphold the bargain, and retroactively caused Auteur, in his past while trapped in the Shadow Spire, to write a cursed abecedarium that would destroy the Cupids. However, while they returned his skin, the Crocodiles left Auteur in the oxbow timeline anyway. (PROSE: Resurrection of the Author [+]Loading...["Resurrection of the Author (short story)","Resurrection of the Author"])
In December 2020, a mysterious Christmas present was found in the Cupid Homeworld containing the handwritten abecedarium. The Crew were intially suspicous of the gift, with Lord Thymon testifying that whoever was responsible must have had serious metatemporal capabilities. However, they ultimately chose to subscribe to Celebration-665's interpretation that the present was a Christmas miracle, with the Crew identifying the Retconning Crocodiles as the only group who would attack them in this way but eliminating them as suspects because of the abecedarium's handwriting, (PROSE: Auteur's Abecedarium [+]Loading...["Auteur's Abecedarium (short story)"]) being far neater than the Crocodiles could have managed. (PROSE: Auteur's Abecedarium (Issuu edition) [+]Loading...{"var":"Issuu edition","1":"Auteur's Abecedarium (short story)"})
Other references
A pistol kept in the Vault was made by a Retconning Crocodile. Giles quickly put it down after reading what it could do if fired. (PROSE: A Worthy Successor [+]Loading...["A Worthy Successor (short story)"])
Behind the scenes
The Retconning Crocodiles originated from The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids, the series with which Auteur's Abecedarium [+]Loading...["Auteur's Abecedarium (short story)"] and Resurrection of the Author [+]Loading...["Resurrection of the Author (short story)"] were crossovers.
Aristide Twain gave his permission for the brief mention of the Retconning Crocodiles in A Worthy Successor [+]Loading...["A Worthy Successor (short story)"] to occur[1], though remained uncredited in the Cyberon anthology for their creation.
