The Civil War, (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey [+]Loading...["The Legacy of Gallifrey (short story)"]) and also called the "Morbius war", (PROSE: Warmonger) Morbius affair, (PROSE: The Universal Databank [+]Loading...["The Universal Databank (reference book)"]) Morbius Rebellion, (GAME: The Time Traveller's Companion [+]Loading...["The Time Traveller's Companion (game)"]) or Great Schism, (AUDIO: Morbius [+]Loading...["Morbius (audio story)"]) was the first civil war in Time Lord history, fought between the supporters of the interventionist, warmongering would-be Lord President Morbius and a more traditionalist High Council of Gallifrey. Both sides recruited reinforcements from the rest of the universe, who understandably felt rather concerned by the outcome, as it would determine whether Morbius would be allowed to use Gallifrey's power and resources in a war of conquest on the Spiral Politic.
- You may be looking for the Imperator crisis or the concept in general.
Despite it being a civil war, many of the "dormice-like" Time Lords thought that it was a terribly un-civil war. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey [+]Loading...["The Legacy of Gallifrey (short story)"])
By one account, this was the first time the Time Lords had used their powers over time for bloodshed, making it a time war, (AUDIO: Morbius (part 1) [+]Loading...{"part":"1","1":"Morbius (audio story)"}) to the point that a later incarnation of Morbius regarded the Last Great Time War as "history repeat[ing] itself" relative to it. (AUDIO: Morbius the Mighty [+]Loading...["Morbius the Mighty (audio story)"]) Its events continued to retroactively shift even after it ended, with the mosaics in the Temple of Morbius on the Isle of the Dead constantly shifting; Karn's involvement in the War was the only fixed point. (AUDIO: Morbius (part 2) [+]Loading...{"part":"2","1":"Morbius (audio story)"})
Chronology[[edit] | [edit source]]
By some accounts, this conflict took place before the Doctor's time. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey [+]Loading...["The Legacy of Gallifrey (short story)"], Warmonger [+]Loading...["Warmonger (novel)"])
By one account, this war occurred after the Doctor and Susan's escape from Gallifrey. Even as the Doctor tried to stay far away from the Time Lords, rumours of the war reached him. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius (novelisation)"])
The Scrolls of Gallifrey indicated that this war occurred in the generation after Rassilon and the generation before the Doctor. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey [+]Loading...["The Legacy of Gallifrey (short story)"])
A Sourcebook for Field Agents indicated that the Morbius conflict began in the year 100, 720 in the TL dating system. Morbius' execution was in 100,722 TL. (PROSE: A Sourcebook for Field Agents [+]Loading...["A Sourcebook for Field Agents (novel)"])
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
Lead-up[[edit] | [edit source]]
By Postar the Perfidious's account, Morbius was a Patrex Councillor on the High Council of Lord President Pandad, Rassilon's direct successor. He advocated for a more equalitarian and interventionist Gallifrey and amassed a cult around his person, until he felt in a position to demand the Presidency. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey [+]Loading...["The Legacy of Gallifrey (short story)"]) The Book of the War similarly documented the history of an interventionist would-be-President who amassed a cult of personality and was eventually exiled from the Homeworld only to continue his war, but it identified this Imperator as a member of the broken generation, existing ten million years after the founders' era. (PROSE: The Book of the War [+]Loading...["The Book of the War (novel)"]) Indeed, upon later meeting Morbius on Karn, the Fourth Doctor seemed to recognise his mental presence. (TV: The Brain of Morbius [+]Loading...["The Brain of Morbius (TV story)"])
Accounts differed on whether Pandad simply exiled Morbius (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey [+]Loading...["The Legacy of Gallifrey (short story)"]) or if Morbius succeeded in getting the Presidency for a time, beginning his campaign agains the universe, only to be backstabbed by his High Council and exiled. (PROSE: Warmonger [+]Loading...["Warmonger (novel)"]) In any event, Morbius escaped his exile, and, travelling through Time and Space, massed his Cult into an "army of evil" with which he returned to Gallifrey, intending to take the Capitol by force of arms. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey [+]Loading...["The Legacy of Gallifrey (short story)"])
Unfurling events[[edit] | [edit source]]
The war dragged on for many years and claimed the lives of untold numbers of Time Lords, Gallifreyans, and other sentients; (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey [+]Loading...["The Legacy of Gallifrey (short story)"]) planets involved in the conflict included Fangoria, Romark, Darkeen, Martak and Freedonia, which provided troops for Morbius, and Sylvana, Zandir, Tanith and Electra, which fell to him. (PROSE: Warmonger [+]Loading...["Warmonger (novel)"]) According to the shifting murals of the Temple of Morbius, events of the civil war included the Siege of Skaro, Declaration of Hate and the return of the vampires, who according to Argento were on no-one’s side but their own. (AUDIO: Morbius [+]Loading...["Morbius (audio story)"])
Opposite Morbius's patchwork army was, in one account, Gallifrey's own army, still including more Gallifreyans than Time Lords at that point in time, which was personally led by Lord President Pandad. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey [+]Loading...["The Legacy of Gallifrey (short story)"]) In another account, the High Council, uncomfortable with being seen to act directly in the universe when this was precisely what Morbius said should be done, chose to fight the War against their rebellious child by proxy.
The Fifth Doctor, who had travelled into Gallifrey's past, was appointed "Supreme Coordinator of the Alliance Battle Fleet" and directed an unlikely army of humans, Draconians, Cybermen, Ogrons, Ice Warriors and Sontarans against Morbius, with the Time Lords merely providing the Doctor with financial support and a flagship. (PROSE: Warmonger [+]Loading...["Warmonger (novel)"])
In the end, the last of Morbius's forces were forced by the last of Pandad's to the planet Karn for a final clash during which the better part of both armies died, as did Karn's native population. The only local institution or popuplation to survive the clash of Time Lords was the Sisterhood of Karn, (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey [+]Loading...["The Legacy of Gallifrey (short story)"]) who had originated on Gallifrey itself, (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible [+]Loading...["Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible (novel)"]) and helped the Alliance defeat Morbius, (PROSE: Warmonger [+]Loading...["Warmonger (novel)"]) who throughout all these events was still in his first incarnation. (TV: The Brain of Morbius [+]Loading...["The Brain of Morbius (TV story)"]) According to one account, the Celestial Intervention Agency was responsible for the resolution of the Morbius affair, an operation which preceeded the Doctor's involvement with the organisation (PROSE: The Universal Databank [+]Loading...["The Universal Databank (reference book)"])
Consequences[[edit] | [edit source]]
The trial of Morbius, planned to be a wholly performative act with the outcome (execution via a dispersal chamber) being decided in advance, was held on Karn shortly after the pyrrhic victory of the High Council's forces. (PROSE: Warmonger [+]Loading...["Warmonger (novel)"]) However, it went horrendously wrong as Lord President Pandad fell to his death from one of Karn's treacherous cliffs even as he was about to pronounce Morbius's sentence. In the confusion, (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey [+]Loading...["The Legacy of Gallifrey (short story)"]) Mehendri Solon, one of Morbius's human followers, spirited his brain away (TV: The Brain of Morbius [+]Loading...["The Brain of Morbius (TV story)"]) before Cardinal Helron, of Pandad's High Council, managed to action the machine and disintegrate Morbius's body.
Helron proclaimed himself the new Lord President of Gallifrey. To preserve stability, he made some concessions to the more approachable aspects of Morbius's political movement. Using the Elixir of Life the Time Lords could now obtain thanks to an uneasy alliance with the Sisterhood of Karn, more Gallifreyans were granted the gift of regeneration. Furtheremore, Helron made sure all Chapters would be now be represented on the High Council. It was however decided, to prevent dangerous friction, that the Lord President and the Chancellor would always be of the same Chapter.
As Helron was not of the same House as then-Chancellor Azmeal, he was dismissed. This allowed Azmeal to sink deeper into his study of the secrets of the Matrix, setting him on the path which would one day make him declare himself the first true Renegade Time Lord. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey [+]Loading...["The Legacy of Gallifrey (short story)"]) Meanwhile, another future Renegade, the Master, who had previously been involved in field work, was called back to Gallifrey against his will as part of a general effort on the part of the new government to pull back from any involvement in the affairs of the outer universe. He was assigned as a teacher of mathematics and computer science at the Prydonian Academy for a time. (PROSE: CIA File Extracts [+]Loading...["CIA File Extracts (novel)"])