Casmus
Castellan Casmus was one of the surviving Time Lord in a state of reality where their kind had been all but wiped out during the Seventh Doctor's lifetime, with the surviving renegades having sworn to adhere to a stricter code of non-interference than ever after what happened on Micen Island. An old friend of the Doctor's, Casmus foresaw the extinction of the Time Lords and the beginning of a new age; agreeing with the Doctor about Ace's potential, he trained her to become the first of a new kind of Time Lords.
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
The oaths of Micen Island[[edit] | [edit source]]
In one version of history, the Time Lords were all but wiped out, though Gallifrey remained intact. The Seventh Doctor was one of a few survivors, who, regretful of how they had misused their powers, made a pact on Micen Island at the Temple of the Fourth to keep watch on one another, and to adhere by certain oaths regulating when to use their power. One of their provisions was that they must never travel alone, always keeping a mortal companion. (WC: "At the Temple of the Fourth" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"At the Temple of the Fourth","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"}) Casmus continued to live on Gallifrey, in the company of the cat Midas, who served as his "companion". (WC: "Planet of Blood" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"Planet of Blood","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"}
Training Ace[[edit] | [edit source]]
Having warned the Council of the Santine Republic about an impending invasion by General Tannis's Canisian troops, the Seventh Doctor's companion Ace was captured trying to flee the planet. (WC: "At the Temple of the Fourth" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"At the Temple of the Fourth","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"}) Aware of the Time Lords' impending final extinction, and of the Doctor's secret hope in taking her on, (WC: "Death Comes to Time" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"Death Comes to Time","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"}) Casmus freed her from Canisian imprisonment, using his power on her jailor Golcrum to not only force him to let them through, but to reconsider his entire life choices and leave the army to dedicate his life to medicine. With the Doctor forced to leave Santiny without her due to a summons from the Minister of Chance, Casmus took Ace back to Gallifrey, (WC: "At the Temple of the Fourth" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"At the Temple of the Fourth","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"}) where he informed her that she was "here to learn", while impishly refusing to explain why. They began a journey together across the deserted, but peaceful landscape, (WC: "Planet of Blood" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"Planet of Blood","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"}) with Casmus teaching her about the true nature of the Time Lords and their role in the universe, as the "painters" of history's "painting". The fundamental reason the Time Lords must not get involved in events, thus, was that "the painter cannot be in the painting". (WC: "The Prisoner" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"The Prisoner","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"})
As the educational journey continued, Casmus played a number of instructive practical jokes on Ace, such as making her cross the so-called Cavern of Infinite Death without touching the supposedly toxic saronite liquid, only to reveal to her that it was harmless after she fell in; this was intended to familiarise her with a Time Lord's way of interfacing the world, able at any moment to ignore the laws of physics as if they were merely the rules of a game. Ace proved receptive to the idea that a Time Lord must thus usually abide by the rules, because these laws were all that "made" the world, just as much as the rules are all that make a game. Satisfied with her progress, Casmus took her to Mount Plutarch to see the Kingmaker, who agreed to grant her the metaphysical authority to pilot a TARDIS, and ordered her to undertake the great test on Anima Persis. When she returned from the cave, Casmus bequeathed his TARDIS to her so she could fly it to Anima Persis, and also, (WC: "No Child of Earth" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"No Child of Earth","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"}) in his "last practical joke", gave her a harmless stick (WC: "Death Comes to Time" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"Death Comes to Time","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"}) which he claimed was a wand invested with her power as a Time Lord, instructing her not to use it during the test; in fact, her ability to withstand the temptation to use it would be the object of the test. Seemingly realising that Casmus was acting as though bidding her farewell, Ace made him promise he would be there when she returned; Casmus agreed to the promise but continued acting as though he were dying, leaving her with final words of wisdom. (WC: "No Child of Earth" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"No Child of Earth","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"})
In winter, when old wounds ache, remember — you are part of a greater whole. Even though you walk in the desert, you are not alone, for the sky itself cloaks you. You are a part of a great unity based on logic, and in a logical universe, in the end, reason prevails.
Death[[edit] | [edit source]]
After Ace left for Anima Persis, Casmus went back into the cave to see the Kingmaker one last time. She warned him that "time [was] against [him]"; he philosophically replied "It is. This is no longer [[Time Lord|our age. Twilight falls, and the strange dream ends". (WC: "No Child of Earth" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"No Child of Earth","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"})
Returning outside, he was alerted by Midas to the presence of Tannis, whom he knew — unlike the Seventh Doctor — to secretly be a Time Lord himself. Tannis had journeyed to Gallifrey in his own TARDIS to dispose of Casmus, having killed — or believing himself to have killed — all the other survivors. Before he did so, however, Tannis tried to get Casmus to explain why the Doctor and himself were so interested in Ace; however, he reacted with derision when Casmus earnestly outlined his plan to make her into a new kind of Time Lord. The stoic Casmus expressed pity for Tannis, who "fit so badly" in "such a coherent universe", and tried to get him to understand his error.
You have come here seeking my approval, and I regret I can give only my pity. (…) I was always going to die. I'm so old I try to mention my age all the time — and I can't remember it! My time has come… But so has yours. Don't you see? You're the antique. The age of extremes is at an end. We're relics of a chaotic time, when the skies were unexplored, and monsters roamed. Now you look to the sky, and every star has a name. The great discoveries of this plane have been made! The great swings of good and evil are over! The new age will be one of balance. You can't see it, poor Tannis. For a Time Lord, you're so limited. (…) We're Time Lords! The many sparkling universes, the myriad dimensions you could explore. But your ambitions are limited to the physical. You are the smallest and most miserable of our kind, and she, she will be the greatest of hers.
However, Tannis was unmoved. When Ace returned from Anima Persis, unexpectedly joined by the reformed Golcrum, they found Casmus's mangled body left where Tannis had killed him; the Seventh Doctor, who had arrived on Gallifrey by his own means, noted that this meant he'd fulfilled the letter of his promise to "be here" when Ace returned, if not the spirit. He also completed Casmus's final lesson by informing Ace of the true purpose of the great test, which she believed she'd failed.
A short time later, Casmus's earlier, enigmatic claim that the appropriate point for a Time Lord to use their power would be "teatime" was fulfilled when the Doctor unleashed his power to destroy Tannis, explaining that his kind had held this power for "millennia" in expectation of this fateful moment that would start the new age, recalling with amumsent that "this is what Casmus used to call T-Time". (WC: "Death Comes to Time" [+]Part of Death Comes to Time, Loading...{"namedep":"Death Comes to Time","1":"Death Comes to Time (webcast)"})
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