Faction Paradox · 2:42am Jul 29th, 2018
Every culture has its taboos. Death or sex might be familiar to most of you as examples. And of course, where there are taboos, there are those who venerate those despised subjects.
The Time Lords have many taboos. Given how uptight they are, this should come as no surprise. Talk of death is discouraged, since they want to pretend they can live forever; talk of life or sex is frowned upon by the same token. Sharing secrets of Time Lord technology with outsiders is a big no-no in general. But the biggest taboo of them all is Paradox. The consequences of interfering with time can be dire enough, but to purposefully tie it in knots? Shudder.
So of course Faction Paradox arose, the ultimate in counterculture. Of course they devoted themselves to tying knots in the continuum of Time and Space. Of course they build TARDISes out of the bones of creatures that never were, of course their robes are similarly skeletal, of course their hierarchy is based on a family system. It's all to scare the Time Lords themselves. And, let's face it, the Faction is pretty scary.
In order to join the Faction, you have to go back in time and kill one of your ancestors. In doing this, you have fulfilled the Grandfather Paradox, considered to be the ultimate in Time/Death/Family fuckery that the Faction is known for. You have, in effect, erased yourself from history.
Now that you no longer exist, you can join the Faction as a Little Cousin. This is the lowest rank. A step up from Cousin is Sibling, then Aunt/Uncle, then Parent. Godparents are probably technically higher than even that, but it's hard to tell. The head of all this is Grandfather Paradox himself, although nobody even knows if he exists or not. That's how well he's erased himself from history.
The Faction HQ is the Eleven-Day Empire, which is in London. Kinda. During the switch between the Julian and Gregorian calendars in the late 1700s, 11 days were "lost". The world went from 2 September to 14 September overnight. The Faction purchased these days from the British government, and built inside of them a city of shadow and looped time, with elements from all eras of London's history and future.
The Faction Paradox is known for pulling stunts ranging from "taking a car back in time, melting it down, and using that steel to make the car in the first place" to "taking over entire civilizations and turning them into media-absorbing TV addicts" to "maybe rewriting all of Gallifreyan history". As should be fairly obvious, continuity and canonicity are laughable concepts to apply to the Faction.
And of course, they're obsessed with symbolism. They use imagery and memes to take hold of entire worlds. They use science ritualistically, adding in things like requiring a blood sacrifice to make their time technology work just for kicks. Their shadows are sapient and capable of killing you. Hell, Godfather Avatar is literally just a shadow!
Long story short, Faction Paradox is a messed up compilation of counterculture, ritual, and fucking things up just for the sheer nasty joy of it. Stay away if you value your sanity.
I will of course be using them in my fics sooner or later. This is just a fair warning of what you can expect from them.
-6&7
I am quietly rooting for Dr. Whooves vs. the Faction Paradox.
Quietly. With grace.
And.
Dignity.
...
...
GO, WHOOVESES!!!!!!!!
