Essays Index
Pantheon series: Part 1 - Elder Gods and Outer Gods | Part 2 - Greater Deities - Eternals | Part 3 - Greater Deities - The Great Wyrms of Time | Part 4 - Lesser Deities - Earth Gods | Part 5 - Lesser Deities - Alien Gods

This whole thing is really just a Doctor Who reference. It's gratuitous, frankly, but I lost my sense of shame a long time ago.

Greater Deities - The Great Wyrms of Time:
The Great Wyrms of Time, also known as the Timewyrms, are the gods of time, who were born in the Time Void during the very first nanosecond of the universe's existence. Their creation was caused by the Big Bang, which infused a substantial amount of magic into the Time Void in several bursts when the Fundament of Magic was shattered. Each burst of magic birthed its own time god, and flooded the timeline with raw information, which was then dispensed back into the universe again in the future via bootstrap paradoxes.

As there was no other source of energy in the Time Void where they lived, the gods of time all either turned to cannibalism or became chronovores which fed on time itself. The chronovores consumed the abundant time energy of their environment, increasing entropy and shortening the lifespan of the universe by an infinitesimal amount, but in doing so they also consumed some of the raw information infused into the timeline, granting them great intelligence very early on their lives.

They were the first new gods in the universe to become sapient beings, gaining intelligence before organic life even existed, and they quickly used their great intellect to slay their cannibalistic bretheren and secure their own power. They gave themselves names and identities, engaged in philosophical discourse, and began to study the nature of time so that they could better control it and shape the future of the ephemeral universe.

The gods of time remained purely ethereal beings for a while, but like the other gods, they took physical forms as soon as organic life began appearing in the universe. Prior to being the host bodies of the gods of time, the great wyrms were the first complex animal species in existence, and were nurtured throughout their evolution to become the enormous, highly magical, and highly intelligent beings that they needed to be. This also made them the first organic lifeforms in the universe to gain sapience.

Once this was achieved, the gods of time promptly inhabited the bodies of the great wyrms and became what we now call the Timewyrms, or Great Wyrms of Time. Through studying and refining their magic, the Timewyrms later achieved immortality for their host bodies, increased their own intelligence beyond their previous limits, and modified their own appearances for the sake of individuality, becoming a more diverse species.

Eventually, after an incident between Order and a Timewyrm called Flux, the Eternal War came to the Time Void, shattering the peace that had held between the Timewyrms since their society had been founded. Order- and Chaos-aligned Timewyrms fought one another, while Harmony-aligned ones tried to maintain the peace, only to be attacked by both sides. By the end, almost all of the Great Wyrms of Time were dead. Their civilization ruined, the surviving Timewyrms left their former home, sealing it off using an artefact known as the Key to Time, and went on to continue fighting the Eternal War in the ephemeral universe.

Like the Eternals themselves, the Great Wyrms of Time are classified as greater deities, due to the unique nature of their beings.

Paradox, Father of Thousands:
Paradox is the leader of the chaotic faction of the Timewyrms. Originally known by the name Flux, he was an adventurous rebel almost since birth, having been born from a burst of significantly more chaotic magic than most of his bretheren. While most other gods of time were content with their lives in the Time Void, Flux instead traveled the ephemeral universe, witnessing the birth of stars and galaxies, as well as the conflicts of the primordial gods.

During his early life in Time Void society, Flux was also something of a radicalist, pioneering new ideas such as time travel and the creation of art. He also frequently combined the two, creating paradoxes as a form of "time art." While the paradoxes had their admirers (mostly other chaotic gods of time), the vast majority of the gods considered paradoxes to be abominations and perversions of time, making Flux a black sheep in polite society.

When the gods of time began inhabiting great wyrm bodies, Flux was one of the first to take one of his own, and enthusiastically began breeding with as many other great wyrms as possible, regardless of whether they were Timewyrms or not. Flux's children, like him, grew to be creatures of chaos, and mutated into many strange forms. They manifested a wide variety of magical abilities, each unique in their own way. While Flux's children were not Timewyrms, he nonetheless ensured that they were granted immortality as if they were, and Flux's great wyrm children formed the bulk of his supporters during the later schism.

It was Flux that made first contact between the Timewyrms and the Eternals, as during a routine exploration of the ephemeral universe, he came across Order. As Flux was a being of chaos, Order took an immediate disliking to him and engaged him in battle. Their fight was relentless and brutal, taking place across several star systems and lasting the equivalent of three days in Equestrian time. Flux eventually returned victorious to the Time Void, albeit exhausted and badly injured, after having left Order almost dead in a crater on a barren moon.

Hearing of Flux's victory over Order, Discord later came to the Time Void, searching for him. Upon first seeing the Timewyrms, Discord was immediately impressed by their power, but was more attracted towards the paradoxes and other works of art that Flux had engineered than anything else. The two met as equals, both desiring to learn from the other. Discord learned the art of time travel and paradox engineering from Flux, while Flux in turn learned the ways of chaos from Discord.

During their time together, Discord instilled a great love for chaos in Flux, who changed his name to Paradox to reflect his newfound desires to cause chaos across time. In turn, Paradox also bestowed a title upon Discord. He was named as the White Guardian of Time, signifying that he would guard time with chaos and paradox to make it beautiful, and keep the future uncertain, so as to battle Order's darkness.

Shortly after Discord's arrival, the other two Eternals also arrived in the Time Void, seeking the Timewyrms themselves. The Tree of Harmony found an ally of her own in Moment, whom the vast majority of the harmonious Timewyrms rallied around, while Order recruited the Timewyrm leader, Certainty, and recruited the orderly Timewyrms to his cause.

Discord and Paradox were the ones to initiate the fighting, attacking Order and Certainty in a great rebellion that brought every chaotic Timewyrm and all of Paradox's children to the fight. The Time Void soon became a battleground, and the civil war that Discord had initiated laid waste to Timewyrm society. Eventually, all three factions were near-enough destroyed by the fighting, and Paradox and his surviving children abandoned the Time Void as a lost cause.

For eons afterwards, Paradox and his followers wandered the universe, sometimes on their own, and other times following Discord as support in the Eternal War. Many times they appeared from nowhere to turn the tide of a battle in favour of chaos at a key moment, and just as many times they lost, their numbers gradually wittling down until only a few dozen were left.

When Havoc first went to attack the Borderworld, Paradox was one of the many chaotic gods who went to support her in the campaign, and was present through most of the major battles. During the War of the Sun, he clashed once again with rival Timewyrms, and was one of the few chaotic gods to survive the battle. Afterwards, he retreated to the Nexus in Jotunheim to heal, and later took up permanent residence there, due to its similarity to the Time Void. Many of his distant descendants still live in the Nine Realms today, including the tatzlwurms and bookworms.

Agamarath, Lord of the Great Abyss:
Agamarath is the leader of the orderly faction of the Timewyrms. Originally called Certainty, he was born from a particularly orderly burst of magic, and had a dominant streak in him that commanded respect and made him a dangerous enemy. In the early days, when the gods of time were first expanding their minds from consuming the raw information of paradoxes, he led the fight against the other, more primitive gods of time, who would otherwise have eaten them all. From this, he became the de facto leader of the gods of time as a whole. He then also spearheaded the efforts to manipulate the evolution of the great wyrms, helping to shape the identity of the Great Wyrms of Time.

Certainty viewed the future as a fascinating thing, and was particularly enthralled by the idea of the end of time, which he called the Doom. To him, the eventual heat-death of the universe was the one true future, a fact of time that could not be changed, and although he found this grim in many ways, he also regarded it as sacred, especially in how the Great Wyrms of Time had played a role in bringing it closer by consuming time energy in their early existence.

When Flux later encountered Order in the ephemeral universe and fought with him, Certainty was furious, believing that he had invited a reprisal upon them from a force that the Timewyrms were not ready to fight. The arrival of Discord only worsened matters, as Discord actively tried to provoke Certainty to violence several times, and Certainty only barely restrained himself.

When Order arrived in the Time Void as well, Certainty tried to appease him and apologise for Flux's actions, desiring to maintain the stability of Timewyrm society. However, he and Order found much to respect and admire in one another, and the two soon began conspiring against Discord and Flux, who had already begun going by the name Paradox at this point.

In response to Paradox teaching Discord the art of time travel, Certainty taught Order how to view the future without changing it, and how to detect unnatural changes in the timeline. Much as how Discord had been named the White Guardian of Time, he then named Order the Black Guardian of Time, charging him with preventing Discord from causing chaotic changes to time, and making sure that the orderly Doom at the end of time came to pass as intended.

However, Certainty and Order's close alliance only served to cause conflict rather than resolve it, as Paradox's chaotic Timewyrms grew disgruntled with Order's presence and Certainty's friendship with him, and attacked them. Certainty and the orderly Timewyrms fought back, initiating a terrible war that devastated the Time Void. The Tree of Harmony and the harmonious Timewyrms led by Moment continually tried to stop the war and de-escalate tensions, but their efforts were rebuffed by both sides, as Discord and Order both opposed the Tree of Harmony as much as each other.

In the end, the devastation was too great. Soon after the chaotic Timewyrms abandoned the Time Void as a lost cause, Certainty and his surviving followers did the same, seeing that everything that they had wanted to maintain was already destroyed. With nowhere else to go, they followed Order into the ephemeral universe to continue fighting in the Eternal War for him there, taking roles in the running of his empire. Certainty himself went on to become one of Order's top generals.

To divorce himself from his old life, Certainty took a new name in the ephemeral universe, calling himself Agamarath, a word meaning "Doom" in the language of the first planet he helped Order to conquer. As Agamarath, he finally gave into a lifelong temptation to bring the Doom closer, and began consuming time energy again from rifts, as no god of time had done since their civilization began. For this, he came to be known as the Agamarath the Time-Eater.

Agamarath was among those who joined Order during the invasion of the Borderworld. Order named him the Lord of Svartalfheim, granting him the realm to use as a laboratory for creating creatures of order magic to conquer the Nine Realms with. Agamarath was personally responsible for the creation of both the umbrums and the Nightmare Forces, the latter of whom he unleashed upon the Dreamscape to torment Midgard with. He later became known as the Lord of the Great Abyss, after Svartalfheim's sun was extinguished as part of Order's plan to seize control of the heavenly spheres, and the realm was plunged into darkness.

Following this event, Agamarath was present for the great battle in Asgard. Borr, an incarnation of Order, was killed during this event, but Agamarath survived, and even personally avenged him by slaying Havoc, an incarnation of Discord. Despite this, the War of the Sun was a tremendous loss for Order's forces, especially given the alicorns' defection to Harmony. Agamarath had trouble holding everything together in the aftermath, especially since he had no idea where Order's soul had gone to, though he continued to hinder the Tree of Harmony's goals on Midgard for some time.

Agamarath was eventually defeated around the time of Ragnarok, although accounts differ in the details of exactly how, when, and by who. All that is known is that Agamarath was somehow abducted and imprisoned in Muspelheim, where he was bound to be tortured for all eternity. He has not been heard from since.

Moment, Gatekeeper of Eternity:
Moment is the leader of the harmonious faction of the Timewyrms. In her youth, Moment was a prominent philosopher and scholar, and was a divisive figure amongst the Timewyrms for her views on organic life. She was against interfering in the evolution of the great wyrms, and initially opposed the gods of time taking great wyrm bodies, arguing that such actions were morally unjust. She supported isolationism, believing that it would be better for the ephemeral universe if the gods of time remained in the Time Void, rather than risked impacting its natural development.

Her views on this changed when most of her fellow gods of time had already gone through the process of becoming great wyrms. As her peers grew more and more intelligent while she simply remained the same, Moment felt great social pressure to conform, and eventually compromised her values to also take a great wyrm body. She was ashamed by this, but her guilt was assuaged after experiencing life in a physical body for herself, especially when she learned that the mortal great wyrms were developing souls that were very similar to the spiritual forms of the gods of time.

While Moment continued to criticise manipulating the evolution of other species, she conceded in the end that the gods of time were no different to mortal souls, and that both had a right to inhabit physical bodies in the ephemeral universe if they so desired. Moment still advocated isolationism, but was less vocally critical of those who disagreed with her, and after becoming more moderate, she began to gain a small following.

When Flux and Order later met, and Discord came to the Time Void, it was a great disruption for Moment and her followers. Discord introduced many new ideas to the Timewyrms which they found offensive and evil, and his advocacy of Flux's paradoxes in particular were seen as very distasteful. Order arrived soon after, opposing Discord and Flux, but his arrival only stirred up tensions more, as Timewyrms began taking sides against one another. It was thus a great relief to Moment when the Tree of Harmony arrived, advocating peace and a de-escalation of tensions.

Unfortunately, this peace was not to be, and violence erupted between the chaotic and orderly Timewyrms, with Discord and Flux on one side and Order and Certainty on the other. Moment and the Tree of Harmony allied, attempting to appeal to both sides to cease the fighting, with the support of many harmonious Timewyrms. However, this failed to take, as Order and Discord both identified them as enemies, and the chaotic and orderly factions attacked the harmonious faction and forced them into the fighting as well.

The harmonious faction was quick to flee, and so many survived, but the Time Void was left ruined by the fighting, and the majority of the Timewyrms were wiped out. In response, the chaotic and orderly Timewyrms abandoned their home for the ephemeral universe, but the harmonious ones tried to stick around and rebuild. However, rebuilding proved to be a pointless gesture, despite the Tree of Harmony's encouragement, as it was ultimately their fellow Timewyrms that had made their society great, which they could not replace.

In despair, Moment and her followers chose to abandon the Time Void too. Working with the Tree of Harmony, Moment helped to create an artefact known as the Key to Time, with which she sealed the Time Void off from the ephemeral universe. The Key was then broken into several parts and scattered across the universe, with the intent being to ensure that those who they held responsible for destroying their home could never return to it unless they agreed to compromise and cooperate.

During her time spent with the Tree of Harmony in the aftermath of this event, Moment taught her how to view and manipulate possible futures, so as to give her an even chance against Discord and Order and their own time-based abilities. She also named the Tree of Harmony as the Crystal Guardian of Time, in response to Discord and Order both also being named Guardians, and made her promise to protect the universe from them.

Afterwards, Moment and her remaining followers left to explore the universe together, desiring to find a new home. In their travels they had many adventures, saw new sights, met other gods, found new worlds, and sometimes found themselves drawn back into the Eternal War, but eventually they did find their peace. Moment and the remaining harmonious Timewyrms have since settled down on a distant planet inhabited by a species very similar to the great wyms, and have not seen war again for millions of years now.

Moment and the remaining harmonious Timewyrms have since settled down on a distant planet inhabited by a species very similar to the great wyms, and have not seen war again for millions of years now.

[In a Linkara mocking voice] Unfortunately, what they didn't know was that planet was known as Gallopfry, and you all know what happened to that planet...[End mocking voice]

But seriously, this is a nice story on these time wyrms. I'm going to take guess that the Doctor was one of the Timewyrms (or the wyrms-like planet that Moment's followers settled on), wasn't he?

Though I never thought that making a time art would be possible, especially with a paradox being one of them.

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Nah. The Doctor of this 'verse is the same one we saw in Slice of Life in season five. He's had an unusually long life and some interesting adventures, some of which involved cosmic beings like the ones in this series, but at the end of the day he's still just an earth pony.

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Ah, okay. Hadn't gone up to season five yet, still around the beginnings of season 4. So... yeah.

So what do the Timewyrms look like? Actual worms, the Timewyrm lady from the Doctor Who novels, snakes, dragons?

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Something like this, I'd say.

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Huh. Well that's creepy!

Not sure if I can conceptualize it by the My Little Pony FIM's style, but I sure hope Moment looks a little less... eldritch I say.

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If anything, that's what the normal ones look like. Paradox's faction are weirder.

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That I can imagine. Speaking of Paradox, what exactly is that Nexus place is in Jotunheim? Hmm, now that I mentioned that, Discord and Twilight we're last at Jotunheim in Something, Cosmic...

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The Locations series is currently very out of date, and I need to update it soon, so I apologise for this information not already being in the other essays.

The Nexus is a superportal just like the one in the Everfree that the Tree of Harmony grew herself over, only this one isn't contained by the power of an Eternal because it's in Discord's territory and he doesn't really care about restraining potentially dangerous interdimensional portals. It's essentially a giant, open wound in spacetime, leading through not just to a multitude of smaller portals all over the Nine Realms and the rest of the galaxy, but also into other universes altogether, and possibly into the Time Void as well. It essentially goes everywhere. It's also enormous and full of dangerous wild energy, much like Muspelheim. Lyracord went to it briefly in Just Dodge! when she ran into Hixelkicks, and it'll of course show up in Something Cosmic as well.

Its most notable relevance to Jotunheim as a setting is its connection to the Lost River. The Lost River is actually named as such in the first place because it flows out of the Nexus from some unknown alternate universe. The source of the river is, quite literally, lost amongst infinite realities.