Guardians of Time in D&D Lore?

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sciborg2's picture
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Guardians of Time in D&D Lore?

Does anyone remember some of the varied guardians of Time in D&D. I recall vague memories about time elementals and quarut (sp?) inevitables, but I thought there were more?

Thanks!

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Zimrazim's picture
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Re: Guardians of Time in D&D Lore?

I don't think he counts as a guardian, but I'll mention Chronepsis, the draconic god of Fate and Time. He's not known for actively intervening, though. Still, he would very likely be aware of any messing around with time.

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Kaelyn's picture
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Re: Guardians of Time in D&D Lore?

Yeah, the god Cyndor of Greyhawk leads an order of time guardians.

ripvanwormer's picture
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Re: Guardians of Time in D&D Lore?

Those would be the Monitors of Infinity, basically Oerth's temporal police, first mentioned in 2nd edition's Chronomancer (a good source for D&D time travel in general) and expanded upon in Roger E. Moore's Chronomancy and the Universe (hopefully that link will work; if not, google it. Its an RTF file still hosted on wizards.com.

The Monitors of Infinity were mentioned again in Polyhedron #140, which revealed that the god Cyndor directed them.

Other quotes from Roger E. Moore's article:

Quote:
Toril has many powerful forces devoted to keeping its history intact. Elminster, Khelben Arunsun, the Seven Sisters, and many other powerful wizards have been granted certain undefined powers from Mystra, goddess of magic, to prevent all chronomantic spells from working in their vicinities. Supernatural or priestly agents of Deneir and Oghma (Toril's gods of history, so to speak) are believed able to follow a chronomancer's trail and undo any damage he has done.

Quote:
Evidence suggests that a group of Guardians-like chronomancers exists on Oerth, but little is known of them. The Codex of Infinite Planes has a cryptic reference to the Monitors of Infinity, "drawn from all places in Time," but this is the sum of the evidence. Chronomancers risk pursuit by the Monitors or by an avatar of a time-related deity if a major disruption of history occurs.

Quote:
In Sigil, access to Temporal Prime has been completely blocked by the Lady of Pain, who controls all portals in that city (even into Temporal Prime) and does not personally like chronomancy. Chronomancers who reveal their powers in Sigil find that they instantly become pariahs, and they invariably and quickly disappear--forever.

And in Mystara, the Immortals of the Sphere of Time do this job.

Hyena of Ice's picture
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Re: Guardians of Time in D&D Lore?

There are also Time Dragons in one of the late Dragon Magazine articles (I'm thinking 357-- it's listed in one of my monster index topics, I think the Inner Plane one)

Generally, the true "guardians of time" are gods with Time in their portfolio, such as Irunean in Violetspace (Violet Dawn campaign setting), Cyndor of Greyspace, Chronus the Protogenos, Chronos the Titan (though he probably doesn't have much control over it anymore), etc.
In Violet Dawn, Irunean is also the god of space (dimensions), so he also controls planar travel to and from Violetspace (not surprisingly he is by far the most powerful of Temulea's children, at least within the Violet Dawn setting. The four Elemental Lords of Violetspace, assuming they are merely Avadnian equivalents of the Torilian/Planescape Elemental Lords *which is much easier to do than trying to fit an additional elemental god on each elemental plane*, would obviously be far more powerful deities overall, since Irunean is probably just an Intermediate power, but their power over Avadnu is not all that great, especially since it has been sealed off.)
The powers of time and magic generally work to severely limit Chronomancy, both divine and arcane, not only on the planes but also on the Prime. Of course, on the Prime, the deities of time and magic can only control the use of Chronomancy within their own crystal sphere(s).

Unlike Chronomancy, there are probably deities which can control or influence other crystal spheres outside their own-- with the aid of the native powers. At least, that's how I have it in my campaigns-- Ptah and Celestian being among the few who can do this (in fact, the way I incorporated Violet Dawn into mainstream D&D, Ptah and Celestian aided Irunean in creating the Demiplane of Doors and sealing Violetspace off from the rest of the Multiverse-- their motivations of course being different-- Irunean wanted to save Violetspace from The Void, while Celestian and Ptah wanted to quarantine everything The Void touched from the rest of the Multiverse. The Demiplane of Doors was a concession with Irunean and the other Avadnian powers, allowing a tiny amount of divine energy to flow back into Violetspace, and allowing a tiny amount of worship energy to trickle back into the Outer Planes in order to sustain the Avadnian pantheon.)

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Re: Guardians of Time in D&D Lore?

Chronotyryns are a rather obscure race featured in 3rd ed. Fiend Folio who "believe themselves to be the masters of time" and at a base CR of 19 this might not even be that arrogant in the scheme of things. I always saw them as potentially very significant in the broader scheme of the multiverse, just generally too subtle and god-damn epic to reveal their hand very often.

ripvanwormer's picture
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Re: Guardians of Time in D&D Lore?

A chronotyryn appeared in the Downer comics in Paizo-era Dungeon Magazine. Described as a "time lord from the far future," it plays a role in a complex game between planar high-ups, with the prize being the heart of a newborn god.

One minor observation is that chronotyryns are supposed to be from Acheron, and they seem to continue the "birds with too many legs" theme that the achererai started. I thought that maybe the mysterious, long-extinct hassitor, with their many-legged undead fortresses, might have had a similar appearance.

sciborg2's picture
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Re: Guardians of Time in D&D Lore?

Thanks for all this guys - much appreciated!!!

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