"There are terrible things I have seen, lurking in the cold dark as the stars burned out in that distant future, that would make even the most taciturn of poets lament and hark back to say all that they may before they expire, so as to warn their progeny and all of civilization. Bereft of the gift of words, I say this: I have seen the death of the cosmos, and we are but microbes in comparison to the horrors loose in that time. If we have any chance of surviving, we must begin our preparations now, untold eons prior." --Last public words of Syrad Deacon, supposed Time Traveler.
Time travel has fascinated cultures across our globe for untold generations, in myths, novels, film and other formats. Whether to merely extend our vision to see things before we had the opportunity, or long after we would be dead, we wish to see things as they might have been or might become. Many also wish to be able to change things that have already happened, or work in the present with knowledge or materials gained from the future. That all said, Myths and Legends allows for time travel within its systems with a multitude of possibilities as a result. There are many theories about time travel and many versions of it which are depicted. The most simple of these is to merely have time travel be an observation only aspect, such as visions, which cannot alter the past or gather anything but information from the future. As there are no potential paradoxes from this, such visions are merely a potential future or view of the past which allows them to work quite easily within the system. Physical travel in a side dimension from which to observe may also be possible as interaction is limited only to points where there was a bend or rip into that dimension and therefore the actions done had already happened as a closed time-loop, and observation being the only other thing allowed. Physical travel without being in a side-dimension and directly interacting with the past or future is where things become more complicated.
The theory that alternate timelines are concurrent as alternate worlds allows for such crossover without paradoxes, as energy is expended to bring anything over and back, but it is not the same timeline returned to, but a third in which those actions in the past had happened as intended to create, and those things taken from the future being treated the same as if ripped from another realm and causing no paradoxes. Simple and easy, this means requires a fair amount of power to do, but has no paradoxical nature to it directly. In terms of the server-play of the eventual computer version of MaL, this method is the most simple to implement, with modification that it is back to the original timeline everyone is playing on. But in doing so, does that means nothing has changed in the past visible to the players? By no means. Things ripped from the past that are paradoxical to known history of the game are filled in with those from another timeline so as to not alter history. If something is known to still be lost, there is no issue. If it was not, however, then at least one Living Pentachoron is released from The White Void to start to consume matter and energy from place the time traveler returns to, reversing the flow of each object's entropy as it consumes it. Creatures and characters become younger slowly, and experience no pain, but will start to have their life drained out of them, as well as damage done to all things within the radius of their effect, which is locked out of any outside interference appearing to be empty space that feels cold to move through and static-filled. Defeating a Living Pentachoron is quite difficult even when there is only one of them, but once they are defeated they will wink out of the realm the character is in and return to The White Void. In the pen and paper version, solo computer version and private server play, it is up to the GM to determine whether to implement the third timeline return aspect or the paradoxical first timeline aspect and consequences thereof. The computer version will always deal with it as the latter unless something is known to be lost.
Whether by a hole in time-space or directed magic or science, time travel requires energy to work, and the further the travel is, the more is required. As such, for every five years of physical time-travel, the amount of energy increases, and the higher the chance of a Living Pentachoron to appear on return regardless of which direction taken and whether anything aside from information was taken. If one travels to a side-dimension during the travel instead of directly interacting continuously, the Living Pentachoron probability cuts by fifty percent of the current probability.
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