The Demon King - Time Travel Mechanics
Mar. 19th, 2020 06:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingIf there’s going to be time travel in this story, there need to be basic rules. Here goes:
(1) The universe is random.
This means that nothing is ever “fated” to happen.
(2) The universe cannot sustain paradoxes.
This means that there are no alternate timelines.
(3) Time and space are connected.
This essentially means that Balthazar can warp.
So here’s what Balthazar can do:
(1) He can revert to an earlier state in time.
The most basic spell that Balthazar can use causes him to revert to an earlier state in the past with his memories intact. Only his memories remain, though, and everything else reverts back, including his physical state. Balthazar can therefore watch eight hours of Netflix, turn back time for himself, and then go to sleep. If he ate but then turned back time, he would still be hungry. The reversion of any physical changes includes his muscle memory. This means that, if he learned to ride a bike and then turned back time, he would still think he could ride a bike but would probably fall off. This becomes an issue when he starts exploring temple ruins and exposing himself to elemental artifacts to bolster his magical power.
At first, Balthazar can’t use this spell with any sort of precision, and it’s difficult for him to return to a point in time when he’s in the presence of other people or while he’s otherwise distracted. As he becomes accustomed to using this type of magic, however, he becomes more adept at creating “save points” for himself. By the time the story starts, he does this almost unconsciously and frequently takes advantage of his abilities (although the reader will have no idea this has been happening until much later).
Because the universe is random, Balthazar cannot guarantee that events will unfold in the same way as they did when he previously experienced them, and he can never be sure what effects any of his actions will have. It’s therefore impossible for Balthazar to create a Groundhog Day scenario in which he knows exactly what will happen and exactly what he needs to do.
(2) He can physically transport himself to the future.
Aside from his own memories, Balthazar has no way of knowing what the future holds. Therefore, although he can push himself into the future, he has trouble doing so with any degree of precision, and he can’t go too far into the future at once. In between the point he leaves in the past and the point he appears in the future, he is not physically or mentally present in the world, and he’s ignorant of what transpired while he was gone. Because the universe is random, he can’t predict what the state of the world will be when he reappears.
If Balthazar goes back to the past after having pushed himself into the future, he cannot then project his mind forward to the future in the same way that he can revert to a past state. Because the universe does not sustain paradoxes, that specific future ceases to exist the moment Balthazar returns to the past.
(3) He can physically transport himself to the past.
There is no limitation to how many versions of Balthazar can exist at once, which means that he can technically travel back in time to talk to himself or otherwise aid himself. Because the universe does not sustain paradoxes, however, this is extremely tricky and dangerous. There can only be one timeline, which means that future!Balthazar cannot return to the timeline he left, as it has ceased to exist the moment he begins changing the past.
There are ways to get around this, but they are all complicated and unpleasant. It is possible for Balthazar to transport himself physically back in time in order to change the past by deliberately sacrificing the future version of himself, but this is tantamount to suicide, even if the past version of himself survives. It’s also possible for past!Balthazar to die and be permanently replaced by future!Balthazar. Because Balthazar is continually putting himself in dangerous situations, he gradually learns to use his death as something like a save point, thereby bringing his future abilities to an earlier point in the timeline. In order to do this, however, he first needs to create a time loop, which isn’t easy and requires a great deal of advance planning. It also requires the ability to temporarily sustain a state of paradox, which involves the manipulation of special relativity and quantum mechanics – warping space instead of time, basically.
In any case, it’s much easier for Balthazar to move forward through the future than it is for him to jump back into the past, which is why he’s not constantly travelling back in time.
While it’s technically possible for Balthazar to keep reverting to his original state during his initial time, it becomes increasingly difficult as that world fades from his memory. Also, because the future would change, thus cancelling all the progress he’s made, using this sort of hard reset wouldn’t actually benefit him. At the time the story begins, Balthazar isn’t entirely sure that this is something he’s still capable of, especially since he didn’t know how to properly set up save points when he was younger.
The complications involved with time travel are the main reason why there’s so much riding on Balthazar’s preparations to travel back to his original time to stop the initial apocalypse. Once he goes back, the future will disappear, so he really only has one chance.
If he goes back and isn’t successful, the future version of himself will die in the apocalypse, as he won’t be able to return to that specific future, which will no longer exist.
In addition, Balthazar has to face not only the prospect of losing everyone he’s built a relationship with during the story, but also the knowledge that his actions will utterly destroy them. If he’s successful, and if the apocalypse doesn’t happen, none of these people will have ever existed, and the beauty and mystery of the world they live in will vanish. In other words, Balthazar has essentially committed himself to destroying one world in order to save another, and he’s fully aware of how cruel and awful this is.
(1) The universe is random.
This means that nothing is ever “fated” to happen.
(2) The universe cannot sustain paradoxes.
This means that there are no alternate timelines.
(3) Time and space are connected.
This essentially means that Balthazar can warp.
So here’s what Balthazar can do:
(1) He can revert to an earlier state in time.
The most basic spell that Balthazar can use causes him to revert to an earlier state in the past with his memories intact. Only his memories remain, though, and everything else reverts back, including his physical state. Balthazar can therefore watch eight hours of Netflix, turn back time for himself, and then go to sleep. If he ate but then turned back time, he would still be hungry. The reversion of any physical changes includes his muscle memory. This means that, if he learned to ride a bike and then turned back time, he would still think he could ride a bike but would probably fall off. This becomes an issue when he starts exploring temple ruins and exposing himself to elemental artifacts to bolster his magical power.
At first, Balthazar can’t use this spell with any sort of precision, and it’s difficult for him to return to a point in time when he’s in the presence of other people or while he’s otherwise distracted. As he becomes accustomed to using this type of magic, however, he becomes more adept at creating “save points” for himself. By the time the story starts, he does this almost unconsciously and frequently takes advantage of his abilities (although the reader will have no idea this has been happening until much later).
Because the universe is random, Balthazar cannot guarantee that events will unfold in the same way as they did when he previously experienced them, and he can never be sure what effects any of his actions will have. It’s therefore impossible for Balthazar to create a Groundhog Day scenario in which he knows exactly what will happen and exactly what he needs to do.
(2) He can physically transport himself to the future.
Aside from his own memories, Balthazar has no way of knowing what the future holds. Therefore, although he can push himself into the future, he has trouble doing so with any degree of precision, and he can’t go too far into the future at once. In between the point he leaves in the past and the point he appears in the future, he is not physically or mentally present in the world, and he’s ignorant of what transpired while he was gone. Because the universe is random, he can’t predict what the state of the world will be when he reappears.
If Balthazar goes back to the past after having pushed himself into the future, he cannot then project his mind forward to the future in the same way that he can revert to a past state. Because the universe does not sustain paradoxes, that specific future ceases to exist the moment Balthazar returns to the past.
(3) He can physically transport himself to the past.
There is no limitation to how many versions of Balthazar can exist at once, which means that he can technically travel back in time to talk to himself or otherwise aid himself. Because the universe does not sustain paradoxes, however, this is extremely tricky and dangerous. There can only be one timeline, which means that future!Balthazar cannot return to the timeline he left, as it has ceased to exist the moment he begins changing the past.
There are ways to get around this, but they are all complicated and unpleasant. It is possible for Balthazar to transport himself physically back in time in order to change the past by deliberately sacrificing the future version of himself, but this is tantamount to suicide, even if the past version of himself survives. It’s also possible for past!Balthazar to die and be permanently replaced by future!Balthazar. Because Balthazar is continually putting himself in dangerous situations, he gradually learns to use his death as something like a save point, thereby bringing his future abilities to an earlier point in the timeline. In order to do this, however, he first needs to create a time loop, which isn’t easy and requires a great deal of advance planning. It also requires the ability to temporarily sustain a state of paradox, which involves the manipulation of special relativity and quantum mechanics – warping space instead of time, basically.
In any case, it’s much easier for Balthazar to move forward through the future than it is for him to jump back into the past, which is why he’s not constantly travelling back in time.
While it’s technically possible for Balthazar to keep reverting to his original state during his initial time, it becomes increasingly difficult as that world fades from his memory. Also, because the future would change, thus cancelling all the progress he’s made, using this sort of hard reset wouldn’t actually benefit him. At the time the story begins, Balthazar isn’t entirely sure that this is something he’s still capable of, especially since he didn’t know how to properly set up save points when he was younger.
The complications involved with time travel are the main reason why there’s so much riding on Balthazar’s preparations to travel back to his original time to stop the initial apocalypse. Once he goes back, the future will disappear, so he really only has one chance.
If he goes back and isn’t successful, the future version of himself will die in the apocalypse, as he won’t be able to return to that specific future, which will no longer exist.
In addition, Balthazar has to face not only the prospect of losing everyone he’s built a relationship with during the story, but also the knowledge that his actions will utterly destroy them. If he’s successful, and if the apocalypse doesn’t happen, none of these people will have ever existed, and the beauty and mystery of the world they live in will vanish. In other words, Balthazar has essentially committed himself to destroying one world in order to save another, and he’s fully aware of how cruel and awful this is.
