Theory talk:Timeline - The Master

Terror of the Autons incarnation
The reason I've been saying that the Master is already in the incarnation we see in Terror of the Autons at the start of The Dark Path is that the narration of The Dark Path describes him as such. According to pg. 32 of The Dark Path (I think, not sure about the page number) the narration details the Master's appearance like this: ''A man in a grey double-breasted suit stepped out and looked around. A cravat with a silver bird-of-prey tiepin was at the collar of his silk shirt. He was of medium build with a high forehead and swept-back hair that was greying at the temples. His neatly trimmed dark beard also had streaks of grey at the comers.'' That is the exact image of Delgado's Master. -- Bold  Clone  20:34, June 17, 2014 (UTC)

Speculation
All information about the War Chief, the War King, the Magistrate, and the Man with the Rosette was removed from this page a while back. I guess I always saw this page (and other timeline pages) as a theory zone, since putting events in order often relies on speculation, authorial intent, and otherwise out-of-story evidence. Since here, the main wikispace's ban on out-of-story evidence doesn't apply, is there a reason that the War Chief, War King, Magistrate, and Man with Rosette should be kept separate? NateBumber ☎  20:47, February 25, 2017 (UTC)
 * Wasn't the War King technically the Faction Paradoxs version of the Master? -- Bold  Clone'  03:03, June 17, 2017 (UTC)

The Man with the Rosette
Looking back over the brief appearance of the man with the rosette in The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, I’m beginning to wonder if perhaps he might actually be the Roger Delgado Incarnation, or at least if that wasn’t the original intention, that it might be the best possible placement now.

Here’s a few extracts with descriptions of his appearance:

"Though no name is given for the man, Scarlette says that he was ‘a gentleman of distinguished nature’, clean-shaven and dark-haired, and at first she thought he might have been in the market for business. She does note, however, that on the lapel of his black clothing he wore a rosette in blue-and-white. It would have marked him out as a member of the Opposition, but nonetheless he was quite gracious and civil."

"Assembling a picture out of all the accounts, he’s described as a clean- shaved, dark-haired man in distinguished middle age, handsome in some re- spects even though to some of the British witnesses he came across as ‘swarthy and difficult to place’. He was slim and well turned out, and he made an im- pression on the island by always dressing in tight, straightforward clothing of prim black. . . apart from the rosette of blue and white which he wore on his lapel."

"Whenever people would ask each other about him, in muted whispers, the dark-haired gentleman would simply bow his head to them. His accent was English, although some said they detected a little Latin in his features."

Now obviously a lot of these features are just trademark Master features, and could in theory be possessed by any incarnation of the Master, but I’d say this description is at least specific enough to tell us that this is either the incarnation of the Master as played by Roger Delgado or a new incarnation/body with a very similar appearance.

Certainly at this stage in the Eighth Doctor Adventures novels, the Master is still very much trapped in the Eye of Harmony, and is for the duration of the novels. Which means this isn’t a "current" incarnation of the Master, instead either a past or future one. So perhaps it could be the Delgado incarnation? The only thing he’s missing is his beard, which he specfically doesn’t have because the Doctor has one. (He’s also later mentioned in The Gallifrey’s Chronicles, this time with a beard.)

Additionally the illustration of one of the four surviving elementals in COMIC: Miranda looks unmistakenly like the silhouette of the Delgado Master. The Man with the Rosette, beard and all was also described as being one of the elementals in The Gallifrey Chronicles. SarahJaneFan ☎  17:21, January 12, 2020 (UTC)