War Council

The War Council, also called the High Command or the War Council of Gallifrey, (TV: The Day of the Doctor, AUDIO: Jonah) was a Time Lord council that coordinated the war effort in the War in Heaven and the Last Great Time War. They met in the War Room in the Capitol on Gallifrey. (AUDIO: Body Politic, TV: The Day of the Doctor)

During the War in Heaven
During the War in Heaven, representatives of the Great Houses gathered to debate military strategy. They were led by the War King, who they addressed as "your Majesty" (AUDIO: Body Politic) and who, in this time, ruled Gallifrey as a whole, acting both as supreme leader of the War Council and as de-facto Lord President. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

A subcommittee of the War Council authorised a mission for Homunculette to investigate signs of a Great Old One civilisation in prehistoric Antarctica. (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5)

When the War King tried to give House Paradox a seat on the War Council, Lolita protested due to her personal animosity toward the representative, Cousin Justine; she convinced the other Houses that this was indicative of the War King's bad judgment. After she killed the War King, (AUDIO: Words from Nine Divinities) Lolita was elected War Queen and leader of the War Council. Justine sent Sutekh's Mal'akh to slaughter the Council as a warning to Lolita. (AUDIO: The Judgment of Sutekh)

During the Last Great Time War
During the Last Great Time War, the War Council led the war effort against the Daleks. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)

In the immediate build-up to the Time War, the War Council operated multiple secret bases around Gallifrey to research weapons and grow Battle TARDISes. Their secrecy often brought them into conflict with the Celestial Intervention Agency. President Livia forced the Council to concede the locations of their bases to the CIA, however they kept one secret. With Livia’s approval, the Council had a facility in the Death Zone connected to a pocket dimension. This facility housed Project Revenant, a scheme tor resurrect deceased Time Lords for the war effort. Following the Dalek destruction of Phaidon, General Trave of the War Council visited the Warpsmith refugee ship along with representatives of the High Council and CIA and negotiated an agreement for the refugees to be permitted to settle on Gallifrey in return for the War Council’s total secrecy, even from the CIA. Frustrated, CIA Coordinator Romana sent Leela to investigate the Death Zone and discovered Project Revenant. (AUDIO: Celestial Intervention)

In the First Segment of the Time War, the War Council placed munitions factories all over Gallifrey. One was located in the Mountain of Serenity. (PROSE: The Stranger)

Two months into the War, the Daleks breached Project Revenant’s pocket dimension, forcing the Council to commit to an increasingly desperate defence. At the same time President Livia resigned, naming Admiral Valerian of the War Council as her successor. Fearing a War Council coup, Romana challenged the succession to an election. Her election campaign failed when Valerian exposed her secret negotiations with the Dalek Emperor. As the defences crumbled, CIA agents infiltrated Project Revenant to destroy the facility to stop the Daleks taking it. Double agent Karla seized the facilify’s power core on the Council’s orders and took it into the Matrix. Upon his inauguration, Valerian connected to the Matrix and Karla used the power core to retrieve one of the oldest imprints - Rassilon. Rassilon‘s was imprinted onto Valerian who was forced to regerenare, resurrecting the founder as the War Council had planned. Rassilon became the Lord President Eternal. (AUDIO: Desperate Measures) After Rassilon re-took the presidency, a lot of things that once needed High Council approval, such as granting a new regeneration cycle, could be done unilaterally by the War Council. (AUDIO: Assassins)

General Trave was visited by his future self who warned him that Rassilon’s regime would lead to Gallifrey’s fall. The future Trave also attempted to deliver a message to Deputy CIA Coordinator Narvin from his future self, but was killed by guards. Trave was publicly executed for his future self’s crimes on Rassilon’s orders. (AUDIO: Havoc)

The CIA and War Council launched rival interventions on Ysalus to change the course of its civil war to ensure the planet wouldn’t fall to the Daleks in the future. Their interference escalated the conflict, forcing the CIA to seal the planet in a time freeze to stop its total devastation. (AUDIO: Partisans) General Dalia later collaborated with the CIA to evacuate Ysalus after the freeze was broken, exposing it to scavengers. The War Council eventually decided to erase the planet from history to stop the scavengers passing it’s minerals to the Daleks, to Dalia’s horror. After the CIA managed to evacuate a few hundred of the Ysalus’ citizens before the planet was erased, Deputy Coordinator Narvin asked after Dalia but was told by Cardinal Mantus that there was no longer any Dalia on the War Council, nor on Gallifrey. (AUDIO: Collateral)

The War Council granted Cardinal Ollistra special dispensation to conduct her own operations and authorised the establishment of off-world training camps. (AUDIO: Assassins)

An agent of the War Council, Lady Zeno, infiltrated the Trell’s dimension, Nateus, by transferring her consciousness into Renuncha. She struggled to cope with the non-linear experience of time there and was eventually exposed and driven from Nateus by Leela. (AUDIO: Mother Tongue)

When he decided to take a more personal role in the conduct of the Time War, Rassilon added a Visionary from the Sisterhood to the War Council. (AUDIO: Homecoming)

Cardinal Ollistra sent Veklin on behalf of Time Lord High Command to retrieve the War Doctor from Keska. (AUDIO: The Innocent)

Whilst stranded with the War Doctor on Grend, Ollistra contacted the War Council and requested a time fleet be despatched to defend the planet from the Daleks. The Council only sent 20 Battle TARDISes, not wanting to commit to defending the planet. (AUDIO: The Lady of Obsidian)

Towards the end of the War, surviving members of the War Council, with the exception of the General, were all able to be identified as such on sight due to the unique metallic collars that they wore, which were patterned on the insides with carved Gallifreyan text rather than the traditional solid gold.

During the last days of the Time War, the General and Androgar were discussing the War Doctor's part in the Fall of Arcadia when a female member of the Council notified them that there had been a breach in the Time Vaults. The General led a group of Time Lords to the Vaults, where they discovered that the Moment had been stolen by the War Doctor. By this point the War Council held the High Council in little regard. The General scorned reports of the High Council's emergency session, saying their plans had already failed.

Later, with the entire Dalek fleet bombarding Gallifrey from orbit, "all thirteen" of the Doctor's incarnations called the War Council to notify them of their plan to save Gallifrey by freezing it in a pocket universe. Realising something was wrong, the Dalek fleet above Gallifrey increased their fire power, at which point the General gave the Doctor the go ahead. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)