Post-War universe

The post-War universe was the state of the universe after the end of the War in Heaven.

When the Eighth Doctor emerged from his century-long exile on Earth (PROSE: The Burning, Escape Velocity) after destroying Romana III's Gallifrey, (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell) he discovered that Gallifrey and the Time Lords had been completely wiped from history. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street) Despite this, there still existed four remaining Time Lords, (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, Trading Futures, The Gallifrey Chronicles) though they were forced by their new circumstances to remove their second hearts that were connecting them to their disappeared homeworld. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, Timeless)

Several other groups from the War survived its ending, including Faction Paradox and (COMIC: Political Animals) the Mayakai. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, COMIC: Political Animals) While there were only four "elementals," the Doctor encountered other Gallifreyan survivors such as Chloe and Erasmus (PROSE: Timeless) and Marnal. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles) It was implied that Romana had managed to survive and live on to regenerate a fourth time (PROSE: Tomb of Valdemar) despite the obliteration of her Gallifrey. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell) The disappearance of the Time Lords from history had great consequences. One of these consequences was the breakdown of universal "laws," filling the universe with irrationality, ritualism, and magic. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street) The Eighth Doctor frequently came against magic and mysticism as often as he did science and technology during this period (PROSE: The Burning, The City of the Dead, Grimm Reality, The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, Mad Dogs and Englishmen, Camera Obscura, et al). Creatures such as Water elementals and magicians, who would not have existed under the Time Lords' laws, thrived. (PROSE: The City of the Dead) This rampant irrationality and magic mirrored the Carnival Queen's descriptions of the pre-universe. (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet)

Another consequence was time travel technology becoming more widespread throughout the universe. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, Eater of Wasps, Trading Futures, The Book of the Still, Mad Dogs and Englishmen, Camera Obscura) Rudimentary knowledge of time worked its way into eighteenth century Earth culture, including in groups like the Hellfire Club, the Freemasons, the Eriticy, and the Service. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street) In 1774, American Freemasons fought Faction Paradox for control of Earth's history at King George III's 1774 mammoth hunt. (COMIC: Political Animals, Bêtes Noires & Dark Horses) Emboldened by their knew knowledge, several groups or individuals went so far as to try to fill the void left by the Time Lords by seizing control of history. The Onihr scavenged fragments of time travel technology for thousands of years in their quest to discover the secrets of time travel and become Lords of Time. (PROSE: Trading Futures) Sabbath, an agent of the Service who briefly became a servant of the Great Houses in the War, (AUDIO: In the Year of the Cat) stole the Eighth Doctor's second heart to gain some Time Lord abilities. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street) In their own quest to become the new Lords of Time, the Council of Eight eliminated their enemies from their fortress in the Time Vortex by manipulating both Sabbath (PROSE: Sometime Never...) and the Doctor. (PROSE: Anachrophobia) However, they were defeated by the Doctor working together with Sabbath and Miranda. (PROSE: Sometime Never...)

After suffering from amnesia for several years, (PROSE: The Burning, et al) the Eighth Doctor realised that, in the last moments before he destroyed Romana III's Gallifrey, he had deleted his memories from his brain and downloaded the Matrix, including the minds of all the Time Lords. Marnal made him promise to restore the Time Lords and build a "city for the saved", and to this end, the Doctor sent K9 to Espero, (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles) where Madame Xing had offered to restore his memories. (PROSE: Halflife) The Time Lords were subsequently returned to the universe. (PROSE: The Tomorrow Windows)

As the Imperial Family, the Time Lords ruled over all of time and space from the Needle, (PROSE: Father Time, COMIC: Miranda) led by an incarnation of the Doctor (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles) called the Emperor. (PROSE: Father Time, COMIC: Miranda) The Klade blamed them for draining the universe of energy by starting the War, (COMIC: Miranda) and after several centuries of conflict, the Klade revolted and overthrew the Family. (PROSE: Father Time) However, this did not stop the end of the universe; by the time Miranda Dawkins became Empress of the Needle, there were no stars and the energy drain left everything a dying void. (COMIC: Miranda)

The Boy from Faction Paradox had once told the Eighth Doctor a "greyness" would fall over reality around the time of the Needle. (PROSE: Unnatural History) An alternate version of the Doctor saw the Needle was the final structure of life in a grey starless void. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors)

Behind the scenes

 * Different writers of the Eighth Doctor novels had different perspectives on how much the universe had changed following the end of the War in Heaven.
 * Peter Anghelides said, "Gallifrey has been wiped from history. You can believe otherwise if you wish – but remember that some people believe the Earth is flat."
 * Anghelides' comments align with what was portrayed in Lawrence Miles' The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, although David A. McIntee quickly remarked that Adventuress was deliberately written in an unreliable narration style.
 * Jon Blum agreed that Gallifrey had been wiped from history but at the same time noted that, rather than Gallifrey's unhappening creating a completely new and unrecognisable universe, most things had been unchanged due to Gallifrey's "special relationship" with the rest of time.
 * In contrast, Lance Parkin argued that "Gallifrey didn't unhappen, it just blew up. Some characters in the books think differently, but there's a weight of evidence to suggest they were wrong."
 * Mark Clapham's Analysis, published in the charity anthology Walking in Eternity, asserted that, following The Ancestor Cell, the amnesic Eighth Doctor was plagued by dreams of a grey void or nothingness, invoking the "grey universe" seen in The Infinity Doctors and implied in Miranda and Father Time.
 * Telos Publishing's Time Hunter series, which began in 2003, often mirrored the tone and ideas seen in the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures and Faction Paradox comics that featured this "Post-War" status quo. Time Hunter frequently portrayed groups or powers attempting to control or conquer time and demonstrated a universe that could be manipulated through magic and rituals.