Time

Ashes and dust

---

Overview

Despite being the second-eldest God, Time's controlling nature and smug superiority left him with few friends. Most Gods refused to speak with him at all unless they were in dire straits, much preferring Death's curt scolding to Time's sprawling, self-important lectures. That said, his fussy and exacting nature made him one of the best Soulbound builders. Much to Death's relief, Time could also make a soul to Death's satisfaction and was the only one Death would entrust the task to other than himself. When Death needed a partner in crime to solve the burgeoning problems of too many Soulbound living all at once, Time was the obvious choice.

---

Appearance

Time was a tall, lean humanoid with ocean-blue eyes that were considered the most beautiful in the Universe. His long blonde hair often sported a number of braids studded with starfire, accentuating porcelain pale skin. He would have been considered delicately handsome if not for the entire disaster of his personality. To ensure he was the center of attention at all times, he dressed in long, white, flowing robes edged in flaring nebulas and glittering stardust. His siblings preferred this arrangement. They could see him coming, and thus make themselves scarce in a hurry.

Personality

Time's personality left much to be desired. He was petty, mean, liked to hear himself talk, and had no qualms about making life miserable for anyone around him. His penchant for not playing well with others earned him almost complete isolation, though once he started making Soulbound, he relaxed enough that Nature was able to break through his ironclad shell. She figured out quickly that behind the aloof arrogance, Time's biggest desire was to be needed, which led to the Universe's most elegant Soulbound management system and also proved to be his ultimate downfall.

Skills

Time's greatest asset was his obsessive attention to detail and his ability to make a lot of moving parts work perfectly in tandem, making him uniquely skilled in creating just about anything he set his mind to. Unsurprisingly given that the Timeline was his system, his reading and control of it was unparalleled, and he spent inordinate amounts of time tracking futures and cataloguing the past. It's a shame he couldn't foresee his own mistakes, too.

---

Major Events

EARLY LIFE
Time was another of the favored Gods when the Eldest were still present in the Universe, but unlike all the others, he harbored an intense jealousy for the preference the other Gods afforded Death without Death even having to do anything for it. It made him demanding of the Eldests' attention, which made his siblings resentful, but the Eldest themselves seemed to love him as deeply as the others. Any issues they may have had with his behavior went unvoiced.

The jealousy didn't improve when the Eldest were Called away. He found himself shunted aside in favor of Death in just about everything, and his thoughts and opinions were completely ignored or shot down ruthlessly. This enraged him so much that he sequestered himself into a quiet corner of the Universe to make Soulbound undisturbed, and found himself very, very good at it. He mellowed a little upon finding something he could do that Death couldn't (or wouldn't, in this case), but he ran into the same problems other good builders did where their planets flourished too much to keep up with more than a few. When Death came to him for help in finding a resolution, he was quick to give it.

Nature was one of the few Gods who gave Time attention despite his poor attitude. It meant more to him than she knew when she backed his future corruption plan, but he wouldn't live long enough to see where that led her, which was probably for the best.

THE TIMELINE
Time's creation of the Timeline is the single most genius and influential system the Universe had ever seen, bringing order to the chaos in one fell swoop. Death was less amused when Time immediately forced everyone to adhere to it, but not even Death can deny that it made things significantly easier to manage, and he could still operate outside of its influence at will. Almost every other system for managing the Soulbound depends on the Timeline to function in some way.
The Timeline itself is an elegant beast, simple in design and deeply complex in execution. Events traveled forward in a line, one after another, instead of in a jumble that required Gods to split their minds to be several places at once, and the entire movement of the Universe slowed to a much more manageable crawl. Looking back along the Timeline is a fairly simple operation even for Soulbound, with only one line to examine, but it branches into a veritable forest of options beyond the "current" point along it, making it a real chore to figure out which path is the optimal one. Some Gods are more deft at it than others, though all of them have been known to try, and Death's ability to operate outside of its influence at will makes him less interested in individual branches versus the direction of the whole. He knows this makes it easier for nonsense to slip under his radar, but there's too much to do to babysit the Timeline, and he was never much interested in such fussy work, anyway. If Time had survived, he would've been perfect for it.

DESCENT INTO MADNESS
They say there's a fine line between genius and insanity, and Time proved that by convincing some of the others that corruption, Entropy's dark magic, could be harnessed and used to erase Entropy from the Universe. Death's misgivings over it only made Time more stubborn, because he'd finally found something even Death was afraid of, and if he succeeded in destroying their hated enemy, maybe he would finally get everything he ever wanted. He found out quickly how very, very wrong he was, but by the time he accepted he'd made a terrible mistake, Entropy held substantial sway over him that he couldn't resist. When it came to a deadly showdown with Death to stop Time from killing other Gods, Time didn't even recognize his brother anymore. Death's never really gotten over it.

Regrettably, all of Time's planets were among the wreckage caused by his rampage. The ruins of his favorite galaxy are locked away as a memorial that only Death visits when he thinks he's strong enough to handle it. The rest of the Gods avoid it, too afraid of any lingering corruption in the galaxy to be alone nearby.

Further Reading

Skills

Among the best builders of Soulbound and able to craft souls as well as Death could, Time's greatest assets were his thoroughness and attention to detail. Like it or not (and for the rest of the Gods, usually not), there wasn't much he wasn't good at.