Melding of Timelines

The Melding of Timelines, or simply the Melding, was a paradoxical temporal event that occurred simultaneously across all timestreams. It came about as a result of the Voices defeating the Spirit of Alastaire Breowan in the Temporal Plane, finally allowing the arch-wizard to rest and ending the Shattered Prophecy. It involved the movement of alternative timestreams back into the temporal median.

Paradox

Both the Shattered Prophecy and the Melding could not have occurred without the advent of chronomancy, or time magic. When Alastaire began researching ways to significantly manipulate time in the Dark Age, he unknowingly set a series of events in motion that would result in a temporal paradox. Drawing on the Doctantian Order's preservation of Ancient World sources, he spent considerable resources researching the Millennial Spell-- the first recorded attempt at significant time manipulation.

Eventually, he wrote the Gnomon Grimoire, a spellbook and treatise on time travel. The discovery of the Gnomon Grimoire by a distant, future society inspired the invention of prototype spelljammer timeships. The first of these spelljammers, the Lacuna, malfunctioned and became "unstuck" in time, carrying the Gnomon Grimoire with it. The Grimoire appeared in the past, allowing the Sovereign Seven to research their Millennial Spell, and paradoxically continued the cycle with no beginning and no end.

Perception and Nature of the Melding

Without chronomancy, it was impossible to directly observe the Melding's effects on the Aeon. It was assumed that each timeline's events occurred simultaneously, distinct from the others. The theory stated that no timestream would have been aware of the others during the Aeon. After the final instance of the divergence of timelines-- namely, those in the potentiality of the Steel Timeline-- the Melding was complete and the timestream continued along its median. However, the Aeon Theory provided no explanation for events beyond the collapse of the Whispering Timeline, including the movement of the Lacuna.

Events from timelines prior to the end of the Dark Age were recorded as historical fact. However, it became clear to historians like the Harpers that the effects of each distinct timeline were not always felt along the temporal median. For example, Blue Timeline events were known and recorded, but Echelon was not destroyed by the Sovereign Seven's wish. However, other events must have occurred, as direct descendants of each disparate timeline were present after the end of the Aeon.

Once the Melding was complete, histories from at least the Red, Blue, Green, Black, and Whispering Timelines merged and became common knowledge. Scholars studied the Melding for thousands of years, never fully understanding it.