Been taking a look at Death Comes to Time for map reasons (since it’s here we’re introduced to Mt. Plutarch and the Lune Forest - the latter of which is also mentioned in Gallifrey: Time War, though it seems a lot of people misheard it as ‘Loom Forest’). Got a couple of theories based on some details of the scenes with Ace:

1. There might be a connection between this timeline and The End of Time:

Ace recognises some of the constellations in the sky on Gallifrey from Earth. Casmus doesn’t correct her. But this is ludicrous, the planets are at least 29000 ly apart, if not galaxies. Even if some of the stars can be seen from both Gallifrey and Earth, they would be oriented differently.

Now you could point out that 'constellation’ is sometimes used differently in DW, such as for stars that are near eachother locally (this definition is used a lot actually), rather than angularly, or may even refer to stars that are temporally connected in some way. But that doesn’t seem to make sense here. At best, maybe Ace is flat out wrong and Casmus is misunderstanding based on different definitions, or just ignoring the statement.

On the other hand, I think it has been suggested that Gallifrey’s heavens behave differently (though I thought that was simply related to Gallifrey’s changing flow of time?) so maybe this is some sort of alignment corresponding to “Ace’s era”? One could probably link this in some way to the Younger World Story or Earth’s caldera.

My suggestion, however, is this timeline might be related to Gallifrey being moved from the Time War into the Solar System in Rassilon’s Final Sanction. Perhaps this is a universe where the Sanction was completed and reverberated back in time as it collapsed, as far as the Seventh Doctor’s era, creating new branching timelines as it went. It would even help justify the Time Lords’ powers in this universe, if they’re in the process of ascending and becoming 'beings of consciousness alone’ ala the Celestis.

In other words, the stars look like they do from Earth because Gallifrey is quite literally in Earth’s place (though obviously not quite in Earth’s present day).

2. “Saronite” explains why Gallifrey’s oceans aren’t as blue as Earth’s.

A much less grandiose theory here, but in Ace’s tests, she must cross the “Cavern of Infinite Death” without falling into the pool of saronite. When she does and believes she’s been poisoned, Casmus explains:

ACE: But what about the poison?
CASMUS: Who said it was poisonous?
ACE: But … but … you said it…
CASMUS: I said you mustn’t touch the saronite.
ACE: Well, what is saronite?
CASMUS: It is much like water, with one important exception.
ACE: What exception? What is it!
CASMUS: It is red.

Presumably the pool is water with some mineral 'saronite’ mixed in. If 'saronite’ is common enough across Gallifrey, it may tint the oceans enough, combined with the reddish glows of the Suns and the atmospheric tint, to result in the dark red-brown-purple-ish colour of the seas we tend to see from space.

Fun fact: I googled saronite to see if it was some real mineral, but all the results related to World of Warcraft, where it is the name of a mineral formed of the blood of 'Yogg-Saron’?

I don’t know where saronite first appeared. If it came from Wrath of the Lich King, then the Doctor Who usage predates it. However I know Warcraft as a franchise is older than Death Comes to Time, so saronite might have appeared there earlier.

Either way, I guess Gallifrey’s water is literally filled with the blood of an elder god.

Started work on Gallifrey map v2, now with more visual references. >:)

It’ll also be much more detailed - I’m hoping to try using fictionalmaps.com to make a zoomable version, even though most of the planet other than the Capitol/Prydonia and Arcadia will be empty of detail, unless I or someone else does some fanon worldbuilding for regions like Anarcos or Capari where we have little more than a name.

Background is my previous version, which I’ve been using as a reference for working out placements and stiching parts together. Main goal is to use the new sources to help fill in the parts where I had to rely purely on descriptive sources (ie. most of Wild Endeavour).

Here’s my original sketch map for v1, for comparison:

If you’re wondering why I’m not using End of Time or Tecteun’s story in The Timeless Children, at this point I’m working on the assumption that the ‘surface’ seen in those is the Transduction Barrier (which has some interesting timeline implications for Rassilon’s era). Hence why it glows so much in both, plus why Gallifrey’s so huge in the prior when most sources suggest it’s roughly Earth-size. This is also why neither show visible oceans/landmasses but other sources do.

I could use the ship-approaching scene from Invasion of Time, but based on the star movement we only actually see a very small part of the surface in that.

Update on my Tolkien-style “Map of Central Gallifrey”:

Still incomplete, but made a lot of progress since my last post.

Prydonia and Saga are basically complete, while Mancipia and Presusis still need doing.

Redid trees at the same time as I added the Lune Forest, replacing the standard ‘pine’ trees with a smaller rounder look that I felt fit the climate a bit better, and also coloured them silver with some shimmers of other colour varying by tree.

Not made much progress on it yet, but I have started adding some little illustrations based on certain scenes, to show where they occur. So far I’ve got the Untempered Schism and the War Doctor’s walk to the barn. Next up will be the site of the Timeless Child’s cliff fall - which I place as taking place between Prydos and Mount Lung, on the slope of Mount Cadon, based on the scenery, the direction of Tecteun’s approach, and some implications from the House in Flux.

Need to redo Prydos and Riff City. Also need to decide on whether to include the transtube or not. I think it looks a bit messy overlapping with the geography, but it would be nice to have it. What do you think?

Still, overall, pretty happy with the progress. Quite tired of drawing mountains at this point, but they’re mostly done with the Southern Mountains complete.

Rough WIP of the new Tolkien-esque Capitol region map!

Made to be as ‘canon’ as possible, incorporating loads of visual details from landscapes seen in the show, descriptions from the books, audios and comics, and even semi-official elements like the Forge of the Chronosmiths and Perendosi Beach from Seasons of War, being careful to blend everything together.

I realise it’s quite unclear at the current resolution. I’m not too bothered with that at the sec, as I just wanted to give a glimpse at the detail and expanded scale I’m going for with this one. This is far from a completed version. You can see plenty of my working notes scattered about: 'huge open plain’ isn’t exactly a gallifreyan name!

I’m considering maybe doing prints when it’s done, considering this is one of the few things I do that isn’t photomanipulating copyrighted material (I did make a print of the Class Ongoing poster, but only for myself ). Only thing I might need to check is if the font / brushes are ok.

So like/reply if you’re interested I guess? I’d love to make a nice polished poster version once the rest is filled in.