A sequence of events arranged by time within a reality

Contains causal links (event A leads to event B)

A curated “approved” set of outcomes that remain within tolerated variance

Functions as a controlled bundle of similar timelines in practice

A divergence from a baseline path caused by a decision, accident, or interference

Creates a new timeline segment with its own future

A divergence significant enough to create a sustained branch

Often triggered by atypical choices or outside manipulation

A person/object whose history diverges from a baseline version

Can originate from natural divergence or deliberate extraction

The total set of coexisting timelines/realities

Includes stable branches, merged histories, and isolated “pocket” regions

Temporal branching: different histories from a shared past point

Dimensional separation: realities that may not share a recent common past (can still be modeled as far-separated branches)

Represents the baseline “Sacred” path (or centerline of the approved bundle)

Diverging paths from a branch point

Thickness can indicate “branch magnitude” (how far it drifts)

A precise moment/cause of divergence

Tagged with trigger type (choice, accident, intervention)

A point after which a branch becomes difficult/impossible to reset without major consequences

Represents stabilization/entrenchment of new causality

Indicates forced removal or rollback of a branch segment

Often paired with “extraction” of individuals/objects

A system-imposed capacity limit that restricts how many timelines can be sustained

Shown as a boundary envelope around allowed lines

Central governance point influencing which branches persist

Represents policy, enforcement, or selection mechanisms

One event changes → future splits

Early divergence creates larger long-term drift

Multiple small changes accumulate into a major split

Harder to detect until late-stage variance spikes

A branch spawns sub-branches as new decisions occur

Creates a “tree” rather than a simple fork

Different paths reach similar key events

Branch remains distinct but looks “close” to baseline

Branch leads to fundamentally different institutions, technologies, or cosmic events

Typically crosses redline faster

Not true time loops; rather:

Multiple timelines exist simultaneously; “now” is local to each timeline

Effects propagate forward within a timeline

Cross-timeline travel introduces foreign causes (external inputs)

Short periods where small variances don’t immediately destabilize outcomes

Long periods amplify differences (variance growth)

Some events are high-probability attractors (likely across many branches)

Others are sensitive to initial conditions (chaos amplification)

“Same person” can exist as multiple variants

Similarity depends on divergence time and life history changes

A decision made differently than baseline

Example categories: mercy vs violence, travel vs staying, confession vs secrecy

Accidents, natural events, chance encounters

Often small but can snowball into major divergence

Time travel arrivals, removals, object insertions

Targeted changes create sharp variance spikes

Knowledge from another timeline changes behavior

Can cause rapid redline due to strategic shifts

Powerful objects moved across timelines

Alters capability balance and institutional responses

Continuous variance measurement against tolerated band

Prioritization of anomalies that trend toward redline

Benign variance: likely to reconverge or remain within limits

Escalating variance: trending away; intervention considered

Critical variance: imminent redline; immediate action

Local reset (pruning a segment)

Extraction (removing a variant/object)

Containment (isolating a region/timeline)

Narrative steering (subtle guidance to prevent divergence)

Removes branch continuation beyond a cutoff point

Leaves baseline trunk unaffected (from controller’s perspective)

Creates “discard zones” where pruned matter may end up

Single-timeline dominance (minimize multiverse)

Managed plurality (allow many timelines under limits)

Full proliferation (no pruning; accept infinite branching)

Stabilize and power the system that maintains/handles timelines

Enforces throughput and storage limits

Overload: too many active branches exceed capacity

Instability: timelines destabilize, collide, or collapse

Forced pruning: automated reduction to survivable set

Expand capacity (engineering solution)

Reduce intake (policy/pruning)

Decentralize (multiple control nodes instead of one)

Physical traversal (entity moves to another timeline)

Remote influence (communication/observation)

Artifact transfer (object moves without its origin context)

Introduces new causes → potential branch creation within target

Can accelerate technology, shift politics, alter key events

Removal of an entity/object can itself create a branch

“Vacancy” changes subsequent events (absence causality)

Arriving in target’s past creates the highest branching risk

Arriving in target’s present/future tends to localize effects

Many-worlds resolution: paradox becomes branching

Self-consistency constraint: events adjust to preserve consistency (rare/strong constraint)

Governance override: pruning prevents paradox from persisting

Early: small deviations, low detectability

Middle: compounding differences, rising detectability

Late: irreconcilable divergence, redline crossing

Strong institutions, resilient systems, high redundancy

Convergent attractors (events likely to occur anyway)

High-leverage actors (leaders, inventors)

High-impact artifacts

Major disasters or wars

Allowed branch (continues as part of multiverse)

Merged/absorbed (effectively converges to similar macrostate)

Isolated pocket (contained, difficult to access)

Pruned/terminated (cut off by enforcement or capacity)

Mark key “anchor events” that define baseline continuity

Place top-level divergence points along trunk

Label each with trigger and variance severity

For each primary branch, add sub-branches for subsequent divergences

Icons for monitoring, intervention, pruning, containment

Draw a band around the set of active timelines showing system limit

Small deviation → short branch that reconverges (benign)

Foreign info/artifact introduced → rapid variance increase

Sub-branches spawn due to cascading consequences

Irreversible institutional shift (e.g., early discovery, regime change)

Branch becomes self-sustaining; pruning becomes costly

Option 1: prune to protect capacity

Option 2: allow and expand capacity

Option 3: isolate as pocket timeline

Better modeled as a tightly constrained bundle of near-identical lines

Branching can be natural; time travel is just a powerful trigger

Typically modeled as removing a branch continuation, not rewriting the trunk

Variants are simply divergence outcomes; “wrongness” is a policy label