The hope for Telara rests upon the Distal Temporal Refraction Device - or, as it is more commonly known, the Failsafe Device. In this two part post, the history and usefulness of the Fail Safe will be analysed, as well as its impact on the Defiant civilization and Telara in general.
"Among Orphiel's greatest discoveries was a means by which to create a temporal anchor and a machine tethered to that anchor. While the exact name of the machine was the Distal Temporal Refraction Device, it has become colloquially referred to as Orphiel's Failsafe Device. While Orphiel never truly mastered "time travel", his device did succeed in returning objects that passed through the machine to the fixed position in time at which the device had been built.
Orphiel would not share the exact details of its creation with anyone. As usual, he closely guarded the secrets of this breakthrough. When asked to explain in very simple terms how it worked, however, he said, "The machine has an aura that confuses time on such a base level that time would rather ignore it completely than attempt to resolve the issue."
This quote, from the Knowledge Collective, is one of the few specific pieces of information given on the failsafe device, however, it is possible to learn a great deal through other avenues in Terminus.
The device consists of a Temporal Flux, a Resonance Capacitor, an Automata inflector, and, of course, the anchor machine itself.
Nearby the Temporal Flux is a Knowledge Collective that had this to say:
1) Do not initiate the Temporal Flux unless preparation has begun to initiate the use of the failsafe device. The Temporal Flux is necessary to enable the Failsafe device, but it is dangerously unstable and could potentially unravel elements of the temporal tapestry!
2) When the Temporal Flux has been initiated, do not allow it to be interrupted. Doing so could also potentially unravel elements of the temporal tapestry.3) Do not eat or drink anywhere near the Temporal Flux.
4) Initiating the Temporal Flux is likely to attract the attention of Regulos, the Destroyer, as a large amount of sourcestone will be burned.
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| The Cursed Defiant unleashed |
Once again humour mixed with serious information; This piece of the failsafe seems to be the part of the machine responsible for tearing the fabric of time.* (Please see part two for further discussion on the affects of time travel on the fate of Telara) Curiously, engaging the temporal flux unleashes a defiant of old who says the power of sourcestone flows through him. He shouts, "Regulos, your curse is broken! The ascended has released me. I shall send your accursed minions back to the floul plane of their ignoble birth." What curse this Defiant is referring to and how he came to be trapped inside the machine are never discussed further.
The next piece of the puzzle is the Resonance Capacitor. Ignacia Bulwart of the Eldritch Vanguard says "...the last of those fanatics have taken controle of the Resonance Capacitor. The machine needs to be brought online and rerouted to the time machine," making this device sound like a power generator of sorts.
The third item is an automata inflector. When powered, the holographic images of three Eth surround the image of a glowing sphear. As the tableau continues the sphere turns from bright white to molten red, perhaps signifying the death of Telara. Raj Tahleed calls the device a cannon, but no other information is given.
Finally, the anchor itself. Stavel Rosso, Sylver's assistant, says "It took us some time to decipher the genius of Orphiel's construction, but the Failsafe is fully functioning. As you may know, all of our data shows that this device can only send you back to the time of its creation, but that should be enough time for you to stop this future from repeating." In addition, Quaeni Nidain, an Eth near the failsafe, says it will transport to shortly after the discovery of the original life factory.
Stavel's words about construction brings up some unanswered questions about the device. How many of the pieces were built, stored, and reconstructed after the exodus from the life factory and, assuming that the pieces were reconstructed, as appose to allowing the pieces to exist during the time spent in the life factory, why did the Defiant choose to scatter the pieces throughout Terminus? Evidence points to reconstruction as it can be assumed, by looking at the state of the structures around Terminus, that much of the salvation machine would have been damaged otherwise. The Defiant entered the life factory knowing, or at the very least assuming, what was to come. It was a wise decision to bring the machines into hiding with them.
Stavel then says the failsafe will "only send you back to the time of its creation.", yet the Knowledge collective says "returning objects that passed through the machine to the fixed position in time at which the device had been built." That is a big jump in meaning, especially considering the machine itself was rebuilt during the last days of Telara. Adjusting the Knowlege collective to read "first built" would bring their meanings into allignment. Stavel's statement, being the clearer of the two, when isolated and looked at along side the knowledge that the machine was rebuilt, gives further details about its working; the machine must place an anchor in time and allow any machine capable to tune-into and reach that marker. Otherwise the machine would simply return an item or person to the time of the rebuild, not the original creation. When read alone, the Knowlege Collective would seem to work in as in this last example, however, I believe it is the time of creation that is important. More time will be spent on this issue in part two of this study.
The rapid succession of events happening in the twentith year of Prince Zareph's reign has already been discussed. During that time, after the destruction of Port Scion, the Defiant took hold in Meridian and, as Orphiel disappeared shortly before the fall of Meridian, the Failsafe must have been created at some point between the creation of the Defiant faction - year zero - and the sacking of Meridian. Several facts support this assumption:
1. It is unlikely Orphiel would have had the freedom from scrutiny to build such a device before the split;
2. The Defiants of the Life Factory were unwilling to use souls of previous Guardians, despite their strength. Ignoring the obvious feud that resulted in their exile, the Defiant possibly knew their creation would be returning to a post-divided Telara, and would require the Defiant acceptance to make their message heard;
3. The Defiant's may have been more cautious with the use of the device, may have even chosen souls of past Guardians, if they knew their only hope would be arriving at a time before the factional divide - a time where predigest may prevent the message from being accepted, the warning from being heard.
It it clear, therefor, that the machine was built at some point after the fall of Port Scion but before the Fall of Meridian. However, how much time separates these two major events in Defiant history is still unclear.* The final unanswered question is how was the device tested to be sure that it was "fully functioning" and why did this test not attract Regulos sooner? This is further researched in part two of this failsafe discussion.
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