[Spoilers] [Suggestion] Change Teleport animation...

[NegativeS]

I'd like to think that when the WoL arrived on Elpis, their presence alone created an alternate timeline that now runs parallel to the main timeline, and now acts similarly to a doomed reflection instead of the proper past.

Something like this likely also happened with G'raha Tia went to the First. Since the WoL was able to revert the 8th calamity without undoing everything that lead up to the WoL reverting the 8th calamity, that timeline where the world fell to Black Rose likely became a separate timeline that still exists, otherwise there would be no way the WoL and the Scions would remember anything about the First, nor would G'raha Tia have been in the First, because he would have had no reason to go to the First due to there being no 8th calamity.

So when the WoL intervenes in Elpis, considering the timeline where the Final Days are still happening in the Source still exists, it's safe to assume that the new Elpis timeline still exists and now runs parallel to the normal timeline, meaning that as long as the WoL has an attunement in Elpis, they would be able to travel there and back freely just as they do with the First.

...

but that's just a theory

[Iscah]

I'd like to think that when the WoL arrived on Elpis, their presence alone created an alternate timeline that now runs parallel to the main timeline, and now acts similarly to a doomed reflection instead of the proper past.

Something like this likely also happened with G'raha Tia went to the First. Since the WoL was able to revert the 8th calamity without undoing everything that lead up to the WoL reverting the 8th calamity, that timeline where the world fell to Black Rose likely became a separate timeline that still exists, otherwise there would be no way the WoL and the Scions would remember anything about the First, nor would G'raha Tia have been in the First, because he would have had no reason to go to the First due to there being no 8th calamity.

So when the WoL intervenes in Elpis, considering the timeline where the Final Days are still happening in the Source still exists, it's safe to assume that the new Elpis timeline still exists and now runs parallel to the normal timeline, meaning that as long as the WoL has an attunement in Elpis, they would be able to travel there and back freely just as they do with the First.

...

but that's just a theory

If the timeline had split and Elpis was disconnected from present-day events, Venat-as-Hydaelyn would not remember us, and neither would Emet and Hythlodaeus have the obscured memories that they recall once returned to the aetherial sea.

It's true that G'raha's actions seem to have created a split timeline – confirmed in one of the Tales From the Shadows short stories – but there's a key difference between those events and the ones that play out in Elpis: by averting the Eighth Calamity, a historical fact in the future he came from, G'raha has created a timeline that cannot lead back to that future. His original timeline is now entirely cut off and inaccessible to us.

On the other hand, the events at Elpis are not incompatible with history as we know it – and in fact seem to be critical to history as we know it. We told Venat about future events and she acts to carry them out. We helped track down Meteion when she was desperate (and able) to hide from the others. We are remembered by everyone we met there.

To my count, there have been five time-travel events throughout the story: three in Alexander, G'raha in Shadowbringers, and us travelling to Elpis. G'raha is the only one that has created a new timeline. The others have simply become part of history as it always has been.