[ENDWALKER MSQ SPOILERS] Timeline weirdness

[Jandor]

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For the sake of discussing the timeline as a whole, the Source and all the shards function as a single unit. The First and the Source have a shared flow of time (slight fluctuations of speed aside) and what happens to one can affect the other.

When the timeline splits due to the effects of Shadowbringers, there is a Source and a First in our timeline and a Source and a First in the other timeline. They affect their paired shard in the same timeline but have no bearing on the fate of the other.

I basically agree with your view of the shards and the timeline and a single "unit" containing it all, I just arrive at a different conclusion at the point of the split. I don't think there needs to be a second overall unit, the 8th calamity world can fit in the original unit just fine.

Only G'raha Tia's original world needs to survive to prevent a paradox, and our single unit has previously accommodated far more worlds than it currently has, the space exists to save it without creating a second unit.

IMHO it makes the time travel neater (none of the time travel has resulted in a "true" split,) shuts down various cans of worms before they're opened (we can't change the unsundered world even if we wanted to,) and while not particularly relevant, results in a happier end to the tale of the 8th calamity world (both the Ascians and Meteion are dealt with there as well.)

But it's all interlocking pieces that just work together without a clear starting point.

Like a jigsaw.