Quote Originally Posted by Iscah View Post
The nature of the timeline
The events of Shadowbringers resulted in an entirely new timeline, not a mere branch. There is no conjunction formed for the 8UC with Elpis, and so Elpis is not tied to that timeline in the same way as it is in ours.

The reason it's not a mere branch is because the time at which the conjunction occurs is hundreds of years before the timeline split happens. The timeline split happens because the 8UC timeline sent the Crystal Tower backwards through both time and space, causing an entirely new timeline to form. It doesn't share the same past, again, because the conjunction cannot exist for the 8UC, as the 8UC is entirely unlinked from our timeline. The conjunction only happens for our timeline, since it happens after the point in the 8UC where the WoL would be dead.

This means that living WoL from Timeline B using Timeline A's time machine goes back in time only in Timeline B.

To wit, we can't go back to an earlier point in the 8UC. If we could, the 8UC timeline would not exist at all, it would have been rewritten. Do you see why it's not a branch?

It's like in Dragonball Z when Trunks goes back in time. He, using Bulma's time machine, created another entire timeline, and the time machines only go there. They don't go into any other past.

Hydaelyn could have always told us what she knew. That is not dependent on time travel. It is dependent on her willingness to tell the truth. Something she's not very keen on.

The time travel events within Alexander are different because they happened contained inside of Alexander itself, which is already a pocket dimension inside of a primal. The entire situation with that relies on us fighting Alexander Prime for the conjunction there to cause a loop. Prior to us entering the time gate that takes us into Alexander Prime's dimension, the Illuminati tried to use freeze time to kill us, freeze time ended sooner than expected, and we dodged out of the way. The conjunction has it that it was Alexander trying to kill us because he sends robots back in time to prolong how long freeze time lasts, so you have misunderstood the scenario. The preceding event is that freeze time was started by the Illuminati, and it does not last long enough to kill us without the robots being sent back in time from Alexander Prime. Basically, Alexander tried to defeat us by changing the past, and we prevent him from changing the past. It's actually not a loop.

There is no actual set of rules. It's writer fiat. And it has really made a mess of the setting.