Ancient One

In the Dimension of Time, creatures clad in tattered robes float between encapsulated bubbles of still, captured moments, untethered to any other place, unspeaking and unseeing. The few mortals to meet these enigmatic, faceless creatures have never known them to identify by any name other than the ancient ones, seemingly holding no identity (or no identity they wish to share) beyond their relationship with time.

The ancients profess to have always existed in the Dimension of Time, and for time to have always existed in the Great Beyond. Most reside in Stethelos, the storied city at the center of time, though they're also found wandering the Void, crossing the strangest corners of the Maelstrom where it lies between other planes, and occasionally, venturing into dark corners of the Universe. They serve at the will of Tawil at'Umr, the All in One and the One in All, an avatar of Yog-Sothoth lurking deep within time as Stethelos's caretaker. Though the ancient ones resemble their master in stature and attire, and though none would describe Tawil at'Umr as anything other than ancient in origin, most scholars consider "ancient one" a classification of its own separate from that of Great Old One, and Tawil at'Umr is definitively counted among the Great Old Ones by all who know it.

Where Yog-Sothoth is an embodiment of all space and time, an entity who concerns himself with guarding cosmic secrets, the ancient ones are philosophers and mystics seeking ever more enlightenment. They search, have searched, and will search across time indefinitely and, having found entropy and disorder, conclude this to be the Great Beyond's ultimate purpose. When a new creature dawns, it's pristine and whole—perfectly ordered—for but a single moment before it can be eroded by Pharasma's poison, accumulating decay, change, and chaos, until finally it reaches its ending, when time leaves a twilight creature broken and gone. Law and chaos, the ancient ones believe, aren't opposing or even separate forces, but a single expression of reality viewed from two angles, different from each other only in time.

How Old is Time?

Lying in parallel with the Great Beyond with a presence felt on nearly every plane, from the Inner Sphere to the Outer Rifts, the Dimension of Time holds too many secrets for a reality so seemingly omnipresent. Can a world truly be said to begin before time is there to start? Scholars say Pharasma is the oldest being in the Great Beyond, a survivor of some previous multiverse's collapse, but does the Lady of Graves predate time, or did she bring the Dimension of Time with her so history could begin everything anew?

Into the Dimension of Time

The Dimension of Time is one of the most difficult and complex realms in the Great Beyond to travel to, with restrictions on its access limiting all but the most powerful of planar travelers from visiting it. At the GM's discretion, though, items looted from an ancient one, or even just fragments torn from their robes, could function as the planar key needed to allow a PC to use interplanar teleport to access the Dimension of Time.