The Great Eclipse

Overview

The Great Eclipse is the singular, non-repeating cosmological rupture that split history into BE/AE and anchors all modern chronology. It halted all elemental forces, dimmed light worldwide, and imposed a layered, unstable timeline that cannot be rewound or converted.

Great Eclipse concept

The Great Eclipse (Sora concept)

Canonical definition

Not a normal astronomical eclipse: simultaneous impact on time, elements, memory, causality.
Absolute temporal anchor; boundary between mythic BE and recorded AE.
Origin of all modern temporal instability; non-durational but echoes across centuries.

Canonical cause & status

Cause: Technogarch civilization attempted to "optimize" time by accelerating/locking the sun-moon cycle to enforce a Perfect Future.
Failure state: Renewal stalled; time advances without healing-an unresolved transition rather than darkness.
Status: Immutable pre-game event; no timeline path removes or reverses it. All endings live with its damage.

Agency collapse frame (addendum):

Trigger was systemic, not a single lever: over-procedural Technogarch governance stripped human agency until the system unbound itself.
No hidden villain push-button exists; the same collapse could recur if "perfect control" is re-attempted.
Design use: keeps the Eclipse as a cautionary outcome rather than a solvable puzzle or repeatable weapon.

Earth-1992 anchor (context): A non-catastrophic, irreversible loss-of-agency moment (see Earth 1992 / Hanzo) mirrors Technogarch collapse: systems accelerate while human choice and visibility erode.

Temporal classification

BE (Before Eclipse): mythic, unreliable, partially overwritten time; chronology corrupted.

AE (After Eclipse): stabilized yet damaged timeline; dating counts from the Eclipse.

Conversion: Explicitly impossible—no BE↔AE math.

Simultaneous canonical effects

All elemental forces halted at once.
Global light dimming, geography-independent.
Infinitree rooted across time layers as stabilizer.
Bonsai Sage arrived from a ruined future timeline.
Fire Emperor fell, ending the old elemental order.
Yukigami froze entirely, Hyoken clan suspended.

Physical lock & resolution (addendum)

Sun–moon lock: Astronomical bodies were physically frozen; sunlight/lunar pull halted, pushing ecology toward collapse.
Chronobonsai era: Centuries of Chronobonsai growth acting as temporal anchors that recorded local causality.
Year 0 intervention: Bonsai Sage foresaw 1,500 years of outcomes and acted only to anchor, not to control, time.
Infinitree Event: All Chronobonsai merged into the Infinitree, sacrificing themselves to restart timeflow and free the locked sun and moon. Damage remained.
Technogarch collapse: Their Mirror Spire core imploded (localized black hole); cities of metal buried; region later known as Eresh. Spire hull survives; residual heat powers the Ashen Sands. See Mirror Spire.
Outcome: Eclipse ends; the Infinitree stands as the sole planetary anchor; the world lives with permanent scars.

Physical & metaphysical consequences

World-level

Creation of temporal rifts/anomalies, looped regions, frozen zones.
Permanent instability in time flow; echoes recur regionally.

Ontological

Time behaves as an ecosystem, not a linear force; cause/effect can invert or echo.
Entities can persist across multiple temporal states.

Memory systems

World Memory: sealed perspectives from individuals (e.g., Varthum memory crystals) that can be biased or partial.
Infinitree Timeline Log: unbiased record of events as they occurred; rooted in the Infinitree.
Reconciling both is required to resolve conflicts between perception and fact. See World Memory vs Timeline Log.

Design law

Time is not a tool. No direct player time travel. Temporal interaction is via anomalies, rifts, narrative constraints; attempts to dominate time lead to corruption/collapse.

Chronogardening

World Phases, Loop Systems, Anomaly Resolution through the Bonsai Sage's knowledge and gadgets.

Cultural & historical interpretations

AE consensus

Marks end of Old World; catastrophic reset; foundation of law/history/record-keeping.

Scholarly

Temporal fracture; BE records corrupted/overlapping; conflicting chronologies co-exist.

Mythic/Religious

Seen as divine punishment, elemental rebellion, failed ascension, or mercy to prevent annihilation.

Known gaps (protected)

Failure mechanics of the Technogarch engine (why renewal stalled instead of collapsing).
Whether other actors weaponized or amplified the Technogarch intervention.
Infinitree origin vs. emergence; Bonsai Sage role (cause/witness/survivor).

Known conflicts & contradictions

Bonsai Sage arrival vs. Infinitree rooting order—both simultaneously true.
Fire cultures: Emperor’s fall caused Eclipse; others invert causality.
Regional memory varies: some recall no Eclipse, others experience recurring echoes.

Stability doctrine

Stability is achieved through care, not control. Explains healing over rewinding, resolving anomalies rather than erasing, ending loops via understanding.

Canonical boundaries

Eclipse cannot be undone; world cannot return to BE.
No ending restores pre-Eclipse normalcy.
Any claim of total temporal control is corrupted/false.

Temporal timeline overlay

Pre-Eclipse echoes (BE destabilization)

Anticipatory anomalies: failed prophecies, duplicated rulers, overlapping wars.
Pre-adapted artifacts implying retroactive influence.

Instant

Zero-duration event with infinite consequence; no reliable full eyewitness.

Post-Eclipse echoes (AE recurrence)

Local re-manifestations: blackouts, elemental pauses, memory replays.
Anomalies sometimes stabilize only after reenacting fragments of Eclipse conditions.

Faction & cultural interpretation matrix

Elemental Orders: balance failure; fire sects claim sacrifice/martyrdom; water/wind stress inevitability/flow disruption.
Scholarly institutions: temporal rupture; contradictions co-exist; focus on containment.
Religious/Mythic: punishment, mercy, failed ascension-no unified doctrine.
Isolated regions: some remember no Eclipse; others have recurring partial eclipses.

Timeline alignment (themes)

Inevitable crisis: Eclipse precedes player agency; establishes a broken-world baseline.
Discovery arc: Technogarch failure proves perfect control is self-defeating.
Agency limits: Players mitigate consequences; misuse of time power worsens Eclipse damage.

Systemic ripple effects

Narrative: history in branches/footnotes; legends contradict archives without invalidation.
World/Level design: zones in multiple temporal states; place-memory mismatches.
Gameplay: stabilization/care over manipulation; loops resolve via understanding, not resets.
Player perception: participant within damage, not external fixer; mastery = reading instability.

Functional summary

Role: temporal anchor, narrative fracture, systemic law.
Nature: instantaneous yet eternally consequential.
Function: defines limitation, not power.
Status: irreversible, unresolved, foundational.

The Great Eclipse is a wound the world lives with, not a puzzle to undo.

Suggestions & visuals

Suggest graph:

TODO-temporal-echoes-map showing rifts, loops, frozen zones.

Suggest timeline graphic:

TODO-eclipse-echo-timeline (layered, not linear).

Suggest diagram:

TODO-systemic-ripple-map linking narrative/world/systems impacts.

Source KB (read-only)

docbase/kb/great_eclipse.md
docbase/kb/great_eclipse_canonical_data_gaps_and_conflicts.md
docbase/kb/the_great_eclipse_timeline_canon.md