Rassilon is the Founder of Time Lord civilisation in Doctor Who. While he is initially depicted as heroic, as time goes on, his corruption and lust for power would be revealed, first in the Expanded Universe of Doctor Who, and later in the revived series.
History[]
Backstory[]
Rassilon founded Time Lord civilisation along with stellar engineer Omega. However some stories indicated Rassilon would ensure that Omega was killed when he created a black hole to experiment with time travel. During his tenure he went to war with the Great Vampires, and banished a race he called the Divergents to a timelooped universe.
The Five Doctors[]
Many rumours surrounded Rassilon's death. One stated that the Time Lords had revolted and imprisoned him in the Dark Tower in the Death Zone. Borusa, the Doctor's former mentor, believed that Rassilon had discovered a form of true immortality beyond regeneration. Borusa uncovered and used several artefacts from the Dark Times, including the Coronet of Rassilon (a mind control device) and the Game of Rassilon. The Doctor discovered the truth when Borusa used him to try to discover Rassilon's secret; Rassilon had discovered immortality but realised it was too dangerous a secret to share. Borusa was condemned to immortality as a living statue, imprisoned immobile in Rassilon's tomb.
Zagreus[]
From within the Matrix, Rassilon began to manipulate the Doctor into destroying the Divergence, arranging for him to be possessed by the essence of anti-time and appearing to him before this happened as well as saving him, so that he could become the destructive Zagreus and be used against Gallifrey's enemies. Rassilon possessed the body of Leela – the only body on Gallifrey that he could influence without setting off mental alarms – and used Romana to teleport them past the barriers in the Death Zone which was her presidential right. He did this to obtain the Ring of Rassilon and unlock his Foundry. He then tried to force Romana to resign in favour of Zagreus, believing that this would ensure the destruction of the Divergence. Rassilon formed an alliance with the Doctor's TARDIS, which had also been infected with anti-time, promising to release its consciousness from the infection while using its body to create a sword of anti-time, with which he hoped Zagreus would kill the Divergence.
However, his plan failed when the Doctor refused to kill. Rassilon then used the anti-time sword to kill Matthew Townsend, Tepesh, and Walton Winkle, who had been re-constituted in the Matrix with parts of the Doctor. Although Rassilon had hoped that the deaths of his other selves would further break the Doctor, this failed when, at the Doctor's behest, Charley Pollard used the anti-time blade on him. However, he gave into his Zagreus persona to survive, recognising that Rassilon was the real threat. Armed with the anti-time blade, Zagreus refused to be Rassilon's puppet and cast him into the Divergent Universe.
The Next Life[]
In the Divergent universe, Rassilon manipulated events to ensure his escape, creating a cult known as the Church of Foundation, and taking on a servant called the Kro'ka who worked for him in return for being taken to Rassilon's universe. He planned to steal the Doctor's TARDIS and escape, but he was defeated, and sent back to the start. Rassilon's temporal senses broke down as the universe's time-looped nature left him trapped in a repeating pattern, while the Doctor and his companions returned to the main universe.
Last Great Time War[]
Gallifrey[]
In the early days of the Last Great Time War, Rassilon was resurrected to lead the Time Lords to battle. To resurrect him, the High Council used the body of Admiral Valerian and imprinted Rassilon's Matrix projection onto him, killing Valerian in the process.
to be added.
Engines of War[]
Rassilon retro-evolved dozens of Time Lords to become a possibility engine to aid him in victories throughout the War, creating the discarded race of the Interstitials and succeeding with Borusa.
Four hundred years into the War, Rassilon planned to detonate the Tear of Isha in the Tantalus Eye to stop a Dalek plan to wipe Gallifrey and the Time Lords from history. He consulted Borusa on his plan, who told him it would succeed. Rassilon's plan was foiled by the Doctor, who used Borusa to wipe the Daleks from the Tantalus Eye without killing all life around it. Rassilon condemned the Doctor's actions and made him an enemy of the Time Lords because of it.
The End of Time[]
On the last day of the Time War, Rassilon intended to spare Gallifrey from destruction by using the Ultimate Sanction to turn the Time Lords into beings of pure consciousness to escape the end of creation. Rassilon condemned those who opposed him, including The Woman, to stand behind him and cover their faces "as monuments of their shame, like the Weeping Angels of old".
Knowing that the Doctor intended to destroy both Time Lords and Daleks by using the Moment, Rassilon contrived to break Gallifrey out of the time-lock that blocked the Last Great Time War, and then follow through on his plan. He succeeded. For a brief time, Gallifrey broke free of the time lock and appeared in the skies above Earth. However, Rassilon was opposed by the Tenth Doctor, one of only two Time Lord survivors of the war. Rassilon was badly hurt by one last attack by the Master, the other survivor, out of vengeance once he realised that Rassilon had deliberately driven him mad and destroyed his life. The time-lock resumed and Rassilon, the Time Lords, and Gallifrey itself were all flung back to the Time War.
Hell Bent[]
After the 13 Doctors placed Gallifrey in a stasis cube to prevent its destruction, the Time Lords later returned Gallifrey to its original point in space but hid it near the end of the universe for their own safety. Rassilon grew concerned about the prophecies of the Hybrid, and gave an order for the Twelfth Doctor to be imprisoned in a confession dial to get information out of him. The Doctor's refusal to relent led to his being trapped inside the dial for four and a half billion years, constantly dying and recreating himself to breach the dial's barriers rather than confess his secrets. On his escape, the Doctor finally returned to Gallifrey.
Threatened by the Doctor's presence and still desperate for information on the Hybrid, Rassilon ordered first troops and then the High Council to make contact with the Doctor. However, the Doctor was only willing to speak directly to Rassilon himself. Eventually, Rassilon was forced to confront him. There, the Doctor held him alone responsible for the crimes of the Time War, and for his treatment in his confession dial. Rassilon tried to have a firing squad execute the unarmed Doctor, who ordered him to "get off my planet." However, the squad purposefully missed due to their great respect for the Doctor. Military reinforcements arrived but had been summoned by the Doctor instead. When Rassilon tried to use his gauntlet to kill the Doctor himself, the General reinforced the Doctor's order. Rassilon was overthrown and replaced by the Doctor. He was then banished from Gallifrey by the Doctor.
Supremacy of the Cybermen[]
Rassilon found the Cybermen, who were clinging to life at the end of the universe. Rassilon gave the Cybermen leadership and direction and joined with their Cyberiad. Rassilon returned to Gallifrey and conquered the planet with the aid of his new allies. He welcomed the Doctor when he returned to Gallifrey.
Rassilon intended to use the accumulated energy of the captured Time Lords to literally regenerate the universe to fit his vision, only for his plan to be subverted by the Cybermen. The Cybermen placed the Doctor and Rassilon into the Cyberiad. Inside, Rassilon realised his mistake and formulated a plan with the Doctor to use the regenerative energy of the Time Lords to undo what the Cybermen did to the universe. Rassilon helped the Doctor to realise his plans, and the universe was regenerated, setting things to how they were before Rassilon had met the Cybermen. It was left unclear whether Rassilon remembered these events.
Personality[]
Rassilon was a charismatic leader who was capable of inspiring his people. The General stated that he was once a good man. Indeed, Rassilon was initially a man who hated corruption and was good at detecting it, but became corrupt himself following his resurrection for the Last Great Time War.
Rassilon was intimidating and unforgiving, but was also a hero to many Gallifreyans. After punishing Borusa for attempting to claim immortality, Rassilon offered immortality to the Doctors, and admitted that they were wise after they declined, and sent them back to where they belonged afterwards. However, his wisdom in recognising the curse of immortality and his opposition to the corrupting influence of power did not prevent him from becoming corrupted by power himself. Rassilon was manipulative, trying to trick the Eighth Doctor into destroying the Divergence in the belief that they were too different to live, and using the Master as a link which allowed him to temporarily free Gallifrey from the time lock.
By the end of the Time War, Rassilon had become ruthless, power-hungry and insane, being willing to destroy the whole of creation rather than accept the end of the Time Lords. He planned to change himself and the Time Lords into beings of pure consciousness. Rassilon had also grown petty, killing those who went against his desire to continue the Time War. Even while being dragged back into the war, Rassilon made one last attempt to kill the Doctor.
Following the end of the Time War, Rassilon retained his arrogance, believing himself superior to others simply for being President, and showed no remorse for torturing the Twelfth Doctor in his confession dial to get the information. He also showed his sadistic side by gloating how he could remove the Doctor's regenerations one at a time.
Gallery[]
