Note to self: Apply some:
• What does it mean to “send” a partial timeline into the Darkness Beyond Time?
• What does it mean to “create” a partial timeline to replace the obliviated one?
• What is the reason this occurs and the mechanism by which it is effected?
• In terms of matter, energy, and structure, what becomes of the obliviated partial timeline?
• Likewise, what is the source of the matter and energy for the new, “created” partial timeline, and by what process is its structure assembled?
• What is the meaning of “X Prime”? Where does it come from if X is not on the timeline during the act of time travel which causes the creation of the Prime timeline?
• Is the process of partial timeline transformation instantaneous? If so, how is X Prime “created”? If not, how does a process wherein space-time is obliviated occur within that space-time? What are the mechanics?
Time Bastadr deals with atoms / mass
Material:
When you travel back in time, time is altered. You weren't there the first time through. The history that you remember did not include you being there. So, when you travel back in time to time b, you've changed history merely by your presence. This is why timeline Y past point b is sent to the DBT, and a new timeline created. The original history does not exist any longer, and a new one is created. This isn't so much a matter of an entire universe being destroyed and a new one created, as it is the events of said universe being destroyed and a new set being made. Remember in Chrono Cross, seeing the timelines floating by in the bubbles while you battled the Time Devourer? Most likely, those weren't actual places you could have walked in, through, and around in the DBT, but were instead memories, thoughts, and records of those timelines. Only very rarely does actual matter get sent to the DBT, Lavos, Schala, and the Mammon Machine being few exceptions.
Think of it this way: Some lizards, as a defense mechanism, can shed their entire tails, and then slowly regrow them. So long as the lizard remains alive, it can regrow the tail; not exactly the same as before, but a tail is still a tail. This is similar to what happens with the universe according to this theory. When X goes from time A to time B, where B<A, Timeline Y is cut off at point B. However, the universe itself is still there, and it will regrow naturally, but it won't be the same as the original Timeline Y, but it will be close: Timeline Y'. If the material is trivial, or Entity X simply sits in the woods and speaks to no one during his stay in Time B, then Timeline Y' will be nearly identical to Y, possibly even indistinguishble. But it will still be different, because even if no one knew about it, you WERE there, something which most definitely did not occur in the original timeline.
The reasoning behind the destruction of entity X' due to the existance of X is not so much one mandated by theory as one mandated by fact: in CT, you never meet a counterpart of yourself or anyone else in your team. Therefore, any counterpart you would have in this new timeline must be destroyed or banished somehow when entity X returns to time A.
# Time travel does not necessarily affect the entire universe. Due to relativity, a time traveller will only affect the region of space within his future light-cone. For example, a time traveller's mass disturbs surrounding bodies through gravitational force, which propagates at light speed. After 400 years, only objects 400 light years away would be disturbed. (I guess I've just provided a mechanism for an "insignificant" time traveller to cause the state of the universe to be changed. )
# Also, the creation of a new timeline does not imply that the substance of the universe is sent to the DBT and recreated out of nothingness. The new timeline represents the new state of the future light cone of the time traveller which is disturbed by his physical presence. This new state is affected by gravity and the other physical forces. The original state of the universe is preserved as information in the DBT. Nothing is created from thin air.
